I have been an avid journal writer since I was ten. Even then, there was something so therapeutic about expressing the pains of my pre-teen mind that it literally became like a drug for me. Even if I only wrote three words (such as my first and middle name with my crush’s last name), it had to happen.

I used to hide my little books of craziness around my room so that no one would find them. If anyone got even remotely close to their hidden location I would spaz like there was no tomorrow. No one could read it. No one.

The first time I pulled the old journals out after years of not seeing them— Oh. My. God. I was a freaking looney tune! Reading the entry about losing my virginity? How dramatic can you get? I mean it was dramatic, but you would have thought I was writing Wuthering Heights, or something. I wrote 14 fucking pages. And I shit you not, the guy is in jail now (that was really embarrassing to admit). I mean, I’m so much less dramatic now… seriously.

When I heard about Cringe, a monthly event held at Freddy’s Bar and Backroom in Brooklyn, NY, I couldn’t believe that people actually did this. Cringe allows anyone in the room to get up on stage in a room jam packed with people, and read your old diaries, letters, poems—anything cringe-worthy basically. The event has become so popular, it’s hard to get in the door now. Read More »

I think I had a nightmare like this once.

Seven strangers were living in a fantastic penthouse. But nobody did anything. Besides drink. And bitch. And throw shoes. And lose perspective on everything important that went on in the world.And then those strangers were kicked out of said penthouse. BUT CAME BACK FIVE YEARS LATER.

God. MTV would bring back the sluttiest season of the Real World.

The season full of That – Annoying – Roommate – Who’s – Hot – But – Who – Ruins – Their – Hotness – By – Being – Heart – Stoppingly – Annoying.

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Are you an obsessive texter? Is texting your #1 form of communication? You think you’ve got the texting skills to pay the bills?

If the answer is yes, then you’re in luck. But now, you’ve gotta prove it. Time to get serious here.

Geeksugar.com reports the National Texting Championship and its last round, the East Coast Finals, on Saturday, April 21st in New York City. If you have an LG phone and text like a madwoman, get in on this: the winner of the East Coast finals wins $15,000, and the winner of the entire Championship wins a total of $25,000! Just for texting! What is this world coming to?!?

During the competition, competitors will be divided into pools and given phrases to text. The winner of each pool (the first person with no errors in the text) will advance on against other pool winners, as the texting gets more difficult. That means, you gotta be ready for symbols, numbers, and letters being thrown at you from every direction. And, the biggest challenge of all – NO abbreviations are allowed.

So, register NOW, start practicing by obnoxiously sending your friends random, meaningless texts and run up those phone bills if you have to – it may actually pay off.

Gd Lck u ppl! TTYL

I’m not going to pretend that I don’t play favorites. I have a favorite pair of jeans, a favorite band, a favorite bra, favorite beauty products and most recently – a favorite blog. Jolie in NYC is the ultimate source for all things beauty and pop-culture related.

Nadine, the blog’s author and former Ladies’ Home Journal beauty editor, was outed (and fired) back in 2005 for having an anonymous blog under the pseudonym “Jolie in NYC” where she wrote about the beauty industry and her current pop-culture obsessions.

Don’t feel bad for her though…she’s been blogging away ever since and personally, I find that Jolie in NYC has the most honest, straightforward beauty advice out there. I can also totally relate to her obsessions with Mandy Moore, Bare Escentuals cosmetic products and leading the fight against all the Nicole Richies and Kate Moss’ out there (with their damn skinny jeans that really don’t flatter anyone over 95lbs.)

Nadine also has a non-fiction beauty book coming out October 2007 called Beauty Confidential: The No Preaching, No Lies, Advice-You’ll- Actually-Use-Guide to Looking Your Best – so stay tuned and check out the blog if you want amazing beauty counsel…or if you have a girl-crush on Mandy Moore.

With only one month left until graduation it looked like I had a pretty good chance of being able to say that I had never pissed the bed while drunk. Well there goes that.

On Tuesday night I decided to go out with the ladies—no biggie, it’s happened before. But here’s the catch—I’ve never taken three weeks off from drinking before (since the start of college). I know, I know—“how sad”—wutevs. Anyways, sadly—but true—6 beers later and I was smashed. Cheapest night out I’ve had in a while, I’ll tell you what!

So I left the bar around 2:20a.m.—maybe?—and jumped into bed with my boy. All was good, the room was spinning only slightly, and before I knew it I was passed out and apparently in a drunken coma.

7:00a.m. rolled around and I awoke to the sun blazing in my eyes and a moderate size puddle underneath my bare booty. My first thoughts were that the dog had done it. Keep in mind I was at my boyfriend’s apartment and he had done me the favor of dog-sitting while I went out and got “crazy” with the ladies. Read More »

So long, Haley. In my opinion, you made it longer than you should have. Sure, you were kind of cute, showing off those legs to Simon and the rest of America. But you just didn’t have the voice to cut it. And honestly—based on how awesome Melinda, Lakisha, and Jordin are, even if you were good, no one would have noticed. To quote my Idol Pool Master (yes, I am a part of a 55 person AI pool in which I am ranked 26th), “She went toe-to-toe with the rest of the competi-shin, and knocked knees with the best of them. It simply turned out that choosing to do “Turn the Beat Around” was a gam-ble that didn’t pay off. Still, she leaves behind quite a leg-acy on American Idol.” See? It’s all about those legs….

As for Jennifer Lopez? She was sweet in dealing with the contestants, seemed to give some good advice. But I thought her performance last night would have gotten her voted off. First off—what was up with the iron man stance at the microphone? She looked like she was about to go to battle with the judges, or something. Second—was it her, or her backup singers who were off key? Based on the fact that she sounded like she was yelling by the end of the song, my money is that it was her out of tune. OK, I’m a bit of a J-Lo hater, but really? That’s talent? Just go back to dancing.

Who’s next? 

When I first used the Google Earth program a year ago, I was fascinated that this kind of technology was possible. But, after stalking my neighborhood and locating my apartment on a 3-D world map, I really had no more use for it. I merely filed it away as something cool to mess around on when bored or while procrastinating, and only if facebook was temporarily unavailable.

Now, it is being used to raise awareness of the genocide in Darfur. It was recently announced that Google and the Holocaust Memorial Museum teamed up to create this extra feature. Supposedly, the high-resolution imagery lets users zoom into the Darfur region and view more than 1,600 damaged and destroyed villages. No matter how many articles you see about this issue, nothing compares to seeing the actual conditions through pictures and video.

As college students, it’s easy to hibernate in our own safe little worlds and not pay attention to what is going on internationally. And I am definitely guilty of this as well. But, once in awhile, it’s a good idea to educate yourself on current events. And hey, at least it’ll give you something to talk about with that hottie in your political science class.

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“So like, you work how many hours?”

“About forty. But I get paid overtime.”

“Really? Do they do time and a half? Or do they just work it into your salary?”

I mean, that’s the most boring conversation you’ve ever read, right? I actually almost fell into a coma writing it. But yet, I heard it this afternoon as I was walking in the freezing (what the HELL, right?!) weather to my luscious hair appointment. It wasn’t the horrid content that made my ears perk, but the way it was being said and who was saying it.

Knowing the bumpy, hesitant, enthused speech pattern of a first date all too well, it seemed quite certain that the speakers had just met each other for the first time. Ever. In their lives.

It’s funny. The way we talk with new people we’re trying to impress. The questions we ask. We want to seem so interested, so cool, so inquisitive, we’ll ask anything. We’ll delve into someone’s work schedule with a fiery fervor, pretend we know all of the 784 bands they list as their favorite, and stare into their eyes happily as they detail what exactly they’re studying or what exactly they do for a job. Once I listened to a cute boy explain his financial occupation for twenty minutes without comprehending a single word. Read More »

There is something very wrong about this one.

Check it out.

Finally, a celebrity (or pseudo-celeb) is actually losing popularity for getting skinnier and skinnier. Jenna Jameson is reported to have lost around 40 pounds and her fans are not so happy, to say the least. Page Six reports that she “has lost so much weight that she’s almost unrecognizable and was a disappointment to fans at last weekend’s Exxxotica convention in Miami Beach.”

Could this be because of her recent scare with vaginoplasty surgery? Well, she argues that it’s from stress due to her divorce from estranged husband Jay Grdina. Who, by the way, is also a porn actor that worked with Jameson regularly in movies. Doesn’t that take the idea of keeping your work life and personal life separate to a whole new level?

I can just imagine the dinner table conversations between Jenna and Jay critiquing each other on their performance for the day at work. No wonder it didn’t work out between them…

Although I do feel for the girl and the media criticism she has been getting lately, I have to admit that it’s refreshing to see negative reactions to someone losing a ton of weight. Rather than multiple magazine articles praising her miracle diet or 5 am hardcore workouts with a trainer, fans are speaking out and saying that this new look is unattractive. I say, let’s keep this outlook up and maybe the shift will go from glorifying skeleton celebs to appreciating healthy looking women.