tomorrow did come

but I didn't get to write what I wanted to and now I've forgotten.

How typical of me...

Anyway I think at that time I just wanted to post some new updates.

I've got myself a Mesa Boogie Mark IV wide body combo. Got it second hand for quite a low price (compared to Aussie's RRP new). I'm loving this amp. I'm back to good old tube. Besides, have you ever had a guitar amp where you get push pull knobs and direct recording out in one?

Which also means I'm selling my Line 6 Vetta II combo (bound to happen I guess) along with the FBV longboard and an M-Audio Midisport Uno which I used to connect the MIDI ports of the Vetta to my computer's USB port. Hopefully it will sell soon.

I'm also selling one of my digital SLRs. It's my Nikon D80. When I first upgraded to the D300, I thought I'd keep it as a second camera which should come handy at times, but as time goes by, it ended up always sitting inside the shadows of my never-brought-to-photo-trips camera bag. I've lent it once to a friend for a photo shoot but that was it.

So I thought instead of it not getting any use whatsoever, I'd give it a new home. A friend at work actually wanted it so all is good.

I'm also trying to simplify of what camera gear I'm taking when going on trips, especially when going overseas and stuff. 

I also want to sell my currect camera bags; the Lowepro CompuRover AW and Nova 5 AW. The CompuRover became obsolete for me when I've let myself carry too many things in it that I never ended up using and it's doing nothing but breaking my back. The Nova is quite nice for shooting in the city, but for me it gets a bit awkward carrying it after a while.

I'm looking into getting either the Lowepro Slingshot 200 or 300 AW. I'm hoping the 200 would do since for me, the more I have room to put things, I'll try to fill them up and ended up with things I don't actually need to carry.

For now, I've decided that on my trips, my most precious valuables to bring are the Nikon D300 body attached with my 18-55 lens, the Tokina 11-16mm which is quite handy sometimes and an SB800 flash which gets used really rarely as I like landscape more than people (no hard feelings please).

So that's all quite simple and lightweight... until you add the tripod. And that's what you get if you love landscape more than people, especially at night. Tripod is a must, which is a pain to tell you the truth. I wish there is a tripod PLUS tripod head which can be folded... I don't know... up to wallet size, like a credit card so I can always put it in that small empty compartment somewhere in the bag. I shoot daytime most of the time I guess, but when nightime arrives and that perfect light/place/composition comes, I don't want to be there thinking 'Man, I wish I've brought my tripod along with me'.

Another thing that concerns me is storage. I've always brought my 17" notebook on trips and after my first trip with that notebook (Uluru, October 2007), I've found out that this is not the way. I've tried portable storage with screen, couldn't get on the net with it. So, what did I do?

I bought myself a netbook just a few days ago. Genius!

I thought an Acer Aspire One (with XP installed) would be a nice balance between storage and wireless internet. I also brought myself a USB modem so I can still get dial-up, yes you read that right, dial-up connection when I go back to Jakarta where there's no internet connection in the house as no one's computer literate there.

So I love that small mini machine, until I found out that, as a lot of people on the net do too, the wireless connection is CRAP!!! I've tried a lot of solutions people post on the net to no avail. But I finally found someone posting that he replaced that damn Atheros wireless thing with an Intel one and no more problems arose. So at the moment I've handed my Acer Aspire One over to a friend of mine who's running his computer services business to get it replaced too. Hopefully wouldn't take that long.

So that's my camera, two lenses, a flash, and the netbook in the bag. Of course that's only the essentials. I'd still need to put a few more things in the bag. Chargers for the netbook and the camera, and of course my external HDD. Always back up twice AT LEAST. You never know when fate will be cruel to you and make one or more of your HDDs data corrupt. And also the lens cloth and a blower.

I'm thinking it's still going to be quite heavy. But hopefully it's gonna give my back a bit of a break.

The parents will be here tomorrow evening and I still haven't finished tidying up the house. Gotta do some more chores tomorrow.

I'm still waiting for my LEGO figures in the mail and I'm also looking forward to the Mesa Boogie Mark 5 which has just been revealed in the 2009 winter NAMM in Annaheim.