I generally don't accept gifts from patients. But I'll make an exception here. Besides, he IS only three years old. :)

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.

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.

I didn't know that our local HEB grocery store was so ... ahead of the times.

I wasn't gonna celebrate my birthday this year - I was totally hating being a girl that day - but I ended up having a week-long celebration of sorts.

So, for my bday, in addition to calls / e-mails (aww, thanks guys!), I got:

Dinner with friends,

Chocolate-covered strawberries (hand-dipped by Carol!),

Godiva chocolates,

Belgian chocolates brought over from Belgium (I'm seeing a pattern here),

Exquisite caramel cookies, also brought over from Belgium (there WERE 10 in there),

More dinner with more friends,

A Calvin and Hobbes treasury, with notes by Bill Watterson,

And a surprise non-alcoholic champagne toast. And a perm.

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.

1) Set dial to the 6-minute mark, because you want crunchy toast, and according to the picture, that is the crunchiest toast setting.

2) Forget to set dial to "Toast", leaving it on the settings from that cheese stick late-night snack the other night.

3) Stupidity © me.

An approximation of my thought process while the toast was on fire:

omg it's on fire but the lack of oxygen should probably make it stop by itself hmm should take a pic before it goes out ok unplug the thing dousing with water in there would probably be bad oh crap the fire alarm is going off damn it's hella loud shut up how do i get it to stop i can't pull the cover off yargh ahh hey it's still burning my theory was not correct i should try to take it out of there but i only have wooden chopsticks won't those get set on fire too if i go in there with them oh well i'll be really fast ok here goes omg omg shut up fire alarm boosh ok now i'm safe. whew.