Some of you know that I performed some minor surgery on my trusty laptop before, upgrading the CD burner to an internal DVD burner. Everything went smoothly, thank goodness. But today is a huge milestone -

The left touchpad button is gimpy now. I have to hit it EXACTLY in the middle or to the left. Hitting it to its right just makes it go in, but something sounds broken, and it doesn't actually select anything. :(

Will have to see if there is a viable minor surgery solution ...

YOU CAN'T DIE ON ME NOW!!! NOT AFTER ALL WE'VE BEEN THROUGH!!! I WON'T LEAVE YOU BEHIND!!!! NOOOOOO!!!!

</end overly dramatic response to situation>

I use Digital Image Mover (DIM) to copy pics from my flash cards to my computer. I have it set to copy the files over while automatically renaming them to be YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM-SS_ihatepink_filename, according to the internal photo info on when it was taken. Well, today it gave me the weirdest error message:

Copying from h:\DCIM\234CANON\IMG_3412.JPG to C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\My Pictures\1969\12-1969\31Dec1969\1969-12-31_18-00-00_ihatepink_IMG_3412.JPG
ERROR->h:\DCIM\234CANON\IMG_3412.JPG (The system cannot find the path specified)

So basically, something went wiggy and told my computer that the pic on the card was taken on December 31st, 1969, at 6pm.

Must be some Y2K remnant thingy. ;)

as the truth rang upon my ears
my tears fell freely
suddenly at my weakest
yet also at my strongest

my wings are damaged
but with courage i can fly.

...

Thank you for letting the truth ring.

---

Happy birthday, bro. Sorry, no crazy group drunk dialing like last year. :) I got a msg on my cell phone tonight: "Hey girl, I guess I'll have to catch you at another time since it's Saturday night and you're probably doing your wild thing." Hahahaha. Such a rep. Unfounded, I say! :)

Oh yeah, an online chat conversation with my bro we had the other night:

	1:55:19 AM						have you met my friend who looks like lucy liu? http://ihatepink.com/content/binary/2006/08/31/vcbouncer.jpg
	1:56:14 AM						the one on the left?
	1:56:26 AM						duh! the one on the right is ME, you doofus!
	1:56:40 AM						didn't recognize ya, actually
	1:56:44 AM						HAHAHAHAHAHAH
	1:56:50 AM						never seen ya with makeup on
	1:56:58 AM						i'll let her know.. she did my hair and makeup that night, and i borrowed her clothes to go clubbing
	1:57:10 AM						i wear makeup only for clubbing and weddings

Good one, Howard. :)

I didn't take as many photos as I usually do, but I did find my favorites of the night, featuring not the bride nor groom, but the groom's adorable nephew.Note: No children were harmed in the taking of these photos. No, we did not feed him beer!

I guess I shouldn't be surprised how crazy things got, since this weekend was all about the wedding of our favorite party-throwers, Carol and Alan.

QUIZ: Two of the following statements are false. Which are they?

1. One of the girls who came to the bachelorette party got so drunk she eventually had to go the hospital and get an IV drip.
2. A 4-month-old shihtzu puppy attended the bachelorette party and peed on my carpet.
3. The big red 15-passenger van we rented for the bachelorette party garnered 2 instances of sleazy guys rolling down their windows and indecently propositioning us at red lights.
4. I was a designated driver for the bachelorette party.
5. There were unclaimed articles of clothing left behind at my apartment from the bachelorette party.
6. What with the open bar at the wedding, Alan got totally wasted.
7. We got kicked out of 3 different places in the hotel after the wedding because we were being so loud.
8. I got carded at the open bar.
9. The bride couldn't find her undergarments after the wedding, so I lent her mine.
10. I got over 1000 pictures documenting the whole weekend's events.

Click through to see the answers and some pictures!

My favorite photo from the weekend (stolen from the sexy V). We had to flirt with the Crome bouncer more than I would've liked, but hey, he was kinda cute in a Russell Crowe-ish kinda way, so it wasn't SO bad. :P

I haven't been clubbing in forever. My hair and makeup and clothes and shoes (basically, my extreme makeover) was courtesy of V. That was fun! Thanks girl!

Today I learned that Hasbro has made it easy for you to print your own Monopoly money! Who'da thunk? :)

This past week, I've experienced several major epiphanies. I'm sure many of my peers know them already, but I guess it's better late for me than never. They're common sense and very cliché, but when they present in my face, I can't necessarily call on them to guide me in my actions. After what happened this week, I will never forget them.

- Nobody's perfect.

- Just because two people love each other doesn't mean they're right for each other.

- The truth often hurts.

- The truth shall set you free.

- Doing the right thing is usually the hardest but best way to go about things.

- Breakups always suck, regardless of who initiates.

- Talking about it helps. A lot.

- Crying helps. A lot.

Today's the last day of my billing cycle and it seems that I now have 4 minutes left before going over my monthly allotment. AND it seems that my phone has just been ringing non-stop off the hook ever since 7 am. Doh!

SO: friends, if you must contact me today, do not be offended if I do not pick up. Leave a voice message, I can check it from any phone without using my minutes, thus lessening my overages (what, it's like 50 cents per minute or something? Oof ...). OR you can e-mail me and get a faster response. :) (clarification: I am of course picking up all patient calls!)

Oh, and speaking of cell phones, yesterday I went to a T-Mobile store and played around with the cell phones I was lookin' at in my last post. I was there for a good hour. Well, I discovered another couple functions that I need. I don't know. Neither of them are looking good to me right now. Maybe I'll just wait until I go to Asia later this year and pick a little sumpin' sumpin' up there - they'll have really cute phones there for sure! :)

And it's that time again to renew my contract. T-mobile now gives you more incentive to renew for 2 years  by giving you a bigger discount on a new phone. Though my basicker-than-basic non-cute Nokia 6010 has served me well since my beloved Sony Ericsson t610 got stolen by a fat black woman, I've been shoppin' and comparin'. The phone must:

- have Bluetooth connectivity (my Bluetooth headset is eagerly awaiting "reconnection" with a suitable mate ... )
- have a calendar (I use this for daily scheduling of patients as well as social engagements)
- not be a Motorola (Motorola's user interface is not intuitive to me)
- cost less than $100 after rebates
- be somewhat cute (why do anything if it ain't cute? heehee. J/k. This is a total bonus.)

My finds so far:

The Nokia 6103 vs. the Samsung t509

	Nokia 6103	Samsung t509
Bluetooth?	yes	yes
Calendar?	yes, familiar with setup	yes, unsure of capabilities though
Hello Moto?	no	no
Price	$49.99 after rebates	$49.99 after rebates
Cuteness	not so much	dude, sweet!
Can charge and talk on wired headset simultaneously?	yes	no
Can access calendar while talking?	yes	no
Mobiledia Reviews	here	here
Official Phone Info	here, user guide here	here, user guide here

Do you guys have any experience with either of these phones in these aspects? Any votes?

Updated thoughts: it may sadden you to know that the tie-breaker might lay in the fact that the Nokia has a place to loop a wrist strap through, allowing for customizable cuteness. Dang. I was so hooked on the look of the Samsung though! C'mon Samsung, there's gotta be something that'll make me choose you ... Update to the update: after playing with the phone at the store, it DOES have a wrist strap. :)

More updated thoughts (after going to the store and playing with the phones):
- I need to be able to access and view my calendar WHILE in the midst of a call. The Samsung t509 does not allow access to the calendar while calling; the Nokia 6103 in the store didn't have a SIM card so I couldn't try it out, but my current Nokia 6010 allows me to do so (as did my Sony Ericsson t610 before), and so I would assume they would continue to have this function available.

- I don't NEED this function so much as I would strongly PREFER this function ... I like being able to talk on my phone while charging. I like using whatever method to talk on it that I want, be it by holding the handset to my head (least commonly used), or using a hands-free headset. Both phones have Bluetooth, so I could use a Bluetooth headset to talk while charging, BUT in the event my Bluetooth headset craps out, I wouldn't have the option to plug in a wired headset because the headset SHARES the same plug-in port as the charger. BOOOO. My basicker-than-basic Nokia 6010 allows this, albeit it does not have Bluetooth. I just don't like relying on things that need to be charged and can run out of battery when you most need to use them. Update: just found out through looking through the Nokia 6103 User Manual that you CAN talk and use the wired headset at the same time. The T-Mo rep at that store didn't know what they were talking about, AND refused to show me the retail box when I asked! >:(

Preliminary course of action:
Hold off on the contract renewal and let myself go month to month until some phone really catches my eye and meets my reqs; wait until I go to Asia later this year and get myself something really cool (~drool...).