I murder her dress and she loves it.

[reddragdiva]

B-Movie last night was very nice and I got some amazing pictures on the Ixus 50's first serious workout, which I should get up in the next couple of days. The front-fill flash does wild stuff on dancefloor shots. As a preview, here's spikeylady beaming down from the mothership. (Cropped to Jess per request.)

Ixus-geeking with _nicolai_, who has an Ixus 500 (model before mine), and wechsler, who has an Ixus 40 (model below mine). I also put a 'da Oly protector on mine: a 2mm perspex shield for the LCD that could probably stop bullets. I put an installation walkthrough up on DP Review Canon Talk. It cost me about five quid including postage and took a week to arrive from the US; I recommend it wholeheartedly.

In my new career as Ixus Shark, I sold d_floorlandmine a nice old Ixus 330 to substitute for his PowerShot S10, which had died of an E50 error earlier that day. The 330 has very nice optics and takes a damn fine shot. It also has a stainless steel case and is even heavier than the old A40 (was mine, now Liz's), so doubles as a self-defence weapon. I'm picturing a TV show, working title Ixus Warrior, wherein our hero, a meek and mild goth club snapshot enthusiast, secretly fights evildoers using his concealed stealth nunchaku camera. Whirls it on the strap, sends it through the air, they never knew what hit 'em. We can set the camera to video mode for added visual novelty and to make the viewers throw up from vertigo. Just think of the plot twists: "Oh no! E18 error! Now I must deal with my hitherto-undefeated enemy ... the Canon warranty department."

I gave valkyriekaren eight packs of Gudangs, since I've become an obligate non-smoker. I had to try one though — it had been the sort of day where I really missed smoking. The nicotine hit was nice, but ... the cigarette tasted like ass. OH NOES! DIS0WNZ0R3D!! Twenty years of smoking, and now I find out they taste like ass? CURSE THESE METAL LUNGS. arkady laughed and laughed. So unless someone comes up with a cig that tastes even less of ass than a candy clove ...

(For the last few weeks, I've had a little thought balloon with a Gudang in it following me everywhere. And I still have it. But now it has buttocks.)