Several months ago, the fiancé (now hubby) had heard about Straight Talk, and decided to give them a try. He’d been wanting to upgrade to the Nexus 4. Being with Sprint, he was stuck with CDMA phones, and so he was looking to switch carriers. Straight Talk sounded too good to be true. Their claim: $45 a month, no contract, unlimited talk, text, and data. He’d been with Sprint so long because they were one of the few who did not throttle data speeds to 2G (read: really slow) once you used a certain amount of bandwidth. Well, he gave it a shot, and it was true – he used 19GB of data in a month and was never throttled. He then became one of Straight Talk’s biggest evangelists.

I admit, sales and discounts make my heart go a-flurry. Saving money on my cell phone bill? Yeah, I’m down. So we decided that after our wedding and honeymoon, we’d both get on it. Now things turned out to not be as straight forward with setup for us due to different factors with our existing accounts. Fine, you know, things happen. No biggie, call their customer service line and that’ll get things squared away, right? RIGHT?!

Coming from T-Mobile, I’ve experienced excellent customer service, but over the years I can tell that they’ve been cutting costs in different ways, it’s dwindled down to “good” and is occasionally “bad” where I’m left feeling like, “Wow, that rep did not care about me". (Honestly, I totally understand why companies outsource their call centers; if the people are trained well and act like they care and want to help you, that’s really all I want. Though, I KNOW your name isn’t really “Fred”, what’s wrong with telling me your real Indian name? Lol!)

How do I feel about Straight Talk’s phone help? It has been DOWNRIGHT TERRIBLE. I am straight up AFRAID to call Straight Talk’s customer service, and I’m hoping I am at a point where I don’t have to. It’s not just once, not just twice, but every single time we’ve called. It’s an exercise in patience. It’s practice in being assertive and telling them what you want them to do. Yes, they pick up the phones pretty quickly, but that’s the only point where I would give them an above-average rating. What happens after they pick up the phone? Here’s an excerpt of what my experience today was like:

me: “I need help setting up my voicemail, it’s not working the way it says it’s supposed to like it says on your website.”
her: “You have to be calling from a different line.”
me: “I don’t have a different line right now. Can you look at my account and see if there’s any error in the account somehow?”
her: “You have to be on a different line so we can troubleshoot your phone.”
me: “I don’t HAVE a different line. Can I put you on 3-way with my voicemail so you can hear what I’m hearing?”
her: “You have to be on a different line. As much as I want to, I cannot help you.”
me: “I do not have a landline and am home alone, so I cannot borrow a phone. I DO NOT have a different line. Can we TRY what I’ve suggested?!”
her: “OK but I cannot guarantee it will work if you are not on a different line.”
me: “OK well it appears I cannot do 3-way with my voicemail. Can I just switch between the calls and tell you what the error messages are?”
her: “I cannot help you unless you are on a different line. I have to do a system update that requires you to switch your phone off and on and we will be disconnected.”
me: “How about you do the update, tell me when you’re done, make a note on my account of what you did, I’ll reboot, and whether it worked or not, I will call back and follow up with the next person?”
her: “We cannot guarantee that things will work unless you have a different line. I will not give you confirmation for this call.” etc etc.

Finally, it magically started working, and then even at the end before hanging up:

her: “If you have any other problems with voicemail, please call back, BUT WE CAN HELP YOU ONLY IF YOU CALL IN ON A DIFFERENT LINE.”

Wow. I made sure NOT to thank her.

From what we can tell:

- they are possibly handling multiple calls at one time and so it takes a lot longer for them to help you. They put you on hold, work on someone else, and then come back to you. (Example: I overheard Chris saying, “Look, I can hear your voice in the background talking to other people. No, that’s not other people, your voice is pretty distinct, I can tell it’s you. I want you to stop that, I’ve been on the phone for an hour waiting for this to be resolved.”)

- they DON’T WANT to help you. (I had to be transferred twice to get to someone who could possibly help me, with each person explaining, “I do not have the capability to help you with this” and never telling me I needed to be on a different line. Also, as from the above rough transcript, I felt like the lady was just trying to get me off the phone so she wouldn’t have to help me. She claimed she “wanted” to help, but I’m sorry, customers can tell if you really want to or not.)

- they will say they CAN’T help you, and that there is nothing they can do. (They have told Chris that the system was “updating” and there was no way to manually override anything.)

- they will lie for no reason. (Example: Phone rep: “I’m going to walk over and catch the supervisor up on what we’ve talked about and they will help you.” [ hold ] Supervisor: “Hi, can I help you?” Chris had to explain everything again, AND when he said, “The guy said he was walking over to talk to you” the supervisor said, “What? We’re in totally different call centers.”)

- they will say things to get you off the phone. (After Chris had been on the phone for hours with them, they said they had done all they could, and then Chris ended the call. Next day, the daytime rep said, “Actually, they didn’t do anything. Nothing was changed.”)

The only thing they have comped him is some airtime. I’m not sure that all that frustration was worth it. It really does always go back to that adage, “You get what you pay for.” As long as my phone works okay, I’m good. I will update here in a few months and see if the savings is still worth the unhelpful and unwilling customer service. At least there’s no contract so I can leave if I want to!

== Google results for “Straight Talk Reviews” ==

A dear friend was kind enough to lend me a much-needed keyboard. My OCD / frugal / nerdy / curious sides kicked in all at once and I decided that this would be the perfect time to learn how to pop all the keys off of a keyboard and clean it. Yes, I realize that a brand-new keyboard can cost as little as $4 … :) Have you ever wondered what lurks inside your keyboard? Especially if you are a household with children and pets (as was the case with this keyboard)?

First I did some reading:

• How-To Geek’s article, complete with disgusting photos
• Wikihow’s article, with photos but none that’ll make you puke
• EHow’s article, with helpful video and photos (again, no nauseating images) – only useful for light cleaning
• Howcast video – I found this the most useful, helped me most in overcoming my fear of breaking the keyboard, and no grody images
• HelpWithPCs’ article, which I felt supplemented the Howcast video nicely
• NPR’s article on dishwasher safe keyboards – just for fun, ain’t no way I’m putting my keyboard through a dishwasher!

Some of the articles said that it might be best to leave the spacebar on since it is more difficult to put back, but I felt it needed cleaning and it ended up not being very hard.

Cleaning tools:

I was determined not to spend any additional money on this project. I used a screwdriver, a can of compressed air, some antibacterial wipes, rubbing alcohol, cotton swabs, and some dishwasher detergent and some paper towel for the keys themselves.

I covered the tip of the screwdriver with the antibacterial wipe and got into the crevices. The screwdriver was also used in popping the keys off. 

grime on the cotton swabs

keyboard explosion! i put them all in a small tub of soapy water and used a paper towel to wipe each face off briefly. i let them dry for about 8 hours (all the articles said 24 hours, but I think that’s just to be super duper safe)

Before and after pics! (Before pics are on top, after pics are on bottom; click pics to see closer up)

Really feel like getting grossed out? See ALL the pics! (WARNING: GROSS PICTURES! I WILL NOT BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR ANYONE VOMITING ON THEIR KEYBOARDS AND I MOST CERTAINLY WILL NOT HELP YOU CLEAN THAT $HIT UP!)

While the cleaning was not perfect (I would have loved a handheld vacuum!), for me, the keyboard is more than adequate for what I need and it’s looking and working like new. (See the green Num Lock light in the full keyboard photo?  Proof that it works after the whole procedure! In fact, this blog post was typed entirely on this restored keyboard!) And I can’t beat the fact that I am getting to use it for free. When it comes time to return this keyboard, I will be proud to return it in great condition. I need to thank my friend for the opportunity to get super nerdy and learn something new! :)

I was due for a phone upgrade, and after surveying the selection of phones at the store, it came down to 2 choices:

[in booming voice] SMARTPHONE VS SPARKLY BLINKY PHONE!

In the end, the sparkly blinky phone won out.

So, I am now the slightly embarrassed but mostly proud owner of the LG dLite. In “Bubble-Gum Pink”, of course. [ insert cheezy smile here ]

The awesome promotional video for this phone further confirmed that I had made the right choice:

Before making this mini life-changing decision, I went online and did a lot of research on the phones (as I like to do for most purchases). This led me to the official LG dLite site, where at the bottom of their way-too-Flash-y page reads this helpful message:

I made this decision all by myself, thank you very much.

Hahah OK, on to some initial impressions:

PROS so far:

- the bling / overall external appearance / thought put into girl-ifying the user interface. :)
- super-customizable light effects, down to providing a little palette where you can paint in the pixels you want lit up whenever someone calls, when you get voicemail, etc.
- the screen is VERY clear.
- thank you, LG, for making the charging port a standard micro-USB port, and including a standard micro-USB cable with AC adapter to charge.

CONS so far:

- I generally don’t like that the charging port and the headset port are one and the same. But the included headset is so clunky that I won’t be using it anyway.
- this phone is thin but BIG. It’s actually hard for me to hold it in one hand up to my face. Its footprint is actually bigger than my Canon SD1100 point ‘n shoot camera! (also pink, muahahhaha)
- haven’t yet figured out if I can customize the menu yet so I can have my own shortcuts
- haven’t yet figured out if I can sync any of the data (contacts / calendar) on the phone to a computer as a backup
- when making calls with the headset, there is sometimes a 10-second delay before it actually makes the call, and people haven’t been able to hear me right off the bat. Am getting a new bluetooth headset (I have managed to lose my beloved Jabra BT530 AGAIN) and so I’ll have to see how the phone performs with that.

CRAPPINESS with transferring contacts over from my Nokia 6301:

- due to the large number of contacts, I had to transfer them in groups, and then there was some weird thing where it duplicated a bunch of contacts. I’m trying to use the My T-Mobile online interface to try and delete the extras and sync it up with the phone. Time consuming. Blah.
- what I had originally entered as “First Name” and “Last Name” in the previous phone has now all squished over into the “First Name” field on this phone, cutting off if too long. Suckage.

Overall, I felt like for the budget non-smartphone category, there weren’t many that caught my eye at the store. I was particularly disappointed in the supposedly updated Nokia phone that looked very similar to what I was using; the screen resolution was simply awful. The only reason I decided to go with this phone really was its looks, its $50 mail-in rebate, and an additional discount T-Mobile gave me after I raised some [polite] hell after a particularly bad experience in a store back in October 2010. Truthfully speaking, the LG dLite lacks in features, but its appearance just makes me giddy just looking at it. OK, time to go pick out an outfit and color coordinate. :D

I don’t know what deals all of YOU got, but I apparently missed out on the hottest deal of the year judging by how they’re all gone:

(Photo taken at Fry’s Electronics 11-29-2010)

So I’m chuggin’ along, thinking I’m a bada$$ on the Wii Fit (haha not really, I’m just trying to keep fit any way I can, and today I have access to my parents’ Wii Fit) when I get to one of the balance exercises that requires standing on one foot and keeping that red dot within that yellow circle. Well, for some reason, the dot was WAY off; in fact, if the screen hadn’t limited me, the red dot would’ve flown straight off the screen.

So the exercise is finally over and I wait for the result: not only is it a big fat ZERO and I get NO STARS out of four, but the description underneath said, “Couch Potato”. Really, Wii Fit? REALLY?! “Who are YOU calling a couch potato?!” I inwardly yelled, ignoring the ridiculousness of inwardly yelling at a machine.

I would like to show everyone my very non-couch-potato-looking Mii, that I would like to think more or less depicts my appearance as accurately as a Wii character could:

Oh yes, look how cute I am. Hahah barf.

And this is how the Wii Fit made me feel after it so outspokenly called me a couch potato! THE NERVE!! I SHOULD TOTALLY SUE NINTENDO FOR IRREVERSIBLE EMOTIONAL DAMAGES!!!*

Fine, call me a couch potato. Frowny face!!

Back to huffing and puffing and hula hooping on the Wii Fit after throwing a mini fist-shaking tantrum and turning the insult-a-matic game console off (and with the remote even, as one of my smart-aleck friends so aptly pointed out). Oh, and by the way: why can’t I unlock all of my Aerobics exercises? Is the Wii Fit TRYING to smugly self-fulfill this prophecy?! Punk a$$ game console …

*C’mon now readers, you know I would never do that.

Mii characters exported to png files thanks to myavatareditor.com.

More tries by the internets to read my mind.

The search guesser distracted me, and I needed a few minutes to remember what my original search was. :P

Now that I’m reading it again … “how to get a six pack in 3 minutes”?!?!? HAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAH

Not sure why Facebook thinks I’d be a great candidate for … pole dancing classes.

Here’s a close-up:

Maybe FB knows I like … deals and discounts?!?!!?!? o_O

So we hugged over webcam. :)

My mom successfully installed a webcam and software via instructions over the phone before I strangled myself. ‘Tis nothing short of a freaking miracle.

Tidbits of the conversation:

Me: Yes Mom, go into the e-mail account we set up for Grandma and click through the invitation.
Mom: OK. Where it says, “Verify your account”?
Me: Yes.
Mom: OK. It is asking if I want to “Run” or “Save”.
Me: (afraid my mom won’t know where she saved the file) Just click “Run”.
Mom: OK. It’s downloading now. OK so now it says, “Verify your account”. I’m going to click that.
Me: (confused) Um, OK.
Mom: It’s asking if I want to “Run” or “Save”.
Me: (still confused) Um, I guess “Run”.
Mom: OK. It’s downloading now. OK so now it says, “Verify your account”. I’m going to click that.
Me: Wait wait wait, Mom … what else do you see on the screen?
Mom: “Archive”, “Report Spam”, “Delete”, “Move To”, “Labels” …
Me: MOM! YOU’RE STILL IN GMAIL! STOP CLICKING ON THAT! YOU ONLY NEED TO CLICK ON THAT VERIFY LINK ONCE! GO TO THE LOGITECH VID WINDOW!
Mom: Huh?
Me: Do you see any other windows at the bottom of your screen that are open … ? That little bar at the bottom?
Mom: Well, there’s Logitech Vid, and Gmail …
Me: Well, go to Logitech Vid.
[ we finally start to get into the installation part of the program; it is really hard bc my mom is not reading everything out to me as she goes along bc she thinks I have every screen MEMORIZED ]

----- 15 long minutes later -----

Me: OK. Now you have to login with her e-mail address and password.
Mom: OK. [ typing ] OK I did. It says “No account found”.
Me: [ feeling really helpless ] OK Mom. PLEASE double-check that you typed it in correctly.
Mom: [ spelling out the e-mail address ] So I got it right.
Me: Mom, did you put “@gmail.com” at the end?
Mom: No. Do I need to?
Me: YES. YES YOU DO.
Mom: OK. [ typing ] OK I hit “return” and it still says “No account found”. Oh wait [ double-checking ] … I mistyped it. Heehee, my mistake!
Me: [ pulling my hair out and trying not to scream bc I know my mom is trying her best ] OK Mom. Yeah. Please double-check.
Mom: OK it works now!

----- ALMOST THERE -----

Mom: Where do I plug it in? The front or the back?
Me: Wherever you see a USB slot. Do you know what those look like? Do you see the plug that you are holding in your hand, the shape of it plus how part of it is indented?
Mom: OK so front or back?
Me: [ to my dad, who did it before - “Dad, where are the USB ports on Grandma’s computer?” Dad: “Just find one wherever.” Me: “DAD! JUST PICK ONE, OMG!” ] OK Mom, look in the back. Do you see slots?
Mom: Oh, there are a lot. Which one do I pick?
Me: Any one, Mom. As long as it fits.
Mom: The HDMI one?
Me: [ raising my voice ] MOM, NO. WHATEVER FITS, WITHOUT FORCE. THERE’S ONLY ONE SHAPE THAT WILL FIT.
Mom: Oh OK. [ sound of rustling ] [ phone goes dead ]

----------

Me: Mom, what happened?
Mom: Oh, the phone cord wasn’t long enough. Oh, how about this … [ plugs it in … I see a signal, but it’s black ] Now what?
Me: [ seeing the light at the end of this dark, dark tunnel ] OK Mom, good, good! Now, you’ve plugged it in, and it works, but there’s a COVER on the webcam you have slide off. Do you see that sliding thing?
Mom: Where … hmmm … [ I am sweating bc we ARE SO CLOSE ] Like this?
Me: YES! YES! OMG! YES! I SEE YOU! OMG MOM, GOOD JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OK now position the webcam so we can see Grandma while she sits in the chair… OK you got it … OK you can stop moving the webcam now … you’re sure it won’t fall off the monitor, right? OK then that’s good … STOP MOVING IT MOM, YOU GOT IT ALREADY … OK well put Grandma on the phone!

----------

It was totally worth all the frustration to see my grandma’s face, though. :) THANK YOU, MOM!!!!

Keeping my fingers crossed that the computer won’t need to get formatted again in the near future. (I don’t imagine my uncles are that web savvy, I think they click on pop ups and other random stuff … sigh …)

My dad is usually a serious no-nonsense guy, but it’s times like these when I get a glimpse into who he REALLY is, deep down inside.

Behold the gift he brought me back from Asia: Crunching Dog!

Dunno if you noticed the text at the bottom:

Various views of “Crunching Dog”:

OK kids, get your minds out of the gutter now. :)

And of course, the video. Well, it didn’t work so well with my computer at work with the vertical USB port, but you get the gist:

pointless but cute! :)

And no, it does not double as a USB flash drive. Hahahah doh!

I would prefer it to be more practical (I am my dad’s daughter, fo shizzle), but my dad knew I would love this: it’s both cute and techie / geeky. Thanks, Dad! :)

I asked my grandma to gather in front of the webcam with my uncles so I could “take a picture” of them. After taking the screenshot, my uncles asked, “Can we see the photo?” Hahaha, sorry, no … :)

So the video call is not perfect. We are not using microphones to talk over the internet, but instead just calling on regular phones (calling cards are pretty cheap calling from the US to Taiwan, anyway). But I think it’s actually a good thing, in that my grandma doesn’t have to deal with too much of a technology jump, and I’m much less annoyed with potential sound lag.

I’m using Logitech Vid, and I successfully walked my dad through installing it (here’s the email text). My grandma is not the one operating the computer; my cousin / uncles / whoever is there will power up the computer, double-click on the Logitech Vid icon, receive the incoming chat request, and plug in the webcam (somehow, plugging in the webcam earlier doesn’t work, must be in this order). I just wanted the EASIEST thing possible since I can’t tell how tech savvy my cousin / uncles are. It only does video calls; no text chatting, nothing. The interface is truly super simple. Click on the person you want to call. And I think you can only call one person at a time even. PERFECT.

I’m proud to announce that my grandma sounds like she actually looks forward to seeing us when we call her once a week. Or she at least pretends to. :)

Hi all (yes, all … 11 of my ADORING fans),

My awesome webhost and buddy Dean (of Envador, GoGoStand, and DeanYing fame) is moving me to a new webserver. Hold your breath until he gets it back up and I can start posting again (and you all – yes, all 11 of you - can continue to leave your awesome comments)! :)

<3 the pinkster :)

I had been using a physical fax machine, but with the increased amount of electronic insurance billing I’ve been doing, insurance companies have been faxing me like crazy. This is great for helping my patients save money! However, it was way annoying that fact that they chose the weirdest times to send me stuff (3:00 am! what!!?!).

I started looking for a fax number that would receive and route to e-mail. And because I’m cheap, preferably free. :) And so! That narrowed down my search greatly. I’ve been using K7.net coupled with a gmail account (big, fat, and also free) for a few months now and it’s been great. K7’s basic website did not inspire immediate faith in the service, but it’s been really smooth for me. Here’s a brief review:

Pros: free (funded by ads), can choose to set it to Fax Only mode or can use the Fax + Voicemail mode (voicemails show up as .wav files in your e-mail), reduces paper waste, NO MORE FAX RINGING OFF THE HOOK AT 3:00AM!!

Cons: can’t choose a number in your area code (by default you get 206 for Seattle, WA, so perhaps people in Seattle would consider this a “pro”) … but that hardly matters to most, especially to the insurance companies who are sending stuff to all sorts of area codes. If you set it to Fax + Voicemail mode, sometimes the faxes are interpreted as voicemails with that intermittent beep.

The “catch”? Gotta use it at least once every 30 days, or else it’ll be deactivated. It’s an automated system too – I know, because I got deactivated. I sheepishly wrote into customer service and they graciously gave me my fax number back as a one-time courtesy. The trick? Set it to Fax + Voicemail mode, call in every 2 weeks and leave yourself a voicemail, and you’re golden.

Thanks K7 for letting me sleep through the night!

If you’ve tried K7 or any other free fax receiving service, I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments.

Potentially confusing: “K7.net” and “www.K7.net” go to different pages. The one with the “www” prefix goes directly to the fax-to-e-mail service I have described here.

Googling "free simple html editor" today brought up Arachnophilia in the results. It sounded familiar ... turns out it was the same software that I had used many years ago (probably circa 2000). Even with major updates to the software, the site hadn't changed much; the words "Arachnophilia is CareWare" still remained at the top of the page. I'd forgotten what that meant, guessing it was some variation upon shareware, like postcardware or something. Reading further for clarification, I came across a paragraph that I'd always kept with me, but as usual had forgotten the source:

So here is my deal: stop whining for an hour, a day, a week, your choice, and you will have earned your copy of Arachnophilia. Say encouraging words to young people, make them feel welcome on the planet Earth (many do not). Show by example that we don't need all we have in order to be happy and productive.

The selective bolding is by me, showing the words that resonated with me so long ago and helped shape who I am by just a little bit. Common sense, for sure, but to actually put it into practice? Not so easy. At the time when I read this, it made me question if I'd ever been made to feel welcome on this planet. A very touchy subject for me, since people have made fun of me since the beginning of time, and then on top of that my whole sense of identity was hurled into a black hole of confusion while living in China. (I've come out of that hole since, yay!) But even so, with careful thinking, the answer was ... yes. To the teachers, mentors, and peers who consciously made and make the effort to make me feel comfortable in a sea of derision, jealousy, insecurity, and negativity, thank you. And I guess that's why it stuck. And then the thought that followed was: well, if people were kind enough to do it for me, then I hope I can be that person to someone else. Yeah, I think I saw that movie Pay it Forward around that time too.

So this seems like a lot of strange mush to have written regarding some html editor, but it's really not about the html editor at all. I thank Paul Lutus for his hard work on it of course, but more so for positively influencing my thoughts and actions for the last 10 years ever since I read his words.

Oh, and I did download and use Arachnophilia. Perfect fit for my needs today. :)

I've gotten them before, but here's one I got today:

Clicking through, it's even more "ugh":

Well anyway, if any of you single ladies out there want to hit up 22-year-old Humphrey in Kenya, please feel free to do so. Oh, and if anyone calls me "Princess" in real life, please don't be surprised if I sock you in the face!

My homeboy EnVaDoR has been up to no good as usual with his modding antics. His latest: getting noted on lifehacker (with a mention on gizmodo) for his DIY iPhone Paper Clip Stand!

A search turns up a whole lotta hits where he gets mentioned, but true 6334dom is appearing on lh and gizmodo, right? :) From one geek to another, here's to you Dean: the King o' Geeks!

[ his original post ]

Before the Canon SD1000 got discontinued, that was my general recommendation. Now I would now recommend the Canon SD1100 to anyone who now asks me the billion dollar question, "Hey Caroline, which camera should I get?"

This is actually a question I get asked pretty often, and the answer really depends on how hardcore you wanna be, your budget, and how you're gonna use the thing. But if ...

- you could stand to pay $200 or less
- you want the ability to pick a stylin' color to match your personality (silver / blue / *pink* / gold / brown)
- you want to have something compact and lightweight to take with you while travelling or partying or clubbing
- you like sharing your photos online and occasionally printing out 4x6 photos or making photo gifts for people
- you want the ability to take decent video also (this was done with the SD1100 time-lapse function built-in by a friend)
- you have no idea what f-stop or DOF means and don't care / these terms scare you

... this is your best bet, imho, until this thing becomes discontinued, anyway. AND it even comes with IS, or image stabilization, which has been a feature in cameras priced around $300 or higher generally.

General marketing hype to avoid

- number of megapixels. This thing has 8 MP, which is already overkill for the average consumer. In fact, for regular 4x6 photos, you only really need 3 MP, but all the manufacturers want you to believe the more = better. It's only better if you plan on printing life-sized photos (for the SD1100, up to 16x22), which the average user does not do.
- digital zoom: this is fake zoom. Be sure the description says "optical zoom".
- humongoginormous screen: well, all screens nowadays are over 2" diagonally. It's really mainly for composing pictures, so you don't really need much more. Personally, I like that the SD1100 also has an optical viewfinder, so if you're really trying to squeeze the last few pictures out of the dying battery, you can turn off the screen and just take pictures by looking through the little hole.

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 1530 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!

Is the Obsolete Computer Museum's website run off of obsolete computers?

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 ]

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. :)

Perhaps I shouldn't be, but I am.

Chinese dating site for singles seeking Chinese women for love and marriage

I found the site browsing through a fellow acupuncturist's website ... related ads, eh? o_O

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!

I decided I wanted to learn some Flash animation. So I hit up this great Flash tutorial online and started whacking away. Here's the example I was trying to emulate:

... which I thought was boring, so here's my version. (You need sound to fully "appreciate" my work of art here.)

Not sure why the screams are off. They're not supposed to start before you hit the button, and they're certainly not supposed to be continuing after her untimely demise.

*Update: I've figured out how to stop the annoying screaming-upon-pageload, but I can't figure out how to cut the screaming short after the squish. Hmm.

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.

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

 (or download the YouTube-logo-less version here, WMV, 39secs, 2.2MB)

There are plenty of white-top discs out there, and it seems that Taiyo Yuden brand DVD-R discs were best (both most popular and seemingly most reliable). I ended up getting some Ritek Ridata white-top printable DVD-Rs, they seemed to rank up there too. Also, there was much discussion in forums and on ResellerRatings.com as to whether vendors were selling the "real" thing, as opposed to knock-off brand name media. I went with SuperMediaStore.com.

Infringes slightly upon criterion #2. Many of Epson's inkjet printers do this; the cheapest was the Epson R220 at about $100, which isn't too too bad, but I already have an inkjet printer (a more than adequate one, too - the Canon Pixma IP6600D - see above), and I don't like to buy stuff when I only have one brand to choose from (not an early adopter!).

So I've been continuing to look for my next cell phone with my desired features and at a reasonable price (on the condition that I renew my contract for 2 years). Well, I finally found the phone of my dreams.

The Samsung t609: has bluetooth, the headset jack is separate from the charging port, and may be the only Samsung phone that CAN access the calendar while talking without interrupting the conversation.

And well, T-Mobile took it off the upgrade program 2 days ago. Curses ...

Just one of the many letdowns these past few days.

Update: Thank you, tmobile.com, for having all the user manuals in one place (under "Support"), and thus being even more complete than that stinky samsung.com website. Thank you for having user manuals with an "Options During a Call" section. Now, thanks to you, I now know that among your current selection of Bluetooth phones, the Samsung t519, t609, t629, and t719 can all access the calendar during a phone call without interrupting the call.

And the search continues ...