the built-in flash on my Nikon D70 no longer works.
*sniffle*
i knew it was only time before things stopped working on my almost 4 year old digital SLR, but after i successfully skirted the “green light of death” and the back focus issue i thought i was in the clear. alas, it seems to not be so.
sure, i don’t often use the flash. but, i’m afeared it’s just a sign of things to come.
well… my birthday is coming up. maybe i’ll be gifted with a new D300!
do you remember your first bank account?
i don’t mean the one your parents might have opened for you to “teach you the value of money” by taking you and whatever birthday loot you scored on your 6th birthday to deposit it into a savings account and have the teller update your little blue/red/silver bankbook in a dot-matrix printer which sounded like your dad pounding nails at a million miles an hour and then slip it into its little plastic sleeve where you’d never actually get to see it because you mom would always “keep it for safe-keeping”.
i’m talking about the first bank account you, yourself, opened. probably as a teenager. right around the time you got your first “real” job. probably at a fast-food joint or chain clothing store in the mall. you needed a bank account to cash those paycheques and your mom couldn’t find the damn bankbook for the savings account you drained to buy those AWESOME white shoes or comic books or video games or cigarettes and candy.
my first bank account was at the Royal Bank of Canada. i was 14, maybe 15. i vividly remember walking the four blocks to the bank, in through the double doors, past the receptionist with the scary bouffant and waiting in the line to get my first chequing account. i was SO excited! mostly about the cheques, because when i was little, my dad used to give me his old cheques (with the account numbers blacked out, damn) to play with. there wasn’t much i liked more than writing out pretend cheques to my friends and Barbies and then balancing the register. gee, no wonder i fell into bookkeeping for a time.
well, that first bank account was gotten in 1988, give or take a year. that means i’ve been a Royal Bank customer for two decades now. that’s 20 years. which is a really long time to be a customer of one institution. so, how do you think i felt when i got told that i don’t count enough to get a free Eee PC like their other customers?
i went to the bank last Saturday (after the massage, but before the haircut) to get rolls of coins so i could do laundry for the next month. while waiting in line, i see gigantic signs advertising a FREE! EEE! PC! to any customer who switches to one of two bank accounts. well, guess what? i have one of those accounts, so i asked if i would still qualify for the free computer. the strange teller handed me a flyer with my $35 in coins with the qualification criteria on it in a handy check-box format. i immediately had a feeling i was going to be screwed.
when i got home, i decided to call the 1-866 number on the flyer just to see if i could score one anyway seeing as i’m all about getting stuff for free these days. i talked to a lovely lady named Melissa or Melanie for over twenty-five minutes while we, in cooperation with her manager, tried to figure out my eligibility for the offer. well, it seems that when RBC decided to automatically “upgrade” my account from the old Royal Certified Service to their new RBC Signature No Limit Banking (the qualifying account in question) on May 1st of this year, they effectively screwed me over. the fine print says *i* must be the one to switch my account, not them.
turns out the only way i can get the free mini-laptop now is to open a new chequing account and transfer all my direct deposits and pre-authorized payments over to it. do you know how annoying that would be? not to mention that i’d probably have to hold both accounts open for however many months at the low-low rate of $13.95 per account per month.
yeah, yeah. i know that’s still a lot cheaper than buying myself the Eee PC, but still. you’d think after 20 years i’d not have to work harder than some joe schmo who just walking in off the street. they’ve made a lot of money off of me over the years and i just want to get a little respect.
RBC, you suck and as soon as i find an alternative, i’m so leaving you.
just in time for me to start my first mini-vacation of the year, i’ve been stricken with a vicious illness. i’m not sure if it’s a cold or a flu, but i do know it comes with hot and cold running sweats, hacking, headaches, fever, exhaustion and insomnia. i thought i was feeling better today, but my weekly forty-five minute session at the physiotherapist rendered me spent and dripping with sweat. if i hadn’t been so tired, i would have been utterly embarrassed.
so, yeah. i’m sick and on vacation. how lucky am i?
first, it was the plunger & lubricant.
next, it was “the most painful exercise i have”.
last night, it was 13 needles inserted into my lower limbs.
if my physiotherapist wasn’t so cute (and it wasn’t working), i probably wouldn’t have put up with so much from him.
i heart sunshine.
applebee’s is evil. someone remind me to never go there again, please.
big opening night tonight. not quite excited, definitely starting to get nervous, though.
i love my massage therapist.
that is all.
standing in the gallery, just about to hand over my framed photo for the exhibition, there is a loud and gut-wrenching *CRASH* as it falls to the concrete floor.
oops.
back in November, which is like three lifetimes ago to someone who can barely remember what she had for lunch, Darren the world-traveler put out the call for bloggers who were interested in taking a Brother laser printer for a test drive. being a blogger and someone who hasn’t had a printer of her own in over ten years, i jumped at the chance to support deforestation.
a few weeks later, UPS left one of those annoying sticky notes on the front door of my apartment building. after four phone calls and three more days of sticky notes, i had taken delivery of a very large (and very heavy) box containing the Brother HL-4050CDN Colour Laser Printer. did you know that a colour laser printer just barely fits in the back door of a 1991 Volkswagen Golf? neither did i, but i sure was glad considering i hadn’t yet removed the baby seat bar thing in the hatchback, so there was no way to get it home that way.
after squeezing it in and out of the car and then hoofing it up the Very Steep Stairs, my boyfriend and i went about the task of unpacking and setting up. my first impression was that it was much larger than i had expected. the dimensions of the box had me a little worried, but i lucked out and the unit fit almost perfectly in it’s designated spot in my “office”.
unlike the hype Darren advertised, the printer did not quite come with everything i needed for a two month trial. the major lack was any kind of printer cable. i was panicking, especially considering my printerless status of the past ten years. luckily, even without a spare parallel or USB cable, the printer supports connection via network cable (which i happened to have plenty of).
setting up the machine was a yummy piece of cake. the poster-sized getting started guide was easy to interpret and all components in the box were well-labeled. the biggest obstacle was our own inability to get the front door of the printer open. that sucker ain’t going nowhere without a lot of kinetic force, let me tell you! once we accomplished that task, i was quite impressed with the slide out toner tray into which you put each of the four cartridges. everything is colour-coded and easy enough for my mom to assemble on her own. after the physical pieces were put together, it was time to stick the CD in my computer. there were absolutely zero hiccoughs in installing the drivers and getting the Brother set up as my new default printer using Windows XP Pro. no more than 3 minutes later, i was all set to start printing… except i had no paper!
the next day, after procuring some dead trees, i was all set to print to my heart’s delight; and i did. recipes, knitting patterns, New York Times articles, there was more printing going on than at Gutenberg’s! double-sided, landscape, colour, black & white… you name it, i printed it in that first week.
then i got my electricity bill, which had a 600% spike in energy usage for the month of November and i immediately blamed the fancy new printer, unplugged it and stopped using it for well over a month. two utility bills later, there was a large credit to my account, so i’ve forgiven the printer and plugged it back in again.
it’s relatively fast to warm up, printing is fast and hassle-free, yet all is not perfect. one of the reasons i was looking forward to the test-drive was to utilize it to jump start my button-making empire. i’ve tried on several occasions, but i could never get the colour profile right. i can send digital images to photo labs both down the street and across the planet, but i couldn’t for the life of me get the printer at my elbow to render colours correctly. i don’t know if it’s my inexperience with colour profiling or a lack in the printer drivers, but i gave up my quest for photo-quality colour reproduction very early in the experiment. and it made me sad.
in my inexpert opinion, the Brother HL-4050CDN would be a fantastic printer for a small or home office, or maybe a student who tends towards the verbose in their essays. it’s definitely not for someone such as myself who has happily survived an entire decade without one and mostly wants to print photo-quality colour images.
update: unbeknownst to me, during the review period Brother decided that the reviewers could keep the printers after they’d written their reviews. thanks, Brother!
[huh… i was using imified.com to post this and there really was content to be in this space. here, i’ll add it now. sorry for any confusion!]
due to overnight snow accumulations from 3-10 inches depending on where in the GVRD (i refuse to use that new name for the region), i had to take transit into work this morning.
i have no idea how people commute this way every day. yes, it was nice not to have to white-knuckle it down the hills, across the bridge and up more hills, but geez… at least i had THE nicest bus driver ever and ran into some of my favourite co-workers along the way.
too bad my hands were full with bags and brollies so i had no way to carry down something hot and sweet from Starbucks. instead, i’m treating myself to a cup of actual coffee. on a work day. i may pass out from the excitement.
have a good day, even if it snowy!
you may have noticed i don’t post here very often.
if you’re not subscribed to my twitter feed, you’re missing out on all my witty and humourous tweets. i update them much more often than this page.
don’t miss out!
bad thing: my windshield has a two-pronged crack in the lower left corner which wasn’t there yesterday. it spread an inch further on the drive home.
good thing: yummy thai food followed by starbucks (in the comfy chairs!) with jamie and colene. if i couldn’t be at home, lying on the couch, that was the next best place to be.
chez hessie is clean (although not quite dust-free) and all the laundry is done.
during the next forty-eight hours there will be some sleeping, half a day of work, christmas eve in with my boy, some more sleeping, christmas morning breakfast with my dad, a ferry trip and christmas dinner with my mom.
although there’s some fun stuff to unwrap, i think my best present might be eight glorious days without work.
to you and everyone you love, merry christmas! i wish for you all the good things the universe can offer and as much love as your heart can hold. thank you for making this place something i love to keep going, even when it’s difficult.
it’s done! i paid off the visa today! woohoo!
and, thanks to an early present from my mom, i actually have a tiny wee bit of disposable income to tide me through until payday next week. SCORE!
sometimes, you actually do get rewarded by the universe for sacrifices you make in your life.
phew… it feels SO GOOD to see that zero balance. i think i might need a cigarette. ;)
i’m feeling a little queasy.
i had dinner with christopher, his parents and his sister & brother-in-law tonight. today is his mom’s 73rd birthday, so his dad “cooked” dinner. and by “cooked”, i mean went out to get KFC.
now i remember why i haven’t had KFC in about seven years.
erg.
nothing makes a chronically early person more anxious than not one, not two, but three car accidents on her way to an appointment.
oh well… i guess my sore tooth can wait a week or two more.
i seem to be having a hard time getting into the holiday spirit this year. don’t get me wrong, i’ve done some baking, wrapped a dozen presents and even found myself whistling carols on the street; yet… i haven’t put up any decorations nor sent a single card to anyone. maybe i’m just lazy. no, i’m really not into the seasonal cheer.
i think most of my potential excitement has been numbed by my utter stress about money. ever since the death of the hessmobile, i seem to be doing nothing but trying to get the Visa paid off. i have it in my head that i absolutely have to get the credit card balance to zero before January 1st. it’s a reachable goal, but it’s sucking all the fun right out of me.
christopher is probably pretty fed up with me always saying i’m broke. actually, there’s no probably about it. i know he is. not any more than i am, though. of that i’m sure.
being fiscally responsible just plain sucks. especially at christmas time.
1. a new winter coat which fits perfectly, looks great and makes me feel pretty.
2. a new curling iron which seems to work better as a straightener on my hair.
3. having a fantastic hair day (because of said curling/flat iron), which made my boyfriend stare at me (in the good way) most of the night.
boy… do i have a story for you!
the problems are:
a) i can’t seem to find the time to write it all out;
b) just the thought of writing it all out fills me with apprehension.
the longer i go without regular blogging, the harder i find it to blog. i’m rusty after a three-quarters of a year of irregular writing. not to mention the loss of some of my favourite readers because of the lack of updates. sometimes i think i should just pack it in and keep my writing to photo descriptions on flickr.
then again, i hardly ever post photos on flickr anymore, so what good would that do?
anyway, i DO have a story for you and i WILL tell it. just not right now. and, if i can find out a way to proxy myself into my CMS, i might just get back to a wee bit more regular writing. i hope.
my boyfriend is making inappropriately appreciative noises while playing “tomb raider: anniversary”.