Lucy, the lovely and very lively hamster on HamsterTracker.com, has passed away. She is survived by Mathijs van der Pauw, the Dutch software engineer who took care of her and made her the focus of his daily photoblog.

She looks so peaceful.

We miss you, Lucy.

GREETINGS FROM TIANJIN, CHINA. I'm currently blogging from my laptop at a local Starbucks (or as the Chinese say, xīng bā kè) on Nanjing Road. As the post title suggests, I attempted to visit this blog earlier, only to be confronted by one of those ambiguous "server errors"… the "server is not responding," "the server connection was reset," blah blah blah. Well, I suspected something was afoot, and with the aid of iBypass, I confirmed it — my blog is a victim of the Great Firewall (though I doubt my URL was blocked specifically… more likely some other site on the Awardspace domain provoked the ire of some Chinese censor)!

So what am I doing here? Visiting my ailing grandfather, mainly. And while my dad is attending to his well-being, a Chinese friend of mine, Wang Zhengyuan (王正元), is showing me the sights of Tianjin. He brought me to all sorts of local museums, and took me to his university — the students in his English class were apparently excited to meet me. I even forget some of the things we did together. Anyway, he's taking me to another local university tomorrow. And on Monday, I'll be taking a train to Hangzhou.

I initially signed onto this trip a few weeks ago with the intention of merely accompanying my dad and shopping for cheap clothes. Due to my recent, intensified dislike of Asians, I resolved to bear the surfeit of Asian-ness as best as I could. However, unlike my last trip four years ago, I'm not constantly dragged around to tourist hives like the Great Wall and the Forbidden Palace. This time, the experience is a hundred times more authentic. Not only am I being guided by a real Tianjin native, but I also got the opportunity to speak with Chinese students my age, purchase whatever food I like, and walk the streets of a bustling metropolis without the dead weight of a digital camera around my neck.

At any rate, this trip has proven to be a true cultural exchange. It's a way of finding myself, in a way. Like my identity as an American. It's slightly disquieting to be constantly identified as "my American friend" by Zhengyuan or have others say "she's from America," "she's American," or "she's a foreigner." As I've never strongly identified as an American before, I've had to make some adjustments. Nonetheless, after my experiences here, I have to agree. I am an American. I'm not really anything else.

Well, I am a world citizen, too. But that's another story.

So, here's to the country that makes accessing my blog hugely inconvenient, and to the country whose portly inhabitants I love to hate. Good night, all. It's 9:22 in the evening, and I shall return to my apartment momentarily.

Until next time,
Jenny-fa, from Tianjin, China

P.S. I'm also keeping a mental tally of the all the obese people I've seen in China. After one week, it's now 15.

It's video time again.

For some reason, I found the below clip greatly amusing.

Delicious Snacks Distract Congressmen From Horrors Of War

This one's a favorite as well.

Ambassador Stages Coup At UN, Issues Long List of Non-Binding Resolutions

But in terms of ludicrous and disturbing content, this one takes the cake.

Should We Be Doing More To Reduce The Graphic Violence In Our Dreams?

The Onion News Network, ladies and gentlemen. Ahem.

You may know William Shatner from TV. You know… Captain Kirk in the original Star Trek, Denny Crane in Boston Legal, and occasional shaman in World of Warcraft. What you might not know is that he's also Priceline's "Negotiator."

Yes, OGT week starts tomorrow and I have nothing better to do. So humor me and watch these brilliant commercials.

Undercover Negotiator

The Negotiator Travel-Napping

The Negotiator and NoFee

Continue reading »

Remember Dreamhost's Year-End Blowout Sale last December, the one I was bragging about, with the uber-cheap $0.77 pricing per month? Well, Dreamhost is reviving it again for Valentine's and President's Day (the exact same deal)! The sale, according to their home page, ends today, February 15, but they will stretch it out for several days, though in reduced discount increments — meaning you shouldn't wait to take advantage of it, if anything!

Excerpt from Dreamhost:

Sign up today for a one-year hosting plan using the promotional code "777" and you'll get a whole year of web hosting (including a domain registration) for just $9.24! That's 92% off!

Instructions for signup are provided on their home page. The deal is only available for first-time customers, and the discount is valid for one year. Don't make the same mistake of not reading my blog last December, and sign up today!

And remember, this update is provided as a courtesy. Show some appreciation! You know I have better things to do than blog about every little Web hosting sale.

In other news, the snowfall outside resembles light, feathery down. My dad is a procrastinator (keeps asserting that he'll work on his taxes, though it's been several weeks), and I'm entre la espada y la pared with this scholarship application. My dad hasn't gotten an address change from the post office yet, and I don't trust that witch to hold those envelopes for me.