So I was going on a bike ride, and wanted to record video while doing so. I was gonna buy the Flip Action Mount (marketed as an accessory with the Flip Ultra / Mino) and was also thinking about a Gorillapod ... Then I chanced upon Camera Hacker's site with instructions and other links on how to make your own! I read it excitedly, but realized that I had no access to power tools in the time frame that I had (2 hrs), plus I wouldn't know how to use them anyway, and almost dismissed the idea from my mind. Well, on a lark, I still went to the dollar store as Camera Hacker suggests for the first piece in his bicycle camera mount. I realized with dismay that 1. they didn't carry anything like he said, and 2. I didn't remember any other details, and didn't have time to go back and look them up, ie. like what size screw fits into the camera tripod mount hole thingy!! With sheer dumb luck I bought a few pieces, brought them home, and made my own within 45 mins, a little over a dollar's worth of materials, and with minimal tools. Materials: 1. Ghetto-looking hose clamp that happened to have just the right size screw for mounting a camera (2-pack; $1.09)
2. Ghetto rubber chair foot covers (4-pack; $1.09) The result:  +  =
You know I'm all about the g-h-e-t-t-o, but this doesn't look half bad, if I do say so myself. :) [ get the play-by-play with commentary on the DIY project here ] [ resulting footage that catches me biting it on my way home after the ride ]
Let's see. I can do everything except for ... surfing the web
checking / sending e-mail
online chatting
uploading pictures
updating my website
checking in on my finances. My home DSL is spazzing out. So, I've been sleeping earlier. And talking more on the phone. Hmm. Imagine that. Just felt like posting these pics of doggies that I am honored to be aunties to. Surprisingly nice pics taken with cell phones! Mollybee (pic by A, with her Motorola Razr): 
Happy (with my Nokia 6103): 
Merhaba everyone!
my apologies for not getting in touch sooner...man this place is crazy! i tried writing an email earlýer but ýt was erased and ý was gettýng frustrated wýth thýs freakýn turkýsh keyboard. I'm confused by how there are intermittent "i"s throughout the e-mail, though they have mostly been replaced by "ý"s (I would imagine because of the keyboard layout). I tried looking up the Turkish keyboard layout and couldn't really find much - there's this on the Microsoft website - must use IE to view - looked at both the Turkish F and Turkish Q layouts. Still confused as to why the "ý"s kept showing up. The rest of the e-mail is funny to read, just because it's like going through someone's poorly typed message and your eyes are coping with the massive bludgeoning of the language. (You know it's hard to read something that has tiepose evvry uther werd or was typed in l337-ShOrThAnD-TeEn-ChAt-SpEakzZz? Sorta like that.) Love ya, E. :)
Adobe Premiere, I hate you. You too, Photoshop.
 vs. 
After reformatting, I was all psyched about trying to use this alternative to Microsoft Office. Seemed full-featured, fully compatible with MS Office documents, free, open source, and legit - all this gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. Well, I've been slowly opening up my old MS Office documents into OpenOffice. Today I opened up my third document and to my dismay, it was not displaying correctly. There are three lines of text that I want printed out aligning to the bottom margin. In MS Word it'd be somewhere under Page Setup. I could not figure out how to fix this within 15 30 45 minutes, even after using Help (I'm not afraid to ask for help!). And THEN I remembered that my old copy of MS Office is actually legit (thank you UT student discount!). I tried one more thing and OpenOffice is crashing as I type. Sigh ... This kinda sucks, as OpenOffice seemed to have a lot of cool goodies. Ah well. Back to MS Office it is ... Afterthought: I was gonna keep OpenOffice on anyway for one reason and one reason only: it has this really cool grid thing in its page setup that prints out sheets for practicing my Chinese writing on (I'm pretty sure this wasn't OpenOffice's original intent?), the really old-school ones with the space to the right for the BoPoMoFo - it got me all nostalgic. I actually stopped everything I was doing because I've wanted to write out the Heart Sutra in Chinese for a long time (weird, yes, I know - just another of my "Things to Do Before I Die"). However, this would be a silly reason to keep the whole suite, so the thing is out tha door - I can easily draw something up like this in MS Word. Sorry OpenOffice!
I would rather eat rocks than buy anything at Best Buy. I've developed a cough. No cold symptoms, just a cough. I forget that most mothers don't work on Mother's Day, which is why I can still run around and get her real present ready today (she has no idea). Just got back from a one-day trip to Dallas for a funeral. It's hard not to cry when your friends (children of the deceased) are crying while recounting the happy memories. Reformatting my computer solved a bunch of little problems I'd tolerated for the last 3 years, including:
- external volume mute button: if I unmuted the laptop, then hit the increase volume button (also external), it'd mute again. So I'd have to hit "unmute" AGAIN, before I could use the increase volume button.
- I tried out this notebook utility that came with my computer called "battery calibration". Now, it actually gives me at least a few minutes after warning me before shutting down when the power is low. Before, it would go, "Better plug in now" and then shut down immediately.
- scrolling with the touchpad is much more consistent, whereas before it would just stop working sometimes. Strangely I'd read that you have to install a generic Synaptics driver to get hardware scrolling working in Firefox.
- the built-in wireless had been starting to crap out, so I'd bought an external wireless adapter. After reformatting, the built-in works fine. Will add to the list as I find them. Good grief, should've done this sooner. Off to finish off our gift to my mom!
 My webhost, EnVaDoR, has once again made the limelight for his l337 "modding" skillz. I say "modding" because well, it's more like carpentry and/or engineering and/or design. He has truly succeeded in not only thinking outside the box, but also outside your humdrum regular computer case. :)
The initial photo of a computer that comes up is also EnVaDoR's, the Dashboard PC. Scroll down to "Mods from Envador" and watch the cool little slideshow of his "work" plus his telephone interview with Intel, which provides insight into Dean's personality. At 4:30 into the slideshow, he says some things that truly inspire me. Thanks, Dean! So without further ado: [ Intel® Core™ Processor Challenge PC Design >> Share Your PC Story ]
Been reading about it, and I figured I should just try it. The name "Twitter" reminds me of twitching ... which is pretty accurate for me, since I start twitching unattractively if I'm unable to blog. [ my twitcher, i mean, twitter ] Add me if you have it! Update: added a twitter badge to the left side. Code thanks to Jonathan Aquino. And in my search for this badge code, came upon an even more obsessive site: Jaiku.
Update: I just checked out the finalists and ... we are not amongst them. Darn. Ah well, 'twas a good run. I gotta admit though, most of the ones that made it into the finals are really good. At least I wasn't beaten by crappy entries! Anyway, at the end of the day - I am hugely grateful for all da love, so thanks, guys!! ------------
Voting for the competition has closed, and according to the rules, the top 13 most voted videos get into the finals, and Vanilla Ice picks the top 3 from these 13 finalists. So far, I have gotten NO word at all as to whether or not I have made the finals. [ update: supposedly the finalists have been announced, but I can't access the site! ] 
Who'da thunk I'd learn so much from submitting a silly little video? And would have so much fun. And would end up being totally overwhelmed by the amount of support from all of you. Words cannot express how I feel right now ... amazement really is the closest approximation to it. Much gratitude to those who voted. I know it was a pain, especially for those who didn't have a YouTube account already. The following are some the obstacles people went through just to vote for me: - After watching the video, then going to the signup screen, those less familiar with the internet often got stuck here, what with the confirmation e-mail and all.
- After signing up successfully, people had to figure out how to navigate back to the voting page, since YouTube did not take people directly back there.
- And if you *did* find your way back to the voting page, there was a banner on the right that contained the exact same icons as those used in voting, thus looking like you could actually click on it to vote! In actuality, it was just a toggle to go to another random video contest entry. (I wrote about this to the sponsors, and they actually removed click-ability on the banner in a couple days.)
My most unlikely fan? My dad. I thought he'd immediately banish me from our family tree for being a time-wasting, camera-whoring daughter. Instead, he liked the video and song (despite not understanding a single word), used sharp observation skills to distill out key improvements that could be made, and quickly offered to translate my instructions into Chinese and e-mail them off to friends and relatives on the other side of the world. My dad! Giving me tips on how to make my rap video better!!! What was really touching was how my relatives in Taiwan were trying to vote for me as well. My 60-something-year-old uncle wrote me for clarification. I mean, a 60+ guy daring to surf the internet outside of his comfort zone is already a huge feat; for him to take all that time to figure out all the steps to sign up so he can vote on a video for his crazy niece in America? Priceless. Getting feedback about the video was awesome. Friends as well as total strangers wrote e-mails / left kind comments. It sure was great hearing from some people I hadn't heard from in YEARS all of a sudden drop me a message saying, "Hey, I voted for ya! And I got all my co-workers to vote for you!!" And then the promotion by others. That was super-duper-awesome too. Again, both friends and total strangers started to pimp me out in various ways. Mass e-mails to friends, blogs ... Thanks for all the love, folks. My patients are gonna feel this overflowing of love for sure. :) And now that I'm just playing the waiting game on this whole video thing, I need to hurry up and uh, "TurboTax It!" ... or something like that. 
================ Miscellaneous Facts About The Making Of: - the song took 7 [major] revisions to get to its final incarnation.
- the video took 3 [major] revisions.
- additional filming was squeezed in 2 days prior to the deadline.
- the deadline for uploads ended 24 hours early due to a technical problem that was finally fixed 12 hours later; I nearly had a heart attack when I couldn't upload! (Homie A now knows the sound of my voice when I am about to cry in the middle of the night)
- the pr0nstar tank top was a self-designed iron-on that was made for a friend's bachelorette party
- Adobe Premiere 6.5 was used for the video; Sonic Foundry Acid 2.0 was used for the audio.
- the chorus was done by me, repeating myself 6 times at different pitches, so it sounds like a bunch of people saying it at once.
- the red room was at A & C's home. Yes, they really do have a room that is all painted red.
- Seconds after running into the center of a certain stadium, honking from the upper levels began, accompanied by yelling: "GET OFF THE FIELD!!! GET OFF THE FIELD!!!" The individual who helped me film this segment (who shall remain unnamed for protection of their dignity) was understandably greatly embarrassed by my sudden unannounced maneuver.
- all video and audio editing was done on my dying 3-year-old, hp pavilion ze5375us laptop (Intel P4 2.4GHz, 512MB RAM, 40GB HD, 7.5 lbs)
- total time spent: 3+ weeks. No, I did not allow it to interfere with my day job. :)
- a student of mine in China asked me what the song meant. You know, it was pretty darned hard to translate it into semi-normal English!! :)
Here's how: 
1. Watch my 2-minute video where I make a total fool out of myself. Yes, it's a rap video. Where I had to make my own music, my own lyrics, and video. About TurboTax software. Who has hired Vanilla Ice as their spokesman for the contest. Not sure how much more bizarre it could be, but here it is!
http://www.youtube.com/contest/TheTaxRap?goto=287
2. Laugh. And vote for me! (Positively if you can.) You need to create an account (free!) to do so. Once you login, click on the above link, and you'll be able to vote!
3. I need to be in the top 13 most voted videos to get into the finals to even be considered for the [big] cash prize. I'm not that popular, but I know my friends (you guys!) are popular. So please tell your friends (if you're not too embarrassed, hehe) via e-mail, blogs, forums, whatever, to use the above link to vote for me by April 8th! Go entry #287!
4. If you have a few more minutes to spare, click through and leave a comment and rate my video. That way I look and feel popular. :)
Oh and don't worry, I won't be leaving my day job anytime soon. Acupuncture is much nicer than being a rapper!
Thanks, guys. Oh, and as a bonus, I made an outtakes reel too. :)
I've been sorta thrust into dealing with Chinese computing issues simply because 1) my dad created and maintains a Chinese website, 2) my parents like to read Chinese news websites, and 3) they have friends and relatives in Taiwan who send them e-mails in Chinese. And so, I've had to help deal with viewing and input issues on all sorts of fronts. It's hard, since my Chinese is hardly up to par (except on the karaoke mic, haha!), but I've slowly gotten used to computer menus and commands in Chinese. My dad's been wanting to get some sort of digital addressbook for keeping his friend's contact info close at hand. But since most of his friends are Chinese and their English names are foreign to him, he wanted to be able to input and view their names in Chinese. He didn't need a color screen (nice but optional), nor Wi-Fi, just a functional, portable, searchable, and easily update-able addressbook. I figured this shouldn't be hard nor expensive (I estimated less than $100USD), so we looked for something suitable for him while in Taiwan last year. I was so wrong. The market in Taiwan for such a device lays in three possibilities, as far as I could tell anyway: 1) A Chinese-English electronic dictionary with addressbook functionality as a side-benefit. Not generally searchable. Not generally able to sync with computer. At least about $200USD. My dad doesn't need a crappy Chinese-English dictionary with a crappy addressbook to boot.
2) A cell phone. Input is tricky. The ones with actual handwriting input are outdated (this was shocking to me - unless the salesperson was just lying to me). To get one that syncs with the computer would also be at least $200USD. My dad does not want to own a cell phone.
3) A PDA. In Taiwan, the low-end, basic PDA (I was thinking something along the lines of a Palm Z22) is extinct. Could of course handle all imaginable addressbook and syncing needs with ease, but they all were these super-duper hi-res screen multi-tasking monster machines with GPS. (I got laughed at when I asked if they carried a "basic PDA without GPS".) We were thinking about it, since it would be possible to download US maps onto it and use it here, but the price tag was at *least* $250USD, but mainly $300 and up. I have never used a GPS, and could not figure out how to use my uncle's while in Taiwan, all menus being in Chinese.  So we get back, and along comes my good friend April who has just upgraded to a nice Palm Pilot and isn't using her trusty Sony Clie PEG-S320 anymore. (I actually used to own one myself, but some punk in Beijing pickpocketed it.) She was nice enough to give her old one to me, and I figured I'd see if I could make some use of it, and did some research into viewing and inputting Chinese on an English Palm OS. It was surprisingly easy to do!
1) Install CJKOS. Get the right one for your Palm OS version. The Sony PEG-S320 (Sony has long since discontinued their PDA line and this was one of their earlier models) runs Palm 4.0. Lots of versions floating around but this one is available from reputable Asian viewer / input software website NJStar. Free demo, $28USD after that, not sure about details of the license. Allows you to view Chinese and input using the Zhuyin method. There's a fake handwriting input where you can write the Chinese character on the screen (not where you usually input English text) but it doesn't convert into digital Chinese text - it just saves it as your chicken scribble verbatim, which syncs as gibberish. 2) If you want to get fancy, install PenPower for Palm after installing CJKOS. $60 for demo. The demo sucks - it expires after 100 characters (it took me like 10 minutes to reach this limit), and then the $60 is per user, per computer. So if you ever upgrade your computer or PDA, you have to dish out another $60. This is a really easy-to-use handwriting input program though - you write Chinese on the screen (not where you usually input English text) and it converts it into digital Chinese text. 3) I have still yet to try PalmDragon Chinese Input. I think you also need CJKOS for this. There is no English documentation at all, and I can't even find any Chinese instructions. Yargh. Will need dad to help me with this. $30 after some sort of trial period, I think. Well, at least now we know it is possible to input and view Chinese on a PDA running an English Palm OS! If I were to get my dad a new Palm PDA with a nicer color screen, and pay for all the necessary software again, it would still be cheaper than any of the options available in Taiwan. I suppose one could say that I *could* just get the fancy PDA with the GPS, but with my dad's needs, more isn't necessarily better - he wouldn't be using half the functions available. As it is, he's only interested in the addressbook, which is 25% of the PDA's major functions. I'm pleasantly surprised he's even inclined to learn how to use a PDA to begin with! :)
 Online-wise, I've been out of commission for a few days. My 3-year-old workhorse of a laptop's power cord overheated, minorly burned my thumb, then spit out a spark, freaking me out enough to unplug it at once and to not use the computer again until replacements came [ pic of hole in cord ]. So, in backup (quite the understatement - really, just to fulfill minor internet surfing and chatting abilities so I wouldn't go through withdrawal symptoms), I have been on my brother's 7-year-old mini laptop.
 This is a laptop that not even my mom wants to use, it would freeze up so much whenever she used it. Strangely, it works well enough for me, only hating me when I remove devices such as USB printers or wireless cards from it. It's super-cute and super-portable, as the CD-ROM and diskette drive(!!!) are mounted on an external thingy, and sporting a 12.1" TFT LCD 800 x 600 x 16M screen; PENTIUM 3(!!!!!), 450MHz, 64 whopping MEGABYTES of RAM, 6 whopping GB of hard drive, Win 98 SE. How did my bro live on this thing for 6 years?!
When was the last time you saw these specs? And did you laugh in disbelief looking at them just now? :) The battery life and fan quietness are way better than my big loud workhouse though. Sigh. I really am glad I actually had internet access. I'm grateful for the backup, but I am also pretty glad to be putting that thing back in its case for the next time [knocking on wood!] ... --------------- I did contemplate briefly just upgrading to a new laptop, going for about $600 these days after rebates. However, my biggest fear was Windows Vista and how everything's still catching up to be compatible with it. This has got to be the first time I've ever been scared to upgrade. Are my fears unfounded? Am I just an old fogey who is reluctant to change? Anyone out there running Vista yet? --------------- My dad's good friend, a Buddhist monk, is visiting Houston sometime in the next couple months. He asked if we could help order a load of mp3 players for him and other monks overseas. I'll give you three guesses as to WHICH mp3 player the BUDDHIST MONK requested: A) the iPod series
B) the Creative ZEN series
C) the Sandisk Sansa Ha ha. Get it? GET IT?!?!? I'm sure it's just a coincidence, but OK, being on my computer again and being able open more than 3 Firefox tabs at once is getting to me here, forgive me.  So my dad instructs me to order the load o' stuff, AND gives me the green light to take one out and figure it out so I can show the monk how to use it. Actually, this monk is already pretty tech savvy (he is the TECHNOmonk!) as he told me he chose one of the models for its line-in capabilities, but hey, I am not going to look a gadget box in the eye and say, "No, I will not open you and play with you"! I believe that I don't have an addictive personality but have an absolute weakness for shiny new electronic toys (yet I am reluctant to upgrade to Vista). This has got to be as expensive if not more so than any drug addiction ...
--------------- OMG IT FEELS SO GOOD TO BE BLOGGING AGAIN!!!!!!
OMG. Sw33t! I always thought us Asians were the most corrupt people on the planet. Now, I realize that greed is universal. :)
 Some of you may remember the tragic death of my beloved Canon Ixy Digital 50 (aka Powershot SD300). Well, it technically was not a complete and utter "death" since it still takes pictures - the only thing that's really "dead" is the LCD screen. For most digital camera users though, this is a huge cripple, in relative inconvenience and also because nearly all the settings are set via LCD.
It did seem a pity that it was just sitting around, and I remembered that younger bro had been wanting a digicam. So today I called him up: "Yo bro, want a free digital camera with a broken screen?" "YEAH! SURE!!" Although younger bro is a whiz with everything TV-station-related, this is his first-ever digicam, and on top of that, it has no screen. Time to make sure it's as easy to operate as possible!  I learned a few things today. I learned how to reset the camera to its factory defaults (after powering on, hold down Menu for at least 5 seconds, go Right one, hit Set to select OK). I learned how to study menu diagrams to set the video settings by trial and error. I learned that I can at least change the time and date and format the SD card via the easy-to-use CameraWindow software (thank goodness), which can also be set to download pics automatically upon connection (major points for ease-of-use here!).
How many of you are like me, and take for granted that all the included software is downloadable online? I usually trash the CD after installation thinking that a simple online search would suffice for a future re-install. As it turns out, the easy-to-use CameraWindow software is ONLY ON THE DISK and NOT available for download. Of course I'd tossed that long ago; heck, I tossed the disk for my new Canon Powershot SD600 pretty much right out of the box. (To see the sad collection of downloadable software on the Canon site, go here and click on "Drivers / Software".) There ARE 3rd-party solutions - one attractive solution is GetCanon!, a nice small program which seems to do everything except let you change the time/date or load up automatically after connecting your camera. Another option is hitting up a fellow Canon point 'n shoot camera owner (I can count 7 off the top of my head). Someone's gotta have the Solutions Disk!
Lesson learned: just because I had a hassle-free experience purchasing from an online merchant 6 months ago does not mean that I should trust them again for other purchases without checking ResellerRatings.com first. Turns out a merchant that I bought from a while back has been getting tons of "Very Dissatisfied" reviews as of late, but I hadn't checked. Well, at least I was able to cancel the order, and my credit card company is always on my side. Still don't have my goodies though. Poop.
Starting January 2007, I will no longer shop at Best Buy. Well, I think I have a $50 gift card still hanging around somewhere. I suppose I'll spend that, but that's it.
It's gonna take me a few weeks to get used to writing "2007" or "07" at the end of dates now. Hope the coming year is good for you all, in stepping closer to realizing your goals and dreams, and in keeping safe and healthy.  I'm spending the day at my parents' house in front of the TV, setting up a Logitech Harmony 659 universal remote (my gift to them, fulfilling the geeky curiosity in me). It's supposed to be really easy to setup. I am always scared whenever something is advertised as "really stupidly simple for dummies" to set up, cuz if I can't figure it out, that means *I* am stupid and dumb. It NEVER goes smoothly for me ... been at it now for 2 hours and counting. This is gonna be so worth it, though - my parents have a bucket of 5 remotes that I will hopefully be replacing. (I think I'm the only one who is proficient at the use of all the remotes in a somewhat harmonious manner.)
Big juicy thanks to Dean (aka the L337 case-modding-revolution leader EnVaDoR aka the BillSplit mastermind) for upgrading my dasBlog! And continuing to graciously host my insanity that is iHaTePiNk year after year! I would kiss his feet, but he ain't within feet-kissing distance (fortunately for him probably, haha)! :)
 In a fit of frustration over hating opening a billion chat clients to chat with friends, and with a bad experience with the free version of Trillian crashing my comp, I was on the prowl for another all-in-one chat program. I happened upon Meebo, and setup was seriously so easy I HAD to try it out.
And my first impression: oh, how I heart thee, Meebo! Nothing to install! A clean, cute interface! Sign in once and get signed in to my accounts on ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, AIM, and GoogleTalk all at once! A few details that I have yet to iron out, ie. making my display icon uniform across chat clients, making sure Chinese fonts are supported, and figuring out how the chat histories are saved. Nothing major though. I am mucho grateful for the convenience of the service. They don't seem to support Skype, but methinks I'll be keeping that on for my internet telephony needs anyhoo. Not yet on my buddy list? If you know me, you can e-mail me with your screen name, and we can waste time / stay up way past our bedtimes together! :P
Furniture at the iHaTePiNk.com bachelorette pad! Seats 3 adults, or 7 well-behaved stuffed animals. ... See my Tabblo> I'm trying out different picture-sharing services. I'm using smugmug and am trying Zooomr out, and for some reason never got into the whole Flickr thing. Now I'm trying Tabblo, since I have been wanting to make photo books and their service includes making photo books out of the pics hosted with them (and they give you a free mini photo book for signing up!). However, their blog-sharing thing is pretty uh, fugly. I want to just share the one photo, I don't want all that other junk showing up :( And their interface is confusing to me. Maybe I'm just getting old and am losing the ability to learn these things?!?
There is a slight delay in the posting of tonight's segment due to er, technical difficulties, if you will.
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