Hardware

The Ching-cam is up again thanks to Brian!  I don’t know what I would do without my wonderful hubby.  Nothing exciting on it really — except yesterday when we left both of our cams (yes, Brian’s too) on almost all day.  For the newest pics, check out the fotolog.  Or if you’re more interested in the webcam, you can see the last six cam captures here.

By the way, speaking of hardware..  We now have two printers connected to the network.  Ashley just bought a brand-new Canon photo printer.  She showed us some pictures that she printed on it today and they look like they were developed at the store.  It was amazing!  Anyway, since she has the new printer, she decided to sell the old Epson on Amazon.  She was only selling it for $30 so Brian ended up making an offer.  So now we’ve got Ashley’s old printer as our second printer.  It’s cool because Brian hooked it up to his computer but I can still access it through the network.  What we’ve done is designated the old Canon printer (which isn’t capable of photo-quality printing) we have that is connected to my computer as the printer to use for regular documents and then the Epson for photos.

It too bad that we didn’t have Ashley’s old printer when I was blowing up this picture of Chris for Tita Mercy because the printout would’ve come out way better.  Oh, well.  They were on a tight deadline.

May 29, 2003 | Posted by Ching under Toys

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Our Old Furniture

Here are pictures of our old BATroom furniture. I’ve decided to memorialize it on the blog before it’s gone for good. We’ve shared many wonderful memories on that crappy couch!



Next week we’re buying new “old” furniture. Bill and Lisa (they live across the street from Brian’s parents’ house) are buying brand-new living room furniture so we are buying theirs. There’s nothing like used stuff! Yes, we are very, very poor. The only things we will spend money on are computers, electronics and cameras (and clothes for me). We go “el cheapo” on pretty much everything else.

That’s not entirely true, I suppose.. We did spend good money on a brand-new hammock but I guess that’s an exception because it was a really great deal.

our hammock

It’s super huge! I love it! And if our neighborhood wasn’t so scary I could really see myself sleeping in it and waking up the next morning to bird shit on my head.

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P.S. Identity theft sucks!

I totally feel bad for Rannie but I pity the poor fellow even more. I mean, his life must suck so bad that he feels the need to impersonate someone else. That’s very, very sad.

Thankfully I don’t have to deal with anything of that sort. First, my life isn’t that interesting. Second, my pictures are not worth stealing. Never in my life, until now, have I considered being mediocre a good thing.

May 26, 2003 | Posted by Ching under Life

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Brian’s Accomplishment

I think Brian would appreciate it if I blogged about his most recent accomplishment: getting our home network and our Webcam32 programs working again.  It’s a wonderful day when you get something that hasn’t been working in several months working again.  Such a feeling of satisfaction he had that he just had to blog about it and you know he hardly every blogs.  It’s been months since he’s blogged also but bragging about how he figured out what was wrong with our computers was such an astounding accomplishment that he felt it warranted some blogging.  LOL!

Kidding aside, I really appreciate it.  I mean, I was totally ticked when Webcam32 quit FTPing..  Now it works again.  And I’m so happy that we can now share the printer and share our files without having to burn them to disk or email them to one another.  I love having our computers networked!

When he told me what it was though (it was just the stupid ICF thing all along), I felt so retarded.  It was truly one of those moments.  I mean, we suffered without a home network for how long?  Just because of what?  That?

By the way, what’s up with the recent trend of celebrity weblogs and journals?  I’ve got a sampling here for you, for your enjoyment.

I must say, though, that Wil Wheaton was one of the first.  I think he even won a Webby one year..

Of course, there are many more out there so feel free to do your own celebrity blog-hunting.  But before you go anywhere with your mouse, I recommend stopping by Shift.com‘s list because they’ve got some entertaining commentary.

May 25, 2003 | Posted by Ching under Life, Web

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Backup Plan

Thunderstorms have been forecasted for today.  We may not be able to go swimming.  Our backup plan is playing video games in Ashley’s apartment.  Brian and I have been commissioned to bring our DDR game and dancepads, Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance and Tekken — just in case we are stuck indoors due to inclement weather.  Ashley loves Galaga too just like me (she has the game) so I now have someone to play Galaga with.  It’s kind of boring playing by yourself.  I just keep trying to outdo myself, to get beyond the highest level that I can reach, but after a while that just gets frustrating.  When you take turns it’s better.  More fun.

Anyhow, I made a video clip of Felix.  I had to store it at our family’s website because they have 500 MBs of storage and this file by itself is 3 MB.  I didn’t want Jen (my host Jen, not my sister) to get mad at me for using too much space because I use a lot already.  So you dial-up users have been warned.  Give it time to load (or if you’re on dial up, you may want to skip this video altogether).  But broadband users :must: check it out because it’s cute.  LOL!  I should take him to Stupid Pet Tricks!

May 24, 2003 | Posted by Ching under Babies, Games

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TV Sightings

You’ll never believe who Brian and I saw on TLC’s A Dating Story yesterday.  I think it might have been a repeat because he looked very much like he did in 2001 and I don’t think I looked like I did a couple of years ago (people’s physical appearances change over time, that’s nature), which leads me to believe that it was definitely one of the older episodes re-run.  It was none other than Jack Murnighan of Nerve.com fame.  They set him up with Marie Claire’s eligible bachelorette of the year.  Which year?  That I don’t know because I don’t read Marie Claire (I probably will when I turn 30 but right now I don’t)..  My bet is that it was 2001.

What upset me (nothing to do with the show folks, the episode was abosultely delightful which is more than I can say for Shipmates my guilty pleasure) is that when I saw him it reminded me of The Naughty Bits (Jack’s book that I own) and when I thought of that I thought of my other Nerve.com book, Full Frontal Fiction (I had it in hardcover too, “had” being the operative word), which I had stolen from my bookshelf at work.  It just magically disappeared.  I looked up there one day and it was gone.  The sad part is I don’t even know how long it had been missing.  At least I’m not as psychotic as I once was.  That event would have triggered a full-blown nervous breakdown.  Ask Brian.  I had to tell myself several times, “It’s just a book.  It’s just a book.” But I was able to calm down and get on with my life.. err, with my day.

Anyway, I was seriously thinking of selling out again and adding a commenting system to the blog.  I found Haloscan (it seemed like a pretty good commenting system) via theharpoon.net and I really seriously thought about it.  But then I realized how much I hate getting flamed.  At least this way when someone flames me I’m the only who sees it, instead of it being out there for the whole world to read.  Yeah, I don’t much like being ridiculed for my stupid, outlandish opinions either.  This is my blog, I’m entitled to it.  

May 22, 2003 | Posted by Ching under Life

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Erin’s Birthday

The pictures that we took at work on Erin’s birthday (or should I say the rest of the pictures) are finally here! Sorry about the delay in posting them.

P.S. If you like these, wait till you see the pictures that we take on Saturday! We’re going swimming, baby! Hot girls in bikinis — what more could you ask for? Just be glad that I’ll be behind the camera taking pictures rather than in front of it. LOL!








































May 21, 2003 | Posted by Ching under Life

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Gala Invite

The Filipino gala is almost upon us and I am proud to say that I got my very first official invitation this year.  My family has attended the event every year without fail since 1995 but I’ve always gone as a tag-along to their invitation.

This year, Brian and I got our very own in the mail addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Brian Brubaker.  I feel like such a grownup!

May 16, 2003 | Posted by Ching under Family

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My New Camera

I haven’t been blogging because my Canon Powershot G3 arrived on Tuesday and I’ve been busy playing with it ever since.  The other night Brian and I set it on a table and played with the wireless controller.  It’s so cool because the wireless controller not only gives the ability to remote detonate ..err, snap pictures.. It actually gives you the ability to zoom in and out, and also navigates the various pictures stored in the camera like if you had the camera connected to a TV (it came w/ A/V cables) so you can show pictuers one at a time before moving on.  The camera itself has a slideshow option but we’re just talking about the wireless controller right now.

You wanna know something stupid?  Dell carries the G3 now.  They’re a little late because I’d already bought it!  I was just telling Pia last night (she’s thinking of buying a new desktop from Dell) of how much I love that company (their tech support is crap but that’s besides the point, they have good deals).  Almost everything that we’ve got is through them.  Brian’s desktop, my desktop, the cd burner I bought for Brian’s computer, my QuickCam Pro 4000 (which incidentally I had bought when it was still $99.99 and now it’s on sale everywhere you go — probably because the new QuickCam Cordless is now available — I want that one next) etc etc.  Anyway I told her that I would have bought the G3 from Dell had they offered it but I didn’t see it on any of their catalogs or website.  Now, after the fact, it’s there.

So last night I was tinkering with my computer as I was chatting with Pia on Y!M.  I decided that I didn’t need some of the software bundled with my webcam so I uninstalled them from my computer (being careful not to uninstall the driver along with it).  What followed next was a rigorous test of almost everything that I use with my webcam on a semi-regular basis.  Webcam32 and the webcam option on Y!M still worked.  I wanted to make sure that my Logitech IM Video Companion (which works with AIM and MSN Messenger) thing still worked.  I signed onto AIM to see if there was anyone available who could test it with me and, lo and behold, a Ritchie sighting!  We never run into each other online!

Pia doesn’t have AIM but she had MSN so we switched to MSN so the three of us could chat together.  I needed to test it with MSN anyhow.  I couldn’t get it to work for the life of me!  I don’t know what the deal is.  Crazy chat program!  The good news is, after I got off chat with Ritchie and Pia, I had Brian log onto AIM on his computer and test it with me.  He says that when I send him the view my webcam link it takes him to a page to install the program needed and then after it’s installed it works.  He could see me.  So the Logitech IM Video Companion works.  The problem lies with MSN Messenger which I can understand because it’s one of the newer instant messenging programs so the could still be some bugs that need to be worked out.

May 15, 2003 | Posted by Ching under Toys, Wishlist

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Mothers’ Day


























May 13, 2003 | Posted by Ching under Family

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Happy Mothers’ Day

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!  I just wanted to get that out of the way before I forget and also before the day is up.  Only an hour more to go before Mother’s Day is officially up but to tell you the truth I feel that, just like Christmas, Mother’s Day should be celebrated everyday.  I mean, our moms should be recognized for all that they do for us everyday and not just one day out of the year.  But that’s just my opinion.

Anyhow, would you believe that someone really greeted me “Happy Mother’s Day!” on the phone last Friday?  I just said, “Thank you.”  There was no point in correcting him.  Later on that same day this one fellow asked me if I was still in high school.  I was completely taken aback.  How was that relevant to anything?  I had to pause for a moment because I was trying to figure out how to respond to his question in the most professional way possible.  He was like, “You sound really young and I figured you were still in high school or going to college and working part-time.”  How creepy was that?  That’s customer service work for you.  You get nice folk, mean folk and weirdos.

We were supposed to have a picnic at Sedgwick County Park today in celebration of Mother’s Day but when we got there we decided against it because the weather just wasn’t cooperating.  It was a shame too because Brian and I were ready with lots of old, expired bread to feed the ducks with.  We ended up eating our KFC at his parents’ house.  They were nice enough to invite mom so we all got to spend most of the day together.

After Brian and I drove mom back home we went to his brother Kevin’s place to check out his new computer.  It was my first time there and Brian’s first time inside so we got to have a tour of the place also.  As Brian and Kevin were going through his PC and PS2 games, I spent time playing with Kevin’s cat Georgia.  She has medium-to-long hair and sheds like she’s in chemo so I ended up wearing Georgia-fuzz all over my white shorts and striped terry hoodie for the rest of the day.

Speaking of the rest of the day, it was spent driving all over town looking for a hammock.  Let me tell you, hammock-hunting equals total frustration!  Here’s a picture of the one that we liked from Sam’s Club.  The whole hammock idea was brought on by one that we found at Dillon’s for less than $60 while grocery shopping one day.  While it wasn’t the best looking hammock made ever, it was cheap, functional and acceptable.  I was perfectly happy buying that hammock until Brian told me about one that he found at Sam’s Club while hanging out with his parents on Friday.  It’s the hammock pictured above.  As you can see, it’s very stylish.  It’s a hammock worthy of being sold on the pages of the Eddie Bauer Home catalog (for a fraction of the price, mind you).

We finally talked ourselves into buying the coveted hammock so we rushed over to Sam’s and renewed Brian’s membership.  We paid the $35 membership fee so we could get the hammock only to find out when we got the aisle where it was located that it was completely sold out.  Even the floor display was gone!  Where it was now stood an empty space.  When we first walked through the aisle Brian was all, “I don’t understand.  It was right here!”  I guess buying a hammock wasn’t such a novel idea after all.  We went back to the customer service desk only to find out that the West store is sold out of them also.  She said that they did not have any on order but the West store had 62 on order.  But with Sam’s Club, you really don’t know when items become available again.  Often they will carry seasonal stuff and when it’s gone, it’s gone period.  I felt sure that by the time they got more hammocks in summer would be over.  I guess that’s just the pessimist in me.

So I drug Brian to Wal-Mart and Target to no avail.  Wal-Mart did not carry any at all.  Target had a rope hammock and a stand both sold separately for $89.99 each.  First off, the stand isn’t nearly as pretty as the one at Sam’s Club.  Second, for only $176.54 we get both the stand and the hammock at Sam’s Club.  Third, I’m not particularly keen on rope hammocks.  Fourth, the hammock wasn’t even available at Target — they only had the stand.

There was only one thing to do — order it online.  We went to the Sam’s Club website where the standard delivery of 7-10 business days will run almost $50.  We were desperate.  Can you tell?  Brian goes “We might as well go all out and get it here faster,” as he clicked on the express delivery option.  “You’re kidding, right?”  I told him, “You might as well get another hammock for that price.”  Sure enough when the shipping price appeared it was $181 and some change — more than the price of the hammock itself.

So there you have it.  The hammock is finally ordered.  Two weeks from now we will be enjoying it in our backyard as we lay in each other’s arms looking at the beautiful afternoon sky above.

May 11, 2003 | Posted by Ching under Life

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