I suppose I'm one of those that boring people who place less emphasis on form than function but ... using cloth to "protect" your windows just seemed pretty ... useless. Or maybe I should say, pretty, but useless?

Some of you may remember the "REALLY IMPORTANT NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111!!!!!!" series that I did ( part 1 | part 2 ) three years ago when Rita blew through and got the media's panties all up in a bunch. Well, when I got news that Ike was coming through, I immediately thought: "I wonder if enough interesting things will happen to be able to do a series on Ike?"

Well, the answer was no, but you know me - when bored, I'll either make things interesting or make things happen. :) To make full-screen, mouseover the video and click on the little icon beside "vimeo" that looks vaguely like 4 arrows pointing outward.

Semi-useful news tidbit: If you still don't have power since the hurricane but see that your neighbors have power, call 713-207-2222 [ source ].

And so, we have survived the hurricane. I've made a series of videos that my Facebook friends have already gotten a glimpse of, and will soon be posted here. But first! My cousin Min called me up earlier this week to tell me she'd sent me a present. I was baffled; I rudely blurted out (as I am wont to do), "Oh, what for?" She laughed and said, "Just 'cause! And this is totally going to get on ihatepink.com!" I was intrigued: "Oh really??" And today, after waiting ALL week, I got the package!

Min, Peter, and Connor, this one's for you. :)

Long-Awaited Gift from Min from Caroline Chen on Vimeo.

I've been following Hurricane Ike updates online; haven't felt like turning on the TV. Maybe I'll do it just to test how long I can watch it before getting sick and tired of it.

Came across this video on weather.com. One sentence caught my ear:

"Church members say after their prayers, Edouard slowed and turned right, and Gustav went to Louisiana."

I think it's normal when people turn to faith in times of crisis, but ... can they truly celebrate that they "diverted" Hurricane Gustav so that it didn't hit us here in Houston but instead our neighbors in Louisiana? "Hooray! It didn't hit us! It hit them! Whahahaaahaaa! We rock!!!"

In the meantime ... I'll be filling up on drinking water and shopping for bananas. ;)

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.

What do you do when a group of pug lovers come together all in one place? Why, take pictures, of course! :)

An extreme close-up. [ more grunty flat-nosed cuteness ]

I looped back around to get a picture with this HOT PINK JAGUAR. Can you believe it?!?! Many thanks for the owner of the car, Mr. Reginald, who allowed me to take pictures, and even came out to get me in the pic too! "I guess I'll be seeing this on MySpace," he said. While the thought of owning a MySpace page makes me somewhat nauseous, I do want to share the pics.

Ze car! I had to loop around to come back to it, I just *had* to get a pic of it, hehe.
 

Dorky pose 1.

Dorky pose 2. Ooooh I got to touch the car!!! OOH OOH OOH OOH OOH!!!

He apparently gets requests to take pics with the car all the time, hahaha.

By the way, like the cuuute new shirt? :)

How do you pronounce these words:

"shone", "contribute", "distribute", and "terrain"?

If you can, write out the emphasized syllable in CAPS and write it out as closely to other words as possible, ie. i say Canuck = kahNUK.

These are the only ones I can think of that people have laughed at me about. If you have pointed out my supposedly weird pronunciation of other words, please feel free to point them out. :)