Well, technology hasn’t reached the point where cyborg robots that look like Christian Bale can be bought for your enjoyment, but it has gotten one step closer with Webkare (“web boyfriend” in Japanese).

Suddenly all the rage in Japan (“over 10,000 members just 5 days after its release on September 10, racking up 3.5 million page views in the same time frame”), Webkare is a social networking website that combines instant messaging, profiles, role playing, and virtual dating.

In typical Japanimation style, the 4 “boyfriends” you can choose from are cute in a skinny, 12-year-old, slightly flamboyant, animated way — although it’s not just ‘tweens who are logging on. According to TechCrunch,”52% of members are Japanese females in their twenties, with thirty-somethings accounting for 18% of the user base.”

We’re not sure what to make of this — even though we have been this desperate before. What do you think? Random and weird, or just what the doctor ordered for lonely girls everywhere?

Two weeks ago, 60-year-old technology blogger, Richard Shaw, died of a heart attack. Only a few months earlier, in December, another tech blogger, 50-year-old Marc Orchant, died of a massive coronary. Also in December, the well-known blogger, Om Malik, 41, survived a heart attack.

I told ya. Of course, there is no official diagnosis that blogging caused these incidents, but I honestly wouldn’t be surprised. Blogging can be majorly stressful. According to the article, “bloggers complain of weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet.”

Michael Arrington, the founder of the popular TechCrunch, is still alive, but claims that since he started his blog 3 years ago, he has gained 30 lbs, developed a severe sleeping disorder, and turned his home into an office for him and 4 employees. He says, “At some point, I’ll have a nervous breakdown and be admitted to the hospital…” Then again, TechCrunch has brought Arrington millions in advertising revenue. Sometimes you need to take risks to make revenues.

The article makes lots of good points about the stresses of blogging. The constant need to be the first to cover a story. The fact that news is always happening, whether it’s 3:00 in the afternoon or 3:00 in the morning. Most non-bloggers wouldn’t consider the life of a blogger to be overly stressful, but in many cases, it is. Of course it doesn’t help that many bloggers sit in front of their computers for hours on end, not getting enough exercise, not sleeping, and eating whatever can be shoveled into their mouths while typing (or just forgetting to eat altogether). Blogging can easily turn into an unhealthy lifestyle if you let it.

Blogging. It’s a dangerous job, but it has to be done. Who needs sleep anyway? I just take naps between posts.