Well that's taken care of.

Laptops with Rens and Martin.

Let's try this desktop app for Instagram!

This is a teaser image. Click to see the full image together with a nice story!

This is a teaser image. Click to see the full image together with a nice story!

This is a teaser image. Click to see the full image together with a nice story!

I've got great news for my readers/watchers! I recently blogged about the camera trouble I was having, remember? I blogged about this a couple of times. I don't want to quit my 365 project. And I need to make pictures on certain events like Seth's birthday (next Saturday) and the Sims events.

In the past we've had problems with the Canon camera. We also sent it back at one point for repair. After the camera was back, it seemed all okay again. But now it has a completely different problem. No warranty for this particular problem (even though it's not our fault, Canon doesn't want to fix it), so we're stuck. Paying for repair is probably expensive, if even possible. The Canon camera is also already 5 years old. As is my own Olympus btw.

So it's just time for a new one.

Yeah, bit of a problem there. We don't exactly have the money for a new one. Because I don't want a cheapo point-and-shoot camera anymore. I want a DSLR. And those are usually expensive.

In the beginning of this year, around March/April, I borrowed my mom-in-law's camera. She has an Olympus E-620 and it's one hell of a camera. Unfortunately this one is just too expensive. It's not just the body you have to buy. You need a couple of lenses as well.

For London, Lisanne let me have her camera for the week, so I could still make nice pictures. I'm very grateful for that! Lisanne has a Canon Powershot SX10 IS. It's a really nice camera, but it lacks certain functionality for me personally. I need to be able to use different lenses. Her camera has a fixed lens, can't take it off. Not without breaking the camera anyway.

Yesterday I was looking on a couple of camera stores online and I saw some really nice ones. I even found a couple of cameras I could afford. That is, if I would use all my PayPal (read: MacDesperate) money and some extra from our savings account. But I don't have a choice really.

See, I don't need a laptop right now. And to be honest, I don't see myself getting a MBP in the next 5 years. I was aiming for a MBP priced €1700. Recently though Apple changed their MBP line-up and they are a lot more expensive now. I've checked, I'll have to pay more than €2000 for the same kind of MBP I was planning on buying.

The camera was also something I've wanted for a long time. Whether or not I bought buy a new camera right now, I won't be able to buy a MBP for a long time. I just did what I thought was right. And many people agreed with me a while ago when I discussed this problem.

So, did you buy a camera?
I did!

Meet my new Olympus E-450!

Hey! That's not a camera...
No, I know, this is my new camera bag. A brown/pink Golla Story camera bag. It's just wicked!

Still don't see a camera...
I know. But this is part of the process!

A box in a box...
*Sigh*

Ahhh nice!
I know right! I think I'm in love... <3
Won't ChEeTaH mind?
Nah, he knows it's a different kind of love.

What's this then?
All the other accessories. Two lenses (14-42mm & 40-150mm), lens hoods, neck strap, batteries, memory cards, cables, software, booklet et cetera.

Since today is such a grey and rainy day, I decided to make a couple of pictures inside the house. Don't get too excited. It's a mess here and you'll just see rather depressing piles of laundry and junk. Don't expect anything fancy yet, I'm still getting used to this camera.

You should know, I'm not quite done yet. I've got two lenses for the camera, but I will need at least one more. Because obviously the camera isn't too great with macro pics. And I really want to make some kick-ass macro pictures. A decent macro lens costs €200 though, so I think I might buy that one next year. I'm also planning to buy a black leather/pink neck strap soon. It's not too expensive, but I didn't want to order a neck strap at another store and pay a lot on shipping. So I'll go to the store itself soon when visiting Lisanne, since she lives near the store that sells the pink neck strap. It'll fit me and my new Golla bag perfectly.

This is a teaser image. Click to see the full image together with a nice story!

In case you missed it yesterday, we finally launched MacDesperate! For a detailed story about us, I suggest you read the About Us page on About Us. Short story, 4 people, 2 of which are desperate for a Mac (or MacBook), one already has a MacBook and the other one doesn't want a Mac. We offer news, desktop goodies, updates about gadgets and laptop bags and witty columns. We beg for money and with the holidays approaching, we hope people will be generous enough to donate a little money. But my main goal is to show my saving progress (which you can see in the sidebar).

Did you know this? I'm saving for a MacBook Pro. These things are rather expensive. I'm just a poor freelance designer. I've always been fascinated by Apple products. Whenever you Google for "Strawberry Mac", the top result is my own rant on 43 Things about how I craved this pink iMac G3, but never got one from my parents because it was too expensive and they didn't see the use for computers back then. I sure did, but I needed a computer for school, homework etc. So I ended up with a PC containing old, second hand parts. It was functioning and I was happy enough. And it was a lot cheaper than an iMac. So I let it go for a while. But the desire to have one of these Macs has never really gone away. Now I'm a designer, and it's a common fact that designers are usually better off using a Mac. Or in my case, a 15" 2.66GHz MacBook Pro.

Anyway, on Sunday we're opening MacDesperate. It's a place where we'll whine and beg, a place where I'll show awesome extras like laptop bags, totes, sleeves and other fun stuff like goodies made by me. We will also open up a store where you can buy a shirt or something else. More information about that coming very soon!

I have started saving for a MBP before the opening of the new website. You can see how much I saved below:

I think it will be a few years until I have enough money. So by that time, I might have to change the product image and everything But that's also why I'm asking for people to support me, especially if you like my work!

Oh and I still want that strawberry iMac G3, someday.

As you can see in the title of this post, we're going to launch the MacDesperate website on December 6, which is only a week from today! A short intro to MacDesperate:

MacDesperate consists of 4 crazy Dutch people. Three guys and one girl. No, this is not the title of a lame sitcom Cheetah, Wouter, Tales and me are the people behind MacDesperate. Cheetah helped building the website, writing scripts. Wouter will be writing witty columns, he's usually incredibly funny so I suggest you read those columns. Tales will be updating the site with news and possibly reviews. I designed the MacDesperate website, I have made (and will be making many more) goodies for people to download and I will post on a regular basis with must have items like laptop bags!

In the meantime, please follow our updates on Twitter, Facebook or Identi.ca!

I've been using Windows 7 for a while now and I have to say that this is a very nice version of Windows. I'd still rather have a Mac running OS X, but until that day I will mainly use Windows 7. This is because Linux can't really run most of my software and games. And I don't plan on using VirtualBox for half the programs I need on a daily basis. So anyway, where am I going with this post?

Just a quick post to let you guys know I haven't vanished into the void or anything. For the past week, I've been re-developing and re-designing my current blog (the one you are looking at, yes). The main reason for this is because the current site is not nearly XHTML strict at all. I didn't quite pay attention to that when building the current version in early 2006. Another big reason is the way the site looks. I have so many things to offer on this site. But it ends up being a mess. It's very unorganized with all the cluttered sidebars. That's gotta change! I want my viewers, readers, visitors to be able to find what they're looking for. When the new version is done, I bet you will see things you didn't even know I had on this site before. Just be patient. The new version will launch this week!

Another thing I'd like to share, is the fact that I have some new projects coming up. I've teamed up with Wouter (ChEeTaH), Wouter (Myshuno) and Alex to form a MacDesperate group. We're starting a website. I still have to design it. But the idea behind it is quite simple. We want Macs. And we're desperate for them. We're going to beg, blog, whine and share any other blurbs on MacDesperate!

Oh and before I forget, I have made ChEeTaH a new website/layout for Simply-Life as well. He uses the new Drupal. This is my first Drupal theme. Oh and it is entirely XHTML strict ^^

That's it for now. I've got more plans than just the above projects. But I will try to finish some of these first before I go and share all other things on my mind.