It’s not a reason to pout, but I didn’t manage to get my rice cooker today. Went to the K Mart near my workplace, and they were sold out! Can you imagine rice cookers being sold out? It’s just not supposed to happen.

Now I have commentary on various items. There aren’t any games that excite me at the moment. Used to be able to sit down for hours just going through a game. These days, unless someone else I know is playing the same game, and unless there is a multiplayer to it, I’m not quite interested.

Okay, I should retrace and mark something more important. Vyanne found a job with Citigroup. Yay! She started yesterday and it’s definitely something memorable for her (and her colleagues). Heh, if you are curious, ask her about it one day.

Just downloaded ViewNX, software by Nikon for viewing photos from their cameras. It’s pretty quick, and has all the handy information ready. ISO on the D70 is not set to the industry standard, so it’s one of those info bits that don’t quite show up when I click on the properties. Heh, thinking of my ideal camera equipment setup for travelling. I’ve sort of outgrown the camera bag that Vyanne gave me as a gift a few years back when I just got my D70. The Lowepro Photorunner is good for a camera and one other lens at most, and the 70-200 f/2.8 is not one of those lenses. I’m thinking that an ideal travelling kit would include one body, a 12-24mm, 17-55mm and the 70-200mm. They all use 77mm filters so one stack of them would be fine (UV, Circular polariser and a warming filter). All this inside a padded bag with a tripod attached to it. I like my Manfrotto tripod in Melbourne, but at 3kgs, it’s not the most ideal travelling companion. Looking at some cheap Slik tripods now, which at under $100USD and lighter than 1kg, would make ideal travelling companions. Load on the tripods are around 2kg, which would just work for the wide to mid zoom lenses. The entire kit above would probably weigh in at 4kgs. It’s still quite manageable, and if you really wanted to travel light, you’d just bring the 18-200 do-it-all lens. Personally, I’m not a big fan of the slow aperture on the tele end, so if I really wanted the 200mm range, I’m very happy to lug the 1.3kg lens around to use it.

No macro lens for travelling? Not quite useful unless you are travelling on the nature scene. Find that when you are travelling you don’t tend to have too much time to loiter around to slowly setup and take shots. Besides, the 17-55mm focuses quite closely, so you can get pretty decent closeups of most things.

Okay, moving on from my camera obsession, I’d rather be able to travel to exotic places to take photos. Was discussing with a friend that we should go on a safari in South Africa and to the frozen regions of Alaska. However, the equipment required for both places generally cost more than the trip itself. I’d still like to be able to improve my skills, and do an exhibition one day. Well, at least for now, I will continue to dream, or at the very least, travel to Queenstown in New Zealand, which seems to be a more accessible travelling region.

Back to daydreaming…