Here at work we earned “e-cash” for the past 6 weeks. Yesterday we had a big “Christmas in July” at the office (I was up at 6:30 to make crepes for it – brutal). We had a Santa Claus, an Elf and a decorated Pointe truck. We each received a stocking with our gift and a bunch of candy. Conor and I asked for a visa gift card so we could have the freedom of choice. That afternoon we went to an electronic store and bought a JVC harddrive camcorder. We took it home and played with it a bit. We had a couple recording errors but whatever. We put the taken clips on the computer and had a ton of trouble transfering it over to the program Conor wanted it to be in (I just had a brain freeze and can’t remember the program – final cut studio I think). We looked at the clips and quickly noticed that there were a lot more on there than what we took. The extra clips were of some guy returning that camera because it was faulty. Oh brother! So I took it back to return it. Not a problem. But then on the way home I realized that they only returned the camera and not the warranty. Back again! This time I was feeling a little ticked. I wasn’t about the exchange the camera for a different one (that stuff is Conor’s area of expertise), however I did feel like they should do something for me to prove that their costumer service is really top-notch as they have displayed all over the store. Conor and I went back in the evening and bought a Sony DV camera. We got a free camera bag out of it! I felt a bit like a haggler even though I was just ensuring I was getting what the manager told me I would.

In the end it was a good thing that the harddrive camcorder was faulty because those cameras aren’t yet made for editing really, while the files, MOD, aren’t. They are for the consumer who wants to film something and then burn it on a DVD without dealing with a middleman like tapes. Unfortunate really because we like those camcorders better for looks and ease. Final Cut Studio is made for DV cameras and since that’s the program Conor wants to use, we needed a DV camcorder!

We feel like we’re spoiled definitely. We have so many gadgets. We did work hard for this camera, however it’s impossible to not feel lucky or bountiful. We thought about waiting until the crazy American Thanksgiving sales, however we decided that if we waited to then we would probably feel like it’s way impracticle to spend half a grand on a camera when we should pay rent or buy grocceries. And this money was for now, for us! So there it is! A splurge without splurging our own money. Perfect.

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