I think there's something wrong with me

I just spent the last 4 hours at Fry's.

For a spotlight.

Serious.

I have a problem with Fry's, and to a lesser extent Best Buy. My problem is that unless I go in knowing exactly what I want, and where it is, I wander. I browse. I peruse. And I take my sweet fucking time doing it too.

Today I went in, right after work, at about 4:30. I went in knowing I wanted to find some lighting solution for photography. I wasn't looking for a flash, but rather a fill light. I went to the isle with all their lights. Flashlights, spot lights, work lights, lanterns... pretty much any light you can think of.

Except the one I need.

So I figured since I was already there, I might as well head over to the tripods. I've been debating on a few different mini tripods that I like, as well as a couple monopods. I know I could go to Wolf Camera, but their in-store selection is pretty dismal. And I like to actually see, and hold what I'm looking at. So that kinda makes online shopping useless for anything that I want to evaluate before purchase.

Of course, after 10 minutes of indecision with the tripods, I started browsing their HD video cameras. There goes another 30 minutes. And finally as I'm getting ready to leave, I catch a glimpse of a book called Digital Photography Hacks. Eh, what the hell? I'll take a look.

I read through the whole thing.

Oh, not word for word, certainly. But I was standing there a good two hours (this is after I'd already been there an hour, you see). There wasn't a whole lot worthwhile to me personally, as most of it I already know. But one interesting tidbit I pulled from it was using sunglasses as a polarizing filter. Never would've thought about that. For the quickie shots I still take with my Casio EX-Z75 which doesn't have any way to attach things to the lens, that'll come in handy.

After that I stopped by the Apple section to check out the sexy new iMac's. Kinda irks me that I didn't wait 3 months, and went ahead with the all white one. But meh, the only real change was the appearance, otherwise, same processors, and they didn't add any larger screen configurations (I already went with the 24". Had they announced a 30", I think I'd have to punch someone in the face.)

Then finally on the way out, I stopped by for one last look over the lights to see if maybe something could work. I went back and forth between spotlights, flood lights, lanterns... ones with batteries, rechargable ones, ones with halogen bulbs, others with xenon, and still others with LED's.

I picked up a couple cheap spotlights that use those giant 6v batteries. They were $6 each, and included the battery. I figured if they didn't work, it was only $12. But then I thought, if they do work, and I'll need to buy batteries, I should check the prices on the 6v batteries. $4 - $8. Not too terrible, but for as much as I think I'll be using them, probably not worth it. So I put the spotlights back, and went back to agonizing over the selection again.

For the rest of the next hour.

4 hours! WTF is wrong with me?!

I finally ended up walking out with a Coleman 1 million candle power halogen spotlight. I figure it'll be good to have when I'm out trekking around at night. And if it works out well enough for photography (I've got diffusion sheets that I'll be using, of course), all the better.