[There are over 100 million sites on the Internet. 100 million! You might think you know about all the important ones (CollegeCandy, Gmail, Google, Facebook…), but there are thousands of other sweet sites out there (like Spreezio, Teach Parents Tech and We Are Hunted) and more showing up every day! We get it – it’s not easy or fun sifting through the crap and porn to find those gems, so we’re gonna bring the gems to you. Just sit back, kick up those feet and allow us to introduce you to the diamonds in the internet rough.]

If you’re an avid reader and book-lover like I am, your bookshelf is probably crammed with dozens of books. Mine is filled with several of my favorites, of course, but also dozens of old textbooks and cheap paperbacks I have never even opened probably won’t ever read again. Books that have been packed and moved and unpacked 6 times in the last 4 years. In my never-ending quest to get organized (and spend less money on moving boxes), I’ve decided to do something about all the books that I don’t use and are just sitting there collecting dust.

Of course I considered selling them or donating them, but I’ve discovered something better: swapping them.

PaperBackSwap is an online “book club,” where members can exchange books they’ve already read with other members. Read More »

Why do men need wingmen?

Watch Leo freak out hardcore

Turns out some guys are allergic to orgasming

Huge dorm life fail (congrats Penn State!)

The best of celebrity what-if babies

Ultimate mash-up of people dancing on TV

7 tips for thrift shopping

Every part of this headline makes me uncomfortable

5 things I wish I had figured out in college

It’s a new year, it’s cold and watching all those romantic dates on The Bachelor has you pining away for a boy toy of your own. Boy toy? Let me rephrase. You’re not just looking for a guy on the side. You want something more permanent. Dare I say it? Boyfriend. You want a freaking boyfriend.

For some of us that word is so taboo; relationships have never come easy and are now a miserable and dreaded topic of conversation. Still, I think it’s safe to say that the average sorority woman might be looking for a little something more than a cuddle buddy.

But where are we supposed to find Prince Charming? Last I checked, Channing Tatum and Shia LaBeouf weren’t grabbing their morning lattes from the campus Starbucks…

I know what you’re thinking – the fraternities, right? Sure, it’s convenient. Sig Ep and Delta Chi are right down the street and it’s so easy to just walk over there every night and shack (shacking: see Urban Dictionary).  But fellow sister – you are so wrong. Why? Take it from me, living the frat-girlfriend life is moderately to severely miserable.

Check it. Read More »

Back in the early days of college, whenever it would rain, I used to just put on a hoodie and my old sneakers, throw my hair into a ponytail and go to class like that — carefully avoiding puddles whenever possible, but inevitably soaking my feet and the bottom of my jeans. Eventually, I got a pair of rain boots, which helped things by letting me walk through puddles without getting my feet and jeans wet, but I still dressed pretty sloppy on those days. I just figured since I was bound to get wet anyway, there was no point in trying to look cute.

However, as I started to pay more and more attention to the way other women dressed in the rain — including women on the street, not just those on campus — I realized the error in the way I’d been thinking (and dressing). Even on the rainiest days, it’s possible to stay dry and still dress fashionably and do your hair and makeup as usual, with just a few additions to your closet.

Here are a few to get you started — and they’re all just $20 or less! Read More »

So I don’t know if you’ve heard or not, but apparently Starbucks will be supersizing our iced drinks come spring. They’ll be introducing a trenta size for iced coffee. That means that you not only have another foreign word to remember when you’re ordering your tasty brew, but you’ll also be getting 31 ounces of caffeinated goodness.

Yes, it’s a coffee so large, I’m not even sure I’ll be able to see over it. But hey, I mean that’s just one con, among endless and endless amounts of pros. You thought Four Loko got you going? Think of what you can do on 31 ounces of iced caramel macchiato!

….No? Can’t think yet? Haven’t hit up Starbucks for your daily caffeine requirement? Don’t worry, we have (twice) and we’ve got 31 things you can do with those 31 ounces:

1. Do an entire semester’s worth of homework in one night.

2. Start your own sorority. You know, build the house from the ground up, petition for recognition from Pan-Hellenic, and initiate new members. You should be done before sunrise.

3. Write out 15 finals in one hour. Just think of all the Blue Books!

4. Save some money on Spring Break! No need for air fare. Just fuel up and fly on over by yourself. Just you know, pack light.

5. Set up your audition packet for The Bachelor. Be sure to include a singing number, a dancing number, your special talent, five photos of yourself, and a video of yourself crying, laughing, expressing your undying devotion for the love of your life, getting into a cat fight, and going absolutely, completely insane. Then, you know, sew six or seven pageant dresses for the cocktail parties.

6. Work on your average WPM (words per minute, yo!). They thought 100+ was good? Psh! You’re up to 1000+! Amateurs.

7. Rotate the earth backwards on its axis. What, did superman think he was special or something? Read More »

When I was little, I wanted to be a ballerina, a doctor, a lawyer, a novelist, a teacher, an Academy Award winning actress, a painter, and pretty much every other profession under the sun. In high school and college, I wanted to be a social media expert, a children’s literature publishing guru, a writer, and of course, a lawyer.

I think it’s interesting how when you are younger people tell you that you can be anything you want to be, or anything that you will set your mind to. Although we all wish this was true, that’s not always the case. Come adulthood, people get caught up in stereotypes and expectations. Salaries and “good” jobs. What (they think) you should be.

And quite frankly, I’m sick of it.

Since becoming a post-grad, I have heard so many people question my aspirations. I’ve seen it happen to my friends too. Parents, professors, friends, significant others, and just about every extended family members start with questions: “Why do you want to go abroad and live in South Africa after graduation?” “Why do you want to go to school at that school?” “You got your degree in economics, so you should go to grad school for that — or else you wasted four years.” In my case, I’ve heard a lot of “Why did you major in English if you don’t want to be a journalist?” and then “You were born a writer — you shouldn’t pursue law school.”

Um, while I appreciate the input, I just can’t help but find myself irked when statements like that are made. Unless I’m asking for career advice or making a life-altering decision, there is no reason why the things that I want to do should be in question. It feels like I can’t make my own decisions, or that people aren’t 100% with me. Or that, oh the horror, I’m making a terrible decision that I will regret for the rest of my life and I should just start over from scratch. Seriously, people, I’m fragile right now; I need support, not someone to question my choices! Read More »

Question?! Answer. Ask TuffyLuv@CollegeCandy.com

Dear Tuffy Luv,

I recently graduated from college and moved back home because I got a job offer. Around the time college was ending, I was casually seeing this new guy. We currently live about three hours away from each other and are in very different situations; I have moved back in with my parents and have a serious job, whereas he still lives with roommates and works hard but parties a lot harder.

The status of our relationship is very unclear. At first, I just wanted things to be casual…a sort of “I’ll see ya when I see ya and we’ll do it” type of deal. But now we talk every day and he’ll say things like “I miss you,” which are not very casual activities. Every time I try to pull out of the situation he insists that “I’m his girl” and we should just see where it goes. I know where it’s going….nowhere!! We live too far and I’m afraid that his party boy ways are just too much for me to handle. I’m constantly worrying that he’s going to find another girl and is just keeping me on the back burner.

How do I tell him that he needs to commit or let me go? He says we don’t know each other well enough to commit but doesn’t want to let me go because he insists we’re building a new relationship. Am I just being played for a fool?

— Not So Casual Read More »

We’re huge fans of  Collie Buddz music and you should be too! He’s worked with every major hip-hop star on Earth and his highly anticipated new album “Playback” is available today. To show his appreciation to all his old AND new fans, Collie’s offering the entire EP available for free on his website, www.colliebuddz.com. Yeah, you read that right! Free music! So now you can afford to jam out to a new playlist as well as buy mixers this weekend. We know, we know, we always have your back when it comes to saving you money and making your life more fun.

This is a guest post by Richard Rushfield, the author of American Idol: The Untold Story. For three years Richard has covered American Idol for the Los Angeles Times, writing hundreds of columns and conducting thousands of interviews with cast and crew. He is currently an entertainment columnist for The Daily Beast, a Vanity Fair contributing editor, and author of its long-running “Intelligence Report” column. For more information please visit http://www.richardrushfield.com/ and follow the author on Facebook and Twitter.

Idol was perhaps the first show on television to have as much of a life off the screen as on.   These days we are used to The Hills girls, Bachelor contestants, Real Housewives and Jersey Shore housemates seeing their dramas spill over from the shows that made them famous to the covers of the tabloids and the greater celeb-obsessed blogosphere.

But when Idol debuted on the US airwaves in 2002, such a phenomenon was relatively unknown.  The internet was still in its infancy and network programming was a remote, pristine world, largely untouched by the hurly burly press.

What brought Idol out of its shell was the steady stream of scandals it provided as fodder for the ravenous new media.  Each year it seemed, some gotcha shattered Idol’s peace; some disqualification brought it face to face with the public beast.

Ten years later, the stream of scandals doesn’t seem to have hurt entertainment’s greatest juggernaut.  If anything, the blow-ups have kept us all talking about the show, even when the singing got a little dull.

Here then, in order of appearance, are the ten greatest scandals of Idol’s first decade: Read More »

What’s the deal, Glamour? Is it “your thing” to make all the beautiful women you snag for your covers look stilted, crazy, and/or completely confused? Kim Kardashian is no exception and, truth be told, it took me about 5 minutes of staring at this magazine to even realize it was her. Home girl looks like she just had all of her Louboutins confiscated. Not a good look. (Though I am completely swooning over that La Perla bra and pajama set. SWOON.)

I was stoked to read this month’s issue because, as the cover so loudly proclaims, it’s all about sex, love, and guys, so I knew that this was bound to be a big old hot mess. And Glamour did not disappoint. A solid 90 percent of this whole issue is about what guys think…of everything. Of sex. Of makeup. Of hairstyles. Of relationships. I mean, seriously, can women do anything without thinking about what a man’s opinion is? Honestly, I don’t give a fig what my boyfriend thinks of how I wear my hair, and I don’t think any other woman should either. Sure, receiving lusty gazes from dudes is fun, but it’s even more fun when it happens on your terms, not because you read in a lame magazine that dudes like every single other kind of hairstyle except for the one that you feel sexiest rocking.

However, since Glamour was kind enough to present me with tons of mockable male opinions, it seems only courteous that I tear them apart offer my opinion. Read More »