Just a quick update.  My laptop died. Permanently.  Unequivocally.  Died.  Dead.  Kaput.  It has been limping along for the last six months or so, and I thought it was a hard drive issue, but it turns out to be an issue with the motherboard.  The laptop is so old that the service tech recommended not repairing it.  I was told I could get a new laptop for the same amount of money that it would cost to repair the old one.  When he told me the specs of the new laptop, though, I wasn’t exactly convinced and told him what I required.  We doubled my expenditure, but I’ve got a new laptop on the way and I’m returning the hard drive that I just got for the old dead laptop. 

Since I can’t access my photos, which are on an external hard drive, my blogcation is going to be extended by another week and a half or so.  All is not lost, I have managed to get some reading in.  My son and his fiance gave me a book on portrait lighting and posing, which I’m mostly done reading.  Next up is David DuChemin’s Within the Frame, a book on vision.  As David likes to say, “gear is good, vision is better.”  You can also pre-order his next book, VisionMongers: Making a Life and a Living in Photography, which is due to be released in November/December (I think).  The man is truly inspirational, so check out his blog - www.pixelatedimage.com/blog.