I open my weblog with a story of woe and despair. Until a week ago I was the proud owner of beautifully small, make that tiny, digital camera. I bought a Minolta Dimage Xi three-megapixel camera about five months ago and took it with me everywhere. In its short tenure, the camera served me well.
Due to its tiny size (it’s less than an inch thick) my friends and I joked about how easy it would be to lose it. Last week I outdid our wildest expectations and put the camera through a full cycle in the washing machine and dryer in the pocket of one of sweaters. Its case is now wonderfully clean but alas the camera is dead of course. Let this be a sobering lesson to other owners of pint-sized cameras so that this event did not happen in vane.
On a brighter note, the batteries appear to remain functional, so I’ll save a bit when I and if I replace my old friend. Thanks goes out to all my colleagues and friends for refusing to ridicule my loss.
Comments
Steven Garrity - November 19, 2003 11:09 am
Can we see a picture of your camera? Oh, wait...
Dave Hyndman - November 19, 2003 12:04 pm
Daniel:
Nice to see the weblog. Design is fantastic and love the "DTB, A Weblog" thing.
Dan James - November 19, 2003 12:07 pm
For the record, my camera is smaller. My heart still goes out to you though.
Johnny Rukavina - November 19, 2003 12:39 pm
My brother Pete bought me a wee tiny MP3 player for Xmas a couple of years back. Sure enough, last week, I left it in my pocket and ran it through the wash. Shockingly, it still works just fine.
Nick Burka - November 19, 2003 1:12 pm
Welcome to the internet bro.
Peter Rukavina - November 19, 2003 1:17 pm
As, seemingly, the sole person who <I>did</I> ridicule you, I tender my heartfelt apologies. You will have license to put my Segway™ through a full rinse cycle. When it arrives.
By the way, I'm loving this brown-on-brown thing; it's a work of great beauty.
Nils Ling - November 19, 2003 3:17 pm
Lovely weblog ... just lovely. And I don't know that there was a generalized refusal to ridicule you ... more a moratorium. Everybody's waiting till the grief cycle (like the wash and rinse) has done its job. At that point, I'm guessing you (and your oh-so-spotless toy) will be fair game.
Mandy - November 19, 2003 3:53 pm
Yay, welcome to the blogging world. I seem to remember you telling me you were not into this scene. Glad you changed your mind and hoped on the band wagon.
sorry to hear about the camera. I think I'd cry for a month if I did that.
Al O'Neill - November 19, 2003 7:57 pm
D'oh, every new weblog that looks like it'll be interesting is yet another minute or two out of my day that gets funnelled away into the great vortex of the procrastination dimension.
These connected islanders do seem an interesting bunch though. I'm wondering if my having started my weblog while off island makes me a BFA, (blogger from away :D) or what.. oh well. Still beats working on my alleged thesis.
Rob Paterson - November 19, 2003 10:27 pm
Hi Daniel - wonderful looking site. By the way do you need grief counsellor?
Melda - November 20, 2003 1:15 am
DANIEL! that is TERRIBLE! i feel horrible for you. really. but, dude, is that ever a Daniel Burka thing to do!
It had a good life though. Just think of it this way, it saw many things that other cameras will never have the chance to see.
m - November 20, 2003 4:25 pm
From now on putting your camera through the wash will be called "pulling a Daniel". I don't know if you're aware but the we've already implimented the Trivial Pursuit saying, "Don't Peter me man." in honor of PB and the nitpicking.
Carol Anne Ding - November 28, 2003 11:53 pm
I feel your loss. Last year I lost my digital camera to orange juice.
Daniel Burka - November 29, 2003 1:11 pm
Thanks Carol Anne, your shared pain eases my loss. So, how does one lose a camera to orange juice? Just a spill or was it something more dramatic like dropping it into a huge cauldron of juice at the Tropicana factory?
Carol Anne - November 29, 2003 4:17 pm
It all happened when I fell asleep on the train on my way to France, and woke up to find that I was at my stop. In a huge panic, I shoveled everything back into my pack and ran for the exit before the train took off again. Only to find out later that the cap of my OJ bottle wasn't screwed on tight, and the acidic liquid had spilled over my entire backpack. I then proceeded to take my camera apart hoping it would dry off and return to its original state. Moral of this story: Don't take your digital camera apart, otherwise you are left with tiny random parts that you don't know what to do with.
juanito - August 14, 2004 6:26 pm
d'oh. i just put my DimageX through the wash cylce, and found this post looking for anyone else who had done that. We'll see what happens, right? It's on top of my monitor right now heating up to get all the moisture out. Praying!