Today I’m going hiking in Chichibu(秩父), two hours outside of Tokyo.
If it’s not raining, too hard, that is.
Never fear, I unearthed my loyal two year old bottle of DEET. Â It’s served me well in Thailand and Vietnam. Â I wonder if you drink DEET, if it oozes from your pores? Poisons the mosquitoes that bite you, perhaps?
Anyhow, I figured we could all use some communication happiness today. Â Found this guy in a stationery store. This was the assembly instruction sheet.
Giraffe!
Generally, I like to think I’m a logical person.
It happens, sometimes, late at night, though, that while clicking around the interwebs, my fingers somehow find the gizmo pages, my credit card number, and suddenly, I have new toys.
Here, I enumerate for you (me) why I am not getting any of these specific shinies just yet. Â Really. Not getting.
1. Olympus E-P1 Micro four-thirds camera
Why: My Nikon D80 is great, but I find myself arguing with it too often. Arguing with it to focus already, or focus here not there. Â Or even to just take the picture! Sheesh! Â I think I might do much better with a more portability, and a little more automation. I really like the lens-swappability of the SLR, and with a micro-four-thirds cameras let you do that! Â Plus, it looks nice.
Why not: It’s the third micro four-thirds camera to ever exist, and the first from Olympus. If I wait 2 years there’ll be a hugely improved one, and a lot of used lenses (and more types of lenses) out there. Â Yup. Â Noooo reason to get one now.
2. Amazon Kindle (in any form)
Why: I like reading, and I like traveling. Perfect!
Why not: A pretty steep price for something that’s going to shatter the second I step/sit/slide it the wrong way. And knowing me, I will. Support of image-rich books seems weak, and I’d really really love to be able to devour manga with one of these. Comics are really the perfect use case – disposable, one time reads that would otherwise occupy a lot of physical space. Â Alas, not supported now, and the content providers aren’t there (yet).
Why: I happen to have received, from a generous donor, a $200 apple store certificate. Â My iRiver, while endowed with a lovely OLED screen, is kind of a pain to sync w/ my iTunes. (That is to say, it doesn’t. I drag files manually). Â Still haven’t figured out podcasts.
Why not: While I think to finally join the hordes of white earbud wielders (oh wait, my Sony headphones are white), something tells me that new ones will be coming in September. Something called macrumors.com, and common sense about how these update things work.
At least that last itch can probably be scratched within the year. Unlike these @#$@# mosquito bites of misery. (Maybe I’ll stop talking about them at some point. Probably not ’til they’re extinct.)
See, I wrote down very logical reason for not getting any of these. Now I can’t do it, lest I be mocked. Â Hah, take that fingers!
If, um, I happen to stay in Japan longer, though, I cannot be held responsible for any projector or audio-related purchases. <cough> And netbook! Forgot about the pretty vaio P…
*itch*
Okay!
Apparently it is a very stupid idea to sit in a park on a warm night and talk to friends. And participate in activities which require not moving for two minutes.
Clearly, I am single handedly feeding the mosquito population of Tokyo. At this rate, I expect to be devoured alive by the end of the month.
I’m pretty sure that if any one person has malaria on this island, I do now!
The stats (just from tonight’s crop of 11):
Left leg: 2
left hand: 2
Right hand: 5 (!)
Neck:2
Someone at work said that this is because I’m blood type O.
Can I get, like, all my blood transfused, please? Maybe AB. I always liked the sound of AB. That’s the opposite, right?
I just marinated in a very hot tub of water in hopes of reducing itching. Thinking cool, happy thoughts. Cool, non scratchy thoughts.
*itch*