I'm getting old.
And the subject of having children has been coming up more and more for the past couple of years.
At first, I hated the idea of having kids. I felt they were an expensive burden that sucked the life out of you only to turn around 15 or 16 years later and tell you what a bad parent you'd been and how much they hated you. I vowed to never have kids and dreamed of having a life with minimal obligation- a life where I could do whatever I wanted.
But then, in my mid twenties, something changed, and suddenly the idea wasn't so far fetched. The responsibility and hassle didn't seem so terrifying either. I guess this kind of mentality shift is a biological trick played on young women to get them to reproduce. It worked, I'm much more open to the idea.
But now, I find myself struggling with the idea of becoming a parent.
On one hand, I think I would really enjoy having a child or two. I mean, you never know, they could invent some incredible machine or discover the cure for a disease that plagues our world. Plus, having a child would be kind of like a mini experiment, a front row view of human development, a way of remembering my own childhood and recreating that same sense of happiness and security.
But then there's this other side of things. The state of the world scares me. It seems everything has taken a turn for the worse. We're stuck in a "war," we've lost our jobs and our money, crime seems to be getting increasingly heinous, people have lost their minds and have become slaves to gadgets, and the media, and the entertainment industry...It seems things are getting worse and I don't see an improvement happening any time soon. Yes, I know that previous generations have lived through all kinds of catastrophe and strife and they have still managed to have kids and be happy- I owe my life to these past generations- but I wonder if having a child at this point in time would be a responsible choice. The world is over crowded enough as it is and in the coming years, everyone will be struggling to have access to basic needs like food and water. Plus, everything is poisoned with chemicals, infectious diseases are many times worse now, and it seems kids are kidnapped and murdered at an alarming rate. It just seems like having a child now would be like having a child and placing him in a cesspool to live out his life. Do people think about this? Is it just me?
Animals, or I should say, other animals scope out several places before they lay their eggs or give birth. They do the footwork (finwork, wingwork, etc) to make sure their babies have the best possible chance of survival...so I wonder, why don't humans don't do the same thing? I mean, sure, most people go out and buy a crib and a stroller, and they stock up on baby supplies and clothing, but what about the bigger picture? I guess if people had to wait for society and the economy to improve, nobody would ever have children again. I don't know. I just don't know if I have found the right place (or time) to bury my little eggs...the world seems too dangerous.
Back to square one on this one.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Friday, April 30, 2010
Why so many haters?
So I just read a story about a celebrity who recently posed for a PETA billboard against circuses. The story is that Olivia Munn (host of 'Attack of the Show' on G4) may have worn leather boots to the billboard unveiling event. This of course would mean that the whole event was a sham....or that's the implication anyway. Nobody knows if the boots are real or faux leather, and Munn herself has said that they are not real, but of course everyone reading the article has determined that they are real and that PETA is a hypocritical organization....yet another negative portrayal of PETA and the animal rights movement as a whole.
[Begin Rant]
And of course the comments on stories like these are full of anti-PETA sentiment, anti-animal rights sentiment, anti-vegetarian sentiment, and they're full of half truths and false rationalizations; the inevitable "Do you know PETA kills animals?" statement always shows up. Grrrr.
This pisses me off.
Not so much because people hate PETA, but because people use PETA to rail against the animal rights movement as a whole. And those who can't see through the bullshit eat it all up. They believe everything they read even when the claims are simply a matter of opinion. People believe it because they want to believe it. They have an orgasm when the 'PETA kills animals' claim comes up because yes, this claim is true, just not in the way these people would have you believe. PETA does euthanize animals, as do many shelters around the country, but this is a direct consequence of a human created problem, and that's where the outrage should be directed.
No one, it seems, is ever outraged at the fact that as human beings we have created the cruel and terrible problem of animal abandonment and animal overpopulation by throwing our pets out into the street when they outgrow their cuteness, or when we just don't give a damn about them anymore. No one is outraged that as human beings we have let this problem go on and on to the point where there isn't enough room for all of these discarded animals. Yes, these poor creatures are put down, humanely. They are not put down for profit or entertainment, or for any other ridiculous reason, they are put down because there is no where else to put them. Despite the work of animal welfare organizations to save these animals, every year there are more than the last. Animal welfare organizations like PETA have been trying hard to educate the public about spaying and neutering, but people just don't get it. So when these animals have to be put down to make room for the next wave, all of a sudden people wake up and say, 'Hey! Why are you killing animals? Hypocrite!'
They are the real hypocrites.
And this is not the only distortion or straight out lie about PETA or any other animal welfare group for that matter- there are many- but those are the comments that turn the uninformed against animal welfare organizations and those are the comments that perpetuate hatred against the animal rights movement.
It's all smoke and mirrors. The real issue is that people see animal welfare groups as a threat to their way of life; they want to eat that steak, they want to wear that fur coat, they want to go to the circus, and they want to hunt and fish, and of course PETA (and many other organizations like it) is working hard to get rid of all these destructive behaviors. So they criticize the organizations and the celebrities that endorse them, and they mock animal rights, and they mock vegeterianism, and they rationalize the abuse of animals....
And it pisses me off every time.
[End Rant]
[Begin Rant]
And of course the comments on stories like these are full of anti-PETA sentiment, anti-animal rights sentiment, anti-vegetarian sentiment, and they're full of half truths and false rationalizations; the inevitable "Do you know PETA kills animals?" statement always shows up. Grrrr.
This pisses me off.
Not so much because people hate PETA, but because people use PETA to rail against the animal rights movement as a whole. And those who can't see through the bullshit eat it all up. They believe everything they read even when the claims are simply a matter of opinion. People believe it because they want to believe it. They have an orgasm when the 'PETA kills animals' claim comes up because yes, this claim is true, just not in the way these people would have you believe. PETA does euthanize animals, as do many shelters around the country, but this is a direct consequence of a human created problem, and that's where the outrage should be directed.
No one, it seems, is ever outraged at the fact that as human beings we have created the cruel and terrible problem of animal abandonment and animal overpopulation by throwing our pets out into the street when they outgrow their cuteness, or when we just don't give a damn about them anymore. No one is outraged that as human beings we have let this problem go on and on to the point where there isn't enough room for all of these discarded animals. Yes, these poor creatures are put down, humanely. They are not put down for profit or entertainment, or for any other ridiculous reason, they are put down because there is no where else to put them. Despite the work of animal welfare organizations to save these animals, every year there are more than the last. Animal welfare organizations like PETA have been trying hard to educate the public about spaying and neutering, but people just don't get it. So when these animals have to be put down to make room for the next wave, all of a sudden people wake up and say, 'Hey! Why are you killing animals? Hypocrite!'
They are the real hypocrites.
And this is not the only distortion or straight out lie about PETA or any other animal welfare group for that matter- there are many- but those are the comments that turn the uninformed against animal welfare organizations and those are the comments that perpetuate hatred against the animal rights movement.
It's all smoke and mirrors. The real issue is that people see animal welfare groups as a threat to their way of life; they want to eat that steak, they want to wear that fur coat, they want to go to the circus, and they want to hunt and fish, and of course PETA (and many other organizations like it) is working hard to get rid of all these destructive behaviors. So they criticize the organizations and the celebrities that endorse them, and they mock animal rights, and they mock vegeterianism, and they rationalize the abuse of animals....
And it pisses me off every time.
[End Rant]
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Choking on a pox...
I don't know why it's so hard for me to maintain this blog. It's not like I have a life. And I always seem to get the urge to wanna add content when I have a cold, which is weird.
I am, in fact, choking on some kind of pox, and here I am.
I wish I could be one of those people who think quick and snap photos of everything they see and do, someone who is apparently interesting- but I never think to do that....whine, whine, whine....I'm delirious.
By the way, I created a new design in honor of Eyjafjallajökull, the Iceland volcano that spewed a gigantic ash cloud that took on a life of it's own...last I heard, a baby ash cloud had broken off and was heading to the UK. It's crazy because this volcano hadn't erupted since 1823 or something and the ash cloud paralyzed the European airline industry for a week! The world is obviously going to hell in a hand basket.
I am, in fact, choking on some kind of pox, and here I am.
I wish I could be one of those people who think quick and snap photos of everything they see and do, someone who is apparently interesting- but I never think to do that....whine, whine, whine....I'm delirious.
By the way, I created a new design in honor of Eyjafjallajökull, the Iceland volcano that spewed a gigantic ash cloud that took on a life of it's own...last I heard, a baby ash cloud had broken off and was heading to the UK. It's crazy because this volcano hadn't erupted since 1823 or something and the ash cloud paralyzed the European airline industry for a week! The world is obviously going to hell in a hand basket.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Bare asses and an exploded car...
Today marks the 5th year since my mother passed away.
I've been moping around the house all day, as melancholic and weepy as the year before and the year before that, and truth be told, I just ate a whole pot of macaroni and cheese...out of the pot...like a broken hobo...I hope I don't pass out from a sodium overdose before I finish this post.
Anyway, I thought maybe I should torture myself (as I do every year around this time) and go through some family photos/mementos. I was glad to find a few photos that I had never seen of my mom in the early 70s and I was also happy to find some photos of a male stripper giving my mother a lap dance in the 80s.
*If you are averse to male, hairy butts, scroll down very fast to pass the pictures below*
The story here is not so much that my mother had a stripper at her party because hey, it was the eighties and hairy male strippers were all the rage.
No, the story here is what happened 20 years later when these pictures first came to my attention.
A few years ago, when I was still living in Queens, my stepmother gave me a big can of old family photos that she had found in the basement of my childhood home. My mother had already passed away by this time but I still had her car, which my poor husband had to move several times during the week for alternate side of the street parking because I didn't have my license yet. I hadn't looked at the pictures--it was too difficult--so they basically lived in my mother's car for months.
So one day I came home and sat down by the window to have a cigarette. As soon as I put the ashtray on the windowsill, there was a loud boom that shook the house and knocked the ashtray out the window. This was all post 911 so of course I imagined bombs dropping and buildings collapsing. When I went outside to investigate, I saw my neighbors (about 100 more than I thought I had) standing outside looking around all puzzled. There were a few roads in front of my apartment complex that were pulled up and broken. It turned out that Con Edison, the main electric company in NYC, had accidentally triggered an underground explosion that caused all the manhole covers within a 6-10 block radius to go shooting up in the air! I had no idea where my husband had parked the car but I thanked my lucky stars that it wasn't parked in front of the apartment complex where the roads and several parked cars had been damaged.
The next day we headed out to the laundromat but when we turned the corner, we saw my mother's car sitting in the middle of the street, windows shattered, glass everywhere. I screamed and ran towards the car--The police had left a mini police report/note on the windshield since they didn't know who the car belonged to. I was in total shock.
Pretty soon, the people on that block started to make their way to the car to tell me that they had seen the car go up in the air and come crashing down--unfortunately, my husband had parked it over a manhole cover--what are the odds? As people came closer and looked in the car, I realized that there were a million pictures of a hairy, bare ass all over the car seats. I looked like a complete pervert. It was one of the funniest, strangest things that could have happened. I guess you had to be there to appreciate the awkwardness of it all...but my neighbors did look at me differently after that incident.
Anyway, here's to the male stripper from the 80s with the hairy buns!
and p.s: miss ya ma!
I've been moping around the house all day, as melancholic and weepy as the year before and the year before that, and truth be told, I just ate a whole pot of macaroni and cheese...out of the pot...like a broken hobo...I hope I don't pass out from a sodium overdose before I finish this post.
Anyway, I thought maybe I should torture myself (as I do every year around this time) and go through some family photos/mementos. I was glad to find a few photos that I had never seen of my mom in the early 70s and I was also happy to find some photos of a male stripper giving my mother a lap dance in the 80s.
*If you are averse to male, hairy butts, scroll down very fast to pass the pictures below*
The story here is not so much that my mother had a stripper at her party because hey, it was the eighties and hairy male strippers were all the rage.
No, the story here is what happened 20 years later when these pictures first came to my attention.
A few years ago, when I was still living in Queens, my stepmother gave me a big can of old family photos that she had found in the basement of my childhood home. My mother had already passed away by this time but I still had her car, which my poor husband had to move several times during the week for alternate side of the street parking because I didn't have my license yet. I hadn't looked at the pictures--it was too difficult--so they basically lived in my mother's car for months.
So one day I came home and sat down by the window to have a cigarette. As soon as I put the ashtray on the windowsill, there was a loud boom that shook the house and knocked the ashtray out the window. This was all post 911 so of course I imagined bombs dropping and buildings collapsing. When I went outside to investigate, I saw my neighbors (about 100 more than I thought I had) standing outside looking around all puzzled. There were a few roads in front of my apartment complex that were pulled up and broken. It turned out that Con Edison, the main electric company in NYC, had accidentally triggered an underground explosion that caused all the manhole covers within a 6-10 block radius to go shooting up in the air! I had no idea where my husband had parked the car but I thanked my lucky stars that it wasn't parked in front of the apartment complex where the roads and several parked cars had been damaged.
The next day we headed out to the laundromat but when we turned the corner, we saw my mother's car sitting in the middle of the street, windows shattered, glass everywhere. I screamed and ran towards the car--The police had left a mini police report/note on the windshield since they didn't know who the car belonged to. I was in total shock.
Pretty soon, the people on that block started to make their way to the car to tell me that they had seen the car go up in the air and come crashing down--unfortunately, my husband had parked it over a manhole cover--what are the odds? As people came closer and looked in the car, I realized that there were a million pictures of a hairy, bare ass all over the car seats. I looked like a complete pervert. It was one of the funniest, strangest things that could have happened. I guess you had to be there to appreciate the awkwardness of it all...but my neighbors did look at me differently after that incident.
Anyway, here's to the male stripper from the 80s with the hairy buns!
and p.s: miss ya ma!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
New Zazzle store up and running! yay!
My Zazzle shop features new Halloween designs--I will be adding more designs in the days and months to come. Check it out:
buy unique gifts at Zazzle
buy unique gifts at Zazzle
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Catching up--not that anyone reads this anyway...
So it's September.
This year just flew by. It feels like only yesterday I was posting on this blog.
Since my last post in April, several things have happened.
First, my aeroponic garden had to be euthanized. Everything was growing beautifully when all of a sudden things took a turn for the worse and everything shriveled up and died--that is, everything except my tomato plant. This evil tomato plant grew to several feet in height and I think it basically hogged all the nutrient solution and sucked the life out of the other plants. Unfortunately, the tomato plant thrived but never flowered--so I supposed I was missing something or my solution's PH was off. In any event, I finally pulled the plug a few months ago and will try again this winter.
In the meantime, I built an outdoor balcony garden and my cucumber plant is a monster!
Secondly, I ended up shutting down my website since things are bad financially and I didn't have any time to maintain it. I have been doing a lot of odd jobs to make ends meet and I've even done some freelance writing through Elance. I plan to put my site back up by next year but who knows, we'll see. In the meantime, I created an Etsy shop and plan to sell odds and ends on there. My shop is located at: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=8083440 and of course, I can be contacted through this blog. Hit me up!
Thirdly, I'm amazed at how prophetic my mini essay about the state of health care was and I'm glad that we're on the verge of finally getting some kind of health care reform. I need a check up. Like so many other Americans, I only go to the doctor when I need a prescription for my allergy medication or when I get sick. I have put doctor and dentist visits off and I have slept through painful toothaches; as an American living in 2009, this is absurd! I'm really hoping for change.
Until next time.
(Who am I talking to? Nobody reads this!)
This year just flew by. It feels like only yesterday I was posting on this blog.
Since my last post in April, several things have happened.
First, my aeroponic garden had to be euthanized. Everything was growing beautifully when all of a sudden things took a turn for the worse and everything shriveled up and died--that is, everything except my tomato plant. This evil tomato plant grew to several feet in height and I think it basically hogged all the nutrient solution and sucked the life out of the other plants. Unfortunately, the tomato plant thrived but never flowered--so I supposed I was missing something or my solution's PH was off. In any event, I finally pulled the plug a few months ago and will try again this winter.
In the meantime, I built an outdoor balcony garden and my cucumber plant is a monster!
Secondly, I ended up shutting down my website since things are bad financially and I didn't have any time to maintain it. I have been doing a lot of odd jobs to make ends meet and I've even done some freelance writing through Elance. I plan to put my site back up by next year but who knows, we'll see. In the meantime, I created an Etsy shop and plan to sell odds and ends on there. My shop is located at: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=8083440 and of course, I can be contacted through this blog. Hit me up!
Thirdly, I'm amazed at how prophetic my mini essay about the state of health care was and I'm glad that we're on the verge of finally getting some kind of health care reform. I need a check up. Like so many other Americans, I only go to the doctor when I need a prescription for my allergy medication or when I get sick. I have put doctor and dentist visits off and I have slept through painful toothaches; as an American living in 2009, this is absurd! I'm really hoping for change.
Until next time.
(Who am I talking to? Nobody reads this!)
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Garden Update
My seeds are germinating nicely and there are sprouts everywhere --The tomato plant (pictured below) is several inches tall after only 10 days!
The cucumber & pepper seeds were not germinating so I replanted them and hope they will sprout quickly.
So far so good :)
The cucumber & pepper seeds were not germinating so I replanted them and hope they will sprout quickly.
So far so good :)
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