My life's Adventure

I helped my step-mother-in-law with her computers.

We were invited to my wife's father's and step-mother's house to help with computers and have dinner. I did set up Outlook Express email software on a laptop and imported Internet Explorer favorites from my step-mother-in-law's former desktop computer. I also imported her old email address book to the laptop. We then ate dinner and came home. Later in the evening my father-in-law offered us their old couch if we can move it here.

I took some pictures of R, J, and C.

I do not have many pictures of my high school friends. I do have pictures of my present friends. I also have some pictures of coworkers. These will be valuable.

I started my month end budget sreadsheet.

I started updating my budget spreadsheet. I have not made any progress paying debit.

I just took my meds and am going to sleep.

My friends, R, C and J came by. We talked all night spending a little time on the Internet. R is studying in adult high school. J is volunteering and C is nervous about her one day of work coming up soon.

I slept last night and am at work today.

I am just on lunch break now. I did in fact, sleep last night on the couch so woke up a few hours after napping at about 2:00 AM. It is end of the month so we got a little money from the government disAbility program. I work a little more today and then if I am up to it attend an orientation session for some volunteering or I attend on Sunday. I think Sunday will be better. In that case, I only need to buy a chili for our supper after work and then we will have some friends over for the evening tonight. I am very happy and content this week.

Success, my bike carried the fruit, veggies and the 7 kg turkey home.

I only went to the grocery store and bought mostly fruit and some veggies. All that fit in the two front panniers. I also decided to buy our turkey early for next weekend. Canadian Thanksgiving is next weekend. I bought a shopping bag and placed the turkey in the bag and then strapped the turkey to the back bike rack and it worked fine. I am now home and considering an all nighter. I have though slept every night this week.

Shopping trip planned for this evening.

I plan to go to the grocery store tonight and the camping coop. I want to buy my wife a pedometer and also check out pelican cases for my camera and cell phone. I think I will ride there on my bike with my panniers.

I did some homework last night.

I have my first assignment downloaded and printed now. I did solve one of five problems now. Three others are investment problems. We have to solve an investment strategy problem by choosing which of a group of investments will give the greatest return. Actually we do not need to solve the problems but merely set up the systems of equations representing the various choices. The final fifth problem is to use some software to solve a system of equations using the method we learned in class but we do this with a software. So I need to download and get this software running under windows.

I am just about ready for work now.

L seems a little more stable and her computer is all set up ready to go.

I have mostly set up L's computer. The computer still needs Open Office installed. She dropped by yesterday and she seemed a little less excitable and more relaxed. She also did not seem as sensitive as she has been in the past. We have the problem now of getting the computer, printer and monitor to her house.

I can also now have the service taken off one of the TV outlets that is the office TV cable does not need to work anymore.

I ironed some dress pants and a nice shirt.

I have just ironed a nice shirt and pants for my interview today. I will go into work in about 15 minutes after shaving and bring my study notes for my interview this afternoon.

I have an interview today for a promotion.

I am being interviewed today for a job. I have some nice pants and a nice shirt ready to be ironed. I need some breakfast and then it is off to work. I will have some time home to prepare after lunch.

I am still wanting to buy the day planner for my mother and now some more author appearances tickets.

I kept the day planner on hold and put four tickets on hold to hear some one who is an intellectual talk at our local big community centre where our self help group holds its offices. These are on hold at our local bookstore.

I read ahead in my school notes.

I have not been doing much studying and should increase this activity more. I did briefly review some notes. I am learning some mathematics and need to practice some. I may go see the professor this evening when I am out after work.

C found some part-time work.

C found some work this past month and will work a couple of days. She has not worked much in the past. I was encouraging her to work. So my leadership here is good. But it is being tested. I won't say where she is working but I have also worked there and been a supervisor at that work and been an excellent supervisor and had been offered more work there but could not take it given my present work. But in no way did I get her the job with my influence instead I merely informed her that they would need workers and, in fact, I have had no communications with this workplace in over a year. I just knew they were hiring from public sources.

We bought L a computer and printer and will give her a monitor as a Christmas present.

L is getting better and has quit smoking and drinking for a few weeks now. She is allowed out of the hospital now on her own. She was here today making some supper for us and I decided to buy her a computer and printer and give her our extra TV/monitor. She will pay us back for the computer and printer. The monitor is our gift to her. She needs to buy Internet for Dummies and Windows Vista for Dummies at the end of the month. Then next month she will pay for the printer which was on sale when bought with a computer. Then in 2008 she will pay for the computer itself. I just set it up with some software and will update the Windows and hook up the printer later this morning. Then someday this week or next weekend I will bring these to her house. She needs to find a proper desk or table first.

I just messaged a former coworker on facebook and am up for work tomorrow.

I woke up today at 1:00 PM having stayed up to about 2:00 AM this morning from Saturday. I just finished writing a message through facebook to a former supervisor of mine from work. She left our department now and went into retail work. I am really enjoying the real people social networking on facebook. I used to enjoy strangers on the internet but real people is much better. I am flirting with being an alpha male but really don't like that personality system. There are many personality systems available to help people find the right job etc. Most of us are amateur psychologists anyways.

I am going to stay up now and get ready for a day at work.

I went out to a book reading.

I went out to a book reading and got the author's autographs. A coworker was there. As well J showed up later. I enjoyed meeting this celebrity.

I am up early studying.

I will do some reading his morning and some computer programming.

I am getting middle aged these days.

I seem to be caught fighting with youth and avoiding the elderly. I seem old these days. A few others near my age are good people, as are many youth. A few elders too are good people. My social circle is limited in a way. I know I haven't really said all that much but it is something to reflect on today. I am ambivalent about others.

A summer ends and a summer of life begins. Oh I should have done more photography in my life and even now I should do more photography as it is now cheaper to take each individual picture.

Work went well today I started managing other workers learning needs.

To help the other workers study for their tests I had a supervisor print a manual and then I photocopied enough copies in English and French for my coworkers. I then distributed these to workers after I asked them if they needed or wanted them. I deal with a fair amount of Chinese workers and have been studying Chinese this week.

I am still fairly unilingual though. My best language is French besides English. In fact, I listened to a warm up consumer speech today all in French as a self help group member prepared his French speech for the mental health week coming up. He will speak at my workplace during international mental health week. He is a retired government worker and has anxiety disorder.

I bought the books and handle bar bag yesterday before class.

I did buy the books and handle bar bag. The bag is now attached to the bike but it is missing one screw but is still firmly attached. I also bought the two books for the kids and talked to them both today on the phone and let them know they would be getting books.

I also bought the British history book and looked at the maps and family trees in the book. I did not get the day planner for my mom yet but phoned her this evening and asked her if she wanted it and she said, that this was all right so I will get her that for her birthday. The day planner is still on hold at the bookstore.

I sold my guitar the one I bought in winter this year.

I gave my coworker the guitar he paid for today.

I attended class and another student told me off for not staying focused in my questions.

I talk too much in school and for some at work too. I attended class this evening, after work and shopping. One other student told me on break to stay focused. I agree that I slow down classes trying to get too far ahead. I will read notes over night now and study some of the recommended reading.

I am buying a handle bar bag today and some books.

I will go to the camping coop after work today. I have a handle bar bag on hold there and will pick it up today. I might also get some extra brake pads and cables and some other extra repair parts. I might also get a bike light. I also am considering another pair of panniers for the rear rack but may wait for these as they are about one hundred dollars in price.

I will also go and buy those books today for the kid's birthdays and for my mother. I have not fully decided if I want the British history book. It would be fun to read this British history though. It is about the nobles' revolt under Charles the first.

Good news at work.

I have been invited to take an interview for a different promotion at work now. I can not go into details but this would be as a professional economist or sociologist at my present workplace. I would get a salary increase of about ten thousand dollars per year in this new position.

I read some Harry Potter this morning and did a little studies but have not reviewed notes yet.

I used Harry Potter to relax again but being up all night this did not help much. It made me more playful as it is children's literature. I read some more business literature on the bus for school. This morning I read job adds. I did some Internet chatting with other consumers. I did a little computer tinkering this morning. I am going into work 45 minutes early today well fed, lots of fruit and cereal and took some vitamins. I am going to take my school notebook to work to review notes and will do some study of interview questions for my job interview coming up next month.

I have vitamins again.

Just in case you don't know I take risperadol tablets 6 mg at bedtime. I also supplement with 3 grams of Niacin and 3 grams of vitamin C and a fish oil capsule. My partner/wife bought me vitamins again today and I went about a month without vitamins.

I had a quiet evening and hope to spend money on Wednesday.

I planned buying more bike stuff this Wednesday. I held off on picking up the item I had on hold at the camping coop and then phoned them and they can hold it till Thursday. I need to pay some electronics store debit but today paid for credit cards and the cable bill.

We received a little financial support from our parents today.

My father supports us every month with a little extra money and I report this extra income to the government disAbility offices too. Today I asked my partner to use some of this money to buy fruit and have started to eat it already today. We will get more fruit on Wednesday when our local food box order arrives. This is a local food security wholesale program we joined. The local volunteer also is a cool person to talk to each month. So my fruit intake is increasing to help with the oral cancer battle.

I actually have four computers now with different operating systems.

I have two Macintosh computers these days and one a desktop eMac runs Windows 2000 if I need it too. The other my laptop Macbook runs Windows XP too. Just last week it was running Windows Vista but I could not install SAS on Vista so deleted Vista and reinstalled Windows XP and installed SAS no problem. Just after work today I took the SAS CD's back to the school computer help centre who had sold me a license for this year for the SAS. I also get the Windows operating system software free from school. These are the fringe benefits from being a university student of maths.

I also have an old Solaris desktop and a Linux laptop both old machines made about 1997 and both very cheap purchases.

I am ready for work again today.

I slept at about 7:30 PM and woke up about an hour ago. I need to shave and get dressed and then I am off to work for another day.

L is not looking that bad and is back at the mental health centre now.

The police had found L talking incoherently downtown and had taken her to the major mental health centre. She seemed ok this weekend. She is back at the mental health centre now.

My partner did the recycling this morning.

My partner recycled the cardboard grocery boxes and the styrofoam from an old computer box. So that is one more object out of my office the old computer packaging box. I flattened the boxes from the groceries last night.

I slept at about 3:00 AM and my wife woke me up at 9:30 AM. I have been using facebook and playing guitar this morning and L has come by now out of hospital on her weekend pass.

I did read three chapters of the book before smoking.

I did manage to read three chapters of the Harry Potter book before smoking earlier this morning.

A moment's goal for now.

I am going to try to read three more chapters of the second Harry Potter book before my next smoke. I will also take a proper 6 mg of risperadol even if my plan is to be up all night. I will try to fight the tiredness and stay up till 4:00 PM tomorrow. That will be a 33 hour day but I may nap this morning and have my wife wake me at at 10:00 AM. I have some guitar to practice too overnight now, some computing to do and some business book reading for school.

Trying not to smoke.

I am still worried about oral cancer and started to really read the oral cancer foundation web site about this form of cancer. I reacted by eating a lot more fruit Friday morning and today will pick this up some more again. Instead of smoking and proof reading my last entry I decided it would be better if I smoked with a cup of coffee so did not light up and started a fresh pot of coffee brewing. Twice I got up and came back to the computer and lit up only to butt out right away. I won't smoke a cigarette until my coffee is ready, period. I have got to avoid the habitual smokes more so I can cut down better and quit.

This past week I went back to two smokes on break; and I need to continue the progress I started in the spring, that had me only smoking one smoke per break at work.

Well my coffee is now ready so now I will proof read and smoke.

Our neighbourhood is gentrifying and I tried to enjoy it yesterday.

A theatre company that I worked at when younger has moved to a newly built theatre up the street. They moved about ten blocks from their old location to a new building. I went in today and got the play schedule and season pass prices. I will not be able to afford these theatre shows. I also went to a book store and bought myself a ticket to hear a famous author read from his new book. This is next weekend. He will sign his new book too so I need to save some 40$ for the book next weekend.

I also went out and joined some strangers holding a cyberspace reunion and chatted with them a bit. I did not know them but used to use the system that brought them together and we know some local internet organizers in common. One of the persons I met this evening who organized the get together works at a local computer shop and brought along some shirts and jackets from the shop and gave them to me. I gave one of these strangers a telephone RJ-11 retractable cable. I did not stay long and came home richer both for the experience and with some free dudes.

I did not shop at the electronics store today. I did put something on hold at the camping store for Monday. I also put some books on hold in our neighbourhood bookstore. Two of the books are for kids in my family, one book is for my mother and then one book is a long and heavy British history book that is on sale. Total cost for these books would be 100$. The camping store item is 50$. I am also now wheeling and dealing land in Second Life. I have now done one move of my little Second Life avatars home. I am almost done this move and just need to complete two more land sale transactions to finish the move.

I slept some 15 hours and am now off work and volunteering today but broke.

I slept as soon as I came home from work yesterday. I did take 9 mg of risperadol and was in a bit of a chemical fog when I woke up. It is alright for me to adjust my meds by one pill or so. So the extra 3 mg was alright with my doctor. I am seeing my psychiatrist again in November after our fall family reunion. We see our daughter later this fall and I will be attending some work and school events that week and have the time available to take off of work to do this visit to another part of the country.

I was very polite with workers early in the day then was annoyed.

Some of the younger workers annoyed me today so I spoke about it with my supervisor. I got through the day with good production. I am going to sleep now and just took my risperadol pills 6 mg. I think I will take an extra 3 mg too.

I stayed up all night and now must work today.

I stayed up all night and just finished shaving and getting dressed for work. I thought of wearing an army fleece to work that would hold my iPod but this was showing off and inappropriate for the business workplace and in the end the new cat was sitting on me as I finished reading the first Harry Potter book and the fleece was covered in cat hair so I put on a black fleece instead. It is Friday so we dress down a little. But I have no clean jeans to wear and already wore jeans this week. The dress code is fairly formal in parts of our department but where I work it is a little more relaxed. I go somewhere in the middle but certainly not as messy as college dress I used to wear.

I am not yet tired but my thinking is following an all night pattern that will lead to paranoia at work. But I am too up about work to get down today. Only my tiredness will get to me and I am actively trying to think in a more relaxed style today.

I spent money on my computers on Tuesday and and today and also on DVD's this evening.

I bought my self a TV show on DVD this evening on sale. I also bought my wife a film on DVD. On Tuesday I bought ink and some canned air and tonight I bought a headset for my computer. I am shopping too much.

I read some school books today and yesterday.

I read some business systems literature recommend by my new professor. I also read some stuff about neural networks. I do this reading on the buses.

I have not taken my meds since Tuesday now.

I have not taken meds last night and I will not take them tonight. I have also not taken vitamins all month. I will take my meds tomorrow after work when I sleep at 4:00 PM.

I worked yet another day and tomorrow is Friday.

I worked today and my job seems secure for another two months.

Back from my first class of the fall term.

I had my first class this evening and just got home. I also did some union business and socializing after work. I then went to class and had a good time. I talked with fellow and sister students. I attend the full class. I learned some new mathematics and then went to the library to borrow books on business and statistics.

I decided to buy a cheaper camera and basically decided to keep this one.

I ordered a camera on Monday morning before work and picked it up after work Monday. I have been using it only today as it took some time to charge the battery without overcharging it. I took pictures of cats and my wife so far with it. It is a sub compact camera and I bought it memory sticks and a case. But I have a memory stick already so will return the memory sticks as they are unopened. This evening I bought ink and some canned air for cleaning computer keyboards of dust. I am now some 500 dollars deeper in debit but this camera was half the cost of the digital SLR.

I am all set for work now.

I did work on the cover letter and also relax. I did go to the store. I am just going to work now.

I am going to relax and not do any working for about one hour now.

I will read a little fiction and listen to music instead of working for the next hour. I will also go to the store and prepare the household supplies for today. I will return to working on my resumes and cover letters at 4:40 later this morning.

I found the resumes on my home computer and notes on one cover letter.

I found my resumes at home and spent the last hour perfecting two resumes. One job needs a different resume but the other two can both use the same resume. So the resumes are near complete. I also found my notes on these resumes and notes others had made. I am just going to do a final read and edit then send them into work and print copies for showing to others at work today before submitting them later in the day.

The cover letter notes have been found and I can do pen and ink notes on the specifics at home before work. I have not worked on the other cover letters more this morning but should get to that soon as work starts in three hours. I have been up since about 3:30 PM yesterday.

Another work week begins and I have three job applications due today.

I have one cover letter almost completed except for time and place specifics that our senior supervisor suggested I add to this cover letter. I just planned another cover letter and just need to type it up and then print it and show it to coworkers and supervisors today. These two cover letters will be submitted with resumes and application forms after work today or during work if they let me go to that part of our campus where we drop off our application packages. The third job application is also due today and it is done on-line and I have every thing done on-line but should get a resume from my workplace computer and also I must write a cover letter which I can do this morning. So this morning I can work on two cover letters before work and the other at work. For the resumes all are at work now so as I said one must come home now. I will work on the two resumes at work which are almost done and then bring the third home and submit the application on-line before going to sleep today around 5:00 PM.

The camera has been returned now.

I fell asleep at 7:00 AM. I woke up at 3:30 and ran off to the electronic store thinking it would close at 5:00 PM. But that was what the web site had listed.When I got to the store I found out they are open until 6:00 PM on Sunday's. I did return the camera and got a full refund. So thank you Ralph Nader for protecting my consumer rights.

Real reality check.

I just can not afford to be in debit another 1000 dollars for this camera. So today before sleeping or enjoying the day with my wife I will take a bus to the electronics store and return the camera and telephoto lens. I see this as turning over a new leaf in my spending habits.

I have packed up the camera in its original plastic bags, and boxes and it remains undamaged so I should be able to return it for a full refund. The store opens at 10:00 AM and it is now about 6:30 AM so three and a half hours from now I will enter the electronics store and return the camera. My physical feelings right now are much better with this decision.

Another week done.

I worked another week and now have about thirteen months on the job. This job has lasted longer than any other job I have held in terms of hours worked. My longest full time job before this lasted four months, but then included two years of part time work, and the last full time job I had which was the only other of the three total full time jobs lasted only three months. I have paid amazing amounts of pension money compared to the past. In the past I had paid less than 50$ to my pension and now I have paid quite a bit more. I figure I have 15 more years of full time work ahead of me if I am lucky.

Camera testing and seeking reality checks.

I open the camera boxes after work today. My partner drank six beers while I carefully opened the camera and did not lose any packaging or pieces. I then went to the electronics store and bought a memory card for the camera. The clerk who rung up my purchase was in a bad mood and I felt hot thoughts. I know this concept of hot thoughts is related to anxiety but it is related to labour so I said, "have a good day", right away to her. I took a bus home and then tried out the camera with the battery charged and the memory card formatted. I then uploaded some pictures to the web. I tried taking telephoto pictures from our balcony but the camera would not work through the garden netting that prevents pigeons. I left the camera out and need to put it safely away and organise it and then take it out today. I can take school pictures today and also pictures of a picket line.

The real reality check was to tell my mother about the camera, also tell her partner and then show my friends C and J. C thought it took excellent pictures and was worth the extra money compared to my old camera. My Mom's roommate thought it was a good camera but thought that the lens were worth a lot if I ever got a better body because they would work on better camera bodies too. So right now the decision is to keep it. I basically have until Wednesday to decide. But I should take it back by Tuesday really.

My partner had a rough few days

I am no longer preparing my partner's pills and she is supposed to be looking after this herself. Because we were out of town the pills were in the pill box for a few days worth. I did not return the pill box to the kitchen right away so she could not figure out how to get her pills out of the pills jars. She is a bit slow this way. The pill jars were in the kitchen but the inconsistency with the pill dose box kept her from taking her pills. So she was in a bad mood and had some bad days. She is back together now. She also wrote a powerful poem during this time.

C and J came by and I helped J with computers and suggested C needed a check up.

J has the laptop I bought him but he does not know that much about computers. He does now have an email account he has kept for over a month. I am hoping his use of the internet will help resolve his legal problems. He brought over his laptop and the digital camera I got him. He gave me 4$ to help pay for these. I helped him create folders and transfer pictures to his laptop from the camera and its floppy photo storage. One time I thought this type of Sony Mavica camera was the best to have because I believed that floppies were universal.

C said she had not had a check up in six or seven years so I strongly suggested she get one.

I did sell my fancy guitar and that is great luck.

I was not playing my guitar much so decided to sell it to help support our budget. My coworker did give me half the money for it now. He will pay the other half on our next payday and then I will give him the guitar. So I am not being robbed and am getting back the money I paid for this guitar in the winter. I sent my partner to the grocery store with some of the money to get us food and we now have lots of food. I used some of the money to pay some bills and I will still have some money on the weekend. So that is one more thing moved out of the house that we really could not afford.

L remains in hospital and we have her cat now.

I tried to find a car driver to bring L's cat here. I did not find one so used my bicycle and a cat carrier. This worried me but it worked out. Only now we have two cats and the new one is a meany. She is growling and I have put our cat in the bedroom. I think the solution is to give each one their own space.

Not working, not studying, and not shopping

I do actually do much volunteer work that is not work, not school and not shopping, but today I did fiction reading as not all of the above. I read another chapter of the first Harry Potter book. I am now starting chapter eight, page 131, almost half way through the first book.

I did spend about one hour today surfing camera stores for bags and did buy the digital slr of my dreams on labour day.

I did buy the digital camera on the weekend and it is being shipped here and may get here by Friday's mail I hope. I also got a telephoto lens. I also this past weekend bought R a USB key for his school work. He is going back to school to get his high school completed. I finally met his friend K face to face and K and he are partners in living as they are neighbours. These male male non sexual partnerships are common for the recovery types and I had these same relations in the past. I could list all the friends I have had but that would be boring. One time I figured I had a different male friend every summer when younger. I also have some male friends in my coworkers group and I believe these males also have various mental health issues but because we only meet at work generally these issues stay fairly back burner.

So anyways R is moving on with his diet and his school and I have not helped him buy anything expensive lately. I have helped him get something for his friend K which was a simple music CD. R now must complete some maths and English courses to finally get his high school diploma.

I surfed professional camera stores today on the web looking for a proper camera bag. I wanted of course a bag which could hold the camera and lens and also my laptop. But for now I can't afford this. A bag meeting these specifications would be about 300$ about half the price of the camera. A cheaper perhaps better solution would be to have a water proof camping like case for the camera and lens and then place this case in an existing bag.

The best thing to do would be to take the camera back to the store. My banker had said I should not buy anything new. I hope to sell my guitar tomorrow and a coworker who is interested in purchasing it is coming by to look at it tomorrow after work. If I do sell it I will probably keep the camera. The money will go to pay down debit for the TV, or the original guitar debit, or the new camera debit.

Work is going well this week.

I took some vacation time this afternoon at work. I went to my graduate school orientation session to learn about computer accounts. I started a new web page there and will try now to set it up with dreamweaver.

Work has been going well this week I will soon be invited to an interview for a new position and this new position would involve a lot of training in statistics. The weather has been good and I have been doing some good things with my time.

Selling my fancy guitar.

I am trying to sell my fancy guitar. I posted some adds on the Internet putting it up for sale. I am also trying to sell my first surround sound stereo system for 100$. I need to pay debit and this is one way to do it by selling stuff. I also need to get rid of stuff, because we have too much stuff in our small two bedroom apartment. We need liberating space.

We had a safe ride home from the country in my mom's new car.

My mom is now in her seventies and she is retired and living in the country. We visited her this past weekend. She drove us up there and back in her new car. We had a safe trip back and we are now back in the city. I took some rent cheques to our landlord's drop box and left cheques for the rent until the end of the calendar year. We are set and Wednesday is my payday.

A joyous labour day to all.

Fraternal greetings on labour day to all workers. Sisters and brothers we can run the world. I hope your labour day is a good day.

I seem to use the Internet too much for consuming electronics.

I spent much of today surfing electronics store web pages looking at computers and cameras. I researched a computer and whether it could run Linux and use Second Life and in the end did not buy it. I also looked briefly at LCD TV's. I don't need another LCD TV and have two already. I am spoiling myself with debit purchases. I did see what my mother's roommates digital SLR camera can do. I also waited all day for a labour day sale to open on the web at the electronics store's web site. I am now considering a low priced 6.2 MP digital SLR camera and one telephoto auto focusing lens. I am weary and tired and will return to the city tomorrow.

I slept some eleven hours last night

I slept at 10 something PM last night and woke up about one hour ago. We are in the country now. I saw my mother's roommates computer which is new and discussed SLR cameras with him as he owns one. He takes the mosty beautiful pictures.

I read the beginning of An Inconvenient Truth to my wife.

I read a little of the first book in the Harry Potter series last night. I have now read the first chapter, and am almost finished the second chapter with about three pages left in the second chapter.

I read the introduction to the book An Inconvenient Truth by former Vice President of the USA Al Gore. I then read this introduction aloud to my wife. I am now going to surf the internet a little. I am feeling a little more hopefully with being a green party official these days and have done more campaigning this past 7 days.

I stayed up late last night window surfing Single Lens Reflex (SLR) cameras.

I am visiting family in the country. My partner is with me. I stayed up late on my relatives' computer surfing the electronics store web site for SLR cameras. It might cost me 1300 dollars for a camera, 2 lens, 2 batteries, and bag.

Meanwhile my budget goals seem to be ok and I have brought my over all debit down a hundred dollars or a little more from last month. Buying a camera would erode this progress. I did give up on bidding for a scientific instrument on ebay that I don't need but suddenly searched for on ebay. I had learned to use this instrument back in 1983 in a geography class. I will now search for a data logger on ebay that I could use with an IBM style laptop. Again I don't need a data logger but I am curious as too whether these are still around. Can you say BYTE magazine?