Oh, those crazy German art students!

I guess I'm coming in to this a few days late, but have any of you seen this? That photo is pretty bad a... sort of Dirty Harry meets camera nerd. The device's potential for pissing people off or for advertising has caused several hissy fits already, but I'm not much of one to buy into the mob mentality of the internet. It certainly could be used to help wean people off of using their flash, which could be a very good thing.

Here's some more info if you want the lowdown on the tech side of things.

Ten days...

The big 27 is coming up in about 10 days, and this year I'm getting a camera. A sexy camera. I'm actually really proud of this achievement because, 1) I've wanted a SLR for about 10 years, and 2) I finally got up enough courage (and capital) to convince my parents that with the money they would normally spend on birthday/Christmas presents I would have enough for a sexy camera. This was actually a pretty big deal, since deviations from the norm aren't necessarily always welcomed with open arms back home. For example, when I decided to move to NYC, the news was met with what I can best describe as "hesitant happiness." Life east of the Rockies is pretty much a mystery to my parents, and they simply didn't know how to respond. It actually took quite a bit of convincing to get them to visit, but once they did, they loved it. I'm hoping the "money for camera" decision turns out the same way. I think it will, since my Dad is something of an amateur photographer himself, and we've had some fun conversations about my camera and the possibility of him making the switch to digital (a big step, considering the home computer is pretty much a fancy Solitaire machine to him). Enough rambling...

So yeah, I've got enough money to get a Nikon D80 (with the 18-135mm kit lens), a 2 GB SD card, and a UV filter. I think that's a pretty good start. I'm hoping that the fat man puts some lens cleaner and perhaps a nice bag in my stocking...