Police: Couple nurtured virtual child while real baby starved

From Andrew Salmon for CNN

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) — Police have arrested a South Korean couple whose toddler starved to death while they were raising a virtual child online, authorities said.

The couple fed their 3-month-old daughter once a day between marathon stretches in a local Internet cafe, where they were raising a virtual child in the fantasy role-playing game Prius Online, police told local reporters Friday.

Full (awful) story here

My recommended kid games (from A Whole Lotta Nothing)

as much as it might seem like a good idea to rush into potty training, especially if you have a kid who is showing advanced abilities, studies show that you should wait.  but not too long…

A new study suggests 27 to 32 months is the ideal window for moving your child out of diapers. Children who were toilet trained after 32 months were more likely to have urge incontinence — daytime wetting and bed-wetting — between ages 4 and 12.

I’ve heard about a method that involves three days and NO diapers, probably some messy pants and some unpleasant laundry, but has success.  Well, I know of two cases that worked…we will cover that soon on PoppaBlog.

More on the study mentioned above, here.

Full Story Here

I’m not one to judge, OK OK I am…but seriously?  The girl is 18, thinks she is a wolf…has her dead dog’s skull in a jar…and her own bloody animal fridge.  I have a daughter…I need to know how to not end up with a wolf girl.

Sarah Rodriguez, also known as Wolfie Blackheart

[following content from mysanantonio.com] Wolfie Blackheart is not an ordinary 18-year-old.

She believes she is a wolf — technically, a werewolf — and so she wears a tail. She also wears a harness in case someone special wants to drag her around.

And last week, she used a pocketknife in her kitchen to decapitate a dog — already dead, according to Wolfie — that had been missing since Jan. 5.

“I severed the head, boiled the head,” Wolfie said. “People make the mistake of hacking the spine, which will fracture the skull.”

She added, “You also have to put (the head) outside for the brains to leak out.”

Before the teenager carted the cranium to the woods, someone held it up and snapped a photograph of it inside her Northwest Side house — a shot that ended up on the Internet.

Within days, the photo had spurred an aggressive animal cruelty investigation by Animal Care Services and the San Antonio Police Department.

It also inspired at least one so-called troll — a savvy, anonymous Internet user — to hack into Wolfie’s personal accounts, engage in amateur sleuthing and issue threats to those deemed responsible for the dog’s fate.

Bearing the brunt of these attacks, Wolfie — born Sarah Rodriguez — says she’s guilty of nothing more than an abiding love for taxidermy.

“I would never kill a canine,” she said. “I am a canine.”

Lisa Rodriguez, Wolfie’s mom, said she supports her daughter’s career goal.

“I say, ‘Don’t sever heads in front of me,’ ” she said. “She usually does it in the woods.”

Wolfie cares lovingly for two huskies in the backyard.

Her room is a cluttered den plastered with posters of anime characters and howling wolves. On a high shelf, she collects heads, including the cleaned skulls of a coyote, ram and wild boar.

When a car ran over Pixie — her “best friend” — Wolfie cut off the chihuahua’s tiny head, cleaned it and placed it in a jar.

“I get requests on cats and stuff,” she said.

Wolfie also has collected more than a dozen swords, including a “two-handled war sword” made of carbon steel and a katana blade from Japan.

She said investigators knocked on her door Friday with a search warrant.

“When they saw her room, they had to call every single cop to her room,” said her mother, who lives in the home. “The spots on the wall, they thought it was blood. It’s catsup. The kids had a fight. They’re teenagers.”

She added, “Wolfie does have a bloody refrigerator, but they’re all dead animals.”
Crime scene investigators swabbed the walls. Authorities confiscated the dog’s head. No one could find the body. [continues]

grrrr, k thx bye, gonna go howl at the moon now.

Originally saw this on Gizmodo

Originally saw it here. With a priceless quote:

Even though he sounds like your drunk ass at karaoke, he has still caused the veins in my non-working heart to fill with blood. It might be beating now. And I think this video also made me grow a uterus.

Have a great weekend!

• Magazines: Guys like magazines.  Personally, I have active subscriptions to over 10 magazines ranging from American Photo to Automobile. Pick something the guy in your life likes and get his something to read about it…you know during those 10-30minute daily reading sessions that he enjoys so much.
• Tools: Guys love the big expensive pneumatic powered ratcheting torque wrenching impact gunning over the top tools that we’ll find one use for and then ditch somewhere in a remote corner of the garage for a few years.  It’s in our DNA to overpay for a weapon that is too much tool for the job.  Help us out and get us something small, useful and practical.  Personally, I’d suggest a good multi-tool like the Leatherman Freestyle CX or any other Leatherman branded multi-tool. Under $100, even under $50 for the smaller ones and incredibly useful.
• Music: Is your man obsessed with 90s rock legends like Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Nelson?  Save yourself the embarrassment asking for the new Gravity Kills album at Best Buy and grab him an Amazon MP3 Gift Card (he can also use it for other merchandise).
• DVDs: Men are busy creatures.  It’s tough to schedule quality TV time when we’re already booked with happy hours, football and garage antics.  TV on DVD is quite possibly one of the greatest inventions of the 21st century.  Two of my favorites right now are Dexter and Planet Earth: The Complete BBC Series [Blu-ray]

Not a fan of reading? Here are our budget gift suggestions:

I wanted to pass on a quick savings tip before dropping the first annual PoppaBlog.com Holiday Gift Guide for Dads and Kids on you.

I recently saved 15% on a purchase just by using Bing.com’s cashback feature. Check it out here. Just search for the retailer or product that you’re interested in and save some loot. It takes about 60 days to get the money back, but come February, it’ll be nice to have some extra cash for Valentine’s Day.

The notion of directing users to a particular site for a percentage off isn’t new, another pioneer in the area is FatWallet.

Another great place to look is the same place that takes money from you every month, your credit cards. Discover offers their Shop Discover and American Express has shopAmex (which will actually let you use your points for merchandise).

Bank of America has announced Add It Up which offers percentage discounts as well, and works with their credit and debit cards.

Some workplaces offer additional benefits in the form of employee discounts. For example, I recently purchased a Sears gift card for my father and received a 15% discount, just for being an employee of my company! Check with your HR people to see if you have anything similar.

I’m sure there are a pile of cash back and rewards programs out there worth mentioning. If you know of any, please comment and share with the readers.

Have a hipster friend with kids?  Are you a hipster who not only has a kid, but still plays with toys?  Lubies, from Rocket USA are right up your alley.  Get something you can’t find at Toys R Us or Target for your animal loving kid or stuffed toy collector.

From Plastic and Plush

The second half of Lubies Series 2 is made up of animals that you’d probably see at a nearby zoo or an African Safari. Monkeys, lions, giraffes, and hippos are all recognizable animals, so little kids will know what they are. And as with all of the Lubies plushies, these are super soft and made of various fabrics.

The Monkey will probably be the most popular Lubies Series 2 plush with youngsters. It has a cute little nose and tiny little tail.

Buy them here:

Lubies by Rocket USA – Monkey

Stay tuned, we’re ramping up for a holiday gift guide here at PoppaBlog.com.  We’ll try to focus on gifts for your kids and for dads, from teh obscure and unique to perfect gifts for anyone.

Here are some tips to keep you and your kids out of the doctor’s office this holiday season:

• Stay Home. For real, avoid unnecessary trips.  Junior doesn’t need to wait in line with you at 6AM on Black Friday to get that $249.99 laptop at Walmart.  Also, with H1N1 (swine flu) flying around everywhere, this would be the year to tell your extended family that you really don’t care for them and you want to spend Christmas at home with the wife and kids.
• Take the Meds. If your child is over 6 months old, get a flu shot.  With the H1N1 hype happening right now, most people are losing site that the regular flu tends to get nasty in late December.  Protect yourself and your kids and get both types of shots.
• Tell your friends and family to get shots. As adults, our immune systems have been strengthened by shirtless football games in January and the barrage of germs, viruses and parasites that are ingested during spirited beer pong play…your kids on the other hand have not led the cultured life that you have and can’t handle exposure like you can.  Avoid exposure by (putting on some pants) asking your relatives to get flu shots before you come and visit.  If grandma really wants to see her granddaughter, she can take her butt to the pharmacy for a shot.
• Keep them clean. I saw a kid pick up a chicken bone from the floor of a restaurant and put it in his mouth once.  Gross right? I swear, the little buggers will touch and eat anything…ANYTHING.  Keep their hands clean and keep an eye out for what they’re touching.  Grabbing Uncle Randy’s wooden leg is one thing, sucking on a handrail at the mall (I literally just gagged) is another. 
  
• Teach them how to sneeze and cough. I keep telling my 6 month old that if she doesn’t start covering her nose and mouth when she sneezes that I’m not going to let her talk to boys until she’s 50.  Lucky for me, she’s not covering up.  If your kid is old enough to get it, teach them how to cover their mouth/nose and teach them to wash their hands afterward.  A sick kid is bad enough, being known as the family that’s spreading the outbreak can get you run out of some places.

Do you have any tips?  Please comment!