Hunkabutta Archives
11.05.01

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Camera sites suck!

Some bad news today -- The company that was supposed to send me my new Canon G2 camera backed out on the deal. They sent us our money order instead. What are two Canadians supposed to do with a US dollar money order in Tokyo?

Why do so many online electronics companies suck? And why are they all almost always based in the New York city area?

We had a string of failures and back-outs, unreturned emails, before we ever made this purchase. We finally found a place that would accept money orders and ship to Japan -- Broadway Photo. We talked to them on the phone, sent them our money, and everything was cool. Now we get our money order back and they say they don't have any stock. But if you check the web site, they say they've got stock, only now the price has gone up by $75 from the time we ordered it. Suspicious I think.

We're going to call them again and try to work things out. I might end up just buying the camera while I'm in California on a business trip next week, but I don't really want to do that.

Speaking of California, I just got invited to go and see the San Francisco symphony with my boss and his friend. Pretty slick eh? The trip's just getting better everyday.

I've decided I love business trips,... and hate camera vendors.

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A little bird told me that I have a regular reader named Josie, living back in Ontario, and I'd just thought I'd say 'Hi' and thanks for support.


11.02.01

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I haven't mentioned this on Hunkabutta yet, but I'm buying a new camera. Actually, I've bought it already, but it's still in the mail.

I can't wait to get my hands on it. It's a Canon PowerShot G2, and one of the reasons I decided to buy that particular model is because the best photoblogger online right now, Fred, is always espousing the virtues of his G1. That's why I was particularly sad to hear that Fred's camera died on him last week. I hope he replaces it.

So, expect an explosion of high quality photos in the near future.

Are you excited? You can bet I am...


10.31.01

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Not much Halloween celebrating going on here in Tokyo, which isn't very surprising I suppose. I kind of miss Halloween, it's one of my favorite holidays, even though I'm not very partial to dressing up myself.

I think that the reason I like Halloween is because it's the only holiday where strangers are welcomed at your house.

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In other news, I recently found out that I'll be going on a business trip with my boss to Santa Cruz, CA. I'm very excited, I've never been to California before.

We're going to attend a 'Summit' held by an Internet software company (Blue Martini) that my company deals with. It should be good. I'll know a few people there. There'll be seminars and presentations, lunches and nights out.

Just by coincidence, it's going to be held at a resort hotel. Life's tough, I know...


10.29.01

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Karen and Jack are back! Right on. Jack is practically a teenager now, I can't believe how much he's grown in three and a half weeks (he's actually three months old).

Yesterday, for the first time, he started laughing, a crazy kind of excited chuckle, but definitely a laugh. I heard it first and called Karen over. We stood there shocked, looking at each other and then at Jack, and then we both started laughing too. The whole family, just sitting there on the couch laughing at nothing.

I know that this kind of news sounds lame to non-parents (I was there) but like I said a long time ago, your own kid is absolutely nothing like someone else's kid. And one of the great things about being around a baby that you're actually interested in is that so many things fall into that 'his first' category. You always hear people talking about 'first words', or 'first steps', but I think that 'first laugh' is an equally momentous event. I mean c'mon, how often do you get to hear someone's very first laugh. And the best part is I wasn't even trying to be funny.