Yaty and I went to the Aquarium on our last trip to California, and I picked up a few Seafood Watch wallet cards:

A program of Monterey Bay Aquarium designed to raise consumer awareness about the importance of buying seafood from sustainable sources. We recommend which seafood to buy or avoid, helping consumers to become advocates for environmentally friendly seafood. We're also partners of the Seafood Choices Alliance where, along with other seafood awareness campaigns, we provide seafood purveyors with recommendations on seafood choices.

[ Monterey Bay Aquarium: About the Seafood Watch Program ]

The display they made in conjunction with this was quite informative. For example I figured the best salmon was farm-raised because it wouldn't impact the wild salmon. In fact it's quite the opposite. Farm-raised salmon actually damages the wild populations.

The more you know... and of course, Knowing is half the battle...

My PC seemed always have issues when I was away for a time being. It would be slow to "revive". Granted, I am a bit of a "power user". I have my wallpaper cycling every 15 minutes, which I suspect is a large part of the problem. It likely forces much of my system onto the scratch disc, which then requires a bit of work to pull back. Recently, Rhapsody has made it worse. It seems to like sucking quite a bit of RAM too. I had tried out some RAM freeing up program with mixed success before, but thought I'd try one again. This is what I found:

Our first and very popular product, FreeRAM XP Pro, optimizes computer RAM (Random Access Memory). Our software is available for download from CNET and Simtel, among many other sources.

[ YourWare Solutions: Quality freeware and home of FreeRAM XP Pro ]

After one day, I am still pleased. Sure that's not much time, but this morning it was much easier to log into my machine and get to work.

Visited the US Botanical Gardens today, Yaty read this and thought of Tom:

Join us for an exploration of tropical fruit botany. We will get to taste and experience some of the more unusual fruits of the world. Would you like to try a lychee? Will you be brave enough to sample the durian? A short tour of the USBG’s tropical fruit plants will be included in the workshop.

[ Longing for Longans and Loquats ]

Sounds yummy to me, and only $5!

Featuring:

• Oman: Desert, Oasis, and Sea
• Forest Service, Culture, and Community
• Nuestra Música: Music in Latino Culture
• Food Culture USA

[ 2005 Smithsonian Folklife Festival ]

As I've said before, if you are new to DC and don't know about the Folklife Festival, make sure you don't miss it. This year it runs June 23-27 and June 30-July 4, 2005 and is open daily 11 am-5:30 pm.

I have many great memories from Festivals past, and never been disappointed except when I messed up the dates and missed the whole thing.

In my life that is.

Netflix Delivers DVD Rentals To You With Netflix you can rent as many DVDs from the comfort of your home and have them delivered to your door in about 1 business day! There are no late fees and no due dates, and shipping is free both ways. Plans start at $9.99 plus any applicable tax. With our most popular plan, 3-at-a-time, you can rent as many DVDs as you want for just $17.99 a month plus any applicable tax. You keep a revolving library of up to 3 DVDs at a time and can exchange them for new available DVDs as often as you like. There are no additional charges.

[ Netflix - Rent DVDs Online - Try Free ]

After I found a queue filled with nothing I was looking forward to, I decided to go on a movie moratorium. I should now have a sufficient amount of back log to fill a queue with movies. And now that Yaty's here, and Netflix supports more than one queue per account, we should have a steady supply of movies for quite a while.

How can you help? Have you seen a good movie in the last year and a half that I haven't? You could suggest a few of the gems I've missed...

Call them straps, charms, fobs, or thing that helps you fish your phone out of your pocket or purse; they are very popular with me and other 14 year old Asian Girls:

We work hard for you keeping in mind this words. This does not mean just to sell well phone straps all over the world. We think that one Phone Strap is a tiny toy or pettit [sic] accessory for a person but it has an infinite loveliness maybe he longs for. This is What we are all about. "From Japan to you, we bring Straps to you with Love"

[ Phone Strap & Accessory, StrapYa! Stuff Introduction ]

They have everything from Zippo lighters, to Hello Kitty, to food items, and even miniature cell phones to hang off your your cell phone. I've been surfing for hours in amazement, and looking for a replacement for the "Hula Girl" that Yaty isn't so keen on. I found another site that has some coffee related charms, but alas I don't speak Japanese, nor live in Japan.

fratmosphere n. an environment resembling or affiliated with a college fraternity.

[ Double-Tongued Word Wrester Dictionary: fratmosphere ]

Indonesia is a big place:

Yeah, it's a long distance from Aceh to the New Guinea border

[ Joe Grossberg ]

But I live even farther than that. My wife was a tiny bit concerned that stuff would be hard to find. We found a few places on-line that sell Indonesian groceries, and when in California stopped in on another. But her friends at IUC have pointed us toward a goldmine:

Vietnam Imports
Oriental Food & Gifts
922 West Broad Street (Rt 7)
Falls Church VA 22046
Ph. 703 534-9441
Hours: 10 am - 8 pm (Mon-Sat)
10 am - 7 pm (Sunday)

Vietnam Imports is an odd name for a place that carries mostly Indonesian grocery items. There are some Vietnamese and a few Thai, but they even carry Teh Botol! It goes without saying that my wife is rather pleased.

And, for those who don't know, Teh Botol is the #1 bestest iced tea in the world.

For years the only country in the EU without full recognition of their language was Ireland (though I don't know about the new countries added recently). While I can understand the practicality of this, it always seemed like a bit of a slight. Now that's been rectified:

Ireland's national language is the 21st to be given such recognition by the EU and previously had the status of a treaty language.

[ BBC NEWS ]

And he's made us wait long enough. Just the first single off of his upcoming album has been released, but it has succeeded in whetting my appetite. Feels Just Like It Should is as funky as Jamiroquai ever gets, and the Rhapsody review agrees.

The Department of Homeland Security's Citizenship and Immigration Services has released a guide for new immigrants:

This comprehensive guide contains practical information to help immigrants settle into everyday life in the United States, as well as basic civics information that introduces new immigrants to the U.S. system of government.

[ CIS ]

Though, looking through the guide, there are quite a few Americans who would benefit from a perusal of this life information.

Props go out to whomever left this article in the Mercury News open on the table. (Most likely Mom or Dad)

Tomorrow, God willing, I head out to the sunny San Francisco Bay Area to welcome Yaty, my wife, to the US and to hang out with my folks for a few days. The weather looks perfect, I'm almost done packing, I've remembered to pick up a couple of gifts for her birthday (June 10th), and another little surprise for when she lands in the airport (can't say because she reads my page).

Currently I haven't planned much for the week, but I'm hoping for a short trip to Monterey to see the Aquarium; a trip into the city to see Pier 39, the Golden Gate, and Muir woods; a dinner out with the IUC gang; and something special (map) for her birthday. That right there should take most of the time we have, I guess.

I hope I am remembering everything I need for the trip, but to be honest this should be the easiest packing I've done in a long time. Iman has school and won't be able to come along, so I'm only packing for me. And California, contrary to the belief of some, is a domestic destination and requires little more than a visit inside Virginia.

I am flying America West, but I'm not sure how that happened, I had been planning to try out DC's newest airline, Independence Air, but somehow ended up changing that. It also seems I haven't flown much domestically in a while, as I've been informed that food is available for purchase on the flight. For purchase? How cheap have American airlines gotten? Can I fly JAL to California? I'm very skeptical about this shift in the food policy of airlines, but I've been told that everyone does it that way now.