Back in the saddle...

Well, i did it... i dropped a bunch of cash and upgraded to a proper digital camera and finally bought my first camcorder. I'm about 10 months late on both, the age of my wunderkind, but better late than... Anywho, i'm pretty stoked. I've actually been very into all things electronic ever since my first boombox at the tender age of 9 or so. It was so cool. It had a removable cassette player that you could carry around like a "walkman". It also had removable speakers which you could place a good 3 feet away from the receiver and point in any direction for your listening pleasure. Those features are old news these days but back in the day... wow...

I remember sitting on the corner with fresh batteries listening to another on bites the dust... or devo... joy division... electric avenue... anyone, anyone... super freak, i love rock and roll. Yup! i'm that old. Plus, you could tape straight from the radio, rather than carefully placing a tape recorder in front of your stereo, to record your favorite songs off B104's top ten. Yeah, i said B104. Then there was my Sony watchman. A beautiful little B&W t.v. not much larger than an ipod. I used to take that to school. I would place the watchman in my Trapper Keeper under a sheet of paper, then i would cut out the bottom three sides of a square out of the center of the paper directly on top of the watchman's screen. This would create a "visor" allowing me to see the screen but only letting the teacher see a one inch square piece of paper sticking up from my bengal tiger covered Trapper Keeper. Of course, i would route the earphone wire up my shirt, down my sleeve, and cup it in my hand; which I placed gently against my ear with the appearance of holding up my head. To bad there wasn't anything good on daytime t.v. back then. Where's Jerry Springer when you need him! I could go on to my first Credit Card sized radio that i would sneak along on fieldtrips, or my first polaroid camera, or my first 35mm camera (Yaaayyy Pentax!!) or even my first, and only, ipod. I'll save all that for later.

All this brings me back to my point, which is, i'm finally able to buy the gadgets i've always loved from afar. I was a picture maniac when i used to ride and all my friends skated. I would go through a couple rolls a day shooting anything that moved at Landsdown. Sure, 72 pictures doesn't sound like much these days... but when you're paying 10 bucks to develop each roll, you learn to be conservative. As for the camcorder, as i mentioned before, i've never owned one. In fact my parents never had one. They did have an 8mm they used to shoot my brother who's 4 years older than me. Unfortunately, by the time they got to me their aspirations of child documentation had faded. So there are no moving pictures of me as a small child and barely any photos. Oh well. I have a feeling none of our kids will suffer the same fate!

Well, that's enough for now, off to study my new gadgets' manuals. I actually love reading that crap. I'll see you from behind the lens, baby!