I’m addicted to shopping online.. its quite sad considering there’s not much online shopping for me to do in Taiwan.. there arent’ that many sites to begin with (although there is my personal favorite, eBay) and to make matters worse, they’re pretty much all in Chinese.. yes, eBay included.. so now that I’m going back to the States for Chinese New Year, I feel compelled to buy everything I ever wanted or think I may want, because shopping in Taiwan just doesnt do it for me.. product selection here sucks (mostly domestic market goods, not many imported brands), prices are comparable to (sometimes even higher than) prices back home, and its just generally inconvenient.. like, I dont want to blow $6 on a taxi ride to go look at something if I’m not going to buy it.. so, when we started buying gifts for friends and family back home, we did all of our shopping online and in 1 day.. I think thats what got me started.. the blood started to flow and my palms started to sweat.. I started hitting all the product review sites.. like CNet.com.. all the deal sites, my personal favorite being Gotapex.com.. checked the bank account and I started shopping.. somethings, I bought because we “needed” them (well, we never really NEED anything.. but you know.. at least I had a somewhat decent reason for buying it).. other things, I tried to c0nvince myself I needed it.. and still, other things, I just kept thinking, I MAY need it in the future.. I fought with myself as to whether I should click the “Complete Purchase” button or not.. I’d empty the cart, thinking my “need” would go away, only to return to the site an hour later and put the item back into a shopping cart and proceed to checkout again.. the worst case was when I was contemplating the purchase of an HP/Compaq 2215 Pocket PC.. I kept thinking I needed it.. but then I’d think I wouldn’t use it (as evidenced by my prior Palm Pilot Pro, Palm IIIc, Handspring Visor, and Toshiba e310 purchases).. but then I’d think that I need it and I would use it.. then I’d think it would be a waste.. the worst thought, by far, was that HP has a credit offer of 12 months 0% interest.. so I kept trying to justify that if I did finance it, I’d only be paying like $30/month.. and $30 per month is nothing!.. I must have taken the shopping cart to the checkout like 5 or 6 times before I finally decided that I wouldn’t buy one now and I would wait for the new ones to come out (at which time I may have very well forgotten I “need” a Pocket PC).. I found a report about Japanese consumers and online purchasing.. the report made a big deal out of 30.6% of Japanese consumers admitted to spending more than 50,000 Yen last year.. BFD.. $500 in a year? HAHAHAH! I could do that in one sitting..

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On the way to work this morning.. I was listening to 2 co-workers talk about their drive to work, when they had the freedom to drive to work back home in the States.. one co-worker said in Chinese, “yeah, I take 405 all the way..”.. so it reminded me of something that Northern California people used to mention.. I’ve heard it on more than one occasion and from more than one person.. and that’s how, apparently, only Southern California people make reference to local freeways by preceding it with a “the”.. for example, if I was giving directions that included the use of a freeway, I would say, “take THE 405 North and exit Culver Blvd..”.. apparently, Northern California people would say, “take 405 North and exit Culver Blvd”.. although I’m no English grammar major, I would think that the use of the word ‘the’ is justified. If we substitute “405 North” with “freeway”, then it would be correct to say “take THE freeway and exit Culver Blvd..”.. it would be weird to say “take freeway and exit Culver Blvd…”.. that’s like Tarzan Speak.. “me Tarzan, you Jane, take freeway and exit Culver Blvd..”.. anyways, back to work before my master has realized I’m not being productive..

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Here is an awesome poster from Despair.com, they sell demotivaitonal posters (as opposed to those “motivational” posters that don’t seem to motivate anyone)..

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