So I was going on a bike ride, and wanted to record video while doing so.
I was gonna buy the
Flip Action Mount
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 ...
Summer is just gettin' started here in Houston. Yippee.
I got to see a friend who came in from out of town tonight, and they felt like Santong Noodles in Chinatown. I hadn't been there in awhile, and remembered vaguely that they didn't have too much vegetarian selection and that their service was kinda rude. But whatever, it didn't matter, friend wanted to go, and maybe things would be different this time.
Round 1
Mean Lady Cashier (MLC): What do you want?
Me: I'm a vegetarian, do you have some dry noodles that are vegetarian?
MLC: Yes, this one is.
Me: Does it have vegetables on top?
MLC: Yes.
I pay. I sit down, and the food comes out. I should've taken a picture of it, but I must have been too stunned. It was a big bowl of noodles with sesame sauce, but ... with just 5 measly pieces of cabbage on it, about 2 cm in diameter each, that looked like someone thought it'd be too much trouble to get a knife out to cut it, and instead tore them by hand and threw them onto the noodles.
Fine. Well, I thought I'd get some actual vegetable intake rather than just have 99.9% carbs for dinner, so I asked if maybe there were some ready-made cold dishes I could get.
Round 2
MLC: Yeah?
Me: Do you have any vegetarian cold dishes?
MLC: Well, they have garlic in them. (Some Buddhist vegetarians don't
eat garlic.)
Me: That's fine, I eat garlic.
MLC: Well then everything you see in this fridge is vegetarian.
Me(eyeing a beef dish right in front of my face at eye level):
But um, isn't this beef right here?
MLC: Look you said you eat garlic so what's the problem?
------------
I will admit, the quality of the actual noodles is good, which is probably why everyone I know (non-vegetarian) loves to go back to eat there.
Hey, I'm not asking for high-class VIP service. C'mon, it's Chinatown. But serving me a dish with a poor excuse for vegetables and being short with me isn't really going to make me want to come back. Well, I guess I'm glad to have gotten reminded why I don't go on a regular basis.
Chinatown Boycott #1 was at Chinese Cafe, also very rude when I asked a vegetarian-related question.
So every once in awhile I'll get on my bike and ride around and enjoy the sunshine while I run some errands at nearby locations.
I am thankful for the presence of REAL bike racks at Target! And of course for the
fact that they sell toilet paper ...
I borrowed the handicapped parking marker at Unnamed Location 1:
I think this was some sort of "no parking" sign at Unnamed Location 3:
Funny graffiti along the way:
And I'm so proud of myself! I didn't use a single plastic bag yesterday! I just put my goods straight into my backpack. This of course still gives the illusion of shoplifting, so I am thinking how to overcome this.
Jumpin' off swings,
Jumpin' off planes,
And jumpin' on bridges.
My legs sure were sore that weekend. :)
Peep the skydive pics, and the skydive vid, remixed by yours truly, and lemme know what you think. :)
Eda, Yusuke, Violeta and I (and little Sophie too!) went to check out Fotofest 2008 for one day, hoping to catch photography during the Cultural Revolution in China. Instead, it was a lecture on the history of Chinese photography in general, so we started meandering about the museum, and revisited the light tunnel, where I was almost exactly one year ago with Chi-Wei:
"Gimme!"
It was my first time meeting Sophie. Very cool. :)
Last weekend, Tree Frog invited us up to his family's ranch house in a little town between Houston and Austin. For a city girl like me, I was a bit apprehensive since I mean, c'mon, how do you live with ZERO internet?! :)
Well, I am proud to say that not only did I survive without internet, but I even had offline, real-life fun! :) The crisp air was refreshing. We were surrounded by green grass, blue sky, and clear water. The puppies that came along seemed to enjoy the large expanse of roamable land. I learned to ride a 4-wheeler with manual shift (I can't drive a manual car to save my life). I rode a tractor lawn mower. We ate Tree Frog's mom's freshly homemade brownies. We rode in the back of a pickup truck. We jumped around on bales of hay. We slept in tents with only thin layers of sleeping bag separating our bodies from the ground (and then there was the tent that had not one, but two Aerobeds? Heehee!). I'd forgotten what it felt like to not HAVE to be anywhere, and to kinda just do ... nothing in particular, except focus on chillin'. :)
Thanks to those who came out (especially those that battled severe disorientation in the dark to come join us)! Enjoy the pics. Lots of epic memories in this one. :)
Tree Frog's rendering was on the front page of the Austin American-Statesman's Business section (that pic in the middle beside the Dell story):
[ view
larger ] [ view
full-size (5MB) ]
These scans were pieced together (not entirely perfectly, but good enough) using Photoshop's Photomerge tool. I tried my tried-and-true Canon Photostitch, but it wasn't able to line up the text very well.
Chef Hugh was on the front page of the Chinese Community News for his recent non-cooking developments. He's the handsome dude with the pretty girl on the rightmost:
Congratulations to the newlyweds. :)
Chef Hugh stays busy with the introduction of son #2, P-Jo, XO's youngest brother from the same litter. He seemed a bit depressed as he was probably coping with having just gotten his tummy stitched up.
Papa Hugh showing P-Jo's stitches.
In addition to the unique coloration of his face, his paws exhibit a little half-and-half
action as well.
Look at those wrinkly little legs! Aww!
[ more pics ]
These two pups are gonna be getting a lotta love from Auntie Caroline. :)
