I was scanning old family photos this weekend and came across this photo of me at the beach. I don’t remember that swimsuit. I don’t remember having my picture snapped. But there I am, in a moment, enjoying the sand and the waves. Did people ever get a chance to sneak peeks into their past like this before Kodak came along?

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Did PastaQueen’s health assessment reveal that she’s made of sugar and spice and everything nice? Find out behind the jump.

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When I saw a TV ad for the new iPod Nano last night, I felt rather old. The iPod Nano can record video, as well as play music and make you a peanut butter sandwich, evidently. It’s smaller than a deck of cards and probably lighter than one too. Yet, all I could think of was my dad’s first home video camera, which looked something like this, though the camera itself wasn’t as fancy.

Yes, my dad lugged a 10-pound VCR with a handle around the Baltimore Science Center taping the animatronic dinosaurs exhibit. The camera itself did not have a video tape holder. You had to plug the camera into the VCR and drag it along with you. The battery life wasn’t that long either. But now, you can just buy a Flip Camera that fits in your pocket to achieve the same goal.

When Dad was recording things with his huge camera, I was probably watching Inspector Gadget, a cartoon broadcast in the 80′s that was sort of a spoof of Get Smart, though if [...]

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My mother still uses a camera with film, the kind that needs to be developed. When I won a Kodak M340 EasyShare camera at the BlogHer conference this year, I gave it to her, hoping she’d learn how to use the new gadget. Four months later, I saw the camera on her bookshelf, still in the unopened box.

“Mom, have you used your new camera?”

“Uh, no, I haven’t,” she admitted. I think my mother will remain committed to film cameras until the stores stop developing her film. With her permission, I took the camera back, and tried to think of someone else to give it to. None of my friends or family are in desperate need of a camera, so I thought, “Why not do a giveaway on the blog?”

So, that’s what I’m doing! This contest is open to anyone in the United States. To enter, all you have to do is buy a new copy of Half-Assed: A Weight-Loss Memoir any time between Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 2009 and January 31, 2010 and forward a [...]

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