I haven't met anyone yet that hasn't got a bad habit of some sort. I'm not talking about drugs, alcohol or nicotine addiction, although I've seen plenty of that. I'm talking about other things like things we collect, or things we do. I think we all have something, some of them might be shameful and dark, and hidden from others, others hilarious.
I am no different, and I'm addicted or collect a few things.
1). Icecream
2). Lipsticks
3). Camera Equipment and shops that stock those
and 4). Cactus Bruce and the Corporate numbers and Mr Driller (4th equal)
Icecream is my biggest downfall. I dare not have any in the house, as I cannot stop at one scoop. I have to have 2 or maybe 3. I've been known to have four. And then there's the different toppings too - caramel sauce, real choclate melted over it, milo, coffee powder, or even kahlua. Sigh. Best I leave it at the supermarket where I cannot be tempted. However, I still crave it every day.
Lipsticks is my next thing. I had managed to keep this one a secret until a few weeks ago. Actually I thought all females had lots of lipsticks so I put up a poll on my deviantart site to see if I was any different. Sad to say I'm really in the minority when it comes to lipsticks. 137 people answered the poll 55 males (40%) and 82 females (60%). Three of the males said they were male but still had lipsticks, but they didn't tell me how many. (5%).
Of the 82 females, the majority owned just 1 to 5 lipsticks (48% and 1 to 2 lipsticks and 27% had 3 to 5 lipsticks). I feel really bad now, but at least I wasn't alone in the number I did have. Ok ok - I'll own up. At the time of the poll I had 52 lipsticks. I've since gone out and bought 2 more, and got another one for Christmas - so I know have 55 lipsticks. In the poll there were 2 others with that many so 4% of females have over 50 lipsticks.
The first question I get asked is - what do you do with them all? Well - I use every single one. Just not all at once!! I do blend in several colours sometimes getting a colour I truly like and I like the colours to match the clothes I'm wearing at the time. And no I probably don't need over 50 to do that - but it really did get out of hand when I went to the USA. Lipsticks are sooooo cheap over there. The L'Oreal brand that I love costs $22 for one here. In the US at any CVS Pharmacy they are always on the sale - 2 for $8. The exchange rate back then was $1 us was $0.80c NZD so I stocked up. In both 2006 and in 2008. Hence my lipstick collection truly grew. I actually did buy for others but couldn't bear to part with them when I got home!!! It's the thought that counts right? Heck - if I lived it the US I would probably buy the whole range!!!
Thats probably the only 'female' or 'girly' thing I do as I hate shopping for clothes, and I don't collect creams or lotions for the face or body like my other friends.
But I let myself down again when I go anywhere near a camera shop. Come to think of it, I can't walk past any shop that has appliances, computer equipment, or cameras. I'm drawn to those like a guy is drawn to anything on wheels. And I can't just walk in and out, I have to compare prices, look at everything, compare specifications, drool, drool again, take a long hard look at something else, before I can walk calmly out again, hopefully without breaking the bank.
B&H Camera & Video in New York is the best place in the world. I could live in that store. If I'm ever homeless, that is where you'll find me. Amongst the cameras of course - Canon SLR section with all the lenses. Drool. We spent a day in New York in August this year, and several hours was spent in that store alone. I nearly broke the bank that time, it took alllll my strength to walk out of there only spending $600 and only $200 of that was for me. My Visa card was absolutely SCREAMING to be used, it kept leaping out of my wallet and clutching at my hand pointing to the canon 40D, the MPE65mm Lens, and the 400mm lens. I had to bury it in the bottom of my handbag and stuff it with tissues to stop it from screaming. The noise of it was affecting the other shoppers!
Lastly, there are two computer games I'm addicted to. Both are absolute time wasters. Mr Driller was a playstation one game we had way back and I learnt to play it, and play it well many years ago. Fortunately the playstation is old and we hardly use it now - we never were tempted to buy playstation 2 or 3. My friend Broni reminded me of Mr Driller a few weeks ago, so I googled it. Very unfortunately, I found it and now play it over the internet. Broni has a lot to answer for. I'm thinking of billing her for my drilling time!! I definitely would if she could afford it!! It's all her fault. The game is simple, you have to drill through blocks, but you have to be careful of lone blocks falling that can crush you, and you can't run out of air - you must drill down, find the trapped air and grab that so you can keep going. I can get to about 1000 metres before I die. And then I try again, and again, sigh!
The other game is my brothers fault He put it on my laptop when I bought it. It's called Cactus Bruce and the corporate monkeys and it's really really addictive. YOu have to catch monkeys and fire them at different obstacles and make your way through 90 levels. You have to avoid being hit by coconuts that the monkey's are throwing at you, grab at blue socks to make your arm faster, and avoid green turtles which will slow you down. If a coconut hits you, you die and the monkeys giggle. The giggling is so annoying I have to play with the sound off. If you fire a monkey and it doesn't hit anything it screams as it goes out to space - which is hilarious. Once you are through the first 90 levels, you can go to the next level of hardness. Their are four hardness levels - of which bonanza is insanely difficult - and I've gone from having one million points then being stuck on one level, and ending up with minus 1 million points in a matter of hours.
I thinking of taking it off my computer, as I have 60gb of photographic files I have to work on. And there's the gardening, and the housework that needs to be done as well. There are blogs to write, and people to see.
Oh heck - I can't hear anything anyway - I think I"ll go and play another game of Mr Driller!
Showing posts with label B and H camera video. Show all posts
Showing posts with label B and H camera video. Show all posts
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Day 8 - July 14th - New York City
We left to go into NYC about 9.30am after rush hour. We went over the George Washington Bridge and drove down the Hudson Parkway along the river. Very pretty. It's quite exciting to see the city again, although I wasn't as excited as my first time 2 years ago, but it was nice to see Mike really excited - like a kid in a candy store!!
Jazzy parked at the Museum of Natural History carpark. You think parking expenses in Auckland is bad - but this was $27 for two hours!! Entry to the museum was free as Jazzy is a member of some sort. We decided to spend no more than two hours at the museum as we only have one day in NYC to see it all!! We decided to see the Dinosaurs, the African Animals and Great North American birds, finishing with the Ocean life.
The Dinosaurs were incredible. I have to admit I thought they would be boring - but the display was amazing, and I've never seen such complete skeletons, and so massive. Hard to believe vegetarians could get so big!! The African Animals were quite incredible too as the diaramas were over 100 years old, history bringing Africa to New York many years ago. The newer diaramas of the North American Birds were not so good, and they were not as old either, which is probably why! Ocean Life was okay - with a blue whale above at life size, making you feel small in comparison.
We left the museum at midday, and Jazzy dropped Mike and I off at B and H Camera/Video. This big shop was even bigger than last time I was there as they had added another floor. Now there are about 30 counters just for SLR digital photography, and another 25 or so for digital point and shoot. They were full too. They have a great system, you go in and tell them what you want, they order it, attach a slip of paper to a carton on a conveyor belt, which is sent round collecting the goods from each department that they order online. When finished you pay at a checkout, then proceed to the exit where you pick up your goods on the way out. Anyway - I told them of my problem with my focusing on my Canon - and it WAS the spot metering as I thought it was. The guy fixed it right there and then so I once again have a perfectly working Canon 20D, and there was no need for me to upgrade to the 40D. (Drat!!) I did buy some memory cards (2 x 4gb), and a bean bag tripod, and a gorilla pod for an SLR - smallish items that don't take too much room.
Mike bought a camera - a Sony H50 point and shoot with all the bells and whistles. Very light and compact - quite impressive. Has a zoom equivalent to a 500mm which is lovely, but still not fast enough for bird photography - so I'll stick to an SLR!
After we left B and H we bussed down to the Soho/Greenwich Village area and walked around the local shops. We heard some explosions or muffled sounds, and the ground shook, then about 3 minutes later about 25 cop cars came screaming down the street in a procession. We still have no idea what it was all about, but our thoughts did turn to 9/11. The ground shaking WAS probably a subway train underneath, but allthe cop cars did make us wonder... However, we carried on in the opposite direction, and stopped for lunch at Max Brenners. Yum. The hot chocolate was to die for!
After lunch we walked to the Empire State Building via Madison Square. We stopped for a while as we found some very tame squirrels that entertained us. I managed to take a photo of two of them having sex in the park. I'm going to call it 'Sex in the City'! A New Yorker was ignoring the signs 'Do not feed the squirrels', and feeding them Brazil Nuts, and gave us a few so we could feed them too. Very cute. Yeah Yeah - I know they're rats with tails - but they're still cute!
Carried on to Empire State building and decided to go up it. $19 (ouch), and lots of people so long queues for the lift. It went up the first 80 floors in 1 minute. My ears did not like it. More queues for the next 6 floors so they opened up the stairwell and we climbed the last 6 floors in the heat! That was actually quite tough going. Up outside - it was all push and shove - too many people and you could hardly get a spot to take photos. In that regard, the Rockefeller Centre that we went up in 2006 was much better. However, I managed to push and shove like the rest of them and got some decent photos! Back down 80 floors in 1 minute - by this time my ears really hurt!
My feet were sore too from all the walking, so we got a bicycle taxi to Times Square. It was a great way to see New York, and we forgot to tip the guy! I still can't get used to tipping and this tax they add onto everything! We wandered around Times Square for a while, it was getting dark and once again I felt this buzz, or sense of excitement that you only find in NYC. Amazing place. We did go into the M and M shop, 3 floors of M and M's and tubes and tubes of them from ceiling to floor filled with the same colours, so you can choose your favourites! I didn't get any though, it's far too hot and they would melt too quickly!
We then wandered back down to 42nd St and 8th Av to the Port Authority and caught the bus back to Jazzy's at 9.40pm. The bus driver was REAL grumpy. I got on and asked for a ticket to Little Falls.
'Where's your ticket?' he asked.
'I'm buying it now from you'. I said.
He was about to kick us off, but I calmly explained that I was from NZ, didn't know anything about pre-buying tickets as no one had told me about it, and we had been to the information centre. He grudgingly sold me a ticket on the bus. I then asked him to tell me when we were at our stop as I'm new - but when he we got there, he wasn't sure about it and couldn't help at all. Fortunately I recognised the landmark from 2006 and got off at the right place.
Came in and got online and booked the hostel at Sacramento for 16th July.
Jazzy parked at the Museum of Natural History carpark. You think parking expenses in Auckland is bad - but this was $27 for two hours!! Entry to the museum was free as Jazzy is a member of some sort. We decided to spend no more than two hours at the museum as we only have one day in NYC to see it all!! We decided to see the Dinosaurs, the African Animals and Great North American birds, finishing with the Ocean life.
The Dinosaurs were incredible. I have to admit I thought they would be boring - but the display was amazing, and I've never seen such complete skeletons, and so massive. Hard to believe vegetarians could get so big!! The African Animals were quite incredible too as the diaramas were over 100 years old, history bringing Africa to New York many years ago. The newer diaramas of the North American Birds were not so good, and they were not as old either, which is probably why! Ocean Life was okay - with a blue whale above at life size, making you feel small in comparison.
We left the museum at midday, and Jazzy dropped Mike and I off at B and H Camera/Video. This big shop was even bigger than last time I was there as they had added another floor. Now there are about 30 counters just for SLR digital photography, and another 25 or so for digital point and shoot. They were full too. They have a great system, you go in and tell them what you want, they order it, attach a slip of paper to a carton on a conveyor belt, which is sent round collecting the goods from each department that they order online. When finished you pay at a checkout, then proceed to the exit where you pick up your goods on the way out. Anyway - I told them of my problem with my focusing on my Canon - and it WAS the spot metering as I thought it was. The guy fixed it right there and then so I once again have a perfectly working Canon 20D, and there was no need for me to upgrade to the 40D. (Drat!!) I did buy some memory cards (2 x 4gb), and a bean bag tripod, and a gorilla pod for an SLR - smallish items that don't take too much room.
Mike bought a camera - a Sony H50 point and shoot with all the bells and whistles. Very light and compact - quite impressive. Has a zoom equivalent to a 500mm which is lovely, but still not fast enough for bird photography - so I'll stick to an SLR!
After we left B and H we bussed down to the Soho/Greenwich Village area and walked around the local shops. We heard some explosions or muffled sounds, and the ground shook, then about 3 minutes later about 25 cop cars came screaming down the street in a procession. We still have no idea what it was all about, but our thoughts did turn to 9/11. The ground shaking WAS probably a subway train underneath, but allthe cop cars did make us wonder... However, we carried on in the opposite direction, and stopped for lunch at Max Brenners. Yum. The hot chocolate was to die for!
After lunch we walked to the Empire State Building via Madison Square. We stopped for a while as we found some very tame squirrels that entertained us. I managed to take a photo of two of them having sex in the park. I'm going to call it 'Sex in the City'! A New Yorker was ignoring the signs 'Do not feed the squirrels', and feeding them Brazil Nuts, and gave us a few so we could feed them too. Very cute. Yeah Yeah - I know they're rats with tails - but they're still cute!
Carried on to Empire State building and decided to go up it. $19 (ouch), and lots of people so long queues for the lift. It went up the first 80 floors in 1 minute. My ears did not like it. More queues for the next 6 floors so they opened up the stairwell and we climbed the last 6 floors in the heat! That was actually quite tough going. Up outside - it was all push and shove - too many people and you could hardly get a spot to take photos. In that regard, the Rockefeller Centre that we went up in 2006 was much better. However, I managed to push and shove like the rest of them and got some decent photos! Back down 80 floors in 1 minute - by this time my ears really hurt!
My feet were sore too from all the walking, so we got a bicycle taxi to Times Square. It was a great way to see New York, and we forgot to tip the guy! I still can't get used to tipping and this tax they add onto everything! We wandered around Times Square for a while, it was getting dark and once again I felt this buzz, or sense of excitement that you only find in NYC. Amazing place. We did go into the M and M shop, 3 floors of M and M's and tubes and tubes of them from ceiling to floor filled with the same colours, so you can choose your favourites! I didn't get any though, it's far too hot and they would melt too quickly!
We then wandered back down to 42nd St and 8th Av to the Port Authority and caught the bus back to Jazzy's at 9.40pm. The bus driver was REAL grumpy. I got on and asked for a ticket to Little Falls.
'Where's your ticket?' he asked.
'I'm buying it now from you'. I said.
He was about to kick us off, but I calmly explained that I was from NZ, didn't know anything about pre-buying tickets as no one had told me about it, and we had been to the information centre. He grudgingly sold me a ticket on the bus. I then asked him to tell me when we were at our stop as I'm new - but when he we got there, he wasn't sure about it and couldn't help at all. Fortunately I recognised the landmark from 2006 and got off at the right place.
Came in and got online and booked the hostel at Sacramento for 16th July.
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