Geek Squad. That’s Best Buy’s new tech support department. I was there about a month ago having my digital camera replaced on warranty because of a lens defect. Genius Bar rip-off, I immediately thought. The image they’re trying to project as shown here is that of hip, Men in Black-like, computer repair geeks. Hmmm, wasn’t this already done by Laporte in the opening segment of The Screen Savers? Well, according to this, the Geek Squad has been around for about 10 years until they were bought by Best Buy. They even one-up the Genius Bar by doing house calls. Apple, are you listening? On second thought, scratch that. I’m afraid I’d get unsolicited critiques of my design sensibilities from Apple employees visiting my home.
Thanks to a fellow at church who happens to work at the repair department of the electronics store where I bought my digital camera, I was able to swap the broken camera for a brand new one, same make and model. He got approval from his manager to do this, provided that I buy the extended warranty. Paying $60 for the extended warranty versus paying roughly the same value of the camera for repair is definitely well worth it. My view on extended warranties has been changed forever (well, for digital cameras at least).
Update: OK, I bought a Nikon brand case for the camera upon the insistence of the wife. She wants the camera protected from now on.
Update 2: I fired up the new camera for the first time today. It wouldn’t read my 128MB Compact Flash card, which contained pictures from my Grandma’s 92nd birthday party a few weeks ago. I tried a flash card reader but still no go. I’m afraid those pictures are gone. At least I still have my Fry’s receipt. I’m heading there tomorrow to try to do an exchange.
Here is our Fourth of July weekend in pictures. No, you will not see spectacular shots of fireworks displays because, frankly, my wife and I didn’t plan our Fourth of July that well this year. Hopefully, we more than made up for it by attending all these other events around the Bay Area.
Saturday morning was spent at the Farmer’s Market in Union City. We took a little break at Paddy’s Coffee House which I discovered was serving up free wi-fi access to the public (joy!):
Later that day, we headed out to San Francisco to go to the Fillmore Street Jazz Festival. Having lived in balmy East Bay for several years has made me forget about the cold summer days and the terrible parking in San Francisco. I came unprepared with only a light shirt on and I ended up parking three blocks away up a steep hill.
The next day, after church, we went back to San Francisco to watch the free outdoor performance of the San Francisco Symphony at the Stern Grove Festival. We came prepared this time with our long sleeve shirts and light jackets. The conductor, acknowledging the chilly weather, spiced up his set with the symphony’s rendition of the Can-Can. Several audience members did high-kicks to warm up.
On Monday, we attended a wedding. Yes, on a Monday. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding held at the Brazilian Room in Tilden Regional Park in Berkeley.
My goodness, my blog is turning out to be a photolog, isn’t it? Well, I’ve acquired an itchy trigger finger ever since I got my digital camera. I just hope my blog page doesn’t load slowly because of the pics. Please guys, let me know when it does. I’ll move the pictures somewhere else in the site if necessary. Well, I may not be taking too many pictures for long anyway. Because of my carelessness, the LCD screen of my camera cracked when I flung my backback across the van floor. I can only take pictures through the viewfinder now, which is okay I guess.