Monday, March 14, 2011

New toys

So yes, not dead. Just the usual excuses. However, as Cathy pointed out, people are going to think this is becoming a Doyle review blog. And with only two or three episodes left in the season, that would be bad. Instead, I will point out something weird regarding packaging.

Considering how expensive shipping is up north you'd figure companies would be doing their damnedest to try and not to be stupid with their packaging. You'd think that, but you would also be wrong. Chapters is nortorious for this. I have gotten an order of 10 books in as many as six boxes before. Today's culprit is Future Shop.

Cathy got a new laptop before Christmas. As she's carrying it back and forth to work quite a bit she thought it would be a good idea to get a neoprine sleeve to protect it. So we go to Future Shop and order one. This is what it looks like.


Lovely isn't it? Now, something like this, you could probably slip into an envelope. It's not fragile or likely to be easily damaged. It is, after all, something designed to take a bit of damage to protect a computer. This is what they shipped it in.


Seriously, a tree had to have died for this package if you saw how much paper they stuffed in it. Now, it's free shipping, so I shouldn't care too much, but really? That's some seriously dumb packaging. If Future Shop goes tits up, you can take a guess as to why.

We also had another Future Shop Package. There have been a few comments about how I don't have many photos of Iqaluit up on the blog. Part of the problem is my camera is a Pentax K10D, which is a big son of a bitch. It doesn't exactly slide into my pocket. So I decided to burn off some of the Future Shop gift card money and buy a nice pocket digital.

The theory is I can take this with me more easily around town. Plus it makes it easier to take on vacation. So I went with a Canon Powershot S95, which looks like this.


It's a lovely wee beastie, I must say. And I'm quite happy with the photos I'm getting. Here are a few samples and I haven't tweaked or adjusted any of the colour settings.





I'm telling you, that's easily as good, if not better, than what I can take with my Pentax. It doesn't have the telephoto lens, but I'm pretty happy with photos that good. And that's just me playing (and taking them outside when it was -35C and I wasn't really able to do much in the way of fine tuning with the settings). So I'm happy with it. So hopefully readers (the 10 of you still around) will see a few more photos from around town in the months to come.

Last Five
1. We made a pact - Hey Rosetta!
2. Girl sailor - The Shins
3. Politik - Coldplay
4. Girl in the war - Josh Ritter*
5. You've lost that lovin' feeling - Hall & Oates

7 comments:

smitten kitten said...

future shop shipped me 3 games in huge box last week. I think the only company that is somewhat smart about packaging is well.ca (though I could just be naive as I haven't been in the north that long).

towniebastard said...

Well.ca could probably use more and better packaging. That toxic vinegar spill at the Iqaluit Post Office last month was a Well package...;)

jen said...

Does future shop still charge $20,000 to ship a single DVD? I always used to use amazon.

The Canon Powershot is a FANTASTIC little camera, good choice! AND of course it would beat ANYTHING Pentax! If you want anything that has anything to do with photos, it's Canon or Nikon, no comparison! lol

towniebastard said...

No, they've changed their shipping policy. It's back to free for most stuff, unless you're ordering a washer and dryer or something.

I liked Pentax because I have fond memories of the old Pentax K1000 I used. Bloody thing was indestructable and easy to use. This one is too heavy and finicky. I'm actually thinking I might buy a Nikon or Canon SLR if I decided I need it. But we'll see.

Trace said...

Nice pictures! Love the one of Boo!

Aida said...

the area looks familiar..lol

Leif Hagen said...

Fun to discover your blog way up there! Any signs of spring yet?
Kind regards from the EAGAN Daily Photo blog in Minnesota