Saturday, July 09, 2005

Orange pants are my foil

Damn those orange pants and their need to be dry cleaned. And damn the dry cleaners for putting black stains in them to see if I am 'alert' when I pick them up!

Now for a little waterproof snapshot advice.
And we'll begin with a little story. Chinese people in th 1970s and 1980s (being Chinese, I can make this generalization) for some unforseen and illogical reasoning did not see a need for their kids to learn how to swim. Being a girl brought up in So. Cal less than an hour from an ocean that can suck life from this desert land faster than one can blink an eye, my parents still saw no need in edu-ma-katin their 3 children in the lifesaving skill of aquatics.

This inability to swim in water never affected my life for years. I maneuvered myself through land with great stealth and agility, and then it came. My vacation to Mexico....and for that I decided, God be damned! I need me some pictures of me snorkeling. And that's when I said hello to the YMCA swimming pool. Long story short, although I think it a little late for that now, I learned to swim in a pool that made me stink of chlorine for 3 days after each class, with extra floating bandaids, skin, and babies in diapers. It was an experience.

Waterproof cameras are indespensible whether snorkeling or playing in the pool. So many underwater memories have gone undocumented due to the catastrophic consequences of splashing delicate camera-obscura mechanics with a little water, until now. With the Pentax Optio WP, you can take this sleek looking camera with you to the beach, boat trip, or just to plain ol' Disneyland. This camera is the only thing that is completely waterproof. And when 7 year-old cousin Danny 'accidentally' pee-pees on the camera, you can still use it, if you really want to after that. With 5 megapixels, good apeture range, and light-weight body, the camera is a good pick for the vacationer looking for a versatile camera. Or you can just get a disposable underwater camera for all that crazy shooting, but that don't give you the zoom to catch sea monkeys in their natural habitat. And that would be a shame.

7 comments:

Brent said...

Wow Chi-lan that was an extremely long post to describe your lack of swimming prowess... hmmm. Interesting though... I went swimming last weekend at my friend Jin's house.. who by the way is Chinese.. ha ha. He was born in Beijing maybe that has something to do with it. I usually just buy a disposable underwater camera to take canoeing.

Glad you had fun though.

yam said...

but, where are those underwater photos? we want to see them!

i can feel for ya when it comes to the inability to swim though... went thru the same thing.

Ben said...

I'm glad to hear you're not the only Chinese person who can't swim... My wife is from Taiwan and her parents never taught her to swim, either!

I took her to one of the pools in Tainan (people never stared more at this particular foreigner -- few Chinese with body hair, I guess [and fewer that cuss "What you lookin' at, foo!" in Chinese]), and that's when she told me she can't swim. We go to the pool at our apartment complex (in the USA, now) on the weekends and stuff, but she's not learning very quickly.

I used to be in a "swim club" when I was a kid, and I was on the swim team for some of high school, but I really just don't know much about teaching the basics of swimming to an adult (kids are easy because they just muck about and pick it up).

Do you have any tips?

Brent said...

Hmmm Ben you have me wondering now... my fiance' is Chinese... from Indonesia.... but I never asked her if she could swim?? hmmm Her cousin here in Memphis has a swimming pool so I guess she will learn if she can't.

Brent said...

Is it just me or is Gene Wilder the Sean Connery of Willy Wonkas.... Johnny Depp... is creepy. I heard the new one was ok...

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Zack said...

Yeah, the YMCA can't have been a good idea. I don't think that excursions to the friendly neighborhood Center tend to end well. But kudos on trying to learn a new skill! Plus swimming can't be a bad thing in case the earth is suddenly engulfed by water or something.