This little turquoise fan that costs a mere $6 stopped me from upgrading from my old P3 800Mhz to Caroline’s retired P4 2.8Ghz, as no local store carries anything like it. Finally, after too much time wasted, I found a link to the manufacturer’s replacement part. Tonight, I posted this entry with the new PC, and I am as happy as a clam.

This is the beginning of the film “Pennies from Heaven” with Steve Martin, which is only the second movie this year we have watched together on our TV. “Pennies from Heaven” is a musical that is a difficult film to fathom since it was made knowing how uncomfortable Americans are with this genre. Generally, we want our actors to play the same stereotyped roles we have become accustomed to seeing them in. Steve Martin is a lonely salesman on the road looking for love while breaking into musical numbers taken from old black-and-white films. This movie was a surefire bet for failure.

Today, the photography hobby took a turn for the more serious when we bought our first accessory lens, a dedicated macro. The lens is the new Canon EF-S 60mm 2.8 USM Macro. In order to test the lens in the shop, I took a few objects with me to test the quality, and in focusing on this shell, I was immediately sold. Expect a lot of new macro photos on the site.

Next to Caroline’s desk sits a stack of books she needs to get her degree and improve her programming skills. Not watching TV gives us plenty of time to do things like READING! Well, except this evening, Caroline is going through some of our 60,000 or so travel photos and uploading some of them for free prints from Shutterfly.

We were going to watch a movie on our TV this evening, which would have been the second time this year to have used our TV as a form of entertainment. We have not had cable for years, and no, we do not have an antenna either. The only time we watch TV is when we are unwittingly hypnotized by the thing while dining in a restaurant that has placed them in all corners.

Instead, we stopped at Tower Records at Desert Ridge in Phoenix and got lost listening to dozens of CDs on the listening stations. We left with Cheb I Sabbah’s new disc La Kehena, Royksopp’s new Understanding, Mediaeval Babes’ disc Mirabilis, and a compilation from the Opium Garden in Miami Beach featuring tracks heavily influenced by ethnic rhythms.

For some reading, we picked up the magazines Kyoto Journal – Perspectives from Asia, Planet – Global Culture and Lifestyle, VegNews, Vegetarian Times, and Radar, a magazine about pop, politics, scandal, and style.

Maybe next week we can sit on the couch and watch a movie like normal people.

Under a decorative cover sits this light, which illuminates our stairwell. It is a finicky light; a slight brush left, and it stops working; jam it to the right and wiggle hard while pushing up, and you might get it working again.

This photo was taken with the macro function of the Canon EF-S 17-85mm lens, which, although a nice all-around lens, is bereft of true macro skill. It is becoming time to invest in a good macro lens, such as the Canon EF-S 60mm Macro USM lens for a cool $449.

I think I will visit FotoForum this week and test the lens; it wasn’t yet available when we purchased the new camera. Look for some real macro images here in the next few days.