Insta-ghetto-gram

I don't have an iPhone. I don't even have the iPod touch that has a camera (it was $70 more but now I think it might be worth it), yet I wanted to join the Instagram cult. What's a girl to do?

Ghetto rig it.

Here's what I do:

1. Take picture with terrible phone camera. I have a Palm Pre, I like it but the camera leaves much to be desired. Two words: fixed focus. Ugh. An incredibly cute baby counteracts the terribleness of the camera. If you do not have one, one will be provided for you. Wait, no, that's something else entirely.

2. Email photo to myself from the phone.

3. Check email on iPod touch. This is usually done at home, since that's where I have WiFi.

4. Instagram it up!







If you want to follow me on Instagram, my username is OhBuoyancy.

The death of the point and shoot

This is something I've thought about before but it came to my mind again the other day and I decided to post about it.

Who uses point and shoot cameras anymore? Okay, besides your parents, who are always behind on technology anyway.



The fact is that the cameras on our phones have advanced so greatly in the last few years that there is no longer a need to carry another gadget. Shawn's HTC Evo has an 8 megapixel camera and can take HD video. That's better than my Canon PowerShot that I've had for a couple years. The screen is also bigger for viewing the photos.

When I first bought my PowerShot, I took it everywhere with me. It was always in my pocket or my purse. That is until I got a BlackBerry. Once I had that phone I used my camera less and less. Now I have a Palm Pre which sadly has a fixed focus camera, but I still don't carry around a point and shoot. Who does anymore? It's so much more common to walk around a see someone taking a picture with their phone than with a pocket-able camera. It makes so much sense now that phone cameras have come so far. My first camera phone didn't even have a flash but now that's pretty much standard as well as a focus light and a light that will illuminate videos recorded in low lighting.

National Geographic even published a book (The Camera Phone Book: How to Shoot Like a Pro, Print, Store, Display, Send Images, Make a Short Film) about taking photos with your phone a few years back. National Geographic! It's probably already useless to today's phones.

The last thing I used my point and shoot for was to take pictures of furniture and their price tags in a store. Since Shawn got his Evo, we've used it for that purpose. We did use the point and shoot a little bit on our honeymoon. We had both agreed to leave our phones off for the week and thought it best not to take his D40 snowboarding.

So, I see the point and shoot slowly fading away, being replaced by phones, until one day mentioning a point a shoot will be like mentioning an 8-track to today's 9th grader. I definitely don't see p&s technology getting the love that film photography or vinyl records have. The everyday snapshot takers will use their phones while those more serious about photography will have SLRs, the in-betweens will disappear.

The above photo was taken with my Palm Pre.

An Asthmatic Christmas

Check out Asthmatic Kitty's Christmas page.



It has Christmas goodies from Sufjan and others including an e-card, games, ornaments to color, videos, and 8-bit (Nintendoesque) Sufjan Christmas ring tones.

More Phone Etiquette: Identity

Say you have a phone number for someone but you haven't called them in a while, or ever, so you're not 100% sure that it is the correct number for them. You decide to send a text message to the number, "Hi! Is this Jane?" Maybe it is Jane, maybe it's not, either way if Jane doesn't have your number how is she going to feel about responding to this anonymous person questioning her identity? Not comfortable with it, that's how. By all means, say your own name in the message! It's common courtesy. To not give your own name is like calling someone on the phone and your first words after their hello being, "who is this?" You called me! Tell me who you are first, then I might answer your question.

Voicemail 101

I get wrong number calls all the time, I've got to where I don't answer the phone if I don't recognize the number, unless I'm expecting an important call. This will, of course, cause the caller to be send to voicemail, the sly culprit. It may be the last thing you suspect, but it is the reason many people you may not even know will laugh at you behind your back. I know it's provided me laughs on many occasions. Why don't those people who put out the "for Dummies" books write one on leaving voicemails? There's definitely a need for one.

Here's a tip on voicemail:
Before you leave a voicemail message take two seconds to make sure you have the right number. Otherwise you may be telling the world your girlfriend calls you 'cooter' or letting your boss know that when you call in sick it's really because you're so drunk you can't dial a phone.
Also, don't leave anyone's personal medical information on voicemail. Sure, it may not be your own information, but as a medical professional you are responsible for keeping it private (an "I'm sorry to hear about that" goes out to Sidney in Ft. Walton, I didn't listen to the whole message, no worries).

Let me close this out by saying I cannot fix your pipes, car, boat, or unlock your door. I will not pick you up from Stetsun's, I am not up for a "booty call," I do not have directions to the hotel, I do not know where your baby's daddy is, and no, I do not have that ::ahem:: medication you were asking about.

Just Returning Your Call

If you call someone and leave a message how long do you usually wait for them to call you back? There are probably many variables that would go into this, such as who the person is to you (friend, acquaintance, family, co-worker), and what you're calling about. So say you call someone you've never called before, but have hung out with once or twice and what you're calling about isn't really a pressing matter (maybe you're asking them out). Here's some advice, when they haven't called back after 2 days, it's okay to call again. It's not okay to call again after 2 days and then every day after that.
Maybe they have a good reason for not calling back, like the text they sent you that said they were sick (maybe you don't have texting?). I don't even think it should matter their reason, it gets to the point where calling repeatedly is just creepy and weird. Sure, maybe you're excited and eager about having a new friend, but chill, too much is just too much. If you hadn't called so many times they would have called you back by now. I'm They're not even checking my their voice mail any more.