Life improvements

Last week I made a minor purchase, a 7 megapixel digital camera. In high school, I worked at a camera store in Golden Valley. At that time I had a Nikon N60 SLR, which was my most prized possession, but I really aspired to a digital camera. These were not brand new at the time, but they were pretty cutting edge. And by cutting edge, I mean that a 3 megapixel (that's right) Nikon digital SLR cost....wait for it...2 geezles. Yeah. Oh, and they could store like 43 pictures, which was hot.

Well anyway, last week I spent way longer than I needed to at Circuit City. Although I am notoriously terrible at making these sort of consumer-product decisions, this time it was not my fault. As you may know, Circuit City is going out of business (my friend Nick emailed us a link exactly 12 minutes after this article was posted with the subject "Buy shit NOW!!!"). Well in their news release, Circuit City's VIPs blame market conditions and tightening credit terms for their demise, but I have a different explanation. How about that their employees are fucking stupid??? Hm? This camera I was looking at said something about "Smile Capture Technology," which sounded intriguing. So after looking around expectantly for an employee (unsuccessful), I wandered over to the nearest counter, where a 16 year old wearing a red shirt to match his face was busy picking his nose, and asked for help. This kid stared at me blankly for about 7 seconds, nodded vaguely, and walked into the back room. About 17 minutes later, this gangly (but comfortably 20-something) dude comes up and asks how he can help me. Hopeful, I asked him if he could explain this "Smile Capture Technology" to me. My mistake. Grabs the camera, pokes around in the menus for a good minute, and then declared smugly, "Well it's technology that captures smiles." Seriously. No, I'm not kidding. Exact words. I don't know how to portray a long and dumbfounded pause here with any impact. Oh. My. God.

So anyway, this guys was on me like butter on bread for the next 30 minutes while I unnecessarily pondered a more expensive option (an unfortunate side effect of disposable income). I think he was autistic. I did my best to ignore him, and eventually settled with great agony on this fancy little number. The pain was worth it. Cybershot + Picasa = Crazy Delicious. My life is better because of this device. I always want to take pictures, but my SLR is too big to drag around, and denies me immediate gratifications. So now I am more creative (or anyway, I have an outlet for whatever creativity I have), and my bank is only slightly lighter. Upon hearing this tale, the aforementioned Nick made exactly the same purchase. Good choice dude.

I recommend that everyone do the same. You will sleep better and get 99 virgins. True statement.