Tuesday
:: Rope Burn : 5-5:25pm with Dave
:: Great workout, does a lot in only 20 minutes
:: While last time, I had to stop for water like 3 times, this time I managed to jump continuously for 20 minutes, excluding trips over the rope (mostly due to the fact that I brought my own lightweight rope instead of using their heavy beaded one.) =)
:: Read Dave's testimonial on how great this class is!

Monday
:: Body toning : 12-1pm
:: Old ladies are way better at this than I am... it's time to shape up!

It's almost like being a parking meter good samaritan but not...

I slid my card in the laundry room to dry my clothes only to then push the button for the wrong (occupied) dryer, thus giving the lucky or unlucky guy or gal another whole 60 minutes on their drying when all they had left was 11 minutes. Not only did that cost me an extra buck, but it prevented me from actually drying my own clothes since the stupid machine thought I had started already.

I surely need a better excuse for my brain farts now and then. They seem to happen too often that it could be a chronic condition.

Today was wonderful.

I did no work.

I got plenty of exercise.

Had fun with Trinh, Keiji and Jamie tonight to celebrate the new year. As what I mentioned to them tonight about the advice my mom gave to me, Trinh has got a "good one". =) Congratulations you two!

What the heck am I doing to myself?

The usual me:

* I don't drink
But today, I drank, very little, but still, it was actually the most alcohol I'd ever had in my life.

* I don't eat raw fish
But today, I had raw salmon and tuna. I'll worry about problems when it come, or doesn't come??

* I don't eat beef
But the past week, I had a roast beef sandwich and a beef tamale.

Yeah, I'm flimsy flamsy. Whatevers, no point in sticking to something all the time. =)

Happy New Year!!

Rainbow roll

Keiji, Jamie, Trinh and me at Sushi House

Jamie, Keiji, Trinh, and me at Trinh's Vietnamese New Year celebration

Saturday
:: 1-4pm : Badmintion with Allan, Keiji, Richard, Shankar and Trinh
:: Have much to learn, like serving, but otherwise very fun!

And that completes the most worked out week Frances ever had in her life.

Random pic : October 19, 2002 : microarrayer

Random pic : December 28, 2003 : sock!

Random pic : August 8, 2004 : Me, my former boss Marc Rieffel (his uncle of the exact same name is a math prof in Berkeley), Christine Lee (who's getting married in March in Vegas) and her former boss Cecilie Boysen

Random pic : September 5, 2004 : Kristen on BART

My body feels great.

Why didn't I ever realize to work out and be healthier before?

I guess I wasn't surrounded by people who did it a lot, but now I am.

Everyone I know has now become my personal trainers.

Anytime someone works out, it's likely I'll be there too.

I'm still hesitant to post any of my fat pictures yet. I can't believe I used to be that big back then. No one ever told me that I was overweight. I'm sure you'll see a lot of overweight people walking around who have no idea that everyone else thinks they're heavy. Even my parents didn't tell me. Now that I am in better shape, then they tell me how big I used to be. Perceptions trick. Perhaps even now I am still, but then of course, how would I know? Everyone is too polite or apathetic to tell me. But now, I just feel so much better. And that ice cream today was fantabulous. =)

This week so far... Frances is being so good! Who knows if she'll ever keep this up...

Sunday
:: Ran perimeter, 2.5 miles, ~half an hour

Monday :: 9am : 158 pounds
:: Weights with Jamie
:: Precor machine, 15 min
:: Rowing machine, 10 min
:: Ping pong with Trinh, 30 min

Tuesday
:: 5-5:25pm : rope burn class with Cathy

Wednesday
:: day of rest for sore body

Thursday
:: 5:30-6:40pm : yoga with Kristen

Friday
:: 8:30-10pm RSF with Jamie
:: weight training
:: treadmill : 2.5 miles in 27 minutes

Saturday
planned
:: 1-? : badminton with Shankar, Allan, Trinh, and Richard

I get just a bit freaked when I find that someone checks one of my pages more frequently than I do. Even though I have not updated anything on the berkeley dept photos page in over a month, this one person keeps checking the page EVERY SINGLE DAY! More obsessed with it than I am, it seems...

So woila, here is all I know about the dude/dudette:
Location: New Jersey, Neptune, United States
Hostname: targe.CS.Princeton.EDU (128.###.###.###)

I do not know anyone in the Princeton CS department, do you? Is this person, perhaps, in love with our department? Who knows? I'm just a bit curious as to why he/she checks in so often. Perhaps I could do that person a favor and create a RSS feed for the site, but nah, I think I kinda like this reverse stalking. =) At least we're getting daily hits right?

How bad can teaching get?

So this morning I get an email from the professor I taught for last semester. She's teaching Stat 2 again this semester and apparently one of the TAs has decided to quit all of a sudden. She emailed three of her former TAs, including me, about whether we could teach today at 1pm. If I had time, I might have, but then 1) I had tons of work to do, 2) I wasn't gonna get paid and 3) I don't like teaching the material on averages.

At any rate, I said no thanks and so did other people. Then a few hours later I get another email from her. Apparently, the TA "resigned" because Stat 2 was too difficult. WTF?!? Who the heck is this TA who can't even teach averages?? Even if you didn't know what averages were, how hard is it to go to the lecture, learn something and then regurgitate it back to the students the next day? See, even if I didn't know the stats, I actually cared enough to learn it and teach them properly... this guy is not even trying! Oh my... such a sorry excuse for a grad/law student.

Yeah, you read right. Law students are teaching our stat classes. I guess so few of us real stat grad students teach the lower division courses that our dept had to circulate emails to the law students encouraging them to come teach basic stats.

So, that is the sorry state of teaching in the stats dept. Can you even imagine what would happen if the students of this AWOL TA caught wind of the reason why he left them? That'd surely freak them out, "How can I expect to pass this class when my GSI can't even handle it??" Hahahahaha...

This week so far...

Sunday
:: Ran perimeter, 2.5 miles, ~half an hour

Monday :: 9am : 158 pounds
:: Weights with Jamie
:: Precor machine, 15 min
:: Rowing machine, 10 min
:: Ping pong with Trinh, 30 min

Tuesday
:: 5-5:25pm : rope burn class with Cathy

Wednesday
:: day of rest for sore body

Thursday
:: 5:30-6:40pm : yoga with Kristen

Friday
?

Saturday
planned
:: 9-10am : body toning
:: 1-? : badminton with Shankar, Allan and Trinh

A prof in my dept who I really think dislikes me actually said Hi and Good night to me in a friendly way today. I wonder what's going on in his head...

Tip of the day for myself : Ignore or stay away from mean people. Why allow them make me unhappy? =)

It's all Calvin's fault for brainwashing me with gazillions of m-flo songs.

Woohoo, correction, Cathy ain't gonna do 8am class now. More sleeep for me! Perfect anyway, considering I just spent two hours at RSF. So jumproping should be great class tomorrow.

Let's see how long Frances can keep this up...

Sunday
:: Ran perimeter, 2.5 miles, ~half an hour

Monday :: 9am : 158 pounds
:: Weights with Jamie
:: Precor machine, 15 min
:: Rowing machine, 10 min
:: Ping pong with Trinh, 30 min

Tuesday
planned
:: 8-8:55am : stability ball class with Cathy
:: 5-5:25pm : rope burn class with Cathy

Wednesday
?

Thursday
?

Friday
?

Saturday
planned
:: 9-10am : body toning

other options
:: pilates
:: yoga
:: pi-yo
:: jump roping
:: stairs
:: any ideas?

Oh yeeeah, I am a baking goddess! *
(or almost... that chocolate banana walnut bread is sooo good! Moist, perfectly sweetened with bananas and chocolate, and great texture with chopped walnuts)

I feel like Martha Stewart today, after I baked, I started knitting. Yeah, I'm making something for Jasmine in a lovely shade called Lemonade. She loves yellow, have I ever posted a pic of her yellow mustang convertible?

Acknowledgments to Trinh and Dave, without which I would not have had the eggs, bananas and butter that partially but essentially comprised my edible masterpiece.

my chocolate banana walnut bread! =) smeeeells good

chocolate banana walnut bread before baking

random pic : aug 25, 2005 : some bridge? on the way from sacramento to berkeley

random pic - sept 10, 2005 : sitting by myself in union square, apparnetly looking at macy's...

random pic - nov 11, 2005 : roommie maureen fixing her bike in living room, congrats on her engagement

so sorry tam tams!

i know how much you were looking forward to it! i hope you took pics anyways , i wanna see you all beautified, must live vicariously through you as i have had no invites to such a fancy affair

talk to ya later

please don't mind all the imsspellings

i'm so absentminded. i left all my stuff in my office today cuz i didn't want to cary so much stuff to go grocery shopping, but leaving lucy, that was fine, cuz i had darcy, i still missed her touhg, but now, i realized that i left my glasses there too, and sinc ei had just taken out my contacts, i can't see anyting, cuz putting on contacts to type this is a big hassle, and so i'm typing this blind, yep, see how bad my typing skills are? see all those extra strokes i'd need for back space all the time? ohw ells and people think i tpe fast, fast don't mean quliaty dude,

at any rate, i gotta do work! been blahing for the past two nites, need to focus focus focus, advisor told me to tdoay to have moere sefl confidence, how can i be confident of an answer that i know is worng?? rethinking everyting about my life, yep i hit one of those stages, probably cuz of hormones? who knows?

on another topic, i find it hard to udnerstand some people, should i even bother? i might be getting it all wrong all the time and i wouldnt' even know, so just be myself and see whatever happens? the bad thing, how flexible are we to sepcifi people? do most people change al that much with regards to certain people? i find myself having to be a certain me around certain people and maybe it works for them... i do it cuz i sends that that person would expect a certain me and i give it to them, but most likely that aren't even thinking that, who the hell becomes soemone different for other people? well, plenty of people, but it's so bad, i feel like i'm covering a greater net of people if i adjust each time and maybe it's okay? maybe it's not? i like everyone and it's not like i wan t to only have a certain subset ofpeoopoe to associate, anyways, i'll keep thinking or not... it's not like anything bad, i'm grateful for eveyrone i meet , yeah i know some exceptions but generaly eeryone is cool, and sometimes people feel more for you than you feel for them, and most of the time youcan feel like and sometimes you just have no clue and thus whatever you put out there is just not cutting it and that'd be my faultu in the first place for being like this....

so wedding season eh? i've already declined one invite and sent a nice gift, the next wedding i'm hoping that takes place i will defintiely be going to, that should be great, the groom is such a nice guy for my friend, defintely good stuff there, wooohooo, happy happy

currently playing : senza fine - monica mancini (one of my favorite songs even though i have no idea what seh's saying...)

and that is the end of my mindlessly typiong blind, hopefully when i get my glases bak, i'm not tooashamed of all the misspellign since i am anal about it and will impol8tely correct people when they misspell =)

body sore from body toning class
now my knee hurts, what's up with that?
couldn't last more than 40 minutes in the class due to unwelcome visitor
argh
alrighty, must go schleep

Can't fall asleep, wanted a nice story to fall asleep to, but this doesn't come out til February 7!
Amazon preorder? Mark Ruffalo!! =) Okay, nitey...

Currently playing : The Rain - Joe Hisaishi

Apparently for a Southern Californian, I make an obscene excess of scarves.


random pic 2002-12-21 : this one linda got?

MySpace grumblings

So I finally signed up for MySpace. Among countless other things, I have now been searching the AHS class of 99 to see what some peeps are up to. A few things I noticed:

- I can't recognize the majority of the white people I supposedly graduated with. This is probably due to the fact (arrogant but true) that I took mostly APs and honors, and white people just weren't in these classes, except for the token Asian-washed white dude.

- There are a gazillion wedding pics and even baby pics up everywhere! These peeps sure got busy after high school.

- The guy I had a crush on in 6th grade now has softcore porn pics up with his girlfriend (?). They are absolutely horrible, mostly due to the fact that the girl has a butt ugly face but an okay body in tight black lingerie. Is that is what's called hot? There's a higher priority on a hot body than a beautiful face? Anyways, I just thought that was hilarious the way they were posing kissing and stuff, acting like they were all that.

So those weren't grumblings, the main point now I will get to: I try to add classes onto MySpace. Under the department listings for UC Berkeley, a department is noticeably missing. Can ya guess which one??

Yes, I'm pretty annoyed now. We don't even get listed with the other "cooler" departments in Berkeley.

Stupid thought of the day

Oprah picking Night to show everyone who criticized Frey that a memoir doesn't have to be all truth to have an impact only reminded me of when I couldn't afford to buy Night in high school. Everyone in the class paid their 7 bucks while I asked the teacher if I could borrow it and return it later. I remember I made sure I took really good care of the book too... Man, nowadays 7 bucks is nothing. I will make sure I buy Night soon to make up for it.

Didn't I say it was my stupid thought of the day?? Among countless other stupid thoughts... However, Night is truly a great book, and I'd like to read it again.

Roommates

I have a new roommate that I haven't met yet.
My other roommate says she is a double amputee of her legs, and I think I caught a glimpse of a black girl in a wheelchair the other day.
My other roommate thinks her name is Crystal.

My situation with my roommates this year is entirely different from last year.
I am very close with Kristen and Jasmine, in fact I spent 4 hours at dinner with them tonight.
My current roommates...not so great, let's see:

Maureen
She's from Kentucky, very nice gal, crazy about biking. She stores 2 bikes and all her maintenance gear in our apt and one more bike in the bike garage outside. I hardly ever see her, but usually in the mornings, like this morning when she told me she got engaged. Yay for her.

Yueni
Ever since Allan and I hooked her up with his roommate, she only comes in to use the bathroom. So I rarely see her, but I always see her blowdryer and TONS of makeup and lotions, etc on our bathroom sink. I continually have to relocate her belongings back to her half of the sink. She be having way too much fun and a whole lotta sex with her new bf.

???
And lastly, the roommate I have yet to meet if ever I see her in the apt. I just feel bad for her that she is living in a place that isn't handicap-accessible. It's impossible for her to get her wheelchair in the kitchen; I have no idea how she is even going to the bathroom at all, and the room is ultra dinky for someone in her condition. Ooh boy... I'll let you know if I ever meet her.

Minor thought of the day:

Yesterday friend showed me her engagement ring.
This morning roomie flashed me her engagement ring.

At this rate, this is a rare occurrence for me to see a ring on consecutive days. They both had the same three stone setting too, though friend had the nicer ring, not that I care. =)

That's it.

2006-01-16 : pinkness!

random pic 2001-12-28: yet another scarf... floey has this one??

random pic 2001-12-17: another scarf, tammy has this one??

random pic 2001-12-21: where is this scarf now?

random pic 2002-09-12: tofu

random pic 2003-07-11: dancing chimes at city of hope, many fun times not working and going to these to pounce on

random pic 2003-09-18: linda, me, tammy and eugenia at BJ's

random pic 2003-11-02 : tammy with long hair!

random pic 2003-12-17 : linda and me at the arcadia arboretum

random pic - 2003-12-17 : what the heck was i making here?

must not eat this anymore!!

calvin on the ice

dad's cymbidium

scarf that i made for kristen (her bday was sept 16, yeah, i'm a procrastinator)

my pink poncho in the midst of production, completed on a set of 4 double-pointed bamboo needles (yeah, it'll never get finished)

dad and me at East West Ice Palace (where Michelle Kwan co-owns and trains...) see? finally taller than my dad! (cuz of the skates)

Weight = 161.5
BFP = 34
Size = 10-12
Height = 5'7"

My pants are feeling tight; it's time to start eating healthier and working out. Justin and I set a goal of 145 pounds by May 1. I doubt I'll attain that, but I'll try my semi-best. Besides, it's not the number that counts since muscle weigh a lot more than fat.

Anyhoo, I just ran the perimeter. I'm so out of shape. I had to walk a few min on the steep side. 2.5 miles in 32 minutes.

At any rate, I'll just keep posting my status here, so people can keep harassing me about working out and not eating junk food. PLEEEEASE DO CHECK UP ON ME! =)

* be wary of portion size: I'm a goldfish, I eat all that is placed in front of me.
* don't eat too much ice cream: in-n-out shakes are 700 calories! so not worth me running 7 miles for that, so i didn't have any last nite and no more deep fried twinkies! (1500 calories and goodness knows how much saturated fat)
* take a variety of classes at RSF: that 65 bucks must be put to good use, need to take some sort of weight training class like i used to at ucla
* drink more water!!
* eat more veggies
* stop overdosing on chocolate! =) that means more for you guys who see me daily
* any other tips?

(click on pic to see better)

Yay for RSS!

Thanks Vince for recommending NewsFire. I was looking for a good aggregator for my mac and of course Vince would know and he did!

Anyhoo, now I DON'T HAVE TO keep checking a gazillion blogs when you guys aren't updating! I've added all blogger, xanga and other blogs to the reader now and all of them will get checked every 5 minutes. Oh so lovely! =)

So my procrastination is still not at an end. I have to write a letter of rec for the prof I TAed for last semester, but first I might start on a new book:

How do I choose books? It's not very methodical, or you might say it's eccentric, but it currently works very well for me.

Since I do not want to be wasting time on books that aren't going to be worth my lazy @$$ time, I search for books in the library that have at least 4 or 5 copies sitting on the shelves. This at least shows that it used to be a bestseller or quite popular. As I am a sheep, if the common masses like this book, then I'm sure I'll like it to some extent. There's no point in me wasting the effort to read a ton of crappy books to find a gem of a book that only I consider terrific.

Also, I'm almost obsessive-compulsive when it comes to the condition of the book. If it's nice and clean and pages are crisp, then my enjoyment factor and investment into the book becomes greater. Which is why I'm so used to just buying books, but as it is... I've got way too many new books at home that I haven't read and books are getting expensive nowadays. (Why pay $14 when you can rent the movie for a few bucks?) So I finally renewed my Arcadia library card yesterday. Paranoid me, I brought along driver's license, phone bill and even my bank statement to prove that I sorta have a connection to Arcadia.

Anyways, at this rate, I still find good books around in the library. So far I've got the one mentioned above and William Faulkner's Light in August. Last Faulkner I read was As I Lay Dying, which is one of the most interesting and unique books I've ever read. There's actually a picture of a coffin inside, and it's the first of the dead woman narrations that I've encountered. (Lovely Bag of Bones has a dead girl narrating and Desperate Housewives has a dead woman narrating... copycats...) Anyhoo, I'll leave you with the message on a poster in front of me:

"IT'S HIP TO READ. HOP TO IT!"

Just finished The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Unconventional love story. Quite a beautiful story though the ages and the years are kind of difficult to keep track. Sometimes he's time traveling, sometimes he's Henry of the past, sometimes two Henrys time travel together and then when his daughter is born, they both time travel. Sad ending...

okay okay, no making fun of me, but this is what happens when i'm bored at night and don't want to do any work (also taking a break from book, i started it this afternoon and already at 345 pages)

The Sonnet Deliberate Gentle Love Dreamer (DGLDf)     Romantic, hopeful, and composed. You are the Sonnet. Get it? Composed?     Sonnets want Love and have high ideals about it. They're conscientious people, caring & careful. You yourself have deep convictions, and you devote a lot of thought to romance and what it should be. This will frighten away most potential mates, but that's okay, because you're very choosy with your affections anyway. You'd absolutely refuse to date someone dumber than you, for instance. Your exact opposite: Genghis Khunt Random Brutal Sex Master     Lovers who share your idealized perspective, or who are at least willing to totally throw themselves into a relationship, will be very, very happy with you. And you with them. You're already selfless and compassionate, and with the right partner, there's no doubt you can be sensual, even adventurously so.     You probably have lots of female friends, and they have a special soft spot for you. Babies do, too, at the tippy-top of their baby skulls. ALWAYS AVOID: The 5-Night Stand, The False Messiah, The Hornivore, The Last Man on Earth CONSIDER: The Loverboy Link: The 32-Type Dating Test by OkCupid - Free Online Dating.

Best part of the book thus far. When Henry visits Clare when he is 36 and she is 12, they talk about girls that Henry used to like. Clare asks if Henry is married. He says yes, but can't bring himself to tell her that he's actually married to her in the future. Clare asks if Henry loves his wife and he replies "Very much."

We sit silently side by side, watching the swaying trees, the birds, the sky. I hear a muffled sniffling noise and glancing at Clare I am astonished to see that tears are streaming across her face toward her ears. I sit up and lean over her. "What's wrong, Clare?" She just shakes her head back and forth and presses her lips together. I smooth her hair, and pull her into a sitting position, wrap my arms around her. She's a child, and then again she isn't. "What's wrong?

It comes out so quietly that I have to ask her to repeat it: "It's just that I thought maybe you were married to me."

At page 309, pretty interesting so far about a guy who time travels back to hang out with his wife when she is 6 years old. Quite a unique love story. However I am just gonna have to hit myself repeatedly for going to Wikipedia and ruining the rest of the book for myself.

So, it says Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston own the rights to this book and that Brad will play Henry in the movie version coming 2006. Woohoo!

Hot stuff. How weird is it when you have to restrain yourself from having sex with your wife when she's not legal yet?

Currently reading

So far, so good, will let you know later.

Despite all the hoola, let's not forget, football is stupid (imho). How did it come to this where skool pride is measured in violence?
Yes, I'm a true Bruin, but where's the southern california pride too? Blah blah blah, who really won big is Pasadena. Can you believe Texas brought along 40,000 fans to spend spend spend in SoCal?

As Justin would ask, "Who's the guy sitting in front of you and is he cute?"

Well, do two posters of Orlando Bloom and Yo-Yo Ma holding books and telling me to READ count?

Otherwise, nope, not today, not yesterday and not yesterday yesterday, wait a sec, a maybe for yesterday, but eh...

Oh yeah, and "Go Trojans!" Pete Carroll is da bomb-diggity!
(My new word-of-the-day courtesy of Star Jones in reference to Pierce Brosnan)

Has life come to this?


This winter "break" has left me disappointed with myself. My already fragile work ethic is now struggling to fight with my apathy towards research. I spend hours doing nothing productive beyond hitting the random article link on wikipedia a gazillion times a day and learning obscure things that even Jeopardy won't hit up. (Oh crap, I'm listening to internet radio and Kelly Clarkson - Since You've Been Gone was just named the top song of the 2005 Countdown... now I have to deal with images of you-know-who lipsynching and dancing to it) Anyhoo, wo is me. Where is my completely sterile-white airy room with bright glaring lights and huge desk in the center with computer, printer, copy machine, smoothie bar, and ultra comfy ergonomic chair? Ah, and don't forget some plants. If I only had that, then I could get work done.

Yes, I do have a whole s***load of excuses like that brimming out of me like ubiquitous fortune cookie sayings.

Now enough of this crap, I'm a gonna get back to Glamour and Vogue and become enlightened on the do's and don'ts of pant hem lengths, ciao!

From The Ultimate Field Guide to the U.S. Economy,  www.fguide.org Econ-Atrocity Bulletin:

Ten Reasons Why You Should Never Accept a Diamond Ring from Anyone, Under Any Circumstances, Even If They Really Want to Give You One (2-14-02) By Liz Stanton, CPE Staff Economist

1. You've Been Psychologically Conditioned To Want a Diamond The diamond engagement ring is a 63-year-old invention of N.W.Ayer advertising agency. The De Beers diamond cartel contracted N.W.Ayer to create a demand for what are, essentially, useless hunks of rock. 2. Diamonds are Priced Well Above Their Value The De Beers cartel has systematically held diamond prices at levels far greater than their abundance would generate under anything even remotely resembling perfect competition. All diamonds not already under its control are bought by the cartel, and then the De Beers cartel carefully managed world diamond supply in order to keep prices steadily high. 3. Diamonds Have No Resale or Investment Value Any diamond that you buy or receive will indeed be yours forever: De Beers? advertising deliberately brain-washed women not to sell; the steady price is a tool to prevent speculation in diamonds; and no dealer will buy a diamond from you. You can only sell it at a diamond purchasing center or a pawn shop where you will receive a tiny fraction of its original "value." 4. Diamond Miners are Disproportionately Exposed to HIV/AIDS Many diamond mining camps enforce all-male, no-family rules. Men contract HIV/AIDS from camp sex-workers, while women married to miners have no access to employment, no income outside of their husbands and no bargaining power for negotiating safe sex, and thus are at extremely high risk of contracting HIV. 5. Open-Pit Diamond Mines Pose Environmental Threats Diamond mines are open pits where salts, heavy minerals, organisms, oil, and chemicals from mining equipment freely leach into ground-water, endangering people in nearby mining camps and villages, as well as downstream plants and animals. 6. Diamond Mine-Owners Violate Indigenous People's Rights Diamond mines in Australia, Canada, India and many countries in Africa are situated on lands traditionally associated with indigenous peoples. Many of these communities have been displaced, while others remain, often at great cost to their health, livelihoods and traditional cultures. 7. Slave Laborers Cut and Polish Diamonds More than one-half of the world's diamonds are processed in India where many of the cutters and polishers are bonded child laborers. Bonded children work to pay off the debts of their relatives, often unsuccessfully. When they reach adulthood their debt is passed on to their younger siblings or to their own children. 8. Conflict Diamonds Fund Civil Wars in Africa There is no reliable way to insure that your diamond was not mined or stolen by government or rebel military forces in order to finance civil conflict. Conflict diamonds are traded either for guns or for cash to pay and feed soldiers. 9. Diamond Wars are Fought Using Child Warriors Many diamond producing governments and rebel forces use children as soldiers, laborers in military camps, and sex slaves. Child soldiers are given drugs to overcome their fear and reluctance to participate in atrocities. 10. Small Arms Trade is Intimately Related to Diamond Smuggling Illicit diamonds inflame the clandestine trade of small arms. There are 500 billion small arms in the world today which are used to kill 500,000 people annually, the vast majority of whom are non-combatants. References: Collier, Paul, "Economic Causes of Civil Conflict and Their Implications for Policy," World Bank, June 15, 2000. Epstein, Edward Jay, "Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond?", The Atlantic Monthly, February 1982. www.theatlantic.com/issues/82feb/8202diamond1.htm  Global Witness, "Conflict Diamonds: Possibilities for the Identification, Certification and Control of Diamonds," A Briefing Document, June 2000,  www.globalwitness.org/text/campaigns/diamonds/reports.html  Human Rights Watch/Asia, "The Small Hands of Slavery: Bonded Child Labor In India," Human Rights Watch Children's Rights Project, www.hrw.org/reports/1996/India3.htm . Human Rights Watch, "Children?s Rights: Stop the Use of Child Soldiers;" www.hrw.org/campaigns/crp/index.htm . Kerlin, Katherine "Diamonds Aren?t Forever: Environmental Degradation and Civil War in the Gem Trade," The Environment Magazine, www.emagazine.com/september-october_2001/0901gl_consumer.html . Le Billon, Philippe, "Angola?s Political Economy of War: The Role of Oil and Diamonds, 1975-2000," African Affairs, (2001), 100, p.55-80. Mines and Communities, "The Mining Curse: The roles of mining in ?underdeveloped? economies," Minewatch Asia Pacific/Nostromo Briefing Paper, February 1999, www.minesandcommunities.org/Country/curse.htm . Other Facets, Number 1, April 2001; Number 2, June 2001; Number 3, October 2001, www.partnershipafricacanada.org/hsdp/of.html .

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