Sometimes my recent search requests piss me off… like when I realize that I’m the #1 result for skanky Koreans. Seriously. Go on, laugh.

Snookums and the Art of Zen
I don’t think I mentioned it on the site, but I gave the Snook a “zen garden” for his birthday last month. It’s this little wooden box filled with sand and smooth polished rocks, and it comes with a tiny rake so you can smooth it out. He likes it a lot. It’s set up in our dining room and every week or so he redesigns it. It helps him de-stress. Since I figure some of you could use de-stressing too, I’ve decided to share his designs with you. Next time you’re upset or frustrated, just stare at the zen garden for a while. It’s the next best thing to being a Buddhist!

Damn the BBC! They stole my idea! Well, rest assured we won’t be reading any Garrison Keillor crap in the web-goddess book group.

Health Report: I am back in action, friends. The tummy bug seems to have fled and I’m feeling a lot better (though I already miss its pseudo-bulimic weight loss side effects). I even ventured back to the gym today for another round of Body Pump. Overall I’ve lost just shy of 20 pounds since starting Atkins six weeks ago. Isn’t that insane? I don’t feel like I’ve lost 20 pounds. I don’t think I look that dramatically different. I have noticed little things, like my jeans being looser and fitted blouses looking better. I guess since I’ve been putting on muscle it’s not so much getting smaller as getting denser. Anyway, onwards and upwards… and thanks for all the kind words over the weekend.

As each day brings a fresh assault on our personal liberties (courtesy of the “War on Terror”), I know a lot of folks are worried about the erosion of privacy and the creation of a “Big Brother” state. I’m not. It’s already here. Today I received my summer copy of Notre Dame Magazine in the mail. Only problem is, I never gave them our new address. In fact, I’m pretty sure I never even told them I was moving to Australia. Sure, it took ’em eight months, but those dogged Catholics eventually tracked me down. I can’t believe it. (The things that school will do for an alumni donation!) So don’t bother getting worked up over national ID cards or Ashcroft’s TIPS army of informers. Big Brother is already here and he’s evidently in league with the Pope.

For some reason I found this experiment really hilarious: scientists at Cambridge University injected mice with speed and made them listen to The Prodigy. Of course, several of them died. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not pro-animal cruelty. That part is sad. It just seems like such a random experiment. What, did they put on a strobe light and give the mice miniature glowsticks too? And how the heck does this relate to Huntingdon’s disease? Weirdness.

Good grief. It never fails; whenever I find tons of stuff I want to post, my site goes down. I have no idea what’s going on. I’ve been flaming my host every couple of hours. Normally they’re great, but for some reason the machine that w-g is on has just gone completely flaky in the last month. Do me a favor. If you ever notice that the site is down, could you drop me an e-mail? I’d like to be able to tell them how often it’s happening.

How’s everybody doing with the book? Did those of you who’d ordered it finally get it? I’m thinking we could start the discussion properly in a week or so. Also, keep in mind that we’ll be doing The Lovely Bones next. I’ve had a request in for it at my local bookstore forever, but no luck yet. If you haven’t gotten a copy yet, start looking!

Max found a great article about the rise and fall of the Backstreet Boys. Confession: I own their “Millennium” album. Come on, “I Want It That Way” is seriously one of the best pop songs ever. It’s not high art or anything, but I think there’s merit in the fact that it embodies the genre so perfectly. It’s catchy, it’s disposable, it’s fun to sing. And Tara D does a wicked Nick Carter imitation on his solo.

When my mom’s family moved to America from Korea, my mom and her siblings were automatically U.S. citizens by virtue of their American father. My grandma, on the other hand, had to be naturalized. She had to learn all about the government and our important documents and even take a test to prove her knowledge. Think you could do the same? Check out this U.S. Citizenship Test with actual questions from the INS version. I got 11/11, but a couple of them I had to think about. (Link courtesy of Mia.)