Halloween 2010 is finally here and we’re looking forward to celebrating the only national college holiday that ends with me getting stabbed in the eye by an oversized fairy wing. While we’re excited to see all the awesome creative costumes, we’re also dreading seeing all the cliche and uninspired pop culture costumes. Like c’mon, how many Michael Jacksons did we really need last year? And we’re sure this year will be no different.  That’s why we put together this list of costumes that we’re sure will be at every single college Halloween party.

In fact, we’re so sure that you’ll see all these costumes that we’re throwing a Halloween photo contest. Be the first person to upload a photo of a different person wearing each of these costumes to our Facebook Fan Page and WIN A COLLEGE CANDY BEER PONG TABLE (like the one in this photo). You don’t have to upload them all in a row, but you do have to be the first one to get all ten photos uploaded. (On the slight chance that no one manages to photograph all 10, the person who uploads the most photos, the fastest will win. And in case more than one of you snaps all 10, we’ll put all your names in a witch hat and randomly draw a winner.) You have until November 2nd to get those photos in and we’ll announce the winner on Facebook at 12pm EST on November 3rd.

Now what are you waiting for? Go grab your camera/cell phone and get snapping!

1. The Kanye: How easy and tempting is it going to be for people to put on a pair of brightly colored sunglasses and make a toast to all the douchebags? Either that, or throw on a fuchsia sweater vest and act like a dick. Extra points if he spends all night shoving “Taylor Swift” to the side.

2. The Lady Gaga: I was thinking I might wrap a red cloth over my face or wear a Filet Mignon on my head.  What do you think?  Lady Gaga had some extremely crazy outfits this year and I’m expecting to see at least a few make an appearance on the party circuit. And no, I won’t be surprised when that super skinny girl that you always see at the gym wraps herself in caution tape and carries a telephone all night.

3. The Mel Gibson: We all know Mel Gibson was a huge a-hole this year so don’t be shocked when you see people screaming into a cell phone the entire night with an Australian accent, saying affectionate things like “You effing whore!“

4. The Sue Sylvester: An extremely easy costume (blond wig + track suit + attitude = done) and that’s why we’re expecting to see quite a few Sues dancing in the crowd. Only problem? There’s nothing less fun than an unfunny Sue Sylvester impersonator.

5. Jersey Shore: Drawn-on abs? Spray tans? Ed Hardy t-shirts? Dirty pads hanging from the back of a too-tight dress? You’ll see so many of these on October 31st (and 29th….and 30th) that you’ll wonder if you were some how teleported to Seaside.

6. BP Clean-up Specialist: With some dish washing gloves, a surgical mask, and an oil-covered stuffed animal, this costume will be repeated over and over again throughout the weekend.

7. Anyone from Twilight: The vampire teeth are cheap and a ton of guys will be hoping that they will be enough to convince a drunk girl that they’re just as good looking as Rob Pattinson.

8. ‘The Hangover’ Guys: Because that movie never gets old! Oh wait, it totally does.

9. Lindsay Lohan: Not only is it simple to put together (stringy hair, leggings and a bag of Splenda) but the drunker the costume-wearer gets, the more authentic he/she will look.

10. An Avatar: Because there are enough people out there who will want an excuse to paint themselves blue and run around wearing nothing but a loincloth.

Contest is for U.S. residents only. Sorry, rest of the world.

What should your brow shape be?

Heath Ledger on Vanity Fair.

OMG! A caffeinated Wendy’s Frosty?!

Which was more tragic: MJ’s life or death?

Women are even better at manual labor!?

Kim Kardashian wants to be a singer.

A look at Michael Jackson’s top 10 music videos.

Assault with a deadly Cheeto?

Andy Dick – still gross.

What is the most popular beauty product in Hollywood?

I am a chronic list-maker, whether I have to make a difficult decision or not.  Lists help me organize my thoughts and remember important facts and details that I need for later.  However, there are some things that I would rather forget and that’s what this week’s showdown concerns.

Celebrity couples are hideous beasts born of the 24-hour news and gossip cycles and there are none more powerful than Brangelina and TomKat.  But which one is worse?  Which one makes you want to throw your TV out the window, turn off your computer, and hide your iPhone just so you never have to hear what ridiculous name they’re giving to their 17th adopted baby?  Such a difficult decision, but we can work through it.

Tabloids
Brangelina are regular fixtures in the tabloids, claiming spots from week to week concerning issues like who’s cheating on who, where they’re adopting their next baby from, and how much Angelina Jolie isn’t eating.

TomKat has had their fair share of face time on the cover of the tabloids, but it’s only due to Tom Cruise’s occasional crazy antics (couch hopping and weird religions, much?) and the public’s strange fascination with Suri Cruise.

Point: Brangelina.  If I never see them on the cover of anything again, then I’ll…well, that’ll never happen, so I don’t have to worry about what I’ll do.

Kids
Brangelina loves making babies.  They also love buying babies from foreign countries.  They just love babies.  We get it, you’re good looking, you’re successful, and you can have a healthy (well…) family life.  Yeah, well…bite it.

TomKat has Suri and it’s ridiculous how much gossip there is about that child.  Ballet lessons, expensive designer outfits, new haircuts, etc.  Her parents already passed on a healthy dose of crazy, so all this media attention is probably helping create some sort of future monster person.  Can’t wait.

Point: TomKat.  Even with one baby, they’re more annoying than Brangelina.

The Ex-Factor
Brangelina has a veritable black book full of celebrity exes that they’ve pissed off or left in a pit of depression.  Also, a very large number of Angelina Jolie’s ex-boyfriends (or husbands) are certifiably crazy.  I mean, just look at Billy Bob Thornton.

TomKat has quite a star-studded list of ex-lovers themselves (mostly from the Tom part of that equation).  Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, Cher (yeah, they dated for a hot second), Mimi Rogers…and none of them are that crazy.  In fact, they make Tom Cruise seem less crazy since they deigned to date him at one point.

Point: Brangelina.  There’s too much crazy there to ignore.

Fans
Brangelina has a GINORMOUS fanbase.  There are the fans that love Angelina Jolie (mostly men…and teenage boys), the fans that love Brad Pitt (mostly women…and gay men), and the ones that love them together.  The movies they make are powerhouses and we’re all (apparently) addicted to their every move.

TomKat seem to be riding on their fans from days-gone-by…neither of them have made any movies of note lately (Anyone see Valkyrie? Anyone?) and they haven’t been helping their case by acting all crazy and whatnot.  Considering the success of all of Tom’s exes, Katie should bail and win an Oscar or something.

Point: TomKat.  I mean, at least Brangelina actually still have fans, instead of just thinking they do.

Celebretard Prize Goes To: TomKat.  Gotta give it up to TomKat, even though I’m incredibly annoyed by the crap I have to read every day about Brangelina. The tie-breaker was Tom Cruise’s whole Scientology thing.  I mean, seriously…he is clinically insane.

How’s your Easter turning out? Did you celebrate with some mimosas this morning? Or perhaps you’re planning on a little red wine with dinner? I know there aren’t too many drinking opportunities on Easter, but that shouldn’t stop you. After all that’s what holidays are made for… er, well, kind of.

Maybe Easter doesn’t mean kegs, and shots and bar crawls to you, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t celebrate with a well deserved buzz. Get creative, people!

Anyway, I started thinking about holidays and how sometimes they just seem to be made for partying. I’m not talking about the holidays that are all about family (although a little peppermint Schnapps in my hot chocolate sure seems to make Christmas a little merrier at my house). No, I’m talking about the holidays that seem to be created around the drink. The ones that aren’t worth celebrating without something frosty and soothing. The ones where I don’t know what I’m celebrating, but I definitely am happy to celebrate. These are the drinking holidays, and I have listed the top 5 for you below.

5. Cinco de Mayo - I’m not exactly sure what happens on the 5th of May, but I know that I will be celebrating with a burrito, tequila and some limes. (Hm. Maybe that’s why I never know what happens on that day…) It is the perfect example of what I will do to throw a party and pass out shots, even if that means wearing a blindfold and whacking a pinata.

4. Independence Day – It boggles my mind as to who decided to hand out giant sticks of explosives after hours and hours of beer and BBQ fun. I don’t mind though, because it adds a little edge to my buzz. And, let’s be real, fireworks aren’t so cool when you’re sober.

3. Halloween – Halloween has been my favorite holiday since I was little. Of course when I was little I wasn’t walking around the East Village in a stewardess costume downing mini bottles of liquor. Still, Halloween is a night of tricks and treats, masked make-outs and a whole lot of craziness.

2. St. Patrick’s Day - Guiness, whiskey, Bailey’s… this holiday was made for boozin’.

1. New Years – Of course you could ring in the new year sober, but it always seems like a good idea to aim for the worst hangover imaginable in order to start the year off right. Between champagne toasts, a Dick Clarke drinking game, or just trying to find enough alcohol to bravely kiss a stranger at midnight, New Years is the top drunken holiday of the year.

Gossip and rumors are main staples on college campuses across the nation, and the website Juicy Campus (which was recently shut down), shows just how far people are willing to go to spread gossip. At some point in everyone’s life, gossip comes up – good or bad. Gossip, in moderation, can be just another thing, but in a culture that obsesses about pop culture and dishing dirt (think of websites like Perez Hilton), the fixation of dishing dirt about someone else isn’t going away any time soon.

Although many of us love to gather on Monday nights to watch Gossip Girl and watch the scandals of the Upper East Side unfold, no one likes it when their own personal life is exposed in the cafeteria over wilted lettuce or when private information rolls off the lips of classmates before the professor starts the class. While gossip may seem like something that comes and goes, it can leave its dirty scars behind all too often.

Maybe because it’s an all-women’s college and women often use each other to bring others down, or maybe it is the size of the university, but the Hollins rumor mill never seems to cease on campus. It constantly peeks its nasty little head around the corner for students that least expect it. Whether it hurts friendships, ruins reputations, or isolates students from campus events — gossip can cause tremendous damage.

Remember when my mom and I met with the President to discuss the bullying that happened my first year? Well, upon arrival at Hollins for my sophomore year, the student body buzzed (never to my face, though) with the rumor that Hollins implemented a bullying policy because of me… being a bully. No one knew that my mom and I brought forth the issues that happened with me because of a bully on campus, demanding the President to come up with a bullying policy. No one knew what happened to me as a first year. However, everyone seemed to accuse me of things that I did not do.

Time after time, I have met girls on campus who tell me how “mean” I sounded from other students’ tales of meetings with me. One of my friends was even warned by another student to not be my friend. Whenever I hear these stories, the people who spoke out against me are always peers I have never met myself. They are usually students who I have never had contact with. How can anyone pass judgment before they have met someone else, especially in the context of putting someone else down? I don’t know how anyone could go around talking so negatively about someone else, when they have never personally had an experience with that person.

I have seen gossip make people unable to maintain decent friendships on campus, as well. For example, this girl named Emma (name changed) was known around campus to have a “private jet,” an extensive collection of designer apparel in her closet, and people even talked of her having major connections to the sports industry. Girls on campus thought they would take advantage of Emma by befriending her, only to go into her closet and steal her designer clothes. Not only would they go and steal her stuff, but they would talk about taking from her because she deserved it as a “rich kid.”

Truth is, Emma does not have a private jet (although her dad is a pilot), she doesn’t have immediate connections to the sports industry, and the only designer clothes she owns come from outlet malls. Now, whenever students meet Emma for the first time, they can’t get past her “rich kid” reputation. How can Emma expect to make friends on campus when everyone seems to focus on what they heard about her, instead of actually getting to know her?

Talk spreads like wildfire. I see it all the time. Just walk into the cafeteria on Monday morning and other people know where you were over the weekend. How? My first reaction to this, when it happened to me, was that those who were asking found out from Facebook. Since then I have had to make my Facebook entirely private, along with many other students on campus, in order to have any privacy. Though the gossip has not ceased.

Worst of all, it doesn’t help when the administration plays into the whole “Guess what I heard about you” game. On more than one occasion I have heard of students going to speak with the Dean of Students or head of Residence Life, only to come out with gossip from other students told to them by the authority figure who uses the gossip against them. If the administration lends an ear to gossip, of course the student body is going to keep it up.

I have heard many rumors about myself here at Hollins, and 99% of them never happened, resemble nothing from the truth, and have no merit. At first, I am not going to lie, the rumors really bothered me. A lot of them were hurtful, and a lot of them have stuck (despite not being true), but there comes a point when you have to displace yourself from that, even when it seems like everyone is talking about you. There have been so many times when I have seen my fellow peers break down about something that was said about them, and even though you want to stand up and say “No – that’s not true! That didn’t happen!” you can’t, and it doesn’t seem right or fair.

If sisterhood exists at Hollins, then why does gossip own the souls of most students? Whenever someone hears something that is obviously not true, no one speaks up – they just go along with it, and that is unacceptable. I am sick of hearing gossip about people and myself, especially at a school that talks about the loyalty and respectfulness of its students. If Hollins continues to let rumors take hold of the student body, I believe there will be no way to return to a clean, respectful state in the student body. No one will be able to avoid it, and that just seems entirely too extreme.

I know Hollins isn’t alone in this gossip battle – tell me about your school and how big of an impact gossip has on the student body? What is the worst rumor you have ever heard about yourself or someone else? Do you think gossip, in moderation, is healthy or just vicious in any degree? Time to share your story!

You’ve finally moved out of the dorms, and it just so happens that your new diggs are the perfect place to throw a party. No RA’s, no quiet hours, no cramming 50 people into your tiny dorm and trying to have a dance party. Sweet!

Throwing a party might seem like a no-brainer. Still, you have make sure all of your bases are covered, or you’ll find people trickling out before midnight, hoping to catch another bigger, better party before the sun comes up and the night is a complete bust.

If you want to throw the party of the year–the one people are still talking about at graduation, the one people are still talking about at the reunion–just take heed of these simple cardinal rules.

1. Spread the Word Like Wildfire.

Don’t just mention it to your lab partner. Don’t put up an away message saying “Party tonight! Come on over!” There’s plenty of parties to choose from on campus, so you want yours to be the one everyone’s talking about.

Create a Facebook event. Make fliers and wallpaper your apartment complex. Interrupt your Criminology lecture by screaming, “Let’s F–KING RAGE!” Okay, that one might be going to far, but figure out what methods of advertising will work best for you, and do ‘em twice.

2. Find a Gimmick.

Like I said, there’s probably a lot of options on campus on a Saturday night, whether it’s another party or a great bar special. A gimmick will not only attract partygoers, but it will help them remember your party. The “gimmick” can be anything from a crazy theme party to a simple keg party (seriously, throw the word “keg” in there, and people will flock, arms outstretched and tongues hanging out, like a scene from Night of the Living Dead). Toga parties, Pimps and Hoes parties, and Graffiti parties all sound more interesting than “Party in 5C – BYOB.” Am I right?

You can also think of random things to celebrate to get people talking. It’s also a good way to guilt trip guests into “stopping by,” at which point, they will see how much fun your party is and immediately blow off whatever party they were en route to in the first place. Twenty-first birthdays are a classic example. Everyone has to stop by to wish you well. My twenty-first was so successful that I’ve had one every year since, and the “2nd Annual 21st Birthday Bash” and “3rd Annual 21st Birthday Bash” were also smashing.

3. “Entertainment” Does Not Mean Your IPod on a Speaker.

Music is essential, but there’s more to a party than your Flo Rida megamix blaring for six hours straight. Setting up different “activities” will keep people interested, and make more people float through the party, and mingle, and… oh yeah, drink more. Set up beer pong in the backyard and flip cup in your kitchen. Spring for an ice luge so your guests don’t get bored waiting for their turn at beer pong. Announce a shotgun contest, a kegstand contest, or some other ridiculous competition just after you’ve hit full capacity and the buzz starts to creep in.

It’s also a good idea to have a low-key game going on when the party starts to alleviate any awkward “I’m-the-first-person-here-and-this-isn’t-really-a-party” vibes when the very first partiers trickle in to an empty house. I suggest a card game like Kings. Everyone can play, everyone drinks a lot, and by the time you’ve all done your second or third waterfall, you’ll slam your cups on the table and look up to see that somehow a few dozen bodies have appeared in your living room, and the party is officially ON.

4. Don’t Spend All of Your Efforts on Booze.

Yes, people will be coming to your party to drink. But just because you’ve stocked your liquor cabinet doesn’t mean your work is done. When people drink, they get hungry. So plan on supplying some food. If it’s an all-day party, have a barbecue or order some sandwich platters. If it’s a typical Saturday Night banger, stock up on carbs and starches in the form of potato chips, tortilla chips, and pretzels. Ordering a couple of sheet pizzas or a few dozen wings will never be unappreciated. If you are providing liquor, grab some mixers. Even if you aren’t providing liquor, it’s nice to have juice or soda on hand for your guests.

While you’re stocking up on munchies, run through the paper goods aisle of the grocery store, and buy a surplus of solo cups, paper towels, garbage bags, and toilet paper. Who knows how many people will run through your bathroom throughout the course of the evening, and you definitely don’t want drunk people using your bath towels when they can’t find toilet paper. Likewise, you want paper towels on hand for spilled beer, whether you soak it up during the party or the next morning.

If you are particularly meticulous, you might make sure that your medicine cabinet is stocked with bandages, in case of drunken injuries, or even rubber gloves, in case of vomit.

5. When You Think You Have Enough Booze, Buy More.

The cardinal rule of throwing a party is always overestimate when it comes to alcohol. When the well runs dry, the party’s over. If you are throwing a keg party, consider the beer measurements:

A “keg” is actually a half-barrel, and holds 15.5 gallons of beer. A quarter-barrel (usually referred to as a half-keg) is less than three 30-racks of beer. So, if you have one half-barrel at your party, you’ll get about 124 US pints, or 16 oz. beers, out of it. That will feed about 20 people 6 beers each.

While it’s not necessarily your responsibility to provide all of the alcohol for all of your guests, you may also want to consider picking up some liquor for the non-beer drinkers, or just to shake things up a bit once the party starts raging. Pizza is a win-win in the food category, and jungle juice will never do you wrong when it comes to stocking up on liquor.

Depending on how much alcohol you want to provide personally, you can always charge for cups, or ask for donations to help fund the shindig. But, even if you’re weary about splurging on a few kegs, or making your own mini-bar, just remember: if anything’s leftover, you can always drink it later.

In today’s Photoshoped world, it’s hard to tell which buzz-worthy pictures are fake, and which ones are actual hilarious moments caught by a camera…

We’re sincerely hoping this one is legit.

And now Kid Rock will be brewing beer?!

WTF is up with celebrities trying to do it all? Just because you are good at rocking the stage (or mediocre at best, if you are Jessica Simpson) doesn’t mean that you know how to design bedding. Or a nice smelling perfume.

And just because you happen to drink a lot of beer doesn’t mean that you should start brewing it. I drink a lot of beer; do you see me coming out with a Wolverine Brew? No! Because while I know how to consume beer quickly (beer pong), I don’t know the first thing about brewing mother f–king beer.

What’s next? Paris Hilton uses a ton of condoms (I imagine); is she gonna launch a line of Paris Couture Condoms? Is Britney Spears going to release her very own Spears-Anti-Psyhoctic meds? Will Snoop Dog create his own Super Snoop Weed?

Kid, I think you are pretty good on stage, but I don’t think you really have it in you to create a beer. I mean, you are Kid Rock for God’s sake; your lifestyle is more aligned with trailers and chewing tobacco than with a nice, smooth brew. We already have Keystone, Schlitz and PBR; do we really need another low quality keg?

Would you drink Kid Rock Beer?

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The campus is buzzing with returning students, eager to see what the new year has in store. Even if you anticipate your hardest semester to date, there’s still a feeling of excitement in the air during the very first week.

1. You Get to Scope Out Your New Classes

Maybe I’m a dork, but I was always excited to see what my new classes would be like. In certain classes–the must-take courses taught by the professors with the best reputations– it was great to see what all the buzz was about. Other classes might have sounded intriguing in the course catalog; reading through the syllabus on the first day, I’d think the class sounded interesting, and hadn’t been assigned 500 pages of reading to prove me otherwise. I would also look through the syllabus and see what the course requirements looked like, so I could estimate how little effort I could put into the class, and still walk away with an “A.”

Of course, it’s also fun to see who else has signed up for the class. Whether you walk through the door and see five of the girls from your freshman dorm, or right into the eyes of your new insta-crush, it’s fun to find out who you’ll be taking the class with.

2. Your Sched’s Not a Lock (Yet)

So, “Intro to Film” turned out to require three 15-page research papers and 7 chapters of reading a night. Drop it! Your roommate insists that you take “Deviant Behavior” instead of “Early Childhood Development.” Sign right up! In the first week of class, you can roll the dice as many times as you like, without falling behind in the course or having to beg your advisor to sign something so you can drop a class you probably shouldn’t have signed up for in the first place. My senior year, I was determined to have the best schedule ever, and must have signed up for and dropped classes about five times before I found the perfect combination of classes that I could learn from, enjoy, and ace, while still having plenty of room for senioritis.

3. There’s Free Stuff Everywhere

Clubs and organizations want you to join, so they’re apt to set up booths all over campus, offering free food, games, or knick knacks that will clutter your dorm. Often, the Student Activities department will also sponsor “Welcome Back” activities that extend beyond the incoming freshman class in order to get their returning students amped for another great school year. It’s a great way to (A) not spend money, (B) hang out with your friends, and (C) socialize with potentially new pals. Did I mention it’s all free?

4. Dorm Living Rocks in the First Week

As everyone gets settled in, and midterms are only a very distant threat, the doors to everyone’s rooms stay open, music blares through the hallway, and everyone is ready and willing to introduce themselves to their new neighbors. The schoolyear drama has yet to set in, so everyone’s pretty laid-back and carefree. Similar to scoping out your new classmates, you can scour the dorms for new friends (or crushes), figure out who the partiers are, who you can go to in an emergency, and who has the biggest TV to watch the VMA’s. Often, whole floors will arrange group trips to first-week parties, which is a sort of mixer in itself. Once the real work sets in, the doors close, the music is shut off, and you have to practically beg people to go to the bar with you on a Monday night, so enjoy week one!

5. You Can Party. All. Week. Long.

By far, the best part of the first week of school is that, since people are juggling schedules, and the first classes are usually a 20-minute overview of the syllabus, you have little, if any, assignments and responsibilities. My favorite college tradition was the week-long drinking binge that was the first week of classes. We would hit up a different bar each night to take advantage of the best drink specials, before deadlines, midterms, and research papers came pouring in. Even if you are assigned homework on the first Monday of class, you probably won’t have that class again until Wednesday, and you can probably knock it out on Tuesday after your teacher lets you out of an hour-and-a-half class after only twenty minutes. Besides, if you do get so sloshed that you start the semester off on the wrong foot, you still have plenty of time to add/drop a new class!