When I first saw “Going Bovine” on Amazon.com, to be honest, I was a bit scared of the cover. A creepy cow carrying an equally creepy garden gnome? Needless to say, along with feeling frightened, I was also intrigued.

“Going Bovine” tells the story of Cameron Smith, a 16-year-old loner and somewhat loser at his high school. Cameron starts seeing visions one day of fire giants and other things that clearly aren’t there. His parents think he is “disturbed” and bring him to a therapist, but when that doesn’t work they finally cave and go to the doctor’s office. Cameron is diagnosed with Creutzfeld-Jakob disease. For the majority of you going “huh,” it is also known as Mad Cow Disease.  A terminal illness.

Cameron is immediately admitted to the hospital, where his hallucinations continue, including visits from a punky angel named Dulcie.

One of Cameron’s classmates, a little person named Gonzo is also admitted to the hospital and placed in the same room as Cameron. Shortly after this, Dulcie comes to Cameron and tells him that he must go on a roadtrip to find someone named Dr. X. He has created a time machine and is the one who brought the fire giants and all of Cameron’s hallucinations back to Earth. Dulcie tells Cameron that Dr. X also has the cure for his disease and that when they find him, he will be saved.

Cameron convinces Gonzo to go on this roadtrip and they embark on a journey of a lifetime. Along the way, they pick up Balder, a Norse god in the form of a yard gnome; 3 rowdy college students going to the YA!TV party house; a group of evil Snow Globe makers; a band named after physics principles; and a trumpet-playing hero. Read More »

When I was growing up, my dad always told me, “Caitlin, be prepared.”

I’m pretty sure he was referring to things like school work and job interviews, but I took that advice to heart….with beauty supplies.

Thanks to my dad I never leave the house without my big bag of beauty essentials. You never know what could happen on your way to class – blisters from your shoes, a sudden monsoon, laughing so hard you cry off all your mascara – so it’s best to bring along a few things to save you from a makeup meltdown. I’ll share with you all of my must-brings that have gotten me through all of my beauty emergencies and then you can customize your portable beauty bag to hold whatever you like (yeah, stacks on deck, Patron on ice…). Read More »

The Jackson family reality show is a…reality.

Please don’t let this Josh Duhamel stuff be true.

Divas unite at the Europe MTV awards.

Can his hands tell you if he’s a jerk?

Jennifer Lopez is a little bit naughty.

Is it just me or does Kristin Cavallari have a really big head?

Oh, sweet November—overnight, Starbucks has switched to holiday cups, Christmas-themed commercials are beginning to air, and I’m starting to get a serious hankering for turkey. I can’t wait to get a spiffy new pair of mittens—maybe designed by Lady Gaga?—and enjoy my last winter in college.

In the meantime, though, this week has given me a lot to think about. Here’s what’s been on your favorite CC writers’ minds over the past seven days:

- Even though getting old might mean that Halloween gets a little less fun, it doesn’t mean that you have to get any less awesome. Unless you join the National Parents Council.

- Hot men covered in cheese? Sounds surprisingly delicious.

- We hope our girl Rihanna isn’t opening up now for less-than-noble reasons. Either way, we’ll still listen to her music—even if there is more ridiculous stuff out there.

- There’s no better time than now to get over your lipstick-phobia, put on a pair of heels (or not), make the first move on the first hottie you see, and take him back to your place for a little one-on-one that’s sure to please. Just don’t be that girl. Please.

It’s 2009. Who doesn’t support a strong woman, am I right? Whether you want to assert yourself by wearing jeggings or teaching your guy how best to push your buttons, we’re behind you a hundred percent. Especially if you’re old and fragile.

But Elizabeth Lambert, a junior at the University of New Mexico and a defender on their women’s soccer team, takes assertiveness to a whole new level. Lambert was caught on tape acting like a big scary ogre  toward other players during a New Mexico/BYU game. Strength is one thing, but this chick is ridiculous.

If there’s anyone at University of New Mexico reading this right now, we sincerely hope that you never accidentally cut in front of this girl in the cafeteria. Or step on her foot at the bar. Best case scenario: a giant bald spot where your loose bun once perched. Worst case: well, we can only hope some big, burly bouncer guy has your back.

While signing my life away last year… I mean, my apartment lease… many things crossed my mind:

1)   No more crappy cafeteria food!
2)   Yay for bonding! We’ll be all up in each other’s business all the time.
3)   We’ll have so much in common – we all have boyfriends!

Now this has become two (sorta) truths and a lie. I went from cafeteria food to massive amounts of frozen food shipped from my loving mother. (What can I say? She refused to let me live on Ramen.) And being all up in each other’s business turned out to be more than I bargained for. Think assigned chores, paying rent, and dealing with cockroaches when we moved in (still makes me shudder!). And as you may have already guessed, the boyfriend and I broke up. So that leaves (put your hands up!) a single, independent woman who apparently makes references to Beyonce songs when she talks about herself.

Yes, I’m single and living with three other girls in relationships. Read More »

We all agree that Lindsay Lohan is a train wreck. But can we really blame her for being so messed-up when she’s had to deal with parents like Michael and Dina Lohan?

Michael has been acting especially awful lately—he keeps leaking recordings of phone calls with Lindsay and her mom to the media, supposedly because he’s worried about her. Right, because the best way to help your strung-out daughter is by releasing calls that you recorded without her knowledge to the national press, who have always been nothing but kind to her.

What a douche.

Thinking about Michael Lohan reminds us of other Hollywood dads who are certified d-bags. Jon Gosselin, Alec Baldwin, the Hoff… all of them are rich, famous, and majorly jerky. But which one of them deserves to be named the Douchiest Hollywood Dad of all? Tell us what you think in the poll below. Read More »

It doesn't matter what you wear. This bag will make the outfit.

Going out 3-5 nights a week is a lot of pressure. You have to learn to pace yourself so that you can go out again the following night, you’ve got to learn your limit so you aren’t throwing up in class the next day, and you’ve got to look cute.

The “going out top” has become an often-used phrase in the shopping vocabulary of college girls nationwide, but oftentimes we forget about the rest of the outfit. Like the bag. Stacy London will tell you that a bag is just important to a complete look as your top. It makes a statement and not just “I’m hiding this girl’s tampons.”

That being said, using the same clutch 5 nights in a row is not only a big fashion mistake, but it leaves your trusty black “going out bag” covered in beer stains, marks from the dirty bathroom floor and some sticky crap that landed on the side after you dropped it on you walk of shame home. That’s a good look on no one.

But how does anyone justify buying a new clutch when they’re so damn expensive? Seriously? $200 for something that barely fits my cell phone?

Well, not anymore!

Now you can complete your “going out” look – bag and all – without breaking the bank! I found some of the cutest clutches around (big, small, ruffled, leather…)and all of them are – wait for it – under $30! At that price you can snatch them all up, or at least grab two that make a bold statement and rotate. You’ll look good and still have a little money leftover to store in one of these clutch clutches. Read More »

I’m pretty sure a former frat boy had something to do with this.

Beloved female cartoon characters like Strawberry Shortcake and Dora the Explorer have recently been the victims of “makeovers” meant to make them more appealing to today’s tweenagers. In reality, these redesigns just mean that the new versions of Dora and Strawberry have more conventionally pretty features and dress just a little bit sluttier.

And now Disney’s hopping on the makeover bandwagon, re-imagining Mickey Mouse as an angry-eyebrow-sporting curmudgeon who roams around a “cartoon wasteland,” wielding “paint and thinner thrown from a magic paintbrush” as a weapon. Seriously.

I understand why Disney is trying to give Mickey some edge—squeaky clean, anthropomorphic rodents just don’t have the same appeal that they used to. But there are tons of reasons that this gritty new version of their most well known character just isn’t going to work.

First of all, there’s the outfit—Mickey’s trademark red shorts with huge white buttons and silly yellow shoes aren’t exactly going to strike fear into the heart of, well, anyone. And outfitting Mickey in, say, a studded leather jacket and an eyebrow ring would just be wrong. Read More »