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By now, most of you have figured out that I'm given to Clint Eastwood quotes. To me, this image is the one that I'll always have in my head as the quintessential Eastwood look! I'd also like to image that it's the look on my face (minus the little cigar of course) when my latest foray into Craig's List went slightly awry.
I've been plotting over the course of the last few months (ever since I finished the bedroom HTPC aka "Viking") to shuffle my TV situation. That was the tipping point of dissatisfaction with my various displays. First of all, my main (living room) A/V system TV only did something like 1366 x 768 which, as you can see, isn't up to HD standard, plus the bedroom TV turned out to be somewhat less than that. Something in the 800 x 600 range....which is pretty pathetic by today's standards, and absolutely horrific if you are trying to watch anything HD through the internet. So, after selling off a bunch of stuff, fixing various people's computers and such, I had somewhere between $300 and $400 extra. How, I've been keeping an eye on a 42" Sony at Costco which barely fit in the opening in my cabinet, but it's $500 or so. One evening last weekend, I was scanning the local Craig's List ads when I came across an ad for a six month old 40" Sony LCD about 30 minutes away. They wanted $300. I offered $250. They took it. We met at a neighboring town, made the transaction, and that was that!
No, I did not get held up or anything like that ... in a manner of speaking, anyway! As any Craig's List veteran would do, I agreed to a meet in a public place in broad daylight. The only issue was that since this is a complex electronic device, I couldn't test it ......in the parking lot of a convenience store! So, I figuratively held my breath till I got it home, got the TV out of the bedroom, moved the living room TV to the bedroom, connected it all up, cleaned up all the TVs, put the "new" one in place, connected it......and fired it up .....to be greeted by a ....black screen..... I got the green "power" LED, but no picture! I tried a variety of things, but still "no joy"!
If I'd of had those people there with me; this is what it figuratively would have looked like! Fortunately, I don't have a pistol, or a cool looking zarape' either. For the next several days, I contemplated the problem in silence. I finally even told my wife about it, and she felt so bad for me that she said I should go to Costco and buy the new one. But of course, that's not how Frugal Propellarheads roll. One afternoon, I pulled it out and turned it on and gave it a few strategic whacks on the sides and various places on the bad until I was rewarded with a picture (for a little while), which confirmed my suspicion that the people didn't intend to sell me a bad TV, just one with a loose connector. In the meantime, I had emailed them about the problem and they had even replied, but none after that first one. So, finally on Sunday afternoon, I got out my tools, opened up the back (many, many screws), pulled ALL the connectors and reconnected them. Sure enough, it worked, and has continued to do so ever since.
Is there a moral to this story? Some Frugal Propellerhead lesson to be learned? You bet! You aren't going to win every time. However, if you are prepared and willing to do what's necessary, things mostly come out OK, the vast majority of the time. Do I think those people are "bad" and tried to pawn off a broken product? No, not really. I'd bet that it was in fact working OK for them, but when it came down to it and had a problem, they didn't want to take a hit to stand behind it. After all, it's not their "business", just something they didn't need any more. Once the money was handed over, the risk was mine. If you aren't willing to deal with that, then do your shopping at Best Buy.
The last few posts that have been camera-heavy have really gotten me thinking about my photographic past. For many men (mostly) of my age, we grew up dreaming/lusting after camera equipment. It's just simply part of our history and psyche that we will probably never be able to separate from our lives. Although we're commonly able to acquire that coveted camera and a few lenses, but they were often compromises. It didn't matter whether you were a Canon guy (like I was), or a Nikon guy or whatever. The lenses from the manufacturers were simply too expensive since they were generally designed for professionals and to be sold in a different world where things were expected to last a lifetime. So, as I've said before, we teenagers would often look at the fabulous color brochures or go down to the "camera shop" and hang around.
The object of our desires were often not just some particular focal length that we thought we wanted, but some combination of that, and what we wanted our camera to look like. Here's a good example: a Nikon F3 with the full motor drive, 250 Exposure Bulk-Film back and that really impressive looking 55mm Nikkor f1.2 Nok. that you could darned near shoot things in the dark with.....never mind that you didn't have the slightest idea what you were going to shoot "in the dark" in the first place! It looked COOL!!! Of course, nobody we knew owned one since they only sold to National Geographic photographers and NASA.
So, we bought the 50mm f1.4 lens for several hundred hard-earned dollars instead, because we couldn't be seen with a measly f1.8 that most any "family guy" bought with his camera still in the "ever-ready" case with that included narrow vinyl strap attached. As part of this little fantasy that we all played, there were certain lenses that we all wanted, but probably never bought. I've already talked about the 500mm mirrors, so lets look at the others.
You might be asking yourself; "what's so impressive about this little thing"? I'm starting here, because I just bought it. It's actually a lens that I once owned....kind-of. It's the 70-150mm/f3.8 out of the regular Vivitar line of the mid/late 70's. I know; it's not even a Series 1; what gives? This lens was VERY compact and pretty darned sharp. It was made by Kino of Series 1 fame, and so compact that it takes a 52mm filter, which is the same as the Nikkor main line of lenses, PLUS it could be had with a "matched 2X doubler", making it a 140-300mm, 35mm or a 210-450mm "APS-C" equivalent. Back in 1977 as a Junior in high school, I chose this lens to go along with the Canon AE-1 to replace our "long-in-the-tooth" Mamiya-Sekor camera. It was a nice lens that fit the compact AE-1 well as our budget. Although the school owned it, I carried it a lot, that is until I bought my A-1 with lenses. I've always had a fondness for this lens and last week, I bought it for.......$10, complete with the doubler on eBay. It will be nice to play with adapted to the GF-1 as well as the Nikon D300.
Since I'm on the topic of Vivitar, let's look at the Series 1 lenses that I really wanted at that time. From top to bottom, they are: 70-210mm/f3.5 Zoom, 35-85mm/f2.8 Varifocal, 28mm/f1.9 Wide, and 90mm/f2.5 Macro w/Doubler. These lenses need no introduction to photographers alive at that time. They were simply the fastest, and most innovative of their type, some of which even the top OEM firms such as Nikon/Canon didn't produce......and their cost were commiserate with this status. In my APS-C digital world, the one that I really want is the 28mm. It'd basically be a fast normal on the D300.
Another lens/focal length that I really wanted was the 85mm. It originally started with our high school photography instructor/icon Milton Adams using the Nikkor version for his "normal". He really like his look "tight" and up-close. Probably has to do with his being paid as a photo-journalist. Which also explains the 500mm mirror as well. I loved the look of his pictures with this lens and I never forgot it. Later in the years that was building my Pentax system, I really wanted the SMC-M, 85mm/f2.0 that they produced, but just never could justify the expense.
The modern (for APS-C) equivalent would be the Cosina produced Voigtlander 58mm/f1.4 Nokton which translates to roughly 87mm lens. It that it on my D300? No, wish it was! With it's modern Nikon mount with communicates with the digital Nikons, I'd love to have it, but until then, I'll have to stick with my chip-converted 50mm/f1.4 Nikkor.
Then there's the more obscure of my interests: "pancase" lenses, the Russian Tair 300mm on the "Fotosniper" and the rare Minolta Rokkor 300mm mirror lens mounted on an Olympus 4/3rds camera via an adapter. I've talk about these types before (and will probably do a post on "pancakes" some time), so I'm not going to talk about them much here.
Last, but not least today, is this oddity. While looking for images of lenses I ran across this and it stirred some odd corners of my memory. It's the Nikon FB-5 case, designed to hold a body with several lens ready to go since they were actually held in place by a Nikon mount! Virtually every camera company had them and were supposed to be a case for "professionals", although that intended audience virtually never used them and they generally only sold to well-heeled customers. The design was too bulky and the obvious intent as well as branding made them thief magnets. They are rarely if ever seen, but I've always wanted one. No surprise there!
As much as I love technology and would happily hold on to my random "stuff" till they pry it from my cold fingers, I periodically have to do a clean-out. Now, this isn't the strategic "sell-off" that I've discussed which occur so that I can upgrade. Now there is a bit of that going on here since I have a few projects/targets I'd like to get done. But in reality, I just need to get rid of stuff! Since we don't live in one of our famous American "Mc-Mansions", I just don't have room, plus there are a few items that are in a time-sensitive situation. A good example are minidiscs which are in a "out-of-production" timeframe right now and a little bit of a collectors period, but not yet in the "worthless" part of their life cycle. So, now was a good time to sell. Although I had a number which sold in the $5 range, several were $10-15 and a Pink Floyd double album sold for over $90! This made the whole group of 24 end up going for $250+. Of course that meant that I was going to be selling off both of my decks, all 3 of the portables AND the 45 recordable disks. All-in-all, that made my virtually never used Minidsic rig create about $600. Sure, I'm kind of sad to see it go, but "good grief", that's a chunk of change for something that just sits and gathers dust.
The miracle that is eBay (as frustrating as it is to use sometimes) isn't as appreciated as it should be. I often use it as a barometer to tell what things are selling for (whether it's selling at all), what should be gotten rid of, and what I should be paying for something. I also use it as a research tool things such as finding part numbers, which parts work with what, and what is going to be available. Recently, less than an hour on eBay told me that it wasn't going to be worthwhile to replace a cracked LCD, so we sold the old machine for about $50 and bought a better one for about $125! The treasure-trove of information is without hours, borders, or currency barriers. It is often entertaining for me as well. I know; it's really geeky!
Beyond the minidiscs, I used the virtual garage sale to get rid of computer carcasses of machine that are leftover after I finish, and they will often bring close to $50 for a completely non-working laptop. This often allows me to do work for friends for "free". I don't charge them for finding a "new" working machine and transfer their data to it and they leave me their old dead machine that I'll eventually sell to recoup the time I've spent on their behalf. Yes, I know it's cheap labor, but these are often friends and family members.
Another area that I've used eBay successfully is with photography equipment. It allows me to find parts, etc. cheaply so I can experiment. I wanted to try out "Strobist" techniques and was able to find a Sunpak 422D shoe flash for cheap. Years later, after loading up with Nikon flashes, I sold the old one for nearly as much as it originally cost me to buy. The principal here is that it was something I wanted to try, but couldn't spend a lot of money on. As I became better at it, and found some good deals on more sophisticated equipment, I could sell off what I was previously using back into the same system that I had acquired it from in the first place. If you are careful in your shopping in the first place, you can in fact, often resell at a profit. Another example was my Tokina 80-400 lens. I bought it a few years ago when I was getting into auto-focus photography and wanted a super-telephoto in Nikon mount that didn't cost an "arm and a leg". It was in the low $300s when I bought it. I used it for 3+ years; found that I used other lenses far more often, sold it on eBay for almost $360. Can I take a vacation on the difference....NO. But tell me of something else that you can buy, use for quite some time and sell for more than you paid for it!?! And the fact is, that the person who bought it will have gotten a very decent lens and experience virtually the same effect when they get done with it. $360 was a good deal for it.
In the end, it was a pain in the neck, but well worth the time and effort to do in terms of financial payback. Plus it has cleared up space for future endeavors. Am I finished? Not even close......I've got all manner of stuff ranging from original a James Bond movie poster to computer stuff and even vinyl records that still need to go! I'll bet you do too.
As of today, I'm two weeks away from the Advance Placement national exam for my 10th Graders, and one week away from the State assessment for my 9th Graders. Everyone is stressed out, grouchy and the students are tired! What can you do to relieve the stress? As a Frugpal Propellerhead, I can make plans. Yes, I did indeed sign up to teach summer school this year so the break is two more weeks away than it would be otherwise, but hey; they are paying me roughly $1000 for those two weeks!
So, I'm in need of stress relief. And for me, there's no better stress relief than planning things to do this summer.To start with, I'm in the process of planning our first true "big kid" vacation. What does that mean? It's where the activity that is planned isn't "hampered" majorly due to the age of the children. Josh will be 10 and Katie will be 7 this year so I'm not terribly worried about the length of the car ride or whether they are physically capable of doing some particular activity. So yeah: Seaworld is finally off of the "short list"! In fact, I'm leaning toward what I've come to think of as the "Lan Sun Chen New Mexico/Colorado Swing". When I was a kid, my dad loved to drive up into Northern New Mexico, and Southern Colorado. That's figuratively speaking of course since, first my brother, then I did virtually always did the driving! Nevertheless I learned to love the rugged desert landscape and the Anasazi ruins.... Didn't have a choice, that's where my dad was going to take us, or his friends who came to visit! In fact, it's so integrated to the "Lore of Chen", that Carlsbad Caverns was where my wife and I had our first real date! So, I'm kind of thinking going to the caverns, then up to some of the ruins around the Four Corners area, Mesa Verde, then taking either the Durango, Siverton train or the Royal Gorge train, coming out at Colorado Springs, then down to Amarillo before heading home. For those who haven't driven all over that part of the country, that's a LOT of driving.
So, there are many plans that have to be made associated with this vacation. First, I actually need to decide for sure where we are going, and when we are going there. Then of course there's the whole accommodations/reservations and other kinds of 'tions that have to do with the pleasures of vacation planning. I'll definitely need to make sure that the "Family Truckster" is in good shape. But I'm not here to write about all that. There are LOTS of Frugal Propellerheadish things to do as well.
First being that I'm going to have to decide what to do about my daughters tablet. Yes; my victorious find of "refurbished" Dell Streak 7 tablets has turned into a mini-disaster! You guys remember my son's tablet dying from the sad and fatal "Dell Connector" disease. We now have my daughter's tablet which has succombed to the same fate. So, I have to figure out what to do; replace it (with a different kind), don't worry about it and let her use mine or momma's. I don't know!?! Have I said lately that I hate Dell!
Then I have to deal with the in-car entertainment issue. In today's world of personal electronics, we all take a wide variety of devices everywhere with us; ipods, ipads/tablets, Nintendos, computers, etc. And with the long hours of driving anticipated between destinations such as Carlsbad, New Mexico to Farmington, New Mexico, we'll definitely be using the portable DVD player. However, this would also entail such other needs as drinks and snacks. All-In-All, this make the inside of a Honda Civic (of course we're taking that instead of the gas-sucking SUV. Not difficult to understand 45+ MPG vs. 20 MPG) look like my daughter's long-suffering closet. I'm thinking that it's going to involve some sort of wood-working project to build a bit of a backseat console to hold everything.
Then there's the need to organize all my photographic needs. We've previously dicussed the fact that modern (digital) photography usually includes a computer, so there is that as well. Now that I have a "street photography" rig as well in the Panasonic GF-1, that'll clearly include both camera systems, and attendant lenses, flashes, tripods/monopods, and last but not least....which bags to take! I'm beginning to feel like some 19th century Englishman going on Safari! Would someone please send along some porters....which is what I'm starting to feel like, just thinking about it.
As a related (kind-of) "aside"; did you know that's China's participation in WWI consisted of 500,000 "Porters" sent to aid in the Allied Efforts!?!
