Naturally.

I found my camera this morning. Which is OK! My phone camera is only 3 megapixels, and thus not the kind of thing I'd use for anything other than a convenient snapshot device, and I really do like my elderly Lumix, so it's good to be able to put off buying a real camera for a while. I can always use Phil's D200 if I need to go superfancy or all macro, like with garden photos.

Speaking of the garden, I am dying to get out in it, but the weather just isn't quite there yet. We get the odd beautiful day, and the rest of the time it seems to be either raining or on the verge of raining, and if not actually cold, still decidedly chilly. In spite of my gardening jones being so far thwarted, I am feeling a hell of a lot better in general, due, I am certain, to the increased sunlight daylight. This winter was dreadful for me, in terms of depression and anxiety. It's not the cold, it's not the damp, it's the darkness. I've this bad tendency to think of depression, in myself, as self-indulgence and whining. Other people are depressed? I am very sympathetic. Me? I'm a whinger. I'm not sure why I hold myself to tougher standards than I hold others in this respect, but I definitely do.

This winter really, really sucked, with family issues (illness & injury, mainly) and the crappy weather, and this awful feeling of general malaise, much of which I attribute to how hopeless the news feels. I'm really not capable of being one of those people who can blithely ignore politics and current events, but sometimes, I think it would do me good to unplug from it for a couple of days, just because I reach a point where everything gets viewed through my Oh God, We're Dooooomed filter, and that is just no way to live. For one thing, it's annoying to others. I really don't want to be that horribly negative person who brings everybody else down. Well, yeah, things suck, but they aren't going to stop sucking just because I've got this perverse need to make myself unhappy. Because, you know, something bad might happen if I ever slipped up and allowed myself to be happy and enjoy my life for a minute or two.

So I'm working on that, and the end of winter is very helpful. I can open up my conservatory pretty early most days (the conservatory is unheated, has no electricity and is unusable in winter. It really needs double glazing at a minimum), and being able to sit out there, first thing in the morning, drinking coffee, knitting, and watching the little birds hopping about, does me a world of good. Everything is in bud, or putting on new growth. The daffodils, tulips and grape hyacinths are in bloom, the bluebells and lilacs are coming along, and it looks as if the wisteria we planted our first summer here is finally going to give us a proper show this year. And, oh god, there is so much to do out there. Weeds are everywhere, we need to mulch and turn the compost heap, the patio needs a good cleaning, the bramble is very close to out of control, and that goddamn ivy is making me mental. But those are all things I can do something about, and I will, just as soon as the weather gets a bit better. I'm looking forward to planting my tomatoes and herbs and sweet peas, and tending my little patch of the earth.

The technology report

Given that my mobile phone is ancient, and I've misplaced my camera, I decided to kill two birds with one stone and get a camera phone today. It is very shiny and sexy, and I cannot wait for it to finish charging so I can start taking pictures with it. I hope I like it, because I assure you, unless it gets lost, broken or stolen, I will have it for a very long time, not because I'm cheap or dislike spending money (oh, how people who know me would laugh at that idea), but because I get weirdly attached to things, and am not very keen on change. I mean, I love the shiny, sexy laptops and cameras and mobile phones, and I would probably enter into a bigamous marriage with my iPod, if it were legal, but I find the process of changing over from, say, one computer to another, to be incredibly tiresome. I make a very bad geek. I run my cars into the ground, I will baby a failing appliance until it actually up and dies on me, and even if the sky above me suddenly started raining money, I doubt either of those things would change.

Phil's a great geek, because he loves that shit. And because he enjoys the whole setting up/tweaking process, I usually can talk him into doing the stuff I regard as tedious gruntwork. I'll be replacing my elderly Powerbook soon, which I am frankly dreading, even though mine is just about knackered, and I've mostly been using his for a couple of months now. I've got so much stuff on mine, and the idea of moving it all over sort of makes me want to cry.

The good part, though, is that I've recently discovered that once I do make the switch, it's done. The old object in question is now dead to me, and I do not wallow in nostalgia. The mobile phone is dead, long live the mobile phone!

Why, hello there!

Dear god, I have had to make so many upgrades and changes between Google/Yahoo/Flickr/Facebook mail accounts that remembering which account is associated with what has driven me to mostly ignore all of them.

I think I have it now. This is mostly just a test post. Still knitting, still running 3WA, still on Ravelry, in a moment of madness joined Twitter, and, oh, taught myself to crochet.

I am still 40.