Serious Love for Locks of Love

So, yesterday I got my hair cut for Locks of Love. It was a great thing. The longest pieces were about 10.5 inches, although the layers were a bit shorter. If you want to watch the process, I'm embedding the video here:



However, I was surprised how some people had a negative reaction to the organization. People talked about how Locks of Love (LoL) didn't use all the hair for wigs or deny some cancer patients wigs. I thought that the negative reaction was weird, so I did some research... and some of it is true, but taken WAAAAY out of context.

So, yes, LoL doesn't use all the hair that they get in the mail. However, they don't want to damage hair by dyeing it, so gray hair isn't used. Also, they only use the highest quality hair, so color-treated hair isn't used either. They also rarely use hair shorter than 10 inches because they make a lot of long hair wigs for little girls.

What do they do with all of this extra hair? They sell it. This outrages some people, but in my research, I discovered that hand-making human hair wigs can cost thousands of dollars. They get a lot of hair in the mail, but not a lot of people donate more than $50. So, they need donations of at least 50 people for every wig. If they don't get that, they need to make money somehow. So, they sell the extra hair that they can't use anyway.

The other allegation is that they are denying cancer patients. One problem is that the lack of finances to make these wigs makes it hard to make enough wigs for everyone. At this point, LoL wants to focus on giving wigs to children who permanently lose their hair, which happens with certain cancers. However, this means that most of the kids who receive wigs have other diseases.

I think all of their reasons are totally justified. I guess I have a lot more problems with the critics of LoL than LoL itself. Why should only cancer patients deserve to have wigs? I think a loss of hair would be stigmatizing to any young kid, regardless of what disease they have. I'm really happy that I donated my hair, and I'm sending a check to try to offset the costs of making a wig. I hope that other people can feel the same way.

Two excellent quotes!!

A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

The United States is a nation of laws: badly written and randomly enforced. ~ Frank Zappo

Phone Messages

I'm NOT feeling good and I have thesis anxiety. However, here is a recent YouTube video because I have sadly neglected my beautiful blog.



I feel like a crack monkey, and from Sandip's comments, I'm acting like one, too. Stupid allergies and colds and the medicine that allows me to breathe but takes away my ability to function in reality. BLEH.

Epic FAIL!!!!

This is one of my very favorite videos on YouTube.... I could watch it over and over again. AWESOME!!!



Hope you enjoy!!

Two Truths and a Lie...

Hey everyone!

So, I joined in on a couple different memes on YouTube this past week. (I know! There's nothing like the power of procrastination when you've got a big deadline coming!!) My favorite is the 2 Truths and a Lie meme, although anyone that knows me even a little should get it pretty quickly.



However, I also did the Google meme where you type "Your Name" and a verb into Google and then tell everyone the results. That one was a lot of fun, too.



There're some good ones!!

And, last but not least, I had a good time in the snow... although I bruised my tailbone on an unpictured fall on the ice. However, the part where I got snow up my coat was pretty funny...



So, anyways, have fun watching, if you get a chance. Also, note the songs on the upper right corner!! You can listen to some of my inspirational music that I'm using while writing my thesis. Super fun!! Have a great day!!

Religion...

With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
- Steven Weinberg

I don't have much to say beyond this. Just think about it and assess if things done in the name of religion are truly fair or just your own ethical beliefs...

I'm thinking of this in a few ways, I suppose, if you need direction. There is the big obvious Israel, Hamas, Gaza Strip, etc set of issues, which boils down to a particular religious-ethnic group taking over another country because of their holy land location and centuries of discrimination. However, it seems that their persecution has only led them to persecute others who are pissed that their homes have been destroyed and they have been forcibly shoved off their lands... and are now retaliating with missiles. However, there is so much wrong-doing on both sides, so take it as you will...

But then there is the religion vs. gay marriage conflict here in the United States that has its own special problems. Hurray.... This one is odd because so many people that discuss civil rights have a negative opinion of gay marriage. It doesn't make sense to me. Why do some people have certain rights and other people don't?? What's going on here?? Don't ask me, I don't get it.

Bleh.... Don't hate me for making you question your value system... hate the person who ingrained it in your psyche.

An Abundance of Sarah Babble

So, the video above is random, but fun. I was excited about the president and John Green (the author). I was also hopped up on some Dayquil... which is always helpful to maintaining energy levels. It was just about the best I felt all day. I am in the process of getting sick. I've had a fever. Well, sort of. I don't know if you could say it was a full-fledged fever since the hottest the thermometer showed was 99.6 F. HOWEVER, everyone that felt my forehead claimed it was ridiculously warm and I should go to bed if I wasn't feeling good. However, all that napping plus dayquil means that I am awake now, promoting my video. YAY! Except I'm tired already. And while I did my homework for the week, I still have grading to do and that ever-present, ever-dreaded thesis to do... I would give a kidney to have that darn thing done. Seriously. A kidney. I'm blood type A +, if that helps.

I always liked my blood type. My pompous, little, over-achieving self really enjoyed thinking things like "even my blood gets an A +." Luckily I was smart enough not to say it out loud (well, beyond my parents) because that is worthy of a serious @$$ kicking. I don't know why that was less offensive spelled out in symbols... but it was! Anyways, despite the serious lack of people looking or reading my blog (or watching those videso, for that matter), I still enjoy typing some of these things out. I always liked the idea of diaries, but somehow having a forum where I get to broadcast my views to the world is even more fun. YAY!