I learned a valuable lesson today.

It's three days until Christmas (1999). The batteries are charging on the video camera. Wife comes in and asks me to reload the film in the camera, again (no digital camera, yet). Wade's 3.5, Fiona 2.5 months. He;s just getting the hang of Christmas. Santa Claus didn't go very well. ;-)

She askes me to reload, and I go to crack open the case. But pause and turn it on, to ensure the roll is used. Plus, I don't want to risk exposing the film. Phew. It's used. I crack it open, pop in a fresh roll, and send it back to The Wife for more holiday snaps. :-)

Then I thought to myself... what did I just do?

Assert_(!theCamera.IsLoaded());

Damn. What a geek I am. I need a vacation. :-)

Thank God I wrote this on the first night of it. Ahh.

- Hsoi

PS. Moral of the story: Always Assert_(). Doesn't cost anything in life, gives you a second chance, and can pretty much help to build a proper undercoat to be bulletproof.