WARNING: DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED THE LOST SERIES FINALE. SPOILERS AHEAD.

I was one of the fans who actually loved the series finale of Lost. Yes, I was pissed that I didn’t get the answers to all of my questions, especially the ones concerning the island mysteries, but in the end, it came down to whether you had watched Lost for six seasons because you were intrigued by the series mythology – polar bears? Dharma initiative? time travelling?! – or because you enjoyed watching Jack and Kate and Desmond and all the other beloved characters and learning about their pasts and watching them grow and change with time. I loved Lost for its complex and layered characters, and so I was happy with the finale because it was all about the characters and love lost and refound and souls reaching across time and space to find one another. I cried during those last fifteen minutes, thinking about how Kate had lived a life without Jack after the island, loving him and unable to have him for the rest of her life. I cried as the scenes intercut with Jack reuniting with all his friends and loved ones in that church and Jack stumbling through the bamboo grove to end up where he had first begun his island adventure, his eyes closing for the last time. And that’s why I love the following video so much – I’ve always been a Kate/Jack shipper and the finale definitely swung our way!

Posted via web from xiwang’s posterous

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This is just like the New Coke debacle. I know I’m not the only one who’s unhappy about the new flavors of the Sweethearts. Just do a Google search and you’ll see tons of results about people hating on the change. Even the Chicago Tribue had a blurb about it. Why mess with a good formula when it’s been working for the last 100 years? As one person on Facebook stated:

I just called them and complained about the lack of warning on the boxes about the horrible new flavors. They said that they received complaints over the years about the chalky taste, so they decided to appeal to the new generation. I countered with the fact that if they were truly that bad, they wouldn’t have been the… number one non-chocolate candy for Valentine’s Day.

Give us back the old Necco Sweetheart candy! I’m profoundly disappointed by the new flavors. Anyone want my boxes?

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CSI:Miami, on the other hand, is all flash and glamour and little substance to me. Sure, some of the storylines are really interesting but they get lost in all the fast-paced action scenes. Even the way they film CSI: Miami makes it look fake, with everything so bright and yellowy all the time. CSI:Las Vegas, on the other hand, seems cold and impersonal, which can be partly attributed to the way they shoot the series, using dark and cold color tones in the lab, and partly to the characters themselves. I just never connected with the characters and storylines on CSI:Miami and CSI:Las Vegas the way I did with CSI:NY.

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I’m feeling really sleepy right now so this won’t be a long post, but I just wanted to share one of my favorite obsessions: Hannari Tofu! They’re squishy, oh-so-adorable, Japanese plushies ^__^ They’re always smiling and they come in many different themes, such as fruit, holidays, and even fairytales! At last count, my Hannari Tofu collection consists of one giant green ninja tofu, 20 different cushion-sized plushies, and a bee&clover pillow that my boyfriend gave to me last Christmas.

You can check them out at the official Japanese website for the latest designs. I mostly buy mine off Ebay or through a Japanese friend that I met on Flickr; they go for around $10 – $20 each for the cushion-sized plushies. From Japan With Love has a great selection but shipping can be a little pricey. Once you buy one though, you’ll find yourself wanting more and more!

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Today, I performed in my school play. Right before my big solo, I noticed a few girls changing backstage and I became aroused. The play was Jesus Christ Superstar, and I was playing Jesus. All I was wearing was a little cloth, so the whole audience saw Jesus get hard during the crucifixion. FML.

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A beautiful swap I received from Adriana in Japan! I love the Hannari Tofu mini plushie she sent along with the extremely adorable postcards!

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A swap I sent to my penpal Darlene! I really hope she enjoyed everything =)

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A swap received from Samantha! I LOVE that mini memo pad with the tea cup. It’s definitely going to be in my permanent collection.

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I’ve just enjoyed meeting all the wonderful girls in the Flickr kawaii community so much! Everyone is so sweet to each other, and it’s nice to be able to share an obsession that no one else understands. LOL. Not to mention I love getting mail! Everyday after I get home from class, I check my mailbox and it just makes me smile to see a cute package waiting for me

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P.S. Did anyone hear about her actually filing an application to trademark the name “Octomom”? Seriously?!

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I’m sure by now everyone has heard of Nadya Suleman and her miraculous eight bouncing bundles of joy. When the news first broke, I thought to myself, huh, that’s kind of cool, but it wasn’t really something that held my attention. When all the other little details that she failed to mention in the beginning started to leak out – she’s unmarried, she has SIX other children already, she’s living with her parents, she’s unemployed, three of her children have mental disabilities, and oh yeah, she’s on welfare and food stamps and disability payments and god knows what else – that’s when I started to pay more attention to the story. And man, it’s certainly blown up into a rather huge and controversial issue within the past week or so.

I actually just attended a lunch discussion sponsored by the Honors College at my university about this very topic today, and it was rather fascinating listening to everyone’s take on the situation. Personally, I think this woman is deluded beyond belief, and she has no business trying to raise 14 freaking children, especially when they’re all so close together in age (just imagine trying to take care of those octuplets, let alone the other six children). Now, having fourteen children is not a crime in and of itself; there are some noted families out there with many children. What makes this different, however, is the fact that she has no support system whatsoever (her own parents have gone on national television and condemned her actions), and she has absolutely no resources to properly care for her children.

Financial issues aside, how does she expect to even have the time to give each of these children the love and attention they all deserve? As a psychology major who’s taking an abnormal child psychology class right now, I can tell you these children are going to grow up having maladjustment problems simply because of the environment they’re probably going to grow up in. They have what appears to be a psychologically unstable mother (who in the world keeps implanting themselves, even after they’re already successfully had six children?!), who simply will not be able to give them enough of her time. There’s only 24 hours in a day, and even if she spends an hour with each child, that adds up to 14 hours each day, not even factoring in time to eat, bathe, wash, or do anything for herself, let alone go back to school and get a job like she claims to want to do in the future.

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“In other words, it’s all the fault of people like myself, who increasingly use the Internet both to buy books and later, after their value to us is gone, sell them.”

In some ways, the Internet has made it easier to read more books, making lesser known and rarer books available, especially the classics and out-of-print books that are now hard to find in some stores. On the other hand, though, it cuts into profits for both bookstore, publishing companies, and authors, because when people like me or you sell or trade books with each other, the three entities mentioned above don’t get a single cent out of our transaction.

I’ll admit that I’m one of those guilty of using the Internet (and libraries because they’re free!) a lot more than bookstores when it comes to acquiring new books. Lately, I’ve been using Swaptree.com, which allows you to list all the old books, dvds, and CDs that you don’t want anymore, create a wishlist of items that you do want, and then uses a system to match you up with someone who can trade with you so that everyone ends up happy. Neat, right? So far, I’ve gotten an almost brand-new copy of Kung Fu Panda, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the book The Queen’s Fool in exchange for old books I didn’t read anymore. Someone else’s trash is another person’s treasure, right? And what’s wrong with spreading the love of books all around?

I do love going to Barnes and Nobles, but just looking at the price tags on some of the books makes me cringe. Why should I pay $20 for a hardcover copy of Jodi Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes when I can get the same book, used but in almost new condition, for around $5 or less online? Or pay $200 for a new textbook when I can find the same thing for $100 on Half.com? I think what the publishing companies and bookstores need to do is capitalize on the advantages that the Internet offers. E-books are quickly becoming popular, and it’s an area they should look further into. Otherwise, they have to find other means of luring customers into stores or face a slow death of the industry :(

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