iHaTePiNk: Friendster Edition

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 4×6 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 4×6 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 16×22), 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.

I’m such a sucker for puppies. Especially cute ones. (Hmm, don’t think I’ve ever met a puppy I didn’t think was cute … )

Yup. A bona fide cutie. (Hahah, yes, both Vicki and Bella and cuties … )

*Love* it when I get these mouth-open-wide shots. [ check out ze album ]

Presale tix at the Teahouse for $10! [ more info ]

Sweet. I think I discovered their “Dim Sum Girl” through Will. I can’t find an original Dim Sum Girl video by the Notorious MSG; instead, here is a hilarious lip-synch done by some sisters in Hong Kong that had me roflmao for realz:

I got to hang with Clover, the sassy pug, as Elaine calls her.

[ the complete photoshoot ]

So I was going on a bike ride, and wanted to record video while doing so.

I was gonna buy the Flip Action Mount (marketed as an accessory with the Flip Ultra / Mino) and was also thinking about a Gorillapod …

Then I chanced upon Camera Hacker’s site with instructions and other links on how to make your own!

I read it excitedly, but realized that I had no access to power tools in the time frame that I had (2 hrs), plus I wouldn’t know how to use them anyway, and almost dismissed the idea from my mind.

Well, on a lark, I still went to the dollar store as Camera Hacker suggests for the first piece in his bicycle camera mount. I realized with dismay that 1. they didn’t carry anything like he said, and 2. I didn’t remember any other details, and didn’t have time to go back and look them up, ie. like what size screw fits into the camera tripod mount hole thingy!!

With sheer dumb luck I bought a few pieces, brought them home, and made my own within 45 mins, a little over a dollar’s worth of materials, and with minimal tools.

Materials:

1. Ghetto-looking hose clamp that happened to have just the right size screw for mounting a camera (2-pack; $1.09)
2. Ghetto rubber chair foot covers (4-pack; $1.09)

The result:

  + =

You know I’m all about the g-h-e-t-t-o, but this doesn’t look half bad, if I do say so myself. [ get the play-by-play with commentary on the DIY project here ] [ resulting footage that catches me biting it on my way home after the ride ]

Had a good day at work, created my own camera bike mount (pics to come), had dinner with the parents, rode 15 miles with a friend, cooled off afterwards with her and her pug (more pics to come).

I felt really good after the 15 miles, but apparently my legs turned to rubber. Peep the video of what happened when we were riding home after the ride. Please excuse my deafening laugh (careful with the audio), I think I must have been in shock. OR maybe I just sound the dorky in real life and don’t realize it …

Molly came for a visit today. This is how she felt about being out in the sub-100°F weather:

Summer is just gettin’ started here in Houston. Yippee.