Renewing my phone plan last month lead my mom to take advantage of a BOGO deal on touch screen phones and she’s been sending text abbrevs and emoticons ever since. It’s exhausting. But apparently she and the Oxford English Dictionary have one thing in common: they’re finally catching on to the abbreviations and slang that us cool kids have been typing out for years.

Yes, it’s official, peeps. 2011 is leaving its mark (or blemish) on history with the addition of a few choice words to the good ole’ dictionary. Among the words to made the cut: “OMG,” “muffin top” and “LOL.” What a legacy we’re leaving behind for our children.

I can only imagine what those definitions are going to look like: Read More »

I love books. I just unpacked my massive book collection and filled like ten shelves with those suckers. Everything from horror to fantasy to sci-fi to children’s to textbooks – I refused to sell anything back because it was pretty much a rip off. Seriously, $15 for a book I spent $100 on? And never opened? I’d rather lug those bad boys home and use them to prop up a broken table than let those bookstores scam future students with them!

Take that, bookstores!

So, despite my general love of books in the book form (there is nothing more satisfying than the sound of a book being cracked for the first time), I have begun to let my eyes wonder over to the E-Reader realm. It’s a bit cheaper when you add up the cost of all those books you’re buying, it’s good for the trees of the world, and since there has been talk of loading text books onto them, they are definitely something to look into.

And if not, I could still carry my ENTIRE library around with me without the aid of a large, burly moving man.

Yes, some are totally out of anyone’s price range and some are really crappy, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one out there for you. There are two really good options for e-readers out there today and I know that one of them will work for you. Trust me. Read More »

I hate to admit it, but I am an absolute internet junkie. Ever since we bought our first lovely P.C. when I was in fourth grade, my life has somehow revolved around using a mouse, keyboard and CPU to create everything from science projects to ezines to fantastically-written blog entries. And yes, I’m the friend who inevitably asks, “Can I use your laptop?” every single time I come over. I guess I’m sorta kinda addicted. (Hey, it’s better than cigarettes or booze!)

I thought that this addiction had led me to discover almost every little nugget of cool-ness the internet had to offer. I was officially convinced that I was pretty much the most tech-savvy girl on campus. However, until about a week ago, I was completely in the dark about one amazing aspect of the internet: the wonder that is iGoogle.

I know, I know, I sound like a hypocrite. A few months ago, I expressed my severe annoyance with Google. But discovering this crafty little tool made it almost impossible for me not to forgive the big ‘G’. Read More »