Sunday, June 27, 2004
¤¤ Hell, I could have told you that!
I remember commenting on The Rott about the Korean who was beheaded by the J.E.R.M.s. I believe my comment at the time was "Korea is known as the 'Land of the Morning Calm' because if you piss off a Korean, you're dead before sunrise."
So it didn't suprise me when I found this link over at Florida Cracker. In the double-speak found so often in the news, the first few paragraphs are about how Koreans want their people out, ect. If you just read the first few blurbs, you would think that the entire country of Korea was sniveling in fear:
As intended by the kidnappers, the killing of Kim Sun-il, 33, an interpreter, pumped new life into a movement to stop the plan to send more troops, a deployment that would make South Korea the third-largest source of foreign troops, after the United States and Britain.
Not what I expected at first. That paragraph is almost insulting in it's tone. Reading through the article, we get to the actual meat of the story, the reaction I predicted.
An unexpected reaction (unexpected only by the idiot left - RD) was Wednesday's wave of anti-Muslim and anti-Iraqi sentiment.
"An innocent son of our nation was murdered," said one of the many messages that flooded the Web site of the Defense Ministry. "If you allow me to volunteer for Iraq, I will fight terrorists to avenge his death."
Other messages urged military strikes against terrorists. The portion of respondents to polls run by the Yahoo and Daum Web sites who said the beheading had prompted them to now back sending more troops increased by 23 percent on Yahoo and 24 percent on the Daum site on Wednesday.
At a rally in Seoul, conservative protesters said the government should send combat troops to Iraq, instead of military doctors and engineers.
"We want revenge for Kim's killing," the conservative protesters shouted, burning portraits of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born leader of the Islamic terrorists who beheaded Kim and dumped his body and head on a road.
For those of you out there who plan on living to a ripe old age, I'll give you the same advice. Don't. Piss. Off. Korea. You think I hold a grudge? These people carry grudges around with them their entire LIFE, and then pass them on to their kids!
And speaking of people you do NOT want to piss off, just what in the blue blazes did the J.E.R.M.s think they were doing when they kidnapped three Turks?
Followers of the most wanted Islamic militant in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, announced Saturday they had kidnapped three Turkish workers and threatened to behead them after 72 hours unless Turkish companies stop doing business with American forces in Iraq and called for protests in Turkey against Bush's visit.
Oh yeah, real smart! Let's kidnap a few citizens from a country known for the fact that it used to control half the civilized world, and still remembers how to kick ass and take names! Can't you just hear that little conversation going on?
Zarqawi: Allahu Ackbar, brothers! How many infidels did you capture?
J.E.R.M. #1: God is great, oh leader! We have captured three Turkish infidels!
Zarqawi: HOLY S**T! Are you high?! Have you been putting the wrong plant in the hookah? We have to put them back before the rest of the country finds out!
J.E.R.M. #2: Um.. we already sent out a message saying they'll be beheaded...
Zarqawi: (wets himself quietly)
Here's another little hint from Captain Obvious: When kidnapping people and chopping off their heads, try to avoid citizens from countries who have little reason nor desire to not force-feed you your own testicles. Turkey isn't the USA. Turkey doesn't have a group of idiots shrieking "Be nice! Be nice! They're just misunderstood!"
At this point, I think that sitting back and watching the fireworks might be a good way to spend the next few days!
¤¤ The Hidden Cost of Cats
OK, so I told you all about how my cats ruined my camera. Actually, they ruined my camera, three lenses (50mm, 135mm, and a 70-210mm), three flashes, two slave units for said flashes, and a doubler. Believe it or not, they're still alive. I'm just biding my time, though.
Anyways, I set out to replace the camera this weekend. I just wanted a SLR 35mm camera, nothing fancy. I knew I wouldn't be able to replace my entire set-up, but having a camera would be the first step. There were a lot of stores having sales, so I decided to go check out what was available. If I could afford a new camera, why not get one?
I'll tell you why not.
Most people who know me know that I'm a technophobe. I distrust anything with a high number of moving parts that requires an ungodly amount of training and time to use or repair. Auto transmission? No thanks, give me a manual. Hell, if it weren't for the fact that Tim controls this blog, I wouldn't be blogging right now! Template? What's that? Code? Is that like your PIN number? Bolt-action rifles and revolvers win out over semi-autos with me damn near every time. To date, I have ONE semi-auto pistol, ONE semi-auto rifle, and then a revolver, bolt action rifles, and a pump shotgun. As Kim du Toit puts it, "A revolver is like a fork. You pick it up and it works."
I want my camera to be the same way. I do NOT need to fight with the camera about who's going to do the focusing. I do NOT feel the need to argue with the camera about who controls the light aperture. And I certainly do NOT want to be forced to push this button, flip this switch, turn this knob, and then MAYBE I'll be able to take the picture on my own without some damned computer chip telling me what to do. If it has more than one or two "helping" technical doo-dads on it, I don't want it.
So the girlfriend and I head to the camera store with Hodge in tow. Once we get to the mall, I send off Hodge and the girlfriend to go check out a movie store, since I'm thinking that I'll be a while and I don't want to bore them. And I get down to business. The first store I'm at, I look at about ten different cameras. Nikon, Minolta, Cannon, Pentax, you name it and I'm looking at it. And you know what I found?
Every last one of them is automatic. Every. Damn. One.
I'm flabbergasted. When the hell did it cost LESS to put all that crap on a camera? I hand back the last camera (Nikon N75) and leave to check out another store.
Same story. Every camera that's on display is this automated hunk of crap that won't even let me control the aperture! I have to flip this and push that and twist this, and the damn things STILL won't let me control the damn camera! Hell, there's no numbers on the aperture ring itself! You have to look at the little LCD window on the camera to figure out what your aperture is set at! WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH THAT?!?! What happens if your batteries die? "Oh, well, you'll have to get new batteries then." WHAT??? At this point I have a little bit of steam coming out of my ears, but it's not the fault of this salesman. He honestly is trying his best to help me out, but he's got NOTHING to work with. So I set down the camera I was looking at (a Cannon, I think) and look the guy straight in the eye. I tell him "Look, I want a camera that doesn't fight with me over who actually takes the picture, OK? If I can't set the aperture manually, I don't want it. Can we start from there?"
So the camera guy thinks about it... rubs his chin.... and then searches through his stock. Pulls out a Nikon box and sets it in front of me. I open it up, and voila, there it is. Fully manual. The only thing technical about the camera is the fact that it has a built in light meter, but that only shows you how much light is coming into the camera, it doesn't do anything for you. Sweet jeebus, I think I've found it. I smile, and ask the guy how much it is.
Seven. Hundred. Dollars.
I stared at the guy. Seven hundred dollars! Seven large! And trying to maintain as much control as I possibly can, I ask the guy why some computerized block of crap can retail for $250 to $350, but a camera that actually lets you run it is double the price. The guy gets a sheepish look on his face and says "Well, most people don't know how to run a camera, so they buy one that runs itself. That's the bulk of our camera sales. The professionals who want to control a camera on their own demand higher quality in their equipment, so that's where the real high-end stuff goes, thus the higher price."
Un-frigging-real. I never thought I would see the day where some automatic shitpile retails for less than the manual version. And of course, every camera shop I went to did not have my one and only option left in stock. The Nikon FM-10 was the only camera that did what I wanted it to (or didn't do what I didn't want it to, to be precise) and was within my budget.
Crap. Plan B, the used camera stores. The girlfriend finds a list of used camera stores in the Seattle area and we start to check them off. The first shop we go into (Jim's Camera, 43rd St. in the U District) has quite a few. I'm looking through the cases when I spot my camera. Actually, it's the same model as the camera that the cats just finished ruining. A Minolta X-700, slightly worn, with NOTHING that could interfere with ME taking the picture. Halle-frigging-lujia!
So we haggle on the price for a bit, and the guy gives me a damn good deal. I take the camera for a spin, and notice that the aperture ring is sticking. Could be a worn spring, could be some crap in there, I'm not sure so I take it back. Try another one. (There were about 5 X-700's in the case). The second camera has a faulty light meter, and the pictures come out severely over-exposed. Not good. So I take THAT camera back, and we do a bit more haggling. Finally after paying about $15.00 over my limit, (it stung, but it'll be worth it) I have a partial set-up again. A camera, two lenses, and a doubler. Not the set up I used to have, but a damn good start. I'll be taking a roll of film with this camera to make sure it's in good working order, but it looks like I'll finally have a camera again. And Jim's Camera treated me pretty damn well, I must say. I'd go back there in a heartbeat, and I will be going back as soon as I have the money for a flash set-up.
And if the cats find a way to screw with THIS one, I'm going to roast their little hell-spawned hides over an open flame.
(And no, I'm not telling you what I paid for everything. However, I can tell you that it was more than I could afford, but worth more than I paid.)
¤¤ Weekend Update
Hodge left on Friday morning, to continue his vacation. He's got some family in California that he's going to go see, and from there he'll spend a few days in Vegas before heading to San Antonio. It was damn good to see him, although some of his stories could curl your hair. And some of the pictures he brought back weren't the nicest either.
The ongoing saga of the camera is pretty much completed. I'll write about that in a seperate post.
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