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They’re zero-maintenance artificial hamsters and they do not stink, chew electric wires, or run around their cages making noise at night.

Stores are having trouble keeping them on the shelves (reminds me of the Talking Elmo craze a few years back) and they normally go for $7.99 each but due to their limited stock, they’re going for $34.99 on Amazon and probably higher on Ebay. Talk about price gouging, but hey, some parents will do whatever it takes and shell out ridiculous amounts of money to get what their children want for Christmas, even with the economy the way it is right now:

Cepia has found itself increasing hamster production and fielding phone calls from parents desperately seeking Zhu Zhu Pets, as well as their slightly pricier accessories, like a ramp with slide and a garage with car.

I guess they’re kind of cute. I don’t know what the attraction is, but I have to admit it does sound nicer than having a real hamster. I owned two hamsters for awhile, and while they were fun to play with, it definitely wasn’t quite so pleasant to clean their cages. It’s a great alternative for parents whose kids are begging for a pet =)

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Funny how the pro-life movement is all about how fetuses have a right to life, but they can go and shoot people and bomb clinics, injuring innocent bystanders in the process. How is murdering an abortion doctor any better than aborting a baby? Isn’t a life lost in both cases, according to pro-life groups’ definition of a life? Dr. Tiller had a right to live, too, and the shooter took that right away from him, in the middle of a church, of all places. How does that make the pro-life movement any better than the pro-choice groups that it looks down on? It’s just downright hypocritical. Yes, a lot of the pro-life groups are condemning the murder and saying they would never advocate such a thing, but you know privately they’re probably rejoicing at the fact that it’s one less abortion doctor to provide services to women. Great timing, too, what with Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings coming up.

Personally, I’m pro-choice, but I don’t agree with the late-term or partial birth abortions like the ones Dr. Tiller offered. I believe a woman has a right to choose, but as with everything, that belief is conditional. If a woman was raped or it is medically necessary for her to have an abortion, then by all means, go ahead. Or if her child is going to have a medical condition that leaves them with little to no quality of life, then why bring the child into the world only to make them suffer, such as babies born with multiple congenital defects? But if a woman was just stupid or careless and couldn’t take the time to find a condom or take a birth control pill, then she needs to take responsibility for her actions.

I don’t understand why people lose their heads over this issue, especially when a lot of them simply support the stance that they do because of their religion or they’re following their parents’ beliefs. It’s called thinking for yourself and considering all sides of the issue before choosing a personal stance. I would respect more people if they could articulate just why they believe the things that they do, but sadly, most of the time they can’t give me a good answer.

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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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Take Heath Ledger’s death, for example. He was an incredible actor – I’ve loved his acting ever since I first saw him in “A Knight’s Tale” – and for him to die just as he was reaching a pinnacle in his career, what with “Brokeback Mountain” and of course, “Dark Knight,” was just so shocking. And very sad, because he left behind a daughter who will never know him (and have only the faintest memories of who her father was) and the world lost all the amazing movies that could have been made had he lived. Look at how amazing he was as the joker in the “Dark Knight” (it wasn’t just hype; he really was that good). I remember seeing the headlines as they broke online, and thinking to myself in disbelief, no way, they can’t be talking about Heath Ledger. It was just unreal.

Bernie Mac passed away just last week too, and his death totally took me by surprise too. Who dies of pneumonia in this day and age? It’s just sad because I expected to keep hearing wisecracks and politically incorrect comments and see more Ocean’s movies from him. It’s like George Clooney said, “The world just got a little less funny” with his passing.

And then the death that sparked this blog – Lee Un (Lee Eon). He died in a motorcycle accident early in the morning on August 21 in Korea and was killed almost immediately. I saw a story about his death on Soompi and I was pretty shocked by this one too. He was so young; he was only 27 years old and his career was just starting to take off. It’s such a waste. He was a Coffee Prince from “1st Shop of Coffee Prince,” one of my very favorite K-dramas, and he was so funny and endearing. RIP :(

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I was especially blown away at the beginning when the Olympic rings suddenly looked like they were being lifted off the LED screen and rose to hang in the air. Same thing when the dancers were “painting” on the scroll and when they were finished, it began to unfold off the ground into the air. How did they do that?! Wires? Is it some kind of hologram or lasers? However they did it, it was unbelievably cool and I was just awestruck. Like the announcers kept saying, it was truly like watching a movie unfold in real life, complete with special effects and epic music. Zhang Yimou has style like no other; no wonder he’s such an acclaimed director.

I also loved the part when the Mahjong tiles (edit: oops, this was a printing press. Duh, I should know better) were moving up and down like waves and it was funny how everyone gasped when at the end, all these people suddenly popped out of the tiles and it was revealed that humans had been creating that effect the entire time, not machines or hydraulics or anything like that. I admit I gasped too, because they synchronized so precisely and in time with each other. It was flawless; I didn’t see any mistakes, but damn, how long did they have to rehearse and practice to get that right?!

It was totally amazing. I admit, the Chinese have issues they seriously need to work on (human rights violations, that nasty smog hanging over the major cities, etc) but I’ve got to give them props for their kickass technology and for putting on an opening ceremony like the world’s never seen before.

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“They think that a baby can give them love or give them status or fill an empty space in their life, and these girls are very, very young. And I think if you talk to any teenage mother who is caring for an infant, the road is not easy.”

I’ve seen and heard a lot of stupidity in my nineteen years but this just really tops them all. I just can’t believe the naivety of these girls. Sure, intentionally getting pregnant is going to get you lots of attention (whether it’s good or bad attention is another story) but a baby does not necessarily equate to unconditional love. You sure as hell aren’t going to think so when the baby wakes you up at 3am in the morning, crying to be fed or for their diapers to be changed. You’re not going to feel so loving if you have a colicky baby screaming all through the night. Having a baby is a minimum 18 year commitment, from the time you pop the thing through your vagina (an experience most women have told me is in itself enough to scare you from never again having sex, let alone another baby) to the moment you watch your kid walk across the stage at their high school graduation. Being a parent is a lifelong job, and you don’t get to say “I quit” or just walk away if you’re tired of it (that is called abandonment/shitty parenting).

Now that the story’s exploded onto national headlines, everyone’s pointing fingers everywhere, blaming bad/neglectful parents, media (“Juno”, “Knocked Up”, Jamie Lynn Spears) and even the controversy between abstinence-only/sex ed. Um, HELLO? Anyone who’s naive and idiotic enough to watch a movie and decide, “Hey, having a baby looks easy! And they’re so cute! I wanna have one! So I’m going to go find a random 20-year-old to knock me up and live happily ever!” is just PLAIN STUPID. So what if they’re emotionally messed up and looking for attention? I have issues too, I watched “Juno” and “Knocked Up” (and enjoyed every minute of those movies, by the way), but do you see me going and making the deliberate choice to get pregnant? Hell no!

To make matters worse, not only did these girls decide to get pregnant, it appears they chose guys in their twenties to be the fathers of their babies. Ever heard of a little thing called statutory rape? And one of them was a 24-year-old homeless man! Are you telling me these girls just chose some 20-year-old at random and said, “Hey, I want to get pregnant! Let’s have sex, stranger!” How do you know they don’t have AIDS or some kind of STD? They could have raped you and killed you and buried your body somewhere.

The surge in teenage pregnancy has brought a heated debate over contraception and education in Gloucester, which is heavily Roman Catholic. The school clinic’s medical director and its chief nurse practitioner both resigned in May after the hospital that administers grants for the clinic opposed making contraceptives available to students.

And speaking of, all the idiots who are trying to pin this on sex-ed, Glouchester is a conservative Catholic town. I see trouble already. I’ve said it over and over and I’ll say it again: abstinence-only education DOES NOT work and will NEVER work. It’s naive and shortsighted of the “adults” to think teens will not have sex if you don’t tell them about it, or worse, tell them not to do it. Let me define the word reactance for you:

“An emotional reaction in direct contradiction to rules or regulations that threaten or eliminate specific behavioral freedoms. It can occur when someone is heavily pressured to accept a certain view or attitude.” {Wikipedia}

In layman’s terms, rebelling against what our parents or whoever tells us to do, and in fact, going out of your way to do the exact opposite. Hmm, now who does that sound like? Oh, yeah, TEENAGERS. Sex is a natural thing and a human way of life and of course teens are going to want to experiment with their sexuality. People – teens – are going to have sex whether you like it or not, and isn’t it better to educate them and equip them with every single fact about sex (trust me, information is about the best deterrent you have; just learning about the nastiness of STDs in my health clinical class was enough to horrify me) instead of saying, oh, just don’t have sex and being all awkward and taboo about the subject so that their only knowledge about sex comes from their friends (who tend to be woefully inaccurate). Obviously the system horribly failed these girls somewhere along the way, and who’s going to be the ultimate victims in all of this? The poor innocent babies who will be born to teenage mothers who are apparently immature, childish, and incapable of making rational and appropriate choices for themselves, let alone another human being.

Reality check: life is not a Disney movie or Gilmore Girls or Juno. There is no guarantee your baby is going to grow up and share a witty-banter-sister bond with you like Rory and Lorelai and I’m guessing you’re nowhere near as sarcastic-but-oh-so-funny or even levelheaded like Juno. This is not some stupid fairytale; you are not Cinderella and that 24-year-old homeless man sure as hell isn’t Prince Charming come to take you away. It’s sad and horrific and it makes me wonder what America is coming to when teen girls make the conscious (albeit very stupid and uninformed) and intentional choice to have a baby because they think it will somehow make them a better person and solve all of their pathetic, emo/low-self-esteem problems. Sigh.

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The problem today is that all the human activity in the last two hundred or so years – starting with the Industrial Revolution and coming right up to the present-day “let’s make nuclear bombs and spill chemicals into rivers and drive around in big ol’ Hummers” atmosphere – has accelerated the warming process. And scarily enough, past data has indicated that there’s always an intense warming period right before the advent of a new ice age. Now, I don’t know if we’re headed into the next ice age, Day After Tomorrow-style, but either way, does it really matter if global warming exists or not if it helps to promote environmental consciousness? What could possibly be wrong with wanting people to care more about the environment?

I’m no tree-hugger, but is it so hard to get up your lazy butt and toss something into an actual trash can instead of just leaving it on the ground? Or collecting your empty water bottles in a bag to recycle? How about car pooling or god forbid, even biking (especially since people are getting so fat in this day and age, why not save the environment and lose a few pounds while you’re at it?) It will not kill you to try any of those, I promise you, because I do all those things myself and I’m one of the laziest people you will ever met. I’m the girl who will lay there and contemplate if I really need to use the restroom, just cause I don’t want to leave my warm, fluffy bed, so if I can find the will to do the things that I mentioned, so can you. So all those whiners just need to shut up, stop complaining about left-wing conspiracies, and actually care. Cause, you know, we all have to live on this planet, and it’d be nice to keep it green and pretty instead of turning it into some apocalyptic wasteland. My thoughts for the night…

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