I'd like my vehicle windows to roll up and down with a handle. The driver's side window electronics in my 2001 Honda CRV are weak. The window frequently doesn't have enough ooomph to roll up in a rainstorm. If I turn on the key to roll the windows up before getting into my tent while camping, it's pretty easy to leave the key on and run down the battery. Morning surprise.
I still shoot film with 30-year old OM-1's. They work in cold weather and they don't need to be recharged. And they do what they're told.
So, now that I am pushing 62 (you could have guessed that from the above comments), what do I do?
Stick to my comfort zone when possible, while also ackowledging and accepting its limitations?
Forge ahead into the brave new world like a lemming?
I wonder if I should pull the plug on technology and just walk the dog some more. Her joints are getting tender.
I'm an old fashioned soul in a world that is spinning way ahead of me.
Someone is selling a nice Olympus E-620. I have it sitting on the table in the house. I have spent the past several hours trying to make heads or tails of the instruction manual.
I write this from the cabin/office on my dual system Mac G4 with OS 9 that still allows Pagemaker and my slide scanner to function and OS X (3.9) that works best for E-mail and browsing the net.
Needless to say, I'm still on dial up. I'm pretty happy here.
My only phone plugs into the wall where I can always find it and it doesn't have to be recharged. I tried a cell phone once. It sucked money, only worked in certain areas, and fried in the car before I even had all the instructions figured out. I tossed it and never went there again.
Back to that E-620. Even with my reading glasses, I can barely read the pages and pages and pages of instructions. The flash prefires multiple times and goes off when it feels like it, which I do not understand. (something to do with red eye control--somewhere, somehow, I can probably turn this off)
I wonder how I will keep this thing charged when I camp a lot (in a tent) and hike a lot?
I wonder how I will get images from camera to my trusty old G4?
I wonder if I get a new computer for the camera, will it have to be set up for dial-up and/or broadband and/or wireless? (I live in rural Alaska).
Then what happens to Pagemaker (which I love). And my scanners? And my printer? They don't even make new printers with the features of the one I have that is wearing out--postscript, wide format, HP photo quality.
My eyes are challenged by the small print of the instruction manual and small print on little screens inside the viewfinder. My brain is numbed by all the options and how to set them, change them.
New filing system? New storage system? New ways to share the emotions from photography that I used to do in a way that satisfied me with real editors who cared about their publications and with my own books?
Yes, I am amazed at what this little digital computer/camera can do. But am also well-aware of the time and money it will suck.
Old things wear out. But so do new things. I seriously doubt the E-620 will last the next 30 years. But those OM-1's, those slides...they might not be of much use in 30 years either. Me either for that matter--if I'm even still here, which likely I will be not.
This is the diary of someone in transition in life and wondering what to do next. Chime in if you'd like.