Archive for the year 2003
Imitation Magic Sing
Posted on May 4, 2003 by Ching under Family.
Imitation Magic Mic, anyone?
This is the one that my parents have. But theirs has 2000 songs because it’s got the Tagalog chip in it. They’ve had it for about two years now and I must say it’s so addictive. I like it much better than old fashioned karaoke because finding music and changing CDs can be such a hassle. Anyway, I’ve always wanted one but I doubt that I’ll ever actually buy one.
I mean, check out the price tag on that sucker! If I had any singing potential at all then maybe. But since I’m tone-deaf, I don’t really see myself investing in anything that. I just go over to my parents’ house and play with theirs. If someone bought it for me I obviously wouldn’t return it but, short of getting it as a birthday present, I don’t think I’ll ever own one.
Enter IVL Technologies’ Karaoke TV Star. 
Here’s an imitation Magic Mic. It’s only a fraction of the price at $79.99 (this is the amount that it’s going for at Buy.com) but it’s just as cool. It does the grading thing that Magic Mic does and, although it can only hold up to 150 songs, it’s pretty cool because you can choose which songs you want to download into the mic via USB cable through their website. Other features include On-Key (corrects the pitch), transform (transforms your voice to male, female, alien or robot), spatial (studio quality reverb and echo effects that makes it seem as if you are singing in an auditorium, at home, in the bathroom, etc), harmony (which transforms your voice into three voices in perfect harmony), doubling (where you can duet with a man, woman or alien) and key/tempo change. It’s really neat! Tech TV even gives it four (out of five) stars!
You want to know what the best part is? I found them at Wal-Mart, where they are regularly $69.98, on sale for $10. Can you believe it? Gotta love Wally World! I promptly told mom and dad, and actually took mom there this afternoon to show her. They ended up buying four. I’m going to try and talk them into parting with one so that I could have my very own karaoke microphone. Call it a finders fee! LOL!
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Wishing I Was Off on Fridays
Posted on May 2, 2003 by Ching under Life, Wishlist.
I wish that I was off on Fridays too so I could hang out with Brian. It’s not too bad, though, because Brian takes me to work and picks me up. There’s nothing like curb-side service! Anyway, we went to the mall after work because I need some 8-lb dumbells to complete my set. I now have 3, 5, 8 and 10-lb dumbells for my Firm workouts.
While we were there we had our rings cleaned at Zales and roamed around for a little bit. Gadzooks had this humongous clearance on their men’s items. They’re going all girl as of July 7th. Brian took advantage and got yet another derogatory t-shirt. It has a winged emblem on it which says “U.R.A. idiot” and then underneath it this statement that goes, “if idiots were airplanes this would be a freaking airport” and at $10.90 it was a steal!
We browsed several stores until we found ourselves at Abercrombie & Fitch. Brian said that he’d been thinking about buying me the belt that I’ve been eyeing (more like drooling over) ever since I got the summer A&F Quarterly catalog in the mail a month ago.
I remember laying in bed one night, browsing the enticing pages of the catalog, showing it to him, and telling him how much I wanted it. He said that maybe the “belt-fairy” would get it for me. I was hopeful but I didn’t think that he was serious. I mean, $39.50 for just a belt is a bit much. Specially now that I’m on a poverty strike (or what seems like it, anyway). I told him not to get it at first because it was more of a “want” than a “need” and we have no room for “wants” right now. I told him it was impractical. He insisted on buying it for me anyway. After walking around the store and mulling over it for almost half an hour, I finally gave in.
Not that Brian isn’t a generous person in general but I think there were other motivational factors involved.
[a] He still can’t believe that I got him the Dell Axim X5 that he has been whining about for several months now as an advanced birthday present. I think he is still so giddy over it that he feels compelled to do something special for me in return.
[b] He feels like he has to compesate for the strand of long, blonde hair that I found on his shirt while we were driving to work this morning. Even though it was innocent (as in, we have no explanation for how it got there) guys just have this subconscious need to do something nice for you after an encounter like that. It doesn’t matter if they are really cheating on your or not. Guilty or not guilty, they feel the need to pacify you (perhaps as a preventive measure). I’m sure if he were guilty he’d probably buy me something bigger like Canon Powershot G3 or something.. but he’s not, so all I get is a belt. LOL!
[c] He’s just a sweet, wonderful guy. The best husband that a girl could ever hope to have. And you ask me, I think it would be [c] all the way! I was just joking about the other two (although I really did get him the PDA for his birthday and I really did find a strand of blonde hair stuck to his shirt).
Anyway, after spending almost two hours at the mall we went to Hanna Cafe for dinner. I just had California maki (it’s all that my diet will allow for that late in the evening) while Brian had some teriyaki chicken. How adventurous, huh? He did try some of my sushi and I think it’s growing on him. So that’s a step in the right direction.
After dinner we went to Wal-Mart to pick up some cat litter. As we were roaming around we ran into Kenisha and her son Bryson. I let Bryson play with the camera and he ended up taking a whole bunch of pictures. Most of the pictures from Wal-Mart above were taken by him. They may be out of frame but you can already tell that he’s got a lot of potential. LOL! Anyway, Brian and I just went home right after and now here I am blogging and sharing a photo log of my day.
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BBQ Photos
Posted on April 30, 2003 by Ching under Life, Wishlist.
Just got done watching American Idol and here are my thoughts:
– Trenyce didn’t deserve to go home. She chose some really good songs to sing and she sounded great!
– Kimberly Locke was awesome! I loved her rendition of “Where the Boys Are” and I also loved that she sang one of my all-time favorite songs during their 60’s music medley, “To Sir With Love.”
– I can’t believe Clay sang “Buttercup” — I love that song! It always makes me think of one of my favorite movies, “There’s Something About Mary.”
– They should have sent Josh home. He performed the worst. This just goes to show that America is on crack and totally clueless. Pia say it was racism. I think the voters just have no taste. LOL! Kidding aside, I think they just felt bad for Josh because Simon was really rough on him but Simon was just giving his opinion. It was crappy. It reminds me of how they kept Carmen for several weeks and got rid of the other people first when she was really one of the worst ones.
– During the brief time that I saw Julia during their group performance with Burt Bacharach, I was totally taken by her. She looks even more amazing now that she’s not on the show. I guess with all that free time she has more time to go tanning. She was hot!
– I want a Nokia 3650 camera phone!
Anyway.. Here are some pictures from our barbeque last Sunday..
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Dave’s Birthday
Posted on April 28, 2003 by Ching under Family.
Some photo highlights from Brian’s father’s birthday a couple of weeks ago..
Want to see the rest?
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Pregnancy Scare
Posted on April 28, 2003 by Ching under Life.
And the saga continues..
Brian and I couldn’t wait another day to find out if I was indeed pregnant or not so when he came home from work on Saturday night (which is around 12:30 am because of his crappy schedule) we both drove to Wal-Mart to pick up another pregnancy test. Normally we go to Dillons, which used to be open 24 hours also, but the two that are near our house close at midnight now. We found it out the hard way, one very rainy evening too.
Anyway we normally get Ept but in doing my research the other day, I found out that the Wal-Mart brand Equate pregnancy test kit was not only less expensive but also more sensitive (it can sense lower hCG levels thereby detecting pregnancy much earlier than other brands). So we got a two-pack this time — just in case I screw it up again.
In case you were wondering how I screwed up, my big mistake was drinking all of that water — big no-no. When you drink a lot of liquid hoping to force pee out, you actually dilute the hCG in the urine. And even though it says on the box that the test can be taken at any time of the day, it is best to use your morning urine. The sample has to be in your body for at least four hours in order for it to contain the highest level of hCG possible.
On Sunday morning I woke up anxious to take the test. I didn’t want to miss my pee or not have enough on the test so as soon as I sat down, I put the wand between my legs and counted, “One Mississippi.. Two Mississippi..” According to everything that I have read, you also must have five seconds worth of pee because not enough pee may render the test invalid. Or, worse yet, the test result will be negative when you are in fact pregnant.
The test, once again, came back negative. I will not describe to you what I found when I got up but if we would have waited another week, we wouldn’t have had to buy another prenancy test kit. Another $20 down the tubes. But as they say, better safe than sorry. Brian and I are actually thinking of putting me on the birth control patch because this Billings thing is starting to be more trouble than it’s worth.
Before we move on to that, however, Brian still wants to make sure that I’m really not pregnant. At this point I’m convinced that I’m not but he still has doubts. A couple of minutes after I went back to bed, he got up to pee and double-checked the results (still negative) — this, even after I told him that I got my period already.
He’s like, “Are you really on your period? Are you bleeding a lot?” Still unsatisfied he goes, “Let’s see how long your period lasts.” As if there is some magic formula which states if you only have an ounce or two days of bleeding then you really are pregnant — despite what the pregnancy tests tell you! This whole pregnancy scare has turned my husband into a superstitious old lady!
I can’t say I blame him. After all, this has been the closest of all our close calls. Â
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