Stuff 03.05.30
:: Two good film recommendations, both based on true stories: Evelyn, starring Pierce Brosnan, Aidan Quinn, Stephen Rea, Julianna Margulies and Alan Bates, and Nowhere in Africa, the brilliant German film that won the 2003 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Evelyn features Brosnan’s best performance by far, and is the story of Desmond Doyle, who battled the Catholic Church and the Irish Constitution in 1954 in order to win back his children from government appointed custody. Nowhere in Africa tells the story of a Jewish German family who fled Germany in 1938, before the Nazis took full control, and moved to Kenya. It is a rich, moving film, the best I’ve seen so far in 2003.
:: It seems minor, but today I emptied my savings account into my chequing account, and will permanently close my savings account tomorrow. It will be the first time since 1968 that I don’t have a savings account. CIBC, bless ’em, have initiated new user fees that makes it cost prohibitive to maintain the savings account.
:: Should I buy a digital camera before I go to NYC on June 7?
May 30th, 2003 at 01:13
I threatened to take all my rrsp’s and money out of the Commerce (not a huge amount) if they didn’t remove the $.95 a month fee they wanted to charge. They removed the fee-It is optional for them and you should bargain if you want to keep your savings account. You do have to do this through the actual branch that your savings account is registered at.
May 30th, 2003 at 15:15
Steve has some leverage and he used it. Great idea. And it’s good to know the fees are optional. I did the same as you Randy. Closed my savings account because the fee was greater than the interest. Seemed more like giving than saving. Do what Steve did, and if they won’t budge, go to a credit union. Better service and lower rates.
And buy a digital camera. The pictures you’ve been getting from our bike rides was taken on a 2.1 megapixel camera. It’s wonderful for posting online and sending emails. If you want the image to be better, keep using your film camera. Why waste the money on a 4 or 5 megapixel unit.
May 30th, 2003 at 16:24
I’ve already made the decision to close the savings account. I’ll deal with the single chequing account, to be called a “Waive” account, meaning no charges if balance is >$100.
I’ll get the digital camera, would prefer to get at least a half-decent one, to be sure. I’ll investigate this weekend. Thanks, Mike.
May 30th, 2003 at 18:10
Hey, you know, this b-b-blog thingie looks better in Mozilla 1.3.1 than in Netscape 27.3.
May 31st, 2003 at 17:48
Well, Nikon and Fuji both have sweet models, though some folk rave about the Cannon G4. A good research source is: http://www.dpreview.com/
Brad
June 1st, 2003 at 23:57
Brad is right about dpreview.com. Don’t listen to Mike with the 2 megapixel biz, though (no offense, Mike); prices have plummeted on 3 and 4MP models. My 2MP model was nice, but I bought a 3 on the weekend precisely because I wanted it to replace the family camera and make prints sometimes. What it didn’t replace is the SLR, which is a different monkey all together. What you need to do is decide if you want a compact model or something a little larger.
You leave soon, and didn’t phone back tonight, so I’ll send you an email tomorrow detailing what you should be looking for, how much you can expect to spend, and some specific recs based on customer satisfaction and my own take on what’s out there. Also, once this all comes together, talk to Tony at the 51st Ave store.
June 2nd, 2003 at 14:19
I have a 1.3MP digital camera that I use almost all the time, even making (slightly soft) 8 x 10’s and (much sharper, as long as I don’t crop ’em) 5 x 7’s. I also have a 20MP non-digital SLR that I use hardly at all, even though I have access to a pro neg scanner. The digital is that much more fun and more convenient. Get a digital with a good lens — that’s my advice. Unless you make big enlargements, they’re all good. And check the delay before it takes the picture after you press the shutter, and the delay after you take the picture before you can take another one. Get a card reader — don’t install software that comes with the camera and hook the camera to your computer. Finally, nothing beats Photoshop.
June 3rd, 2003 at 06:52
Thanks everyone very much for all the detail and suggestions. Mike, what do you mean about not loading the software that comes with the camera?? What’s a card reader? Is this another few hundred $$$? Oh, ok. Derryl, will get back to you shortly.