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This Article over on the new Ask MetaFilter is about to scroll off the page, so I wanted to make sure I remembered to check back after the holidays.

Many cool destinations relatively near me for going to take photos (or you know enjoy nature and what not). I totally want to go check out Joshua Tree.

Just setting a memory point in case I ever want to build build a clone of a Martian Netdrive type of wireless network storage device.

I’m happiest as an employee. In some ways, I’m entrepreneurial. For instance, I’m very innovative. I can conceive and realize an idea. I want there to be some net though. Even if it’s so far beneath me that it looks like a spot on the horizon, I like that it’s there.

So, I’m really not one to start a small business. But, I know enough to know that financial independence comes quickest when you’re working for yourself instead of for somebody else. Don’t get me wrong. I do OK. I’m accumulating assets on schedule for retirement (assuming the economy doesn’t collapse). It would just be good to have more control over that pace. Plus, it’s nice to know you’re building something that’s yours.

So, I got to thinking that a franchise might offer the best of both worlds. There are drawbacks too. I hate having a home owners association. I can only assume that the rules that get handed down with franchises are at least as onerous. Plus, you seem to pay a huge premium for being able to cash in on somebody’s instant business network/brand name/consumer good will.

It might be worth it. I’m not sure though. I have time to decide. Based on some very basic research I still have several years before I’m likely to have enough liquid assets to make a go of it. Most franchises seem to want their owners to have a fairly large net worth with a disturbingly large portion of that needing to be liquid. I guess they want to make sure you have the resources to keep it going for a few years so their brand isn’t dotting the landscape on one closed storefront after another.

Anyway, I’ll probably want to take another look at 10 things to know before buying a franchise a bit later.

Saturday, I headed down to Laguna Beach to spend the day. I wasn’t sure what I was going to find, but I knew that I love that town like no other that I’ve found in Southern California.

What I found was their Sawdust Festival. It’s one part art festival and one part Christmas pageant. It was very cool and a lot of fun. I took my new camera. The camera is great. I wish I was half as good.

Dear Santa

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth. But, since I’ve seen Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and I’m not sure that I’d trust Hermey, your only (?) Elf Dentist, some of this stuff might be nice as well:

Stuff for my New Camera:
A small/lightweight and collapsible tripod. I will probably end up getting this for myself if I decide in the next few weeks to go out and do a night shoot or do some macro shots. You may want to ask me or come back here to make sure I haven’t crossed this item out before turning your elves loose on the design/manufacture.

A spare battery - My understanding is that the new battery for this camera is massive and will drive the camera for hours of use. If I ever take a trip or something though, it would be nice to have a spare.

Minolta RC1000L remote control cord. It would be awfully cool to be able to fire my camera off from a distance or without touching/shaking the camera for long shutter shots.

More Compact Flash Cards - Since my camera takes such big pictures, anything smaller than 512 megs probably won’t work for me. 512 MB and 1 Gig Compact flash cards are kinda costly though, so these wouldn’t be a good choice for any but the most generous of santas.

But, the expensive photo toys doesn’t stop there — watch as I become insane:

Canon PowerShot SD10 - wait, didn’t you just get a new camera? Yep, but this one is so cute and tiny. You can never have too many toys, and it would be nice to be able to take a camera along with me when I might not want to take my super cool, but decidedly untiny camera with me. For instance, what if I suddenly need to go be a spy? Yeah, I bet you didn’t think of that did you Santa?

Epson Stylus Photo 2200 - At more than $600, this is way more photo printer than I would ever need. I would never get this for myself. I’m more of a view them on the screen than print them kind of guy, and if I wanted prints, I could always get them from ophoto or something. Still, how cool does that mother look?

Useful and Cool Toys:
Forever Flashlight - Everybody should have a flashlight in case of emergencies. I don’t though, and even if I did the batteries would be dead when I needed them. Not so this puppy.

A 250 GB or larger internal hard drive for my home Mac computer. I have an 80 and a 20 in there now. It’s not even close to full, but that new camera takes really big photos. It will fill up fast. In fact, I don’t think they sell to consumers any more, but something like the Martian NetDrive might be even better since it would be easier to access it from my various computers.

Auto-Coin Counter - I accumulate a lot of coins. Every year or so, I spend hours counting/wrapping it (since my bank won’t take unwrapped coins - the bastards). It sure would be nice to be able to save some of that time.

Cash - Cash is always a cool and useful gift whenever family Santa is stuck for a gift.

Useless but Cool Toys:
Zen Garden - I don’t know why, but I always kind of wanted one of these things.

Airzooka Air Gun - like the sub-head says, useless, but very cool (for 10 minutes anyway).

Useful and Practical
More DVD Shelves - I already have one of these things. It’s nearly full.

Books/Videos/Media:
Just go here

Do you use MovableType? Your mt-send-entry.cgi may be vulnerable to spammers who will send their evil mail through your ISP. Read It, Update it, or just delete mt-send-entry.cgi.

Marble Mahem: As near as I can tell, the third level is freaking impossible. Via

Todd Levin has a hilarious “Am I Gay” section of his web site. So far, I’ve only read most of the Cat version. I bet the original is as funny, and can’t wait to dive into it. Do yourself a favor and go check it out now.

The web may not be the best medium to enjoy something like the Leather Face Journal. Even when you zoom in, a lot of the text it tough to make out. It sure does look nice though. Via.

I dropped my camera on Thanksgiving. It turns out expensive cameras don’t stand up to physical abuse as well as I might have expected. I look down and I see pieces. My heart breaks. Then I realize the pieces are just the camera and the battery which popped out. For a moment, I had hope. But when I put the battery back in and powered it on with dread, it didn’t take long to see that the camera couldn’t focus any more. A camera that can’t focus isn’t worth much.

On the positive side, it means I get to go shopping for an all new, better than ever camera. I found it with the Minolta Dimage A1 5MP.

This is such a sweet camera. 5 mega pixels, 7 x optical zoom, manual focus control. It doesn’t have the split body design of my old Nikon Coolpix 995, but even the Nikons don’t have that design any more. It must not have been very popular.

I also picked up a 512 MB Compact Flash Card. Does anybody know if the faster Compact Flash cards are worth the extra price tag? I like the thought of not having to wait so long for my camera to finish writing to the card, but it sounds like voodoo. I’m not at all sure that it would be a noticeable difference. I went cheap this time around, but at 5 mega pixels, I wouldn’t be surprised if I ended up buying a few more cards to go along with the few I have.

I can’t wait to get it. I was tempted to pick it up in the store when I went to make sure I liked the feel of it. It was $200 more in the store than on Amazon though (Amazon’s price is seriously awesome!!!), and while I’m impatient, that’s just too much spend for the instant gratification.

Update: I did manage to get a few Crappy Pictures before breaking the camera.