First, why are you being dis-respectfully towards Penny after she had agreed with you. 2nd, boy are you confused! You say it is the Mother's fault for the way kids are raised, giving Ole dad a free ride. Wrong pal. If the father dose not want to be the man of his house then there is no home. Both parents must take the responsibility of raising their children. If, as you say that it is the Moral decay of this county then that makes you part of the problem for not raising your children in a moral home environment. You have only you to blame. As for you getting the crap beat out of you as a kid, deal with it. I have. Just don't think that beating your kids with a stick is the right think to do. That is not teaching respect - that is teaching fear!

You have just bought a new Merc, or a BMW.

It’s state of the art, with every safety and driver oriented feature fitted to enhance the driving experience. You drive it around the block then you decide to heed the advice that you overheard from a couple of old timers.

These guys were seasoned drivers but they never saw much point in these newfangled auto transmissions and other useless stuff.

So you decide to take control because you can do better than the engineers. You begin by ripping out the fuel injection system, all it really does is to provide great reliability, instant starting under all conditions and vastly superior fuel economy. The twin OHC motor isn’t needed so it goes as well then for good measure you chuck out the ABS, anti-skid protection and airbags, the power steering and the power brakes. Out goes the roll over protection, all the sound proofing material, the CD player, the electric windows, the heating and air conditioning and the luxury interior. On go the cross-ply tires and you swap those beautiful big disc brakes for wobbly old drums.

So now you are happy with your new flat headed V8, downdraught Stromberg carburetted, three speed, gas guzzling, noisy, hot in summer, cold in winter unreliable, uncomfortable lump which is all you need to get around, right?

I don’t think so……

So why, when there is all this massive technology available to enable them to make excellent images, do people keep wanting to make such a hash of things by insisting on shooting in manual?

I believe it’s smart to use all the tools in my tool box, and if my camera has certain capabilities, that is the very reason I chose to spend so much to buy the thing in the first place.

But then to choose not use those capabilities to their fullest?

I don’t get it.

If it’s just an ego thing it’s rather self-destructive.

What do you think?