Something Up With Which I Will Not Put

I am beginning to think I have two personalities (at least): one is all about size and power, and the other is a minimalist.

The first clue was the teeny little Sony camera I bought. I already have a big sexy Nikon, complete with filters and hoods and a camera case that's bigger than my head. I love my Nikon, really I do, but it's big. Heavy. Cumbersome. And this is fine if I'm headed out to take pictures, and want to (a) get some really great shots and (b) look like an intimidating semi-pro photographer. But when the photo-taking is not the actual point of the expedition - when we're out with the family, for instance, or sightseeing, or what have you - then the Nikon is a little more camera than is strictly necessary, and I find myself either not taking it and thus missing photo ops, or taking it and resenting it.

So I bought the teeny Sony. It fits in my pocket, for goodness sake. It's smaller than the cigarette packs I used to carry everywhere, so it certainly doesn't get in the way. And it's still a pretty decent camera (the photo above was taken with it).

One might argue that two cameras does not a psycho make.

To which I would respond, ah yes, but two laptops?

My sexy new laptop is wonderful (bluescreen issues notwithstanding, but that's another post). It's big and sexy and powerful and chocolate brown, and the screen is massive. I can see people's pores in their facebook profile pictures. And I love having a computer at work that is my computer - I don't have to surreptitiously download stuff, I can control which programs I use for which applications, and so on. But the SNL, like the Nikon camera, is big and heavy and cumbersome - it barely fits in my backpack, which is only a few months old but is starting to show signs of strain on the zipper. I have a good, ergonomic pack, but my back still aches by the end of a week of toting the SNL back and forth.

So I bought an Asus Eee PC.

Or, rather, one of me did.

Transcript of a conversation in our kitchen, yesterday afternoon:

Robert: Daddy has a lot of jobs. He has Scrabble, and singing in the choir, and the computer stuff*. That's three jobs! Mummy has just one job; she's a teacher.

Colin: Well, she's our mother. That's a job.

Robert: Then Daddy has four, 'cause he's our dad... Mummy, if you wanted to do more stuff, that would be OK.

*the "computer stuff" is his actual job

On page A12 of today's Gazette there are two articles side-by-side.

Headline 1:
Vancouver drug workers fight to keep injection site alive

Headline 2:
B.C. fears arrival of giant squid on killing rampage

Can't you just hear it now? "This might be the drugs talkin', but I think there's a giant squid after me, man."