Hello

Thank you all so much for your comments to my last few entries although some of you might think: Stop complaining so much biatch!
I know I might have overreacted, BUT the thing is that that's not the only "bad" or "unlucky" thing that has happened lately. It's just piling up somehow *sigh*
Like for example yesterday when I was wondering what to do with my camera on my way to work my bicycle tire suddenly bursted!!!!
Yeah, AGAIN!!!!!!

Some of you might remember that I just replaced the back tire of my bike a few days ago (1-2 weeks ago) which cost me 4000yen!!!!!!!!!!!
Now it happened to my other tire as well!!! Adding all the money I had to pay for repairs on my tires up till now .... I clearly would have been able to buy a NEW bicycle!!!
Of course it happened ON my way to work, so I couldn't let it fix right away.
After work the bike shop is already closed, so I had to get up super early today in order to go there BEFORE work!!!
At least the old man there remembered me from last time and maybe because he felt sorry for me or maybe because I look like a zombie at the moment, he said that I only have to pay 3000yen today and that I also can come anytime if I need him to pump air into my tires (and as far as I understood that's free). Yay, lucky!!!!! Have to find the lucky moments in my life lately (*_*) ......

I didn't only have to get up that early today.... but I also had to stay up late yesterday night because of my camera!

Why?
Well, that's a longer story. Basically one of my awesome and super nice Japanese coworkers called the online shop I purchased the cam from.
They asked me to send some example photos of the problem via e-mail. So when I came back from work yesterday, that's what I did, together with a description of the problem in Japanese.
It took me some time to get some good example photos and everything and after that I pretty much fell asleep. I was sooo dead (x___X)
Same as right now btw. Sooo~ exhausted.

Anyways, we contacted them today again and they said I should contact Pentax directly and send the camera, a SD card with example photos and a description of the problem to them.
First of all, here's an example photo (just white paper) where you can see all the black dots VERY CLEARLY:



Please click on the thumbnail otherwise you won't be able to clearly see them.

I also already ordered cleaning tools from Amazon which also arrived today. (Byebye moneyZ ;o; ...)

As today was the ONLY DAY when it wasn't grey and cloudy and/or rainy/snowy, I decided to test my camera some more and took some sakura photos.
What do you think?? Of course you can see those ugly dots in some of the photos ....., but maybe the camera is not as bad as I thought.
Of course I'm a beginner!! I have NO IDEA what I'm doing! And unfortunately I don't even have time for a crash course before my vacation.
All these photos were taken with the "automatic picture" mode of the camera - so the camera decides what might look best.
Of course you also have to consider that the light, sky color and sakura were perfect, so the pictures don't look too bad:


















Click to see the dots better.



Some of the pictures have a nice sharpness, others don't. It's my own fault, as I can't really handle the focus that well yet.


Anyways, to continue the story.
When I came back from work I realized that I had 3 options now:

1) Send the camera tomorrow to Pentax (my awesome coworker wrote them a detailed description in Japanese that I also should send) and then be without the cam during my srping vacation.
2) Try the cleaning stuff I bought, but might risk to hurt my cam even more and lose my warranty?!
3) Take the camera with me during my vacation and send it in afterwards (Pentax said that would be okay), but risking that something happens to the cam during my vacation and that I might lose warranty through that.
What should I you do?

Well, but before you say anything, there's more to know!!!
As for cleaning tools, I got 2!
This one (sorry I have no idea what you call that in English and I'm way too tired to figure it out now, just click on the link and you'll see).
This one is harmless and worth a try anyway and so I did. Result see here:



Again, you have to click on the thumbnail to see it clearly.
It's much better now, huh? It seems to be really "only" dirt and not a broken/damaged image sensor then.
Unfortunately I still wasn't able to get rid of the problem completely.

For that I would have to use my second cleaning tool: the Pentax Image Sensor Cleaning Set
But that's more risky!!!!!!

Should I just ignore that one dot (most photos will be okay, I guess) and not use the other cleaning tool yet and just take the camera as is with me?
Should I use it nevertheless before I go?
Should I still send the camera in before I go? I don't think I will.


In other news, I spent my time after work again with camera issues, packing stuff and printing out maps and the likes.
I realized that my smaller suitcase is TOO SMALL yet again.
This is so troublesome! I have one really really REALLY HUGE suitcase - like the biggest format that's allowed on planes and then a small hand luggage thingie.
The hand luggage thingie is too small unless it's summer vacation and the HUGE ONE is just TOO HUGE, but I always end hp taking THE MONSTER ONE with me :/
I should buy a middle-sized suitcase, but they're so expensive here in Japan and I have sooo many middle-sized suitcases(?) back home in Germany that it seems to be stupid to buy one now. Besides, I won't be able to take that one home with me unless I send it.

GAH!!!

This was supposed to be a somewhat positive entry, just in case you didn't notice *fails*

Have to crawl to bed now. Have to get up early for my last day of work tomorrow.
Am not yet sure if I should get up early on my first day of vacation or not as it will be raining the whole day anyways .......
Most of my vacation seems to be rainy. I feel so sorry for my friends who came from Germany just for sakura and stuff :/
But let's just hope the best! Weather forecasts are not always accurate (the ones on yahoo not at all anyways) XD


Good night!!! お(ノ￣0￣)ノや(o￣・￣)oす(。＿ ＿)。みzzz..