Two Dog Zoo Travel

I was just speaking with some friends about my camera. I love my camera, and it does most everything I need it to. There are two downfalls to it… 1)after snapping a picture with flash, takes awhile to prepare for another 2) it’s older and a 4 megapixel camera. (older, like 2 years)

Here’s where the problem comes in. When I’m just snapping happy, fun pictures for my blog, it’s not really an issue, but when I want to crop or shrink a photo, I’m losing clarity. I need a higher megapixel. It became clear to me when I snapped a few pictures of hotels for one of my websites, and when I shrunk them down in size, they changed in appearance. The sharp focus was no longer there.

When you have a camera that does pretty much all you need, there’s not usually a reason to replace it. On the other hand, since I want better quality photos and crisp shots on my websites, I think the time has come to upgrade.

I’ll be saving my Nikon Coolpix for a backup camera, since it’s a handy one and I enjoy the ease of use, but it looks like I’m heading for a Cannon Powershot soon, with a 7.1 megapixel, and 4x zoom range.

I’ll be sure to let you know what I end up doing, since I’m not in a hurry. I am considering it at this point, but it’s not a priority.

I love travel size products. I use them not only for traveling, but to try out new products. Everytime we hit the travel size aisle in Target, I guess I go, “Oh, I love this aisle!” I say, “I guess”, because now my husband teases me and says it before me. I can’t help it, I get a warm, fuzzy feeling at the thought of trying out new products on the cheap, as well as being able to save space in my luggage if I do travel. If you read this blog, you see I do it often!

Anyway, on that note, there’s a totally cool website I want to tell you about called Minimus. I was going through my bookmarks, and came across this one. Love it! I forgot I had it in my favorites. I’ll be traveling again this year, so I’ll be sifting through to see what they have.

Minimus is awesome!

By the way, they end in .biz, not .com, just a head’s up.

The thought of paying for a radio service has always sounded like a turn-off to me. Why pay for something I can get for free? You can bring an Ipod along and plug and play on the road, along with finding stations everywhere you go across the country. 

Last week, we went on a road trip. We took a 20 hour drive south, and after our vacation, turned around and drove home. We found some great stations along the way, and some not so great ones. We couldn’t find news when we were looking for it, and there were static issues along some stretches. 

It got me thinking, maybe $12.95 a month isn’t all toast if you get something with it. Commercial-free music is nice, shows that are exclusive to the radio add to the intrigue. Oprah and Friends are on channel 156, while Radio Disney is on 115 for the kids. There are 4 comedy channels, along with 6 regional stations. You have every genre from the 40’s until the present accounted for, along with Country, Hits, Christian, Rock, Urban, Jazz and Blues. There’s Dance music, Latin music and Classical music is accounted for as well. The idea of hearing a station without commercials along the entire 20 hour drive is appealing. The idea of listening to what I want to listen to without having to continually search for it is more appealing.

Have I heard XM radio in action? Yes, two separate situations stick out in my mind. The Amtrak Auto Train enjoys XM music and made a long trip much more enjoyable having easy listening and soft rock playing in the background. I’ve taken 4 rides on the Auto Train in the last year. I also was at the stylist’s and loved the music playing in the background. It was café acoustic guitar favorites, and I wanted to hear more.

Am I willing to pay for a radio, along with a monthly subscription fee? I’m not sure I’m quite there yet, but it’s slowly becoming more appealing to me.

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