wet wet wet

With a little thinking you might be inclined to think that it is not a dry day today and you would be…. correct!

The flood that I talked about yesterday, although not a huge fast down pour is a slower, more soaking rain. It hasn’t rained very hard but it’s been consistent. And judging by the radar, we still have quite a bit more to go.

So, I was weighing my option on running today at lunch and I opted out of running. I thought it might be better to try to run in the morning and get 10-13 miles than to brave the wet and cold and risk getting a head cold.

So instead, I went to Wal-mart to see if I could find a cheap, small digital camera to take to American Samoa with me. And the answer was YES… I did find what seems to be a decent camera. Since this was going to bean active camera (i.e., traveling in my pocket) it had to be compact. I didn’t want to pay a lot for it, so it needed to be reasonably priced. Since I was shopping for it less than a week before I was leaving, I had to purchase it locally. Other deal breakers were that it needed to run off of AA batteries (easier to replace in “The Field”) and I had a brand new SD card that I had gotten for CHEAP with rebate. Surprisingly enough, there were still a number of cameras that fit the requirements.

While at Furman, I found a Sanyo camera, that wasn’t too big, had the AA and SD card requirements. It was a 5MP, which for this type of P&S camera really doesn’t matter all that much. And it was $98 and change or so… the cheapest of the bunch.

The Wal-Mart on Chapman highway (South Knoxville) did not have the camera, and their selection was so-so for the Walmart Standard inventory. Isaw a Pentax Optio camera there and Pam had raved about how she dated them exclusively for years. The Canons although compact, don’t use AA but I am familiar with them. The lower end HPs and Kodaks were too clunky… so I left.

Today, I went to the Wal-Mart on Clinton Highway (North Knoxville) and found that they had the sanyo that I wanted, but it was Out of Stock. POOP! But I did get to play with the demo and found out that it was really easy to use… in 2 seconds, I learned 75% of the controls. So I debated whether to ditch the Wal-Mart and try the West Knoxville Wal-marts. You know the Great Wal-Mart chase. That was until I saw a different model.

For $20 more, there was a 6MP Sanyo. Same features and everything. The only thing different was that the case was black. No other distinguishing features or anything. So I wrestled that I could live with spending an extra $20 to get the 1,000,000 pixels to have the camera now. Most of the pictures are going to be web images and 6MP is really way to big for the web. Were I to make prints a 3MP camera would be plenty. So anyway…

THEN, I notice the Pentax Optio and it looks strangely familiar. It’s $149 and 5MP with all the features of the Sanyo. I thought about Pam and her liking with Pentax… then it hit me. The Pentax and Sanyo were the EXACT same Camera… the casing was the same, the button layout was the same… all the technical aspects were the same. Perhaps the Pentax had a better quality lens.. I dunno. So for $31 less, I could get the 6MP Sanyo for the same camera. Okay, done deal… let’s get the hell out of here.

So I wait in line to get the camera, because it’s under lock and key. The helpful photo technician opens the door and what do I see…a miniature sleigh, NO WAIT. I see the 5MP right next to the 6MP box. Score one for Terry. Someone had put it in the wrong place and that saved me $20. Thank you Universe!

So here is sample picture that I took today. This means that I’ll be able to play You Tubesday when I can.

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