I can’t wait to move into our house and become homeowners again. There are so many great things about owning a home, but one of the best things is that you get to leave the Hell that is apartment living. Last night, we got home at about 7:30pm after dinner, only to find that someone had parked in our covered parking space. We pay money on top of our rent every month to be able to use it. When we first moved in, we accidentally parked in the space next to our assigned space, and within an hour, someone had our car towed. It cost $185 to retrieve it from the towing company.

Last night, I figured I would just do the person a favor, and not call the towing company. Heck, we only have a couple more weeks living here, I suppose I could save someone the hassle and money. Well, this morning I saw that the car was still in our spot, so I wrote a note asking the person not to park in our spot, and that the next time they did, the car would be towed. When I was going up to the car, the lady who owns it, hopped in and started backing out. I tapped on the window, but the music was blasting (it *was* 7:15am, after all) so I knocked harder. She stopped and opened up the door, and a blast of sound and smoke came out at me. I asked her not to park in the spot. She first replied with denial, saying she only parked there for a couple hours. I told her that she was parked there at 7pm last night until now. She then tried to make an excuse, saying she was parked there for an hour, then had the late shift, then came back at 4am and parked there again. I called bullshit, since the car was in the same crooked position both times I saw it. She then got upset, saying that there were no empty parking spaces, to which I replied there always are open spaces if you are willing to walk (which we had to do), otherwise spend the money and buy a reserved space, like we do. She then said, “Fine, do what you have to do then, and call the tow truck”. All the while, I was trying to get the point across that I did her a frickin’ favor by not calling the goddamn towing company. Jeez. Try to be nice, and you get a shitload of attitude.

You know what? At this point, I say to Hell with it. Next time, I am just going to call the towing company without a second thought, just as that person did with us months ago. Man, I hate living in an apartment. Oh, did I mention the drunk driver who, a couple weeks ago, busted through the entrance gates, then overshot her carport and drove through someone’s patio gate? And it wasn’t even the first time! Oh, the joy of apartment living.

When I used to take photos with my film cameras, my favorite lens to use was the 28mm. When I switched to my digital SLR, I lost the wide-angle view that I loved, since the 7D has a crop factor of 1.5x. The widest lens I had was a 24mm, which worked out to be 36mm film equivalent, not wide enough to capture the landscapes and clouds that I like. So, I have been debating about which lens to buy next, and finally decided on the Konica-Minolta 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 “kit” lens. The quality is not the best, but it is a very useful range (27-105mm film equivalent), and the price is right, about $150 new.

My timing was perfect, because I posted on dpreview.com about how my next lens purchase would be the kit lens, and added an off-the-cuff remark asking if anyone was getting rid of theirs. Well, someone replied that there was a lens for sale on dyxum.com (a site dedicated to the K-M dSLRs) for only $60! I immediately sent a message to the seller, and arranged to buy the lens. It arrived the following week, in perfect condition, and I have been enjoying it ever since. I now have the wide-angle view that I love, and I didn’t have to spend as much as I expected, even though the list price was cheap. The advantages of this lens are that it is a great range, the lens is very light, it focuses fast, and it uses 55mm filters, the same as my 70-210mm lens. And of course the price! The downsides to this lens are that the optical quality is not so great, and it has a plastic mounting ring. Both of these are really not that big a deal at all to me. 99% of my photos are resized for web viewing, and thus, sharpness is not critical. I don’t even shoot at the largest size in-camera. I think I pretty much found the perfect lens for my needs!

Here are a couple pics taken from the same position to illustrate the useful wide-angle view:

18mm:

24mm:

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Well, the College Football season is over… Yay! Next to go down is the Superbowl. Then it’s clear sailing all the way til Spring Training! Woohoo!

The latest game I got for the Nintendo DS is Mario Kart. It’s really a fantastic racing game, so simple and fun, plus the wifi connectivity really gives it a big bonus! There are tons of tracks to race on, many I recognize from the N64 version of the game, but the rest of them are new to me. The graphics are great, the sound is nice, and the action is exciting. When you race against other people via Nintendo Wifi, the adrenaline really gets going! The only lame part about it is that some people must have unlocked the special cars, and leave me in the dust. It doesn’t help that I suck anyways, but when I am at the starting line, and my opponent has a funky robot-car that looks like Short Circuit, I know the race is already over. But, I still race and complete all the tracks, unlike others who will just disconnect if they feel they are overmatched. That’s no good either. Anyways, most of the races have been really fun. I’m glad I got this game, but the bad thing is that Mariko loves the game too, so I have to share the DS!