eric nuzum dot com

My dead pixel dilemma

 The photo to the right is a extremely blown up picture of a rock in the middle of the Devil's Den at the Gettysburg Battlefield.

The white dot in the middle? It isn't a ghost. It isn't a led light. It isn't a reflection.

It is a dead pixel.

Shortly after returning from Gettysburg in August, I discovered that my Canon digital camera has one dead pixel, which always registers bright white, located just to the left of the dead center of the lens.

After some investigation, I learned that (when blown up) this dead pixel can be seen in every single photo I've taken with this camera since I bought in in March. Hundreds of photos.

On one hand, it is almost impossible to notice (unless, like me, you happen to take a lot of nighttime photographs). On the other hand, once you've noticed, it is almost impossible to not to notice it, first thing, in every single photograph.

Now, here is my dilemma.

Fixing this problem is actually fairly easy. I call Canon, I send the camera in to them, and they will fix or replace it under warranty. No problem.

Here is the dilemma: our son is due to be born in about seven and a half weeks. So, if I send in my digital camera to have it fixed, what do I do if it isn't back to me by December 22nd?

I mean, as a father, I have very little to do during the birth except hold Katherine's hand and take pictures of the kid. By sending in this camera, am I potentially ruining one of my two basic functions as a father?

The alternative is, of course, to just keep using the 10,999,999 pixels of this camera that do work properly. But then, there will be that one dead pixel in each of my child's baby photos. Then, someday I will tell him about the dead pixel, and then he will go through his entire life noticing that one dead pixel in all his baby pictures.

So what do I do?

Write me and weigh in.

Ode to solitaire

I just bought an Xbox.

It cost about $250 bucks.

What was the first game I bought for it?

Solitaire.

Solitaire
Originally uploaded by mrclean

For me, that really isn't that unusual. When I bought my iPhone, the first thing I did was buy a solitaire game. I keep a shortcut on my computer's desktop to the solitaire game. In fact, I have bought/acquired a solitaire game for every game system, computer, and piece of electronics I have ever owned where it would even remotely be possible to play a game of solitaire--including at least one watch.

There is one simple reason for this: I really like playing solitaire.

I've been a big solitaire fan since I was a little kid. And it is nothing tragic like saying that I learned to love solitaire because I grew up living in a remote hut, had no friends, and the only form of entertainment I had was a worn-out deck of playing cards missing the 3 of spades, 6 of hearts, and all the Jacks.

No, there has just always been a fundamental connection between me and the game of solitaire.

When I was a kid, I used to fantasize that I would sign up for a national solitaire tournament, which would, of course, be televised. When my turn came up, I would blow the judges and commentators away with my card flipping and laying skills. Crowds would gather to watch me. All activity would stop in bars so the drunks could gather around the fuzzy TV to watch the kid from Ohio wow the world with his black/red/black numerical combinations.

I imagined a TV commentator would remark on how quickly I spotted the 7 of hearts that could host the run of 6 thru 2 I'd just put together two moves earlier. I had all four aces and two kings exposed--this kid from Ohio was going all the way!

Then, of course, I would make some tragic mistake. I would fail to notice the 8 of clubs that could connect two runs, uncovering that elusive 3 of hearts that was slowing everything down. People in the crowd would gasp. The TV commentator would start to get frantic.

Then, just by mad luck, the 8 of clubs would come up again in my Klondike pile. I spotted it this time! The connection is made! The 3 of hearts is flipped over, goes up in the aces row, and with every card I slam up top, the assembled crowd, television hosts, and bar crowds across America--all cheer the kid from Ohio who came out of nowhere to win the national (televised) solitaire championship tournament.

And there would be some large cash prize for winning the tournament--enough that lots of reporters would swarm me afterwards to ask what I'd do with all that money.

I bet my reply would have been that I was going to go out to buy another solitaire game. Because that is probably what I would do.

New PoP guest post

Cry Baby
Originally uploaded by Chalky Lives

I have a new guest post on the Prince of Petworth Web site--chronicling my occasional "deer in the headlights" moments at the thought of becoming a father.

My favorite comment so far: "You’re comparing parenthood with being mauled by a wild animal? The analogy is neither funny, nor particularly insightful…"

I actually take comments like this as a compliment--because the reader had the expectation that I would be either (a) funny, or (b) insightful.  Sorry, don't mean to disappoint.

Here's a link.

Reading stuff I've written

I'm VAMPIRE!
Originally uploaded by Leigh®Photography

As if I didn't have enough to do with baby prep and getting ready to edit my new book, I'm doing two readings at the end of October.

Friday, October 23rd @ Past Tense, Mt. Pleasant (Washington, DC)
This reading with be 75% new stories from my new book (never read or shared publicly before), and 25% from The Dead Travel Fast. Expect a pre- and post-reading celebratory beer down the street at The Raven.

Saturday, October 31st @ Barnes and Noble, Charlottesville, VA
This reading will be 75% from The Dead Travel Fast and 25% from the new book. I'm doing it just for an excuse to visit Charlottesville, a recent addition to my "favorite cities" list.

Hope you can come!