Playing with my kids

Yesterday I was playing ball with my little ones. They really touched me with their eagerness to play with me. All we were doing was tossing a tennis ball back and forth (good practice for the Hmong New Year) but they were loving it. Eden had her own little ball that she would throw at me when I wasn't paying attention (because I would be throwing a ball at Nova or Mystique right at that moment) and then she would laugh when it hit me and I would shout.

It doesn't take much to make children happy. All they want is my attention. Like when I put on "Happy Feet" (Nova's favorite movie that he watches over and over) and even though I've already seen it fifty times, Nova will still shout for me to watch when Mumble gets attacked by the seal or the killer whale.

I'm eagerly anticipating when Kayden will learn how to walk, so I can go chase them around the playground. Right now I just run back and forth to push Kayden and Eden on the baby swings and then push Nova and Mystique on the normal swings.

My addictions

I need help with my addictions. They are taking precious time away from things I need/should be doing. I just want to throw my television away but I paid more than $1000 for it. Remember "The Simpsons" episode where the TV died and all the kids in Springfield finally went outside to play and were healthy? That's what the world needs to do. Everybody in the world should get rid of all their TVs. The only bad thing about that is a lot of people would be losing their jobs.

My addictions:
- writing lists
- French fries and Coke/Pepsi
- "researching" constantly on the Web
- checking my e-mail every thirty minutes
- checking my Facebook and MySpace every thirty minutes
- reading "How to" books on writing or careers
- job searching without targeting my resume/cover letter
- make-up that I hope will miraculously change my looks
- AZN TV (fan site for lovers of Asian movies, dramas, etc.)
- PBS shows that distracts my kids for hours so I can cook and clean
- Bollywood gossip, even though most of my favorite stars are retired now
- window shopping, because I don't have enough money to actually buy anything
- celebrity gossip - boy I wish I had $100,000 to spend, though I wouldn't spend it on a birthday party like Tom and Katie. And man I can't believe Brad and Angelina are already having another baby. I want nannies who could follow me around and help me out with my kids too.

Prostitution should be legalized

"Deborah Jeane Palfrey, facing a likely prison term of four to six years for running a Washington area call-girl ring, apparently hanged herself Thursday in a storage shed behind her mother's mobile home."

Prostitution should be legalized. I am a vigorous advocate of women's rights, that's why prostitution should be legalized for women's protection. This business is like alcohol, it's never going to go away. As long as there are people in the world, there's going to be prostitution.

Prostitution should be legalized so it can be regulated with an age limit of 18 years, weekly checkups for STDs, and protection from abuse. Not to mention the tax money that the government can collect from prostitution, which is a lucrative business. Prostitution has been legalized in other countries already such as Canada and Europe. Legalized prostitution would not only protect the prostitutes, but also the people who hire them and society in general by helping to prevent STDs.

Check out these other websites about legalized prostitution:
http://www.liberator.net/articles/prostitution.html
http://www.sexwork.com/coalition/whatcountrieslegal.html

Movies that Make Men Cry

An article on Comcast was "20 Movies That Make Men Cry."
On the list:
1. Brian's Song
2. Rudy
3. Saving Private Ryan
4. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
5. The Natural
6. The Shawshank Redemption
7. Schindler's List
8. Old Yeller
9. The Pride of the Yankees
10. Terms of Endearment
11. The Iron Giant
12. Philadelphia
13. Big Fish
14. Million Dollar Baby
15. Life is Beautiful
16. Love Actually
17. Rocky
18. The Pianist
19. Mystic River
20. To Kill a Mockingbird


From my own experience, none of these movies made anyone I know cry...except for "Life is Beautiful," which is one of the best movies I've ever seen. The only problem is that it's Italian, so my husband wouldn't watch it.

Movies that have definitely made men I know cry:
Grave of the Fireflies
The Patriot (the scene where Mel Gibson's daughter calls out for him when he's going to war)
The Passion of the Christ

Forbidden Kingdom review

Watching the trailers, my husband and I were disappointed that the main character was White. "This movie is going to be stupid," he said. "Why did they have to bring in a White kid?"

I thought, "Why such an ugly White kid too?"

We went to see it anyways to support Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

I was surprised by how much I liked it. The movie was like a fairy tale - like "Enchanted." Poking fun at Hong Kong films but also celebrating them. The chemistry between Jet Li and Jackie Chan was wonderful and the director made sure to give them a very long fight scene, making this movie worth the money I spent on it.

The director didn't insult our intelligence by making the main character, played by Michael Angarano, and Crystal Liu kiss also.

Jackie Chan was fabulous in a role tailor made for him, bringing to mind his "Drunken Master" movies. Very funny and very warm. Jet Li was also great, especially in his fighting scenes, with a role also tailor made, bringing to mind his "Once a Upon a Time in China" movies. Also his role as the Monkey King brought some of his "Fung Sai Yuk" naughtiness back. Crystal Liu was fresh and beautiful but forced to speak annoyingly in the third person. Michael Angarano wasn't good-looking, but competent and believable as the martial arts film loving White kid dropped into another world/country.

I loved "The Bride with White Hair" and was thrilled by the Witch character in this movie. If only they could have found an actress that could have matched Brigitte Lin. Somebody tough and evil-looking besides being beautiful.

This movie would have been beyond fabulous if they could have gotten Stephen Chow to play the Monkey King.

My husband didn't like it because he prefers serious movies and he was irritated by the dialogues. "They're just reading from fortune cookies!" he said.

This movie is highly recommended for martial arts enthusiasts, Hong Kong film lovers, Jackie/Jet Li fans, and people who love to laugh. Also for people who are tired of serious dramas like "The Warlords."

Paula's mistake on American Idol LOL

Read this article about what happened on American Idol last night. It's hilarious. I burst out laughing at work. Now we know that the judges already judge before they even see the performance! Paula must be drunk or high. Go back and watch the shows of when they were traveling the United States judging contestants and you can definitely tell when she was high. I bet Paula, Randy, and Simon already pick their favorites in the very beginning and then just say whatever they want to say about the performances without even really giving the contestants a chance.

Austrian tragedy of captivity and incest

73 year old Josef Fritzl kept his daughter, Elisabeth, captive for 24 years in secret cellars in his basement where they had seven children. His wife and he adopted three of the children as babies and the rest were left in the basement with their mother. They lived in a windowless bedroom with a narrow hallway connecting it to the bathroom, the television their only glimpse of the outside world.

Fritzl’s secret unfurled when one of the imprisoned children, 19 year old Kerstin, became seriously ill. Fritzl sent her to the hospital where she lay in a coma. Authorities used the television to plead for her mother’s help and Fritzl agreed to let Elisabeth go see Kerstin. Authorities caught them in the hospital parking lot.

Fritzl’s wife, Rosemarie, and their other six children, said that they had no idea that Fritzl had help Elisabeth captive ever since she was 18 years old. He told them that Elisabeth had run away to join a secret cult and then had abandoned her three children.

Elisabeth told officials that he had sexually abused her ever since she was 11 years old.

People described Fritzl as being authoritative and iron-handed.

Austria is still recovering from this shock and also an earlier case of captivity, where Natascha Kampusch had been kidnapped on her way to school and then imprisoned in a windowless cellar for 8 years, until she escaped in 2006.

Isn’t this horrible? Elisabeth suffered for 24 years! I find it hard to believe that Rosemarie, the wife of Fritzl and Elisabeth’s mother, did not suspect anything. First of all, he’d been abusing Elisabeth ever since she was 11. Second of all, when Elisabeth “disappeared,” how come Rosemarie never searched for her? Even if she believed that Elisabeth had joined a secret cult, Rosemarie should have searched for her to bring her back or to make sure she was okay.

I wonder if Fritzl did anything to his other children?

Kaavya Vishwanathan and plagiarism/lying

While thinking about what questions to ask during my interview with Coffee House Press, I started thinking about plagiarism. (Don’t ask me how my brain works). There’s been so much news about the book publishing industry and plagiarism that I’ve especially noticed in the past three years. Going on right now is J. K. Rowling’s case with “The Harry Potter Lexicon,” a dictionary of Harry Potter written by his fan club.

In the past three years, there’s been:

- James Frey and “A Million Little Pieces,” his memoir about his problems with drug addictions and alcoholism.

- Misha Defonseca and her memoir about being raised by wolves as a Jewish child after her parents were murdered during WW II.

- Margaret Seltzer and her memoir about joining the Bloods gang and living in the ghetto.

- Ishmael Beah and his memoir about being a child soldier in Sierra Leone.

- Kaavya Vishwanath and “How Opal Metha Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life,” her novel that plagiarized the works of Meg Cabot, Sophie Kinsella, and Salman Rushdie.

All these authors made huge headlines because they made tons of money and their books were bestsellers. Kaavya Vishwanath was the one who touched (or poked) me the most. She was a Harvard graduate for one thing. She was Ivy League! And she got a huge sum for her book and a contract for forthcoming books and a movie deal with Dream Works. Her’s was the success I was dreaming of. All this at the age of nineteen! I was so jealous. And then disaster. Her writing career was over.

Which I realize now that I need to stop envying other people and work on my own damn stories. These people are making up stories about the life I’m living! Publishers are vying to publish books about hard lives, poverty the ghetto, etc. I need to sit my butt down and pound out my stories which are TRUE.

All college students should be required to do internships

All college students should be required to do internships. If I could start over, I would work unpaid internships as a freshman and sophomore. Then I would apply for paid internships as a junior or senior. If I needed money, then I would work a part-time job while I did the internships. Working at an internship will ultimately help students in the long run compared to working at a job that has no relation to their major.

When I graduated with a B. A. in English, I really felt lost in looking for jobs and trying to pin down what career I wanted. If I had done more internships, I would have known more about what direction I wanted to go in. I applied for jobs ranging from sales to human resources and never got past the interview because I didn't know anything about the careers.

All college seniors should be required to attend a seminar given by the career resources center of their college where they can work on their resumes and interviewing. I had trouble making it to the career resources center at Metropolitan State University because it didn't have evening hours or weekend hours. The couple times I did go in to look for internships, I didn't receive much help. Or maybe I just didn't know the right questions to ask. I should have come straight out and said, "Help me. I'm lost."

No more polycarbonate bottles and cans of soda for me!

I’m sure all you readers own at least one plastic bottle made of polycarbonate. I own two that I bought last year in my goal to become fit (which I am implementing this summer). Plastic bottles made of polycarbonate were popular because they were clear and nearly unbreakable. I wanted them because I saw everybody else carrying them.

The Canadian government is planning to declare that the chemical, bisphenol-A or BPA, is toxic due to studies showing that low doses of this chemical caused rats to develop tumors, urinary tract problems, and early puberty. This chemical is what makes polycarbonate.

The Hudson’s Bay Company has removed all baby-related products from its stores and plans to remove other merchandise made from polycarbonate.

Wal-Mart Canada removed all polycarbonate merchandise from its stores and Wal-Mart USA plans to remove polycarbonate baby-related merchandise by early next year.

Now retailers are wondering what to do with soft drinks sold in aluminum or steel cans. “For the last two decades, the interiors of most cans have been coated with an epoxy resin that is made using the chemical to extend the shelf life of the contents and prevent the metal from affecting the flavors of food and drinks.”

“John M. Rost, the chairman of the North American Metal Packaging Alliance, an industry group, said that there was no evidence that the linings expose humans to significant amounts of the chemical, a position not shared by all scientists. He added that researchers had been unable to develop an alternative lining that performs as well as the current epoxy.”

So this chemical, in LOW DOSES, causes tumors, urinary tract problems, and early puberty for rats. UGH. I am not allowing any more polycarbonate products in my household. The plastic bottles are supposed to be nearly unbreakable. I wonder how long it would take to decompose. Especially since ordinary plastic bottles take 450 years to decompose. Polycarbonate is not recyclable either.

I’m going to keep my water bottles as artwork representing the dangers of convenience, covetousness, Capitalism, and plastic. Why didn’t Thermo Fisher Scientific, the company that made the polycarbonate bottles, do these studies in the first place?

Man Found Dead in Battle Creek Park

I was shocked to read on Google News that a man was found dead on a road in Battle Creek Park. My husband and I used to go there all the time when we were dating. When I used to read mystery books and watch “Law and Order” (this is before my kids), I used to imagine finding dead bodies in the park.

It reminds of something that happened with my father. My father used to go to my older sister’s house everyday at 7 in the morning to pick up her kids for babysitting. She lived in Frogtown. One morning he saw a car stop at the corner and throw a body out onto the grassy corner at the intersection. My father continued driving because he didn’t want any trouble.

What really frightens me is what my father did, which was nothing. It’s just like all those stories you read about a violent crime happening and people just ignoring it. Like the girl who was raped on a train in India and how the people on the same train didn’t help her. Or the woman who was being knifed in the hallway and none of the apartment residents were willing to open their doors to help her.

Get to know your neighbors and the community. We need each other for safety. The less you know your neighbors, the more likely these kinds of crimes will happen. Just a “Hi” can do wonders.

I’ve also read that when you are faced with a crowd, and you need help, it’s more effective for you to single out some one to ask for help rather than addressing the whole crowd. When you single some one out, he/she would feel more obligated to help you.

Bought double stroller

Excited by my new fitness plan, I purchased the Jeep Wrangler Twin Sport All-Weather Umbrella Stroller – Fierce on Amazon.com for $99. In fact Target and Wal-Mart both sold it for $89 but they were out of stock at this time. I agonized over my decision, not wanting to waste $10. The free shipping offered by Amazon helped assuage my anguish.

Now what do I do with my old strollers? I have a Graco stroller and a cheap umbrella stroller. I could leave them outside with a “Free” sign but I worry that the neighborhood kids might mess with them. Last time I left a dresser by the side of the street and the next morning, the drawers were all over the place.

Maybe I should post them on Craigslist. I don’t want to use my address as I live in a housing complex that people might hesitate to enter. Maybe I’ll use my in-laws address.

Maybe I’ll just donate them to Savers or Goodwill, if they’ll accept them of course. The strollers have not been gently used.