What I Got For Christmas

I have to say that I've had a wonderful Christmas. Family parents on my mother and father's side were here and it was nice to see everybody at once. Below is the list of gifts I got.

1. The perfume Daisy by Marc Jacobs. It is a lovely scent that I've been obsessed with for years so I was excited to get this.

2. A hat and leggings from Forever 21. I can't wear the hat now since I have braids and it doesn't fit right, but the leggings are really pretty.

3. $$$$$

4. A Nikon D90. I've been getting into photography lately and now I can finally practice. I will use this camera every day of my life I love it so much.

5. Two shirts. One layered, flowery one and a T-shirt that says "Vegetarian before it was cool." I love them.

6. A mixed CD chock full of my favorite songs and inside jokes between me and my cousin.

7. A New Moon board game. The directions are really confusing but I'l figure it out.

8. A 25$ gift card to Barnes and Noble. I am so happy.

IMDb users

Earlier today I was surfing the internet and decided to pop in on the internet movie data base. For those of you who don't know, IMDb is an online database of information related to movies, actors, television shows, video games, and fictional characters. I began to sift through the different message boards. In all honesty, it was the most atrocious thing I've ever seen. I've met some bigoted, ignorant, and egocentric people but my God. The message boards on IMDb are some of the most vile things I've ever seen. The users treat each other with no respect, they turn the most simple statement into a full blown argument, and even sink down into using stereotypes to insult each other. For example, there was a biracial girl who called a black user an "ugly black baboon" and told said user to "pick some cotton and learn their place".

There was a white user who stated that he refuses to listen to minorities "whine" because white people got their way. This poor man honestly saw no wrong in the slave trade, the massacre of the Native Americans, or any other discrimination against minorities in this country.

If you wanna have a laugh, go over to the IMDb boards and just read the messages they write. WARNING: You will be tempted to create a user account and just tell some people off, but just remember that you do not wish to sink to their level. I'm not saying this for all IMDb users, but the majority of them are probably just a bunch of ignorant people who have nothing better to do than argue with random strangers on the internet.

These stores really need to catch up

Let's pretend for a moment that we are all store owners. Of course everyday we will notice that there are less and less people shopping in out little store and that we are slowly going bankrupt. Well here's what I would do. I would lower my prices and that would easily bring in more customers. Sounds like a good idea right? People who are cutting back on spending will love your store because it is reasonably priced. Well I'm not seeing much of that from a lot of stores. Mostly those big department stores like Macy's who thinks it's God. Seriously, when are the prices gonna go down?

Recently I was with my friends shopping in Urban Outfitters and of course we didn't buy anything. For one, their sale section lied. There was a huge sign that said that all clothing items in that section would be below $30. Well I saw at least fourty items priced near $80. I'm getting sick of it. Especially with Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, and Free People. I promise I'll shop in those stores again if they'd just lower those prices.

But here's what I'm hoping for: either the stores that are overly priced will lower their prices once they realize that their store is simply out of everyone's recession budgets, or they will run out of business and have a big closing sale where I can milk that store for all its got. Either way, I win.

So dissapointed

A couple of days ago I was given a trend story assignment (I'm at the National High School Institute at Northwestern University and we write a lot of articles).Well my trend was the recent increase in abandoned pets due to the recession. Now I was suprised by this information. I always knew that some people had situations where they just could not afford a good life for their pet anymore. But then I thought " Would these people give up their child because they couldn't afford to take care of them?" I doubt it. I know that you cannot compare the connection a person has with their child with the connection of a owner and a pet. But basically it's the same thing. You chose to take a living creature in and take care of them and provide them a good home. People really need to learn to take resposibility for their pets. Don't just get a puppy because it's something to do. This is a life changing decision. A pet is not something that you can buy on a whim and then toss aside when you are tired of it. If you think for even a moment that something could happen that may make you consider giving up your pet before you buy it, then you need to leave. So many pets have been dropped off at shelters by the one person or people that they trust and love. Some people are cut out to care for a pet. Others just aren't. Just like some people are fit parents and some would have done better never having a child. And I cannot stand to hear people who say they were heartbroken when they had to abandon their pets and that they wish they could keep them. No one wants to hear it. If you really truly cares, you would have asked a friend or a relative to take your pet(s). You would have done the research and found a new home that allows you to keep your animals. People need to learn that a pet is a huge responsibility and not something that you just give up when the going gets tough.