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isn't there something i should be doing this morning?

oh right, order a new digital camera! i've put it off long enough, and if i want something new to use when i go off on my little one week vacation at the end of the month, i'll need to get the camera now. my nikon coolpix 950 needs replacing anyway, i had to tape the battery door shut and i've noticed the CCD is starting to take grainier photos. the new one that i want to get is the nikon coolpix 4500, the last generation of nikon swivel cameras. nikon seems to be moving away from the swivel design, and they've discontinued the 4500, so now the only 4500's you can find are remainders. that means they're slightly cheaper because retailers are trying to move out these outdated models, but the weird thing about the 4500 is there still is a strong fan base for the camera, people who use them swear by them (like me), and the price is still high for a discontinued model.

i was ordering online, and if you want cheap, you're going to also have to deal with shady. i went with broadway photo that had a full page ad in macaddict magazine. i figured if they're well-off enough to have print advertisement, they can't be too shady, and in a macintosh magazine no less. it took a while to get ahold of somebody there. the first time i called i was rerouted to somebody who mistook me for another customer, and he in turn told me to call yet another extension. when i called this extension, the person (kevin) wasn't there, so i called their main number back again, and finally got somebody after being on hold for a few minutes. they had the camera in stock, the guy (mike was his name, he had a middle eastern accent) took my name, my phone number, credit card information, and address. then came "the sell." first he asked if i wanted to buy a spare battery, that they were having a sale. i said no, thanked him anyway. he tried 4 times to sell me the batteries, at one point even asking, "is there a reason why you don't want the batteries?" "i just don't need it right now," i said, "maybe in the future." i of course needed batteries, but i wasn't going to order it from them. then he tried to sell me on a larger memory card. this i had an answer for, "i actually have a lot of memories, i have a preexisting digital camera." "oh," he said, like he didn't have any responses to counter what i told him. the final thing he tried to sell me on was an extended warranty, "do you want the 3 year or the 5 year?" he asked. i knew the nikon's come with a 1 year warranty, which was something mike didn't even mention, and i never get extended warranty for anything anyway, so i told him, "i'll just stick with the 1 year warranty." finally after his barrage of sells, he gave me the final price and my tracking number and told me i could expect to see the camera in 5-7 business days. in the end they still got me though, charging $50 for UPS ground, but this seems like standard practice for a lot of these small internet shops, so i'm just going to have to eat the cost.

game 4 of the playoff series between the athletics and the red sox started at 1pm. i watched the game with guarded optimism. john burkett was a question mark, i'd seen him in some good games, but his stats showed that he was the weaker pitcher compared to tim hudson of the athletics. when hudson got hurt, that was a big morale boost. burkett got out of that bases load jam with the athletics scoring just a single run. there was also varitek's run to third base on a bad throw to first, kicking the ball in the process, he's a wily veteran, that one. then johnny damon's homerun to bring the red sox 2-1. even when oakland was up 4-2 in the 7th inning, i wasn't very worried, despite the fact that the red sox was on the verge of elimination. todd walker, who sucks at defense but great at offense, scored in a run with single homer, and then ortiz hit that double in the 8th to give red sox the lead 5-4. it almost seemed like it was meant to be, like the hands of fate wanted the red sox to win. by tomorrow, we'll find out who's going up against the yankees, but once again, it'd seem like poetic justice if there was a red sox yankees matchup to see who gets into the world series. this is all very exciting. in-between innings, julie and i would call each other to comment on the game.

in the evening, i went to my parents' place again for dinner, then came back home, alias, followed by a few hours of coding.