Mostly con

I'm beginning to reappraise this whole "Internet as a valuable research tool" thing.

Oh yes, I know there is tons of information out there. And it's great and wonderful stuff. But it's also been slowly driving me mad as I research a few things.

I've always been like this. Before I go ahead and spend my precious money, I tend to research any major expenditure within an inch of its life. I recall doing this back in the late 80s when I had some birthday money to spend and decided to get a new ghetto blaster. I spent weeks going through consumer and electronic magazines (Internet was not readily available for the common folk back then) until I thought my girlfriend at the time was going to kill me if I didn't finally buy one.

It turns out it was a good choice. It still works and is currently sitting in my office at work. I use it primarily for the radio, but the at-the-time high tech CD player still works also.

So plenty of research is something I still do. I did it for my first new computer in 2000 (previously could only afford used ones), my car in '01, the iPod and my first digital camera. Lots of time and research went into it to make sure I wasn't buying junk and that I knew the pros and cons. And it's worked. There's been very few major purchases I've been disappointed with.

But there's something in the last couple of weeks that's making me go mad. Either I'm getting old or the Internet is getting weirder. Probably a little of column A and B.

It began researching the camera and equipment. Now, I half expected to run into crazy people because folks are pretty loyal to their camera to the point that anyone who doesn't use their brand is crazy and an idiot. Still, it was kind of mind-boggling trying to get through it all. And that was before I started researching stuff like lenses and flashes. I had a moment where I vented to a few friends that the Internet was filled with nothing but crazy people.

However, I do have the camera settled on - the Pentax K10D. Trying to figure out the lenses and what flash to get is still driving me mad, but I'll get there eventually.

But the one that got me to this ranting happened last night when I was checking out resorts to visit in the Caribbean. A fairly useful site for opinions is Debbie's Caribbean Resort Reviews, where people can post what they thought of the resort they stayed at.

Or at least I thought it was useful. I had a moment of epiphany last night when researching a resort in St. Maartin where one person who was bitching stated that "since St. Maartin is one of the richer countries in the Caribbean, I guess the staff didn't feel they had to work as hard for the money."

It was a moment where I suddenly hated all white people.

I don't know, we're supposed to see a travel agent tomorrow and I'm certain she will find us a perfectly nicely place to go. But I don't know, I always liked reading different opinions about items, just so I could figure out the pros and cons. But after all the sites I have in the past few months, all people seem to be interested in writing about are the cons. It's very frustrating.

Plus, I still thing white people suck right now after reading that review. Jesus...