I recently heard about contest to blog about the Vancouver Winter Olympics, and while the odds of being picked to do so are long, I have decided to at least try and win. While it would certainly be cool to attend the Winter Olympics, an added benefit is that I would be in contact with a lot of Olympic athletes who I could let know about Penny Experiment and possibly help out with it. Even better, I would get to escape Hello Kitty Hell for a couple of weeks.

When I asked my wife is she would be willing to give up anything, we ran into a slight problem. The vast majority of my wife’s collection is in storage in Japan and she only brought with her essential (in her view) evil feline items. After some thought, she picked out a number of items that I will be giving away over the next 10 days or so.

Of course, in order for my wife to give up anything, I also had to make a deal with the devil. If I do end up going, I’m required to buy any Hello Kitty items that I come across (I can’t escape Hello Kitty Hell even when I will be on my own). While both terrifying and nausea inducing, I agreed to the deal for the positive benefits in furthering a good cause.

This contest is for a Hello Kitty 3-D ice cube tray:

The Olympic contest is to help support and spread the word about lesser known athletes participating in the Olympics games. I decided to participate by helping get the word out to people by creating Facebook fan pages.

Entering this contest is easy — simply become a Facebook fan of Clyde Getty, a 48 year old that will be attempting 2 triple flips in freestyle skiing (worth watching some of his videos – they are amazing).

After becoming a fan, leave a comment letting me know that you have and that will be your entry. I will have a random number generated for the comments that qualify left below. The person’s comment that matches the number will receive the Hello Kitty ice cube tray.

The contest starts now and will end at 11:59 pm eastern (10:59 pm central, 9:59 pm mountain and 8:59 pm pacific) on Thursday January 21st. Open to anyone living anywhere in the world.

UPDATE: There were 137 entries in the contest and the randomly generated number was 10. A big congratulations goes out to Carol Browne for being the winner:

Sent in by Azielle

Sent in by stephy

What are the worst Hello Kitty products out there?

“Everything?” would be my immediate response. That being said, many of the things that I personally find horrifying never seemed to raise much of a ruckus among the readers here and the Hello Kitty fanatics — well, let’s not even go there. I guess my life has become so Hello Kittified that I have a hard time distinguishing between Hello Kitty bad, Hello Kitty worse and Hello Kitty worst. So here’s a challenge/question – what are the top three worst Hello Kitty items I have listed on this blog (yes, I know there are a number of items even worse that I have not listed, but I try to keep this blog semi family safe) and why do you think so?

I’m hoping that some of you will be able to put together a rational explanation that I can give to my wife to show her that some of this crap is downright crazy — all while not getting me sent to the couch in the Hello Kitty sleeping bag for the rest of the month. Yeah, I know. It isn’t going to work, but I have found that deluding myself that there is hope of one day escaping from Hello Kitty Hell makes the Hello Kitty toast and coffee go down easier in the morning…

Here’s this week’s Hello Kitty photo dump:

Hello Kitty DragonCon Pasties Nightmare
Hello Kitty Birthday Party
Hello Kitty Minivan
Hello Kitty 35th Anniversary Laptop
Hello Kitty Robot
Hello Kitty Bed
Hello Kitty Rain Boots
Hello Kitty Knife
Hello Kitty Pink Room
Hello Kitty Cutting Board
Hello Kitty Mascot Costumes

And a few photo post updates:

Hello Kitty Bra Shop
Hello Kitty Anime
Hello Kitty Bar
Hello Kitty sandwich

My wife loves it (dreamy look on her face: “Isn’t it sweet having Hello Kitty looking at you each morning?”) and uses health as a way of trying to convince me that I need to drink it (wife: “matcha is filled with antioxidants.” Me thinking: “then wouldn’t it immediately destroy Hello Kitty?”) which means I will soon be seeing it in front of me. Add in Hello Kitty eggs, Hello Kitty sausage and Hello Kitty toast and I pretty much have all the reason in the world to end my life that instant to relieve the obvious torture being placed in front of me.

Just to add the final Hello Kitty straw — in case I am able to endure the pain for some unfathomable reason — I’m not a big green tea fan (at least not the matcha thick style) which will ensure that it will go down doubly bitter. That pretty much is a summary of everything in Hello Kitty Hell…

Sent in by norma who should have to drink vast amounts of this bitterness as punishment for ever thinking that showing my wife more ways to Hello Kittify the stuff that we drink could ever result in anything positive…

Sam Gueydan claims to be a professional potter (the fact that he was willing to create something like this makes any professional claim highly questionable) and created this on a challenge. Of course, the evil feline used her number one ally (greed) to get him to do so or as he says, “I am he man enough to make anything for money.”

Not only does my wife love it, she immediately thought that we should start taking pottery classes so we could make our own Hello Kitty line of table ware (like we don’t already have enough of that crap — it’s not like I haven’t had to drink my beer in a Hello Kitty cup up until now). Yet one more thing to worry about in Hello Kitty Hell…

From Sam in the comments who should have to drink out of this for the rest of his life for ever thinking that making something like this could bring anything but hopelessness and despair to the world (not to mention showing it to me)…

Think about having one of those in your house and inviting the guys over for a night of poker or a game of Foosball. The Hello Kitty bar would pretty much ensure that you could never face any of your friends again.

Of course, my wife absolutely loves it and thinks that a Hello Kitty bar is “something that we could both appreciate together.” Unfortunately, I haven’t had the heart to tell her (or the wish to sleep on the couch in the Hello Kitty sleeping bag) that I would have to do my appreciating bent over the Hello Kitty toilet in our Hello Kitty bathroom due to all the nausea something like that would undoubtedly produce. Ahhhh, one more thing to look forward to in Hello Kitty Hell…

Update: For some unfathomable reason, Hello Kitty fanatics such as starrainbow12 actually believe that I would enjoy seeing a close-up of this bar. Can someone please erase this image from my mind…

Can I just state for the record that when you are out with your wife and politely ask for a bottle of water, it’s more than an little embarrassing when your wife produces one of these water bottles to drink from. Even worse is trying to figure out how to hold the damn bottle that doesn’t make you look like a Hello Kitty pervert. One of the many hazards you never have to imagine unless you’re living in Hello Kitty Hell…

Sent in by a number of readers, all of who should have to drink out of these bottles every time they are in a public setting for thinking that anything positive could come from sending me this information…

It really was never in any doubt. If there is Hello Kitty wine and Hello Kitty sake already on the market, you knew that the evil feline would place her grimy paws on beer eventually since if there is a buck to be made, she’s all for it.

I can already imagine what’s going to happen. As I thoroughly enjoy myself as I watch sports on Sunday afternoon, I’ll make the fatal mistake of asking my wife if she can get me a beer from the fridge. The next thing I’ll know there will be an ice-cold Hello Kitty beer in my hand (is there really any doubt that the beer will be colored pink and flavored like cotton candy?) which pretty much would destroy any Sunday afternoon in an instant no matter how outstanding it had been until that point. As stated many times before, Hello Kitty Hell can always get worse…

Left in the comments by KAB who really should be forced to drink this on a daily basis for thinking for even an instant that notifying me to the existence of this photo would somehow ever be a good thing…

There is something very wrong in the world when a guy can’t have a cup of black coffee in peace in the morning. I don’t know what is worse. That my wife is going to try and get me to drink a frothy, sugar filled coffee when all I need is caffeine in my system or that Hello Kitty will be staring at me before I’m fully awake. I have a feeling that mornings are going to be quite frightening in Hello Kitty Hell in the weeks to come…

Sent in by Linda who should be forced to drink nothing but these from now on for thinking it could in any way be a positive thing to let my wife see this and help her get the idea that Hello Kitty coffee is something that would be fun to make…