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So yesterday there was a deal on RFD for a Energizer 15 minute charger from Dell.ca for $29 with free ship. Great! Since my charger is very.. unreliable.. it always says its fully charged after 30 minutes when it’s supposed to take 3 hours to charge 1800mah batteries. Then when I go to church and use supposedly charged batteries.. my BR dies shortly.

So.. after reading through the thread.. I learned that the 15 minute chargers charge at the expense of shortening the overall battery life (due to excessive heat during charigng).. so.. of course someone posted a link to another forum.. of flashlight fanatics.. who just.. like.. flashlights.. They have.. light.. get togethers.. where they admire the strength of each other’s flashlights ???. Anyway, since they use a lot of batteries.. they have lots to say about NiMH and chargers etc. etc. Anyhow.. I came across this entry-levelish smart battery charger. Which actually has an LCD for each battery slot which can tell you the current charge in mah, it can discharge and recharge your battery at different rates.. and it can “recycle” your batteries to maximize capacity. $39US + ship etc.

Review

Welcome to another episode of “what to eat tonight”?
Today I’ll present something that tastes kinda like the Korean Tofu Soup that we all love.
(by no mean does it compare to the retail one, but it still tastes good, good enough for me)

Ingredents:
Kimchi
Mushroom
Pork/Beef
Tofu (soft)
Chicken broth
Egg
Garlic

1) I’m using the stewing beef cubes, so take around 4 cubes and cut into slices.
2) Take a handful of mushroom and slice into size you want.
3) Take a rice bowl (about a cup-ish?) size of kimchi, don’t need to tip top the bowl, have some kimchi juice in there too, pour the juice in until you see around half the bowl with the juice. Cut the kimchi down to the same size as the other stuff. (You don’t want to be eating a whole kimchi piece when you’re mixing with rice).
4) Add some oil to a pot (instant noodle size pot), put down about a soup spoon of chopped/diced garlic on around 6-8 heat (out of 10)
5) add in the meat stir around until brown, then add in the just kimchi (no juice), and stir around a bit
6) add in the rest of the juice, mushroom, and around half a can of chicken broth
7) close the lid and wait till it starts to boil, then add in around half a package of tofu (you can cut the tofu on the spot with chopsticks into little cubes)
8) let it boil a bit, while you let it boil, take an egg and beat it down first (the eggs we get have more yolk than the small eggs we get at the restaurant, and if the yolk gets cooked first, it’ll give the soup a grainy feel)
9) turn off the heat, and pour in the egg and stir around a bit till you see the egg somewhat gets cooked
10) serve

Time taken: less than an hour.

so I ordered a laptop case thingy for my laptop.
the size is ok, except it’s a bit wide, but that’s not the pwning point.
it’s on the cover of the case……one big apple sign.
*sigh*
what the heck!?
gonna try to find a way to peel it off….damn thing…

*Updated pics*

So.. highly-anticipated-but-nothing-big-yet-great-enough-that-it-won’t-be-revealed-until-it’s-on-the-camera camera accessory that YFA picked up at the photoshow.. is up in the air.

Any guesses as to what it is? Circular polarizer? tripod? flash? maybe something more obscure like a neutral density filter or..

One of those protector-doors which attaches to the back of the camera that opens up to reveal the LCD.. thats going to be my obscure guess.. seems to suit YFA. If not, then my vote is on a battery grip.

So as everybody knows, I’m picking up a 400d soon and have been doing some research on it to locate the best deal around. Since I’m getting it with a pretty basic kit lens I figured there would be some deals lurking around on the net… such as ebay.

So after unsuccessfully bidding on a henry’s ebay listing, I decided I would either order from BH, or from this online ebay store Digital Shopping Network (DSN). The prices are around the same but somehow the DSN deal came with a load of miscellaneous crap like a camera bag, tripod, lens filters, lens cleaning kit, card reader and a 4G CF card (the CF card was the only thing that was probably most useful). I actually called DSN twice to confirm that the camera and lens are both new and not refurbished and comes with full manufacturer’s warranty. Seems like such a good deal!

Now I have always been aware of bait and switch techniques with cameras, but I figured with a ebay store that is a power seller with 13018 positive feedback – nothing can go wrong right? I even read some of the ebay feedback – seems like the only “catch” is after you win the item you’ve to call them to complete your payment, upon which they will try to sell you some extended warranty and accessory (probably overpriced) etc. Like most of the responses are similar to this:

I bought a Canon XTI Camera/Lenses and accessory package awhile ago. The order arrived very speedy and was packaged well. My only complaint if any was that when I phoned to complete my payment, I was put on with a rather pushy salesperson who tried to upsell me on a Warranty and battery. Other than that it was a good experience.

No big deal right? I mean I can always say “no” to a salesperson no problem. Even the not so happy experiences are related to delayed shipping to Spain or some obscure place in the world – but I’m not in a super hurry to get the camera either. But before I decide to place the order… I decided to google for some reviews on the store and apparently it is cross listed with “Sunshine Electronics” and to my horror…

I purchased a Nikon D80 SLR digital camera bundle package offered through their ebay store. Pushy last minutes sales for overpriced accessories as well as EXTREMELY OVERPRICED shipping insurance (Market shipping insurance fee is 1.1% of the merchandise value, vs. 4.7% FORCED by this store – according to the web page “…Shipping insurance is an option offered…” ??). Received all items in 3 days. The D80 user manual was of poor quality (looked like photo copied), there was no Nikon USA warranty. Called Nikon USA and confirmed that it could be a GRAY market camera…Called customer service…I was told that for an extra $82, I could get the Nikon D80 with a VALID Nikon USA warranty.

Well, there goes my trust with this DSN ebay store. Browse more…. and saw a “Barclay’s Photo” offering precisely what I want for an extra $1 (compared to DSN) – body, lens and 4GB CF card. Checked out the store webpage a bit, seems pretty legit… and Barclay’s Photo seems to be a big name seller right… NOT… you’re thinking of Barclay’s Capital, the UK bank. Again, good thing I researched on the store before ordering – apparently Barclay’s is the renamed PriceRite Photo :|. And here’s the most horrifying online buying story I have ever read. Its apparently pretty infamous – the most dugg story in 2005. The story is long but not THAT long – I think there must be 5000 replies to the original post, the actual post probably only took up 1/20 of the scroll bar length. Just to quote from the start of the story to captivate you…

“I will make sure you will never be able to place an order on the internet again.” “I’m an attorney, I will sue you.” “I will call the CEO of your company and play him the tape of this phone call.” “I’m going to call your local police and have two officers come over and arrest you.” “You’d better get this through your thick skull.” “You have no idea who you are dealing with.”

These are all direct threats that I received today from an individual who identified himself as Steve Phillips, the manager of PriceRitePhoto in Brooklyn, New York when I called to inquire about my order with them. My crime? Telling him that I planned to write an article about my unfortunate experience with his company regarding the camera order I had placed with him yesterday.

(Oh and did I mention the blogger was buying a cheap 5D?)
Anyhow lesson learned from online shopping – if the deal looks too good to be true and it is from a “store” – check with BBB on their reliability first – yup if the US does anything better than Canada, BBB is one of them.