Presale tix at the Teahouse for $10! [ more info ] Sweet. I think I discovered their "Dim Sum Girl" through Will. I can't find an original Dim Sum Girl video by the Notorious MSG; instead, here is a hilarious lip-synch done by some sisters in Hong Kong that had me roflmao for realz:
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 ]
 Had a good day at work, created my own camera bike mount (pics to come), had dinner with the parents, rode 15 miles with a friend, cooled off afterwards with her and her pug (more pics to come).
I felt really good after the 15 miles, but apparently my legs turned to rubber. Peep the video of what happened when we were riding home after the ride. Please excuse my deafening laugh (careful with the audio), I think I must have been in shock. OR maybe I just sound the dorky in real life and don't realize it ...
The themes of the party were "Things Caroline Has Never Done Before", "What's Age Got to Do With It", and "Are You Comfortable Being Around Hordes of Hot Men For Extended Periods of Time?!". A very tame dinner and movie were thrown in there for good measure. :) 
And for those who missed watching the movie Juno with me, you also missed this surprise birthday message that came on right after the movie ON THE BIG SCREEN: This birthday weekend has been full of laughter, tears, and more laughter. There were tears of joy, tears of gratitude, and tears of WAIT A MINUTE WHAT THE HECK IS *THAT* DOING ON THE SCREEN OMGOMGOMG!!!! Hahahahah. Thankyouthankyouthankyou for all the birthday wishes, my dear friends. It means a lot that so many of you guys came out for lil' ol' me. I got a great start into the supposedly dreaded three-ohs. I am such a lucky girl. I ♥ you guys! *snif!*
Congratulations to Bill & Cindy for tying the knot and plunging forward into their futures together. Grand party, it was. Though I think near the end of it I was too busy testing the capabilities of my liver to remember much. 'Twas a good time. Thanks to Masa Sushi for serving up a special plate for the vegetarians, and for serving up the drinks, and for uh, tolerating me.   
 
And of course, our live performance, raw and unedited. My fellow comrades in rap rocked da houz for sure.
2 projects this time. One full-on slideshow, and one mini slideshow in karaoke "MV" style (in Taiwan, they call music videos "MVs"). (Well, they didn't ask for it, but I thought it would be SO cool to do it that way. Besides, both the bride and groom and karaoke fanatics.) Here are a few excerpts from the wedding slideshow:
Splash screen for the karaoke MV:
 Snippet of the karaoke MV:
The groom's mods to the lyrics were actually pretty sweet. The original song is called "Man Slave". If you watch the original MV, it looks as though Nokia perhaps played a big part in financing the video. Ah, blatant product placement. [ original MV @ YouTube ] Some stats regarding the slideshow and beyond Programs used: Adobe Premiere 6.5, Windows Movie Maker, Sonic MyDVD 4.5 (authoring) Songs used:
1. Bride's section: 一起開始的旅程 (Our Journey Together) by S.H.E [ YouTube ]
2. Groom's section: custom mix of Good Times by Chic and Rapper's Delight by Sugarhill Gang [ mp3 download ] (they have the same bassline - never noticed / knew until I watched this)
3. Friends' section: Everything by Michael Bublé [ YouTube ]
4. Couple's section: When God Made You by Newsong [ sing along @ YouTube ] Karaoke-making tutorial was provided here. I used Premiere 6.5 but only used Premiere's native titler, as mine did not seem to come with TitleDeko. It's simple enough but tedious. I wonder how the professional [English] karaoke bars get their karaoke songs ... ? Challenges: working with Chinese input in Premiere and MyDVD; understanding the meaning of the Chinese song for the bride's section to better match photos with lyrics; audio editing / mixing right within Premiere to make songs shorter / longer. All-nighters pulled: one Warm Fuzzies:
The videographer complimented me, asked me for a copy to include in his final wedding video, and said that I'd saved the couple around $1000, since that's how much he charges for a slideshow like this one! Wow. Yay! It seemed to be a crowd-pleaser, and the parents of the bride thanked me profusely. Thanks to the bride and groom for trusting my judgement. They never saw the final product until their big day! :) Bridesmaids coordination: Thanks to a post at echeng.com, I decided to try Basecamp. It was probably a little too technodweeby at first, but everyone adapted quickly. I thought the to-do lists were really helpful, I liked the centralized messaging with e-mail notifications and personalized avatars beside comments, and the whiteboards were great brainstorming centers. After the wedding, I added the bride so she could see everything that went on behind the scenes for her wedding and for her bacheloretty party. :) Number of pictures I took at the wedding: ZERO. Now THAT'S a new record!!!!!
It's good to see extended family (we didn't get to see all of them, but I am grateful for the ones we could see). Four generations present here:
Proud grandparents:
First ever in-car diaper change (and fastest too!): 
Wii sillyness!
*yawn* Off to the bride's house to get my makeup and hair done:
Video of me giving the groom a hard time (a Chinese custom):
My fave catch of the day:
Wedding paparazzi. The ringbearer (above) and the flower girl were excessively cute:
The newlyweds and me (like the color of my dress? hehe):
Beware the fake eyelashes that almost touch my eyebrows:
Spontaneous detour to check out Manhattan Beach right off the plane:
Video of me being silly at the beach:
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!! :)
 First off, thanks for all the encouraging feedback re: my YouTube contest video entry. Glad lots of you have been getting a chuckle out of it. :)
I've been sending out clarification e-mails today about the voting, saying that basically:
HOW TO VOTE (3/31/07 - 4/08/07): YOU MUST CREATE A YOUTUBE ACCOUNT TO VOTE. ONLY after you see the confirmation message "Thank You for Voting! (Please note we only count your first vote for each video)" does that mean you successfully voted! After logging in with your username and password, make sure you go to http://www.youtube.com/contest/TheTaxRap?goto=287 to vote or search for entry #287.
I didn't realize how confusing it was until I met up with friends I consider Internet savvy this weekend. Then I went back and took a look and indeed, it was confusing even for me!
If you were not too embarrassed to tell your friends about the video / post to your blog / forums, could you pass this along to them / link back here? Thanks! :) If you have any troubles with this, comment here, and I (or some other helpful iHaTePiNkian) can walk you through it.
Thanks again for taking the time to vote and telling your friends to vote!
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 got a spam e-mail from a spoof americangreetings.com address saying that I'd gotten an e-card. Spam sure has sunken to new depths. I mean sure, spam the hell out of me trying to make an extra buck selling various meds or "through-the-roof" stock, but don't toy with people's emotions, man! Here I was thinkin', "*I* have an admirer?!?!?!? COOL!!!! OHHHHhhhhh ... wait a minute ... it's just a spammer ... fine ... delete ... back to whatever I was doing ... "  Slightly related to V-day, here are pics from the NAAAP Date Auction. Some of those auctionees were really workin' it!
 Donnie visited Houston and a bunch of us nerd-herd Dulles Vikings reconnected with him. (I don't think I'm offending anyone because we were pretty consumed with comparing notes and grades, hahah.) I'm pretty impressed with how the nerd-herd turned out - everyone's doin' their thang, and you probably could never guess they were once an uber-nerd. Some of us (ahem) are still nerds ... just can't shake my roots :) [ Donnie discovers drunken karaoke ] [ portraits just cuz ] I have fond memories of riding the school bus to school every day for three years with Donnie and Joe Lee (well, I hated the school bus cuz everyone made fun of me, but that's a story for another day). Those guys are a couple of the smartest dudes I know. It was fun recounting old times. Donnie was able to call out a few stories about me that I had absolutely no recollection of. Hahah, good times.
And I just discovered this guy on YouTube (though he already seems to be a YouTube icon, and for good reason) - David Choi and his original Valentine song. [ link to song on YouTube in case it doesn't show up correctly ] [ David Choi Music on MySpace - I don't usually link to MySpaces but I suppose I'll make an exception here ] Speaking of YouTube, does anyone feel like after the Google acquisition, they've censored a lot more stuff? Or am I just not in the know? I was doing YouTube "research" on singer Jesse McCartney the other day (yes, my boy band fetish is showing) and a ton of interviews had been removed due to violation.
Day twelve. Mrs. Thumbhead gets some more stuff with which to torture Mr. Thumbhead. ( YouTube link :: WMV file, 49 secs, 2.4 MB)
Merry Xmas, all. :)
The Eighth Day. Thumbhead rocks out, pre-iPod style.
(or download the WMV here, 51 secs, 2.1 MB)
----- I don't like shopping, and shopping during the holidays is just absurd. Though I'm only buying gifts for the immediate fam this year, it's still pretty stressful. I was at the Galleria this weekend and it was insane. Don't EVEN get me started about Walmart. I'm trying to hold off on getting me another camera until after Christmas, or even after New Year's. Place your bets now, folks - can I do it?!
(or download the WMV file here, 1min
2secs, 2.7MB) ------ This sharpie marker is a challenge to wash off completely.
There is a slight delay in the posting of tonight's segment due to er, technical difficulties, if you will.
(or download the WMV file here, 1min 32secs, 5.6 MB) -------- I can never arrive and leave Walmart in less than 15 minutes. I'm always thwarted by trying to find parking or waiting in long-azz checkout lines. Well, today I had it all planned out. Get there, go get my soymilk, go get two photos printed, check out AT the photo center because SURELY no one would be as smart as me and do that, and leave. Could I execute this on at Walmart on a weekend? [dun dun dun dunnnnnn] Got to the parking lot. Parked in the first spot I saw, start timing. Walked briskly into the store. Dammit, couldn't find closer parking, 3 mins already. Beeline for the soymilk (2 mins). What, where's the soymilk at? It was HERE last time ... oh THERE it is (1.5 mins)! I confidently headed for the photo center (1 min) ... this shouldn't take more than 3 mins and then I'm outta here! There was a lady already at the instant photo printout station, selecting photos. I helped her complete the checkout process - oh noooo - FORTY-ONE PHOTOS!!!! Exasperation! Fine. So I waited, cursing all the while to myself. At least I was able to place my order while her photos were printing ("PRINT FASTER DAMMIT!!!!" as if visualizing this would speed up the per-print time). Her order took like 7 mins. OK. "Gimme my photos you stupid machine ... I already placed my order ... what's taking so long?!" I wanted to bang on the machine but restrained myself. Nope, there's a 1 minute waiting time so that people's orders don't get mixed up. Oh how thoughtful. But not on this day when I was in a rush to get outta there! Checkout. Three items (I picked up some batteries while waiting for the lady and they were right there in front of my face), I got my cash out to speed things up. She scanned item one - beep, scanned item two - beep, scanned item three (the photos) - no worky, scanned item three again, nope, scanned it again, still no luck, keyed in the code, code invalid, keyed it in again more carefully, nope, scanned it again while waving the barcode scanner around at different distances and angles - beep. 4 mins. AUGGGHHH! Walking (almost running) back out. Darned slow people on their carts walking so slowly, soaking in all the Xmas marketing. Almost got run over by an old lady and her shopping cart by darting out from between the displays too fast. Made it back out to my car in 4 mins probably. Driving to destination. OK slowpokes outta my wayyyyyyyyyy ... got there just in time. Whew. Too stressful though. Will never do Walmart-on-a-limited-time-schedule again. Ugh. Cuz this was Walmart, the Two Weekends before Xmas edition. Yuck. PS - "ISO HI" mode on my Canon SD600 is gross. SO noisy.
OK. In order to avoid having tons of Mr. Thumbheads screeching at you all at once, I'm succumbing to YouTube for playback here. But you may download my lovely file here if you wish. (WMV, 4.3 MB, 1min 10secs) And I KNOW you didn't miss Days One and Two. :) Heading out to a "company" party, so I'm posting this a little earlier today. Seems like this weekend is an unofficial national company party weekend. :P
( download the WMV, 2.8MB, 44 secs) ------ Hey, geek feedback question: are the videos starting automatically when you load up your page? Cuz I don't want them to. I tried to turn "Autostart" off so I can post multiple videos on here without having them all come up screeching, "ON THE NTH DAY OF XMAS MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO MEEEEE!!!!" in nonharmonious rounds. Somehow I don't think that would go over well with co-workers of my working readers ... er, I don't think it could benefit anyone, really. Autostart was successfully suppressed in my FireFox 2 and IE 6, and I'm on WinXP Home. Please post your OS and browser version and let me know! Just doing my part to prevent deafness and tinnitus (aka ringing in the ears) before you all come running to me for acupuncture treatment. :) Update: succumbing to YouTube here.
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