Pimpin' My Machine

I'm not a wildly extravagant person. I don't buy lots of clothes, shoes, furs or jewelry, fancy cars or IPods, DVD's, dishes or stuff to decorate my home, but I do have a few weaknesses.

1. My computer.
2. My camera.
3. Garden stuff, plants and orchids.
4. Books -- but I'm on literary methadone, the public library.

Garden stuff, with the exception of orchids is mainly a spring thing.
(I went to two plant sales this morning.)

I've gone digital with the camera(s), so, really, it's much less expensive after the initial investment. No more film to buy and develop, no more pictures to print just to see if they're any good. I only print those that I want to give away or frame. Even more economical than printing them is to make CD or DVD slide shows -- CD's cost but pennies each. It's such an economical hobby these days -- and that new 2 Gig Compact Flash card only cost $30.

The computer is the most expensive of my money pits. There is always something new in the world of electronics, and I want it. More RAM, bigger faster hard drives, fancy-dancy monitors, peripherals, new software.

I've been doing a good little bit of freelance web work lately, so I've convinced myself I need a graphic tablet. I wanted a Wacom Cintiq (with full lusting and drooling.) The price, however, was $2500 -- ouch! So, for a tenth the price, I am now the proud owner of a Wacom 6x8 Intuos3. Still learning to use it as you can probably tell by the exceedingly sophisticated drawing of SuperWunx~ on my May 4th blog entry.

One cannot have a lovely new tablet without the appropriate software to go with it. Plus how can I claim to be a proper nerdette if I'm not on the bleeding edge? And, of course, I can write some of it off as a business expense. Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium makes me quiver with delight. The advertisements are true -- the components do work better together. I truly do need it, you know. And it works with my photography. And, of course, one needs a nice little program to put the Photoshopped pictures into a lovely slide show, complete with transitions and appropriate music. ProShow Gold is surely not an extravagance, it's a necessity. And Nero to efficiently burn the CD's and DVD's -- can't live without that. And, of course, one does need a good photo printer for those give-away pictures.

No, I'm not at all extravagant. The Engineer should be grateful he has such a frugal wife.