This web site is a personal site, nothing affiliated with a business or devoted to a rock group or anything. The jpgs on my homepage are actually different types of sponges in various stages of life. I chose this as my site motif because I would like to think that I am a sponge in life, soaking up all the knowledge I can and expanding my mind accordingly. This is just my humble philosophy that I should soak up and learn as much about everything as humanly possible. I also believe in being passionate in life, it doesn't matter what, just one thing that makes your blood boil or maybe more than one thing if you're lucky. So you'll find my thoughts and ideas sprinkled all throughout my site and feel free to disagree with me or call me a whacko...variety of opinions is really the spice of life.

Wow, who is this hulking mass of baby you ask? It is actually me, about 6 months after I entered this world. When I was first storyboarding my site, it was hard to decide exactly where to start so I guess starting at the beginning of my life is as good a place as any. The Chinese characters at the top of this page actually mean sponge when read together. My mother was kind enough to provide the lovely handwriting so thanks to her. However, if you look at the two characters individually and not together, they actually mean "ocean" and "face," respectively. Chinese etymology or word origins are totally interesting and the same characters can have so many different meanings depending on how you can split the character.

Here I am, about 8 years into my life. Can you find me amidst all these other children? I'll give you a hint...I don't think my features have changed much from my baby picture. The rest of the kids in the picture are my extended family of cousins who I grew up with. Now my extended family is much larger than this, this is just the peer group of my family. I included this picture because I was so thrilled with digging it up from my archives that I didn't know what to do with myself:) No, seriously, I believe that having supportive family in life is very important in a person's development. Not everyone is lucky enough to have supportive family but I've just been tremendously fortunate to have the support of mine. Sorry about the quality of my baby and family pictures, ya know they're kind of old and of course, I can't go back in time (unfortunately) and capture better digital images for you. That said, can you spot me in the picture? Ok, I'm the first girl from the left in the front row. Dig that sailorgirl outfit:)

Ok, this is me a couple of decades older, hopefully wiser, and with a different haircut:) Except who is this ghost woman on the left?! Whoa, everyone come to a screeching halt! This image here is a prime example of how one should not use his/her digital camera. #1: Don't take cheesy pictures of yourself like I did here. #2: Don't take cheesy pictures of yourself in very bad lighting. Don't worry, my pics do get better:) Thanks to my new friend Nathan from The Good Guys (an electronics store) located in SF's Stonestown mall. Nathan was patient enough to teach me the basics of popping and making a digital picture come alive from its original grainy composition. Not only is he a good salesperson (he sold me my digital camera), he's very knowledgeable and really "a good guy."

Ah, much better, I hope... This portrait was taken by my friend and professional photographer, Seth Affoumado. Notice the lighting and background are much better in this pic than the hideous one above. Plus, it was taken by a person who knows all about the nuances of photography. Seth is a great photographer and all around nice guy who takes photos all across this country. He was kind enough to take these for me and in fact, all the photos you see on my site with me in this cobalt blue shirt are taken by him. If you like what you see, you can contact him at: Seth Affoumado, (415) 731-7300 or email him at: sethaff@earthlink.net. The rest of the photos on the site are taken by yours truly unless otherwise noted.