The Beer Institute (are there any research positions available?) has released a map charting each U.S. state’s annual beer consumption, and, naturally, it’s become a viral Internet hit. It doesn’t come as much of a surprise, since this is the kind of map everyone wishes they could’ve studied in high school history classes. But what is surprising is the state whose 21+ population consumed the most alcohol in 2008: Montana. What’s going on out there, and why am I not going to school there?

(Click on the map to see it large and in charge.)

Where does your state fall?

You arrive at the library and finally find a table to unload all your books and set up your laptop. You unwrap your head scarf, peel off your winter coat and plunk down your fresh cup of java. Today’s the day you’re actually going to write that fifteen page paper on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. You are totes in work mode, browsing through your research and making notations and highlights here and there.

Look at how well you’re doing!

Then you open up Microsoft Word, and start tapping away at the keyboard. Jeez, you’ve already got a sentence! This is so much easier than you thought! You’ll be done in no time, and before you know it, you’ll be at the rugby house on Friday for the kegger. Wait, what time is the party again? A quick check on Facebook couldn’t hurt…

And then it’s over. You’ve been sucked into the very alluring tubes of the internet, procrastinating once again. It’s finals week, which means it’s work block season: that feeling where you just can’t concentrate. But according to CollegeNews.com, it turns out that those moments of procrastination are actually helpful. If you’re doing work for a long period of time, you’re bound to get stressed, and too much stress is never good for productivity. So it’s okay to take a break every now and then to ease your mind, and do something unrelated to your project. It will ease your stress and rejuvenate your brain activity so you can get back to work. Knowing that, why not try these sites to ease your studying woes? Read More »

Like I said, I’ve been in a relationship with my guy for over four and a quarter years. And it’s awesome.

As an example, allow me to share with you an anecdote of undeniable cute proportions:

(BACKGROUND: I’m Jewish, he’s Asian-American, we’re both tattooless.)

We were on a double date with my friend and his coworker, who we’d set up. They both have a lot of tattoos, and my friend said to my boyfriend, “Do you have any tattoos?” He put his arm around me and said, “Oh, we don’t have tattoos–we’re Jewish.”

The point is, we are a team. We are not attached at the hip, but we do a lot of things together. So it only stands to reason that, after years and years of dating, Friday nights often end up as dinner and renting a movie. After all, it’s impossible to plan over 4 years worth of consistently creative dates. And we’re not big drinkers and we’re not drug users, so that eliminates blitzing the night away. And, frankly, we’re getting older (he’s 26, I’ll be 24 in a month)–we can’t keep acting like indie film loving hipster kids forever.

So here, for your benefit (and mine–seriously), I’ve compiled a list of date ideas for the not-so-new couple that still really digs each other. May you put them to good use. Read More »