Because I’m usually a sane and rational human being, I never dared go out on Black Friday. Until last year, when I saw a killer sale on something I really wanted.  It was a scary, adrenaline-rushing, almost death-inducing experience that I survived with success. So I’m here this year to give you the ins and outs to getting what you want (without being trampled by a crowd of screaming soccer moms) on Black Friday.

Trust me, it isn’t an experience you want to go into blindly.

1. Have a Plan of Attack in Advance

Planning ahead for Black Friday is essential. Running into a field of mayhem with nowhere to go isn’t usually the best offensive plan.  (Have you ever tried walking into Ikea just to look around? Yeah, you know what I’m talking about.) Give yourself a head start by checking out some sales that you should definitely be checking out.  As always, Macys is offering insane deals, Urban Outfitters is offering 50% off on everything in the store, and those aren’t the only clothing racks offering great sales.

2. Pack Some Heat Energy Shots

Let me tell you right now, you’re going to need more than your natural energy to get through the craziness that is Black Friday.  Go to your local gas station and pick up a Five Hour Energy. It’s powerful as powerful as a Venti coffee, but it goes down quick so you aren’t stuck toting it around as you fill your arms with goodies.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

In the spirit of the holiday, I’ve put together a list of 10 reasons I’m thankful for sex. I’m sure we can all agree there are many more than 10 reasons to be thankful for sexy time, but there is football to be watched, online sales to be shopped and pumpkin pie to be eaten. There just isn’t enough time in this day to say all my Thank You’s.

So, here goes.
My big, fat thank you to fornication!

1. Orgasms. ‘Nuff said.

2. Sex releases endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. They also make your hair shiny and skin smooth.

3. Sex makes babies. Babies are cute (as long as they’re not mine).

4. Sex is free (usually) and fun (usually).

5. Sex helps me connect with people. And not just the people I have sex with. Sex gives me dirty details to dish to my friends, the Internet, or even strangers on the subway.

6. Sex gives me something to write about every week. Which looks good on my resume. Which will help get me a job. Sex will get me a job!

7. Sex gives me something to daydream about during my long, boring biology lectures. (My professor may drone on, but he’s banging and I can only imagine what’s going on under those pleated khakis.) Read More »

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Ew Dane Cook

The following is a guest post by our (nerdy yet totally helpful) friends at Hack College. Check ‘em out for all your techy needs. They’re like the nerdy boyfriend you never had but always needed.

Oh God. I know this is gross. But everyone clogs a toilet every once in a while.

Usually, the jet-engine nature of a college toilet is enough to bring your whole body down with it. Sometimes that fortune doesn’t grace you when you’re at a party in someone’s dorm suite. And most college students don’t have a plunger. This is an incredibly embarassing situation that you need to quash quickly. Luckily, I have two hacks for impromptu toilet de-cloggers.

Before we go on, keep in mind that the maintence department at your university probably takes care of all plumbing problems, including a simple clogged toilet. Check your college’s policies, because some ask you not to even try plunging it yourself. And that’s why most students don’t have a plunger.

However, this disclaimer does not help you during a “social fail” like clogging the party’s only toilet.

First: Stop The Water

Watching the water level rise in the toilet feels a lot like walking into a pop quiz, only, if you fail the quiz, you get poop all over you. Let’s end the overflow before we try to unclog.

If this is a deeper sewage problem, nothing can help you. But if it’s just the bowl refilling itself, pull off the tank lid and lift up the float ball. Now, hold it there or try to cut off the water supply at the main shutoff. Take a deep breath.

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Hey Dude,

I just broke up with my boyfriend of more than 6 months (who keeps count these days anyway?), and it’s been a rough time. Mostly, I think, neither one of us wanted to break up but we had been growing apart for sometime. New changes in his life prompted him to cut the cord, and we went our separate ways…kind of. In reality, as soon as things were officially over (I’m talking next day here), he and I went back to normal. We started texting nonstop again, calling a few times a day just “because this song reminded me of you,” or because “you’re going to die of laughter when you hear about my dinner mishap.”

Aside from the fact that we were no longer together absolutely NOTHING had changed… It’s as though all of the pressure of a formal relationship was suddenly off and we were that fun and exciting couple again…minus the couple.

I think you should know that we haven’t had to face the issue of hooking up yet because he lives in a land far far away (but really only like an hour and some change) so I don’t know how that little taboo will work out when we next see each other.

Now, I never wanted us to break up, I just wanted us to take some time to cool off and reconnect. So, as you can imagine after how well things have been going, I want us to be together again. Is this silly, is it time to start getting over him or should I continue to cling to the hope that it’s all going to work out?

-Ex-girlfriend

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Thanksgiving is almost here and I am so pumped. Yet, there is something about this holiday that I don’t look forward to: stuffing my face with turkey.  I just can’t bring myself to eat it given all that I’ve learned about what goes into producing that Thanksgiving Day bird of choice. I know Thanksgiving is only one day each year and if you want to eat Turkey on Thanksgiving I can’t blame you. At the same time, I just can’t sit back and let these facts go unshared.

Here’s an inside peek at some of my disturbing turkey knowledge:

(warning: stop reading here if you wish to continue consuming turkeys in naïve Thanksgiving Day bliss).

1.   46 million turkeys are raised every year just for this holiday alone. I like to think of these turkeys as big mutant cousins of the turkeys that the pilgrims ate. The turkeys on our tables are fed grossly high-calorie diets so that they grow unnaturally large at an unnaturally fast rate.  Today’s farm raised birds become so top heavy that their legs can barely hold them. Their beaks and toes are cut so that they don’t scratch each other. Mr. Modern Turkey cannot even breed naturally due to all of his malformations.

2.   Turkeys carry creepy pathogens. There’s this bug called campylobacter. It’s the leading cause of food-borne illness in the United States. Campylobacter is a dangerous little critter, estimated to infect more than 2.4 million Americans each year. Turns out a whopping 90 percent of turkeys produced in America are contaminated with our friend Mr. Campylobacter.  This is a consequence of birds being housed in super crowded cages with less than three square feet of space to move and being regularly dosed with antibiotics.  Speaking of antibiotics…

3.   Turkeys produced on factory farms are fed a disturbingly large quantity of antibiotics as a routine preventive measure to ward off illnesses between them.  When you eat turkey, those antibiotics don’t suddenly disappear like Harry Houdini.   They are transferred directly to you. Oh and the bacteria that the drugs are designed to kill eventually morph into stronger, more powerful versions of themselves.  Scarily, these bugs can transform into superbugs in which we, nor the turkeys, can form a natural resistance.

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Is it just me or is there another “revolutionary” new makeup product introduced every freaking day?! Just walking into Ulta or Sephora (or even Walgreens!) sends many chicas into fits of hysteria, reaching for the nearest brown bag to regulate their breathing. It’s all so overwhelming.

So how can you know which product – among the sea of thousands – is the best? Which does what you need it to do? Which ones are worth the extra money? Let me help. I don’t know every beauty product out there, but I’ve tested a lot of them and I’ll let you know which are worth the money and which are not.

What it is: WEN by Chaz Dean Sweet Almond Mint Cleansing Conditioner

Why this should be in your bag

First off, everyone I know washes their hair. Unless you have dreadlocks, I really don’t see why you wouldn’t. However, lots of common shampoos contain Sodium Laureth Sulfate or a variation on this harsh ingredient. Basically, it’s the first ingredient in both shampoo AND plain, old dish soap. So essentially, if your shampoo has SLS, you might as well be saving yourself some money and just multi-tasking with Dawn.

Recently, there has been a movement by some companies to remove SLS from their shampoos or to create a conditioner that also cleanses. And that’s just what this product from WEN by Chaz Dean is! I received this in a kit that you can order via infomercials. While I haven’t used the styling products a ton (I’m loyal to my routine for my super-finicky, curly hair), I did give the Cleansing Conditioner a go!

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One of my (and my thighs’) favorite holidays is nearly here: Thanksgiving. Mmmm, it all just makes me feel warm and fuzzy (and full) inside. I can already see images of fluffy mashed potatoes drowning in a thick, sweet gravy…and that same gravy splattered all over the front of my empire-waisted dress. But whatev – totes worth it, especially since my mom loves doing my laundry during Thanksgiving break.

I haven’t met a single soul who doesn’t like to celebrate this gluttonous and family-focused holiday, and take to the couch for a long nap after a strenuous meal to the sounds of afternoon football. But beyond the cans of cranberries, Stove Top, and second helpings, does anyone really know the origins of Thanksgiving? Honestly, the last time I talked about the history of the holiday was while I was making hand turkeys in third grade.

So let’s do just that!
We want you to show us how much you know about Thanksgiving (beyond how to steal tastes of your mom’s homemade pumpkin pie without her noticing).

Since the only exciting thing to do today is count down the minutes until class is over and you can get the hell out of dodge, why not take the CollegeCandy Thanksgiving quiz? We won’t grade you or mock you (mostly because we knew none of this before we started Googling); this is purely for fun/packing procrastination/a party trick for entertaining your Thanksgiving dinner guests and showing them how smart you are.

Grab your #2 pencils and your graphing calculators, ladies! It’s time to get tested.

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It’s that time of year again. The time of year when rational, mentally stable people go absolutely crazy just to get a good deal on a flat screen TV. Whether you hate the day or you camp out nights before, you’ve got to agree it’s a crazy holiday. Our friends at the Credit Score Blog have done a little research and dug up some fun facts about the upcoming stampede.

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[Welcome to Celebrity Chic on the Cheap, where our style guru takes a celebrity look and breaks it down for you, our poor college fashionista. What does that mean? It means that while the celebrities (like rockstar Rihanna) are spending $5,000 on an ensemble you don’t have to.]

It’s been awhile since Gwen Stefani reigned pop music (yet I know I’m not the only one who still gets “this shiz is bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s” stuck in her head), but she definitely hasn’t been slacking on being a fashion icon. Despite the fact that she has two kids, she never seems to leave the house looking anything less than perfectly coiffed and styled. Gwen’s look is so visually inspiring and fun, with tons of vibrant colors and ’80s-inspired festivity.

We’re getting deeper into the doldrums of winter, but our wardrobes definitely don’t need to be as dreary as the weather, right? Let’s all take a hint from Ms. Stefani and turn up the heat for the long, cold winter ahead. Read More »