Monday, September 15, 2008

Jetlag Sucks

Can't sleep. Time to make a list of toys I covet:
  • Canon Rebel XSi - The 450D, which would be an upgrade over my current 350D. Do I need it? Not at all, but given its great performance and my lens choices so far (see below), it'd be a nice upgrade. Not really taking many pictures these days though. Should fix that.
  • Canon 17-55 f/2.8 IS USM - Fixed aperture (2.8!). Image Stabilisation. Useful range. It would replace the 17-40 f/4 L I mostly shoot with these days. I still have a 70-200 f/4 L in the stable and the standard 50 f/1.8 for low light.
  • [Ultra]portable laptop - Since I mostly work with a manlier-than-thou Mac Pro these days in the office, I find the big honkin' work T60p more and more annoying. It's certainly not a travel machine. And the IT software on it kills it. I can get into a small Mac portable but the only thing available is the Air which is meh. Though to be honest it probably fits my needs.
  • 37-42" Flat-Panel TV - I'm in the dark ages still. Standard definition CRT baby! With prices coming down, maybe it's time I joined the rest of the world. Also, need it for my...
  • PlayStation 3 - Little Big Planet has me and everyone else hooked. I can also tell myself that since Blu-Ray won the porn wars, I can use the PS3 as my new DVD player.
  • Toaster Oven - So that I don't fire up the whole damn oven for things like making a little toast or melting some cheese. I'll pretend it's my own little mini-salamander.
  • Good Chef's Knife - I'm so used to the thin cleaver as my knife of choice for just about everything that I never learned to get comfortable with a standard Chef's Knife. Time to change that.
  • John Fluevog Marcellos in White - What? I don't have white shoes!
  • Bionic Legs - My current ones disappoint me. They should be unbreakable and indefatigable.
  • A reasonable car of some sort - None of those are really viable candidates except the first boring one, after which it's too impractical, too inefficient, too beautiful, too expensive, and not available in the US, in that order. As for my current car? It's not boring at all but it is a bit impractical, inefficient, pretty, and expensive. GREAT.
  • A house - This one will have to wait a bit.
How can I survive?? I know.

4 comments:

carolyn said...

For the longest time, I wanted a toaster oven for exactly the same reason. I thought, now that is a useful gadget. But when I got one, I was so annoyed with how dirty it got so quickly, and hated cleaning it out... and it seemed really slow, and I rarely used it. So I got a regular toaster, and I still use it all the time. But maybe it's just me. It does still sound good in theory.

Me said...

It's the "in theory" part that inspires the toaster-oven lust, you're right. There's even a "gourmet" toaster-oven cookbook but they claim the secret to success is to get a slightly bigger/more modern oven with convection capabilities if you want it to be truly versatile.

My first memory of a slice of pizza is a cold slice heated up again in our old toaster oven until it was scalding hot and the cheese was almost liquid. Maybe there's some sentimentality there too...

carolyn said...

The convection oven is a pretty good alternative, especially if you can't have a real oven (as in my kitchen-less situation). It works for some things better than others though. But yes, heats up pizza well.

Wandernut said...

I just bought the 450D in Hong Kong but I ditched the kit lens for a Tamron 17-50mm 2.8.

My first DSLR so I'm still trying to make sense of it. Looks pretty sweet though :)