Eric had a link to a site where you can specify countries and states in the US that you've visited. Admittedly, I'm stretching the definition of "visited," so I've included some states and countries that I've only had layovers in. But the pictures look cooler with more red.

Make your own! If you get "site busy" errors, just keep hitting refresh. Whee!

sha_sha_new@hotmail.com

I think it's pretty safe to say that most people have similar major goals in life: be successful, find someone to share your life with, don't get hit by a bus, etc. However, I think where we differ is our set of minor life goals. Here is my partial list (in no particular order):

1) Touch a live panda
2) Be described in writing as "sassy"
3) Ollie
4) Publish a photograph
5) Successfully keep a saltwater fish tank (I totally wanted clownfish before "Finding Nemo" ever came out)
6) Visit Australia
7) Learn to drive standard
8) Build something in a metal shop

In other news, this week's Phrase of the Week is: "organized chihuahuas." This one comes courtesy of Becky and can be used in the following manner:

sha_sha_new@hotmail.com

I just realized that my computer at work doesn't have a 3.0 GHz processor.

It has two 3.0 GHz processors. Kick ass.

And I'd just like to say that it's pretty damn stupid that Britney Spears can get married for 55 hours in Las Vegas and receive no more than a proverbial slap on the wrist, but if you happen to be two men or two women who want to get married, Lord no! Marriage is sacred.

If anything, we should be drawing up legislation to ban celebrity marriages.

sha_sha_new@hotmail.com

As some of you may know, my grandmother (my dad's mom) passed away a few years ago. Recently, my parents realized that she still had some frequent flyer miles left for an airline, so they decided to redeem them for magazine subscriptions for me. A thoughtful idea, although my parents failed to inform me of it ahead of time, and I did call them in a panic one night, informing them that I was getting magazines addressed to her. After getting over the fear of identity theft, I started to enjoy the array of magazines that my parents chose for me.

Recently, though, I've started to get junk mail addressed to her. Some of it related to magazines, others promising 0% APR for the next 6 months. It's fairly disturbing to get junk mail addressed to your dead grandmother, but more so, it's annoying and is the surest sign that companies sell their customer data.

Because of this, I started thinking about e-mail spam, a topic near and dear to my heart. By the time my Stanford e-mail address expired, I was getting round about 40 spam e-mails a day. I'm curious how I actually got all that spam, so I'm doing an experiment. I signed up for 3 new hotmail addresses, and I'm going to try 3 different ways to get them spammed.

1) sha_sha_new@hotmail.com: This address I'm just going to post on my webpage a whole bunch of times and see if spambots pick it up. Those of you with webpages can help me out with this if you want.

2) sha_sha_new_2@thesameserver: I'm going to use this address to post to random newsgroups.

3) sha_sha_new_3@thesameserver: I'll use this one to register on a whole bunch of webpages.

I'll keep you all updated if any of the 3 get any spam. Maybe I'll get none, in which case ISPs and webpages are doing something right. Maybe I'll forget about it, and never speak of it again. Or maybe, just maybe, I'm a big ol' nerd for doing this.

sha_sha_new@hotmail.com

Maybe.

[Edit: Doing a Google search for "frequent flyer" (a lazy way for me to spell-check) returns "CatholiCity: Discover the Catholic Church" as the third result. Weird.]

Don't break the foil on one of those espresso capsules with your thumb, no matter how curious you are about what's inside, because boy do those suckers pop.

PRIVATEER

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- Why is it so socially unacceptable to eat alone? There is no greater look of fear on one's face than when they walk into the cafeteria after paying for their meal, and can't find someone to sit with. Somehow it's okay if you take a book with you, but most people, myself included, are more likely to eat at their desks than sit at a table alone.

- Who was the first to make a movie trailer with the structure of:
1) Show various clips from the movie, with That Movie Trailer Guy doing voiceovers, and some sort of exciting music playing in the background
2) Show movie title (bonus points if it's animated)
3) Show another clip from the movie.
a) If it's an action/thriller, it will be some tense moment where our hero(es) are moving very slowly in some sort of dangerous situation
b) If it's a comedy, someone will make a witty remark
c) This leads to....
4) A BIG swell in the music or a loud bang or some other kind of startling noise, and then... BANG!
5) Show the date the movie comes out

Watch the Van Helsing and Shrek 2 trailers to see what I mean. It's very common nowadays.

- I finally went and did it: I bought a Coldplay song from iTunes. Dammit. I was quite happy being in the camp of "No, Coldplay isn't all that great" but that damn song "The Scientist" wormed its way into my subconscious. I attribute it to my complete lack of discrimination when it comes to the music I listen to, and that bad habit I have of liking any song I hear enough times.

- I have now officially heard Outkast's "Hey Ya" on six stations here: 94.9, 97.3, 104.9, 105.3, 106.1, and 106.5. 94.9 and 106.1 and I can understand, and maybe even 104.9 and 105.3. But "Mix" 106.5? Come on. That just seems like blatantly capitalizing on a popular song.

- Do plants feel pain?

Well, so much for my plan to not get pulled over before my New Mexico car registration expires. I got pulled over this morning because the registration sticker on my license plate was partially covered by the stupid Garcia Honda license plate holder. It's only a fixit ticket, but more than just giving up my New Mexico license and registration, I am giving up my last shred of New Mexican identity. (Except for my undying love of green chile and peculiar pronunciation of the word "room.")

But in all honesty, I'm pretty disappointed at having to get a California driver's license and license plate since I thought I was pretty cool with my swanky NM driver's license and bright yellow license plate.

All good things must come to an end, I suppose. I just hope I can still find my car once it has one of those damn white plates on it.

You have not lived until you've heard Jackie Chan and Ani DiFranco singing Nat King Cole's "Unforgettable". I kid you not.

In other news, wha??

It sounds like a profoundly stupid thing to say, but you know, when someone dies, you never see them again. Ever. It's a strange feeling to be able to look back in your memory and say that is the last time I saw, and ever will see, this person.

On New Year's Day, my grandfather, my Mom's dad, had a stroke and fell into a coma. As the hours and days passed, the hope fell away that he would ever come out of it. My Mom and her sisters flew out to California to see him, and I visited him twice. He held on for nearly six days, but he passed away Tuesday night.

People have asked me, "Was it unexpected?" And I answer, "No, it wasn't." He had Parkinson's disease for many years, and recently had moved into an assisted-living community because of his declining physical health. But truthfully, it was unexpected. It's always unexpected. Despite the fact that he couldn't walk anymore, that he could barely see, and even despite the fact that he had had more than one close call over the past few years, nothing really prepares you for that call from your Mom saying, "Gong Gong passed away at 10:45."

I cried, some. I cried for my Mom, and the look she had on her face when she came downstairs on New Year's saying, "Gong Gong is in coma." I cried for my Aunts, and how one of them couldn't look me in the eye when I came to see Gong Gong for the last time. I cried for my grandmother, and how she kissed Gong Gong on the forehead when she left him just hours before he passed.

I once heard a quote that went something like, "When someone dies, you cry because deep down, you're glad it wasn't you." While I don't necessarily belive this, I knew that part of the reason I cried was that no matter how many people around me have passed away, it never feels any less scary.

But when I find myself thinking this way, I realize that, for Gong Gong, I don't think it was scary. His last words before he fell into the coma were, "Hao shu fu," which means, "So comfortable." He died in his sleep with his daughters at his side, after living 93 years and seeing the birth of 12 grand children and 4 great-grandchildren. And I think that perhaps he had been ready for it for a long time. So, unexpected? Yes. Scary? Maybe not. Gong Gong's finally at peace, and he'll be remembered with love by us all.

Those crazy Japanese are at it again! Check out these super cool videos of QRIO, an "entertainment robot" developed by Sony, along the lines of AIBO the robotic dog. The Fan Dance and the running videos are a must-see. Thanks to Kahn for sending me the link.

Ever feel like crashing into a comet? Well, for those of you not able to finance a deep space launch, do the next best thing: Send your name hurtling into a comet!

Howdy y'all. It's been a couple weeks since this site was updated. I spent a week at home with my sister, and the days were filled with frenzied shopping, good food, reading O.C. recaps (it's just like you're watching the show!), and lots and lots of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time. And lots. We also visited a couple of the monuments, including the Korean War Veterans Memorial, which was very eerie, and probably one of the more anti-war war monuments I've ever seen.

Afterwards, we all headed up to New York City, aka The Land of a Thousand Starbucks. My parents and I went on a couple walking tours, where we learned, among other things, that Washington Square is full of morbidly obese squirrels, with a disturbing lack of fear of humans. I also spent some time playing with Arthur's crazy dog Sophie. My sister and I spent New Year's Eve at her friend Eric's apartment, where he made us tapas and four (four!) kinds of desserts, including homemade truffles. Who the hell makes homemade truffles? Eric, aparently. I also saw RotK again with my dad and brother. It was still good the second time, though the ending was still very, very long.

Anyway, work starts again on Monday. I hope I still remember how to turn on my computer.