Lopaka Lounge

Ray got a juicer today.  The first thing he did when we got home was make carrot juice.

Hamilton Beach – can’t go wrong!

The blade thingy is really sharp.

Washed and chopped carrots.

The juicer was surprisingly quiet.

Yum! No really! Yummmm.

Ray also made apple juice.  Afterwards, there was this interesting leftover carrot and apple pulp.  Knowing Ray, he’ll find good use for it. 

For dinner, he whipped up some black beans and brown rice with avocado, green onions and tomatoes.  I scarfed it down while we watched a couple of episodes of Weeds.

I’d like to say something about how my life is so full and rich but that might come across sarcastically.  It’s not.  Doesn’t take much to make me happy. 

I’m going to bed now…

Oh yeah, I think I have resolved my photo dilemma.  I found a plug-in that re-samples the images on my blog so they don’t look quite so jaggy.  It’s all good.

I’m having a photo dilemma.  Whenever I post a photo directly on my blog, it can either be a full sized image or a teeny tiny thumbnail.  To fix this, I have to go in an resize the photo making it look distorted.  I really hate that.

I have seen people upload photos from Flickr accounts to their blog.  I admit it looks infinitely better but then it’s just another step in the blogging process and you have to wait longer for the Flickr page to load when you click on the photo. 

I’m a purist when it comes to photo quality.  I can’t stand pixelated lossy compression.  That being said,  I am a realist when it comes to added layers of complexity in the blogging process.  I don’t care much for layers.  I guess I’m going to post mediocre quality images…for now.

Carrie and I had to go to a training thing in Phoenix for the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life held here in Bisbee.  Carrie drove her convertible BMW with the top down.  Afterwards, I picked dirt out of my hair.

The Mule Mountain Relay For Life will have a website this year.  I am the Online Chairperson.  I figured since I have lost so many friends and family members to cancer I could get involved with the ACS Relays as a way to help my community. 

Carrie dropped me off in Tucson the next day.  Ray picked me up so we could visit Lori and Beth who had just relocated from Chicago.  While I was driving home on I-10 late that night, the alternator on our car died.  The good news is that it was right where we get off the freeway.   The bad news is that we were still about 60 miles from home and had to spend the night in a Motel 6.  The really bad news is that it cost $500 to fix.  The really-really bad news is that we have to make the trip out to Benson after work to pick up the car.

Today has been such a Monday.  Aside from having an all-day headache and puncturing my thumb with a mechanical pencil, I have been working with some software at work that totally sucks.  I just want to crawl into a hole and hibernate. 

At least I can look on the bright side; Friday is my flex day. 

This weekend I was faced with a tragedy.  My beloved Olympus E-20N digital SLR camera died.  It had been in a coma since the shutter locked up while I was photographing my cousin’s mural unveiling in Prescott.  I had traded in my entire Nikon F10 film camera outfit and supplemented extra cash to buy that camera.  One minute I was sitting there shooting photos and the next, everything went black–literally.  Now it’s gone and I’m afraid I don’t have the resources to replace it.  No joke, I am beside myself with grief.

It would have been five next month.  I was planning on taking it to my friend Colleen’s wedding in Chicago. 

After trying everything I could think of to make it work again, Ray took it to the Olympus repair shop in LA while I was visiting my mother.  They wanted over 220 bucks to fix it.  It doesn’t seem to make sense to pay that much money when they’re selling one still in the box for $300 on eBay.  The Olympus technician implied that it could have been caused by impact or shoving the memory card in too hard.  How could she say such a cold, cruel thing? 

I know exactly what it was–the death chip.

Have you ever noticed that electronic equipment doesn’t last very long these days?  I have gone through countless computers, electric clippers, coffee makers and cordless phones over recent years.  My Dell flat-screen monitor fried just after two years of use.  Fried as in the screen went black and the little light went out–its pupils fixed and dilated.

I suspect a consumer conspiracy is all around us.  We are so conditioned to get the latest and greatest iPhone that the manufacturers of our electronic gadgets secretly program them with a limited life span.  Logan’s Run meets Panasonic.  God forbid I should ever have an artificial heart.

Ray has his uncle’s old General Electric alarm clock.  On the bottom there is a date.  1949.  It still works perfectly.  Our sound system in the living room is powered by a 1977 JVC receiver.  That thing has been to hell and back–but it still works like a charm.  While today’s technology is amazing, the craftsmanship is for shit. 

Goodbye my Olympus E-20N.  Your demise is bittersweet.  I will miss you but deep down inside I am angry because you were a poorly manufactured camera that I paid way too much money for.  You will live on in vain through your accessories that I can no longer use.