My New Jacket and Camera-- Arrived Today

The red ski jacket and the small camera (see pix in previous blogs) arrived today. I was very excited and I still am. I ordered the camera on Thrs. and the jacket on Saturday and because of the low prices, I shelled out a few bucks more for expedited shipping which I hardly ever do. But under certain circumstances, I think that it's worth it as long as the extra $s for the expedited shipping does not exceed $10s. So, I got both in less than a week.

First, I opened the jacket package. I was expecting a box. But it just came in a plastic bag. The camera came in a box. I thought that the plastic bag for the jacket made sense. Although I didn't like it in a plastic bag. It looked like something that dropped off from a fruit truck. Kindda shabby.

Anyway, I opened the bag and got my jacket out and tried it on. Again, this is the first time that I ordered clothing online. I have mixed feelings about whether or not I will do that again. The jacket looks fine. But not as good as I had hoped or expected. I'm a slender guy. So, I like my clothes to have a tight, tailored look. Actually, tighter the better. I used to think and bought a size bigger so that I look bigger but in actuality, a proper fit looks much better than a bigger fit. I'm a 38 jacket. So, I used to buy 38 or 40 then get alterations. But now a days, if I can find it, I prefer a 36. Americans in general dress too loosely or boxy and it looks very low class. Think Italian or even European in general. They are never baggy or loose. The Italians (specifically, men), the Spaniards, and the French dress appropriately and it shows. The clothes look well proportioned and the lines are refined. A very elegant lot.

Back to my jacket. The fit is not pleasing to me. Had I tried it in a store, I may have actually passed on it. It's not tight on me. I'm not talking, tight, as in, constricting circulation or breathing. But tight as in the way it looks on me. It's alittle roomy and the sleeves are about a half an inch too long. This part, I can manage, as I expect to be wearing gloves so the cuff will be squeezed up to where they should be. But the shoulders seem alittle to squarish. I had hoped for a gentle slope and the waist is too straight. Thus, not giving any hint of a silouette. One of the things that I liked about my previous ski jacket was that the waist was pinched and could be further pinched with an internal draw-cord so that the jacket can have a silouette. I like soft shoulders, tight waist and a small flare below the waistline for my jackets. Most of my jackets and even my suits have an A-line silouette and it gives them/me an elegant look. Think Daniel Craig on the poster of Quantum of Solace with his suit and the semi-automatic rifle.

So, that's the bad part. Net, net, the fit is acceptable. But not what I had in mind. [FYI- the picture online was abit deceptive... duh.] The good part is that the jacket is extremely soft and literally feather weight. It's soft as a woman's breast on a baby's bottom (remarkable) and light as air. I'll have to walk around in it when the temperature goes back down to the 30s or below to see how warm it is. Net net, for $107 for a 800 fill goose down jacket, I still got a good deal. But I'll probably think twice before I order apparel online in the future. What I will probably do in the future is to go to a boutique or a department store and try the clothes on first for size and fit-- then look for it online.

The camera, on the other hand, is perfect. It's literally the size of a credit card and half as thick as a pack of cigarettes and it weighs a touch more than a pack of cigarettes. This was exactly what I had hoped for. Small and light. Beyond any other camera that I had ever had or seen. 21st century portability. [note: Casio Exilim EX-S10 with auto-YouTube upload function.]

I took some pictures and also took some video clips. The pictures are sharp and clean. The colors are great too. Video is not the best but very acceptable. I'm sure that the videos will be more than acceptable under outdoor conditions. With the 4GB SD card that I got for $14 with the purchase. There's room for 600+ 10 megapixel quality pictures or 1.5 hours of video recording capacity. That's plenty. I will probably never have more than 200 pix in my camera (will download it into my computer everso often that the SD card should not be holding more pix than that) and as for videos, I will probably not take any clips that are longer than 5 mins. So, practically speaking, I would be off loading those too into my computer in half an hour to an hour batches. I will now start carrying the camera/camcorder with me everywhere I go. It weighs exactly as light as my cellphone. So, it'll be like carrying around 2 cellphones. Both are very light.

I wish that I had my camera on Monday nite. There were several hot girls at the Greenhouse and a couple of the girls that I went with had very short mini skirts and they eventually got really wasted and told me the day after that they blacked out after 2am. We were still hanging out until 4am. I'm sure I could have made them do things that would have been quite naughty. One is a new transplant from Florida and the other from Texas. The former, I'm pretty sure was not wearing underwear. Hey, it's hot! down there ;)