[There comes a time in every girl’s life, (usually after a third or fourth martini), when she realizes “Damn, I need to do something… travel to Europe, take up Chinese, get married…someeeething! I need to change my life.” Finding myself in one such rut and without the cash-flow for a capricious jet-set to France, I decided to live by the book, take the plunge, and tackle the Benrik challenge. If you have never heard of Benrik’s This Book Will Change Your Life, crawl out from under the rock you have been living under, wipe the tired crust from your eyes, and listen up.]

Week 4 – Task 1

Day 29- Dial a Phone Number at Random and Read this Script with a Deep South accent

The Script (or at least the part I got to read before people hung up):

You know, without Christ, without Jesus, we have no hope. Why? Well, because we know that the standard of God’s righteousness is Law, a law of the Ten Commandments, a law of Moses on Sinai, saying that this righteousness, O Israel. But you know, God also gave another law. A law revolving around a system of shedding a poor and innocent lambs blood…

The Reactions:

1) I have a lot to do right now. I don’t have time for God or Jesus!

2) Is this a recorder? Is this the voice of God? Who are you?

3) Click*

4) Click*

5) Click*

6) Click*

Week 4- Task 2

Day 161- Leave a Poem in a Public Place to Brighten up Someone’s Day

As a writer, I have always beaten myself up about perhaps not being able to make it in such a difficult field. Who am I? Who would want to read my work? However, all of this changed the day that I was asked to analyzed the poem known as an “American Masterpiece” by William Carlos Williams. This poem gave me hope that absolutely anyone could become a writer. Hell, if this counts as poetry, my grocery list does too! And so, to inspire this sense of creativity in others, I decided to share The Red Wheelbarrow in a public space.

So much depends
upon
A red wheel
barrow
Glazed with rain
water
Besides the white
chickens

I hope the poem gave confidence to some other aspiring artist as well. If William Carlos Williams can make it, anyone can!

Week 4- Task 3

Day 33- Be on the Lookout for the Paranormal

There’s an App for that! Seriously! There is an application for iPhones, Blackberrys, and Droids called Ghost Radar Classic. This app supposedly mimics traditional paranormal detectors in that it uses sensors to measure electromagnetic fields, vibrations and sounds. After detecting something “paranormal,” Ghost Radar displays colored circles on a radar screen to alert its user of abnormal activity.

Whether or not you believe in the paranormal (or a phone’s ability to detect it), know that I went into this challenge with the utmost seriousness. My boyfriend lives in an old mansion on the outskirts of town. Given the fact that the place always gave me the heebee-jeebees, I figured this would be the perfect location for the experiment. I was right. I walked around the entire house for twenty minutes with little to no activity on the radar. I was just about to give up and delete the application when I walked down the upstairs hallway. Suddenly colored circles popped up all over my screen and my phone began to make noises. It really freaked me out! I threw the phone down, ran downstairs and made my boyfriend go get it in the morning.

Needless to say, we stayed at my apartment that night.

Week 4- Task 4

Day 251- Read Your Own Palm

Information found here.

Take the Palm Reading Quiz & let us know how your future looks!

Basic Hand Type – You have good taste and you enjoy excessive indulgences. You like expensive clothes and an elegant lifestyle, but there are times when you seriously risk spending more than you earn. You have good instincts and are self-confident. You are never at a lack for affection and companionship. Try to correct minor health problems as soon as possible.

Life Line (The Quality of your Life) – You are a healthy person with a bright personality. You will have a long and wonderfully smooth lifespan, but you will put great effort into your work.

Head Line (How You Think About Life)– You’re thinking is clear and focused. You have a sense for creativity.

Head Line-Life Line Connection – Sometimes you are sensible and cautious, while other times you are foolhardy. Try to control your impulses and your changeable attitude.

Heart Line (Emotions and Situations related to Love)- You’ll never give up on your search for the perfect partner. You are a very sincere person, so its important that you find a sincere and faithful partner. You are a passionate lover. You are capable of much affection, but you switch partners often. You will have a happy marriage.

Destiny Line (Purpose in Life)- You have a special talent in an unusual field. This type of line occurs mostly among artists and scholars.

Week 4- Task 5

Day 148:  Leave a Note on Someone’s Car Windshield

 Note 1 : “I left someone in your trunk. I’ll pick him up next week if that’s okay”

Note 2: “I am the engineer who made this vehicle. The brakes aren’t very good cos I was hungover that day. Watch out.”

Note 3: “We’ve discovered your car is the one responsible for all the damage to the ozone layer; please bike to work in the future.”

Note 4: “I’m a traffic warden but today I feel lenient. Don’t do it again though.”

[Ladies, meet Meredith, the newest addition to the CollegeCandy team. She's a BU student, a movie buff, and an all around fantastic chicadee. She'll be our resident movie gal, giving us the ins and outs of the new releases and telling us whether or not its worth it to fork over $12 for the latest flicks.]

I slept with the lights on after a midnight showing of Paranormal Activity 2, which is saying a lot for a movie that I went into with “Whip My Hair” stuck in my head beforehand. For a long time, I had been predicting that the follow up to last year’s Paranormal Activity would be a more corny, overdone version of the first film (which I loved, even if it made my cry).

I got what I expected… but it still managed to scare the hell out of me.

I would kill anyone who spoiled this movie for me, so I’m going to say as little about the plot that I can get away with. The film follows a married couple, the husband’s teenage daughter, a newborn baby, and an adorable dog. Unlike the couple from Paranormal Activity, this family is actually all-around likable. Don’t lie, I KNOW I’m not the only one that got fed up with Micah’s antics during the first movie. Katie, from the original film, does return as the wife’s sister, but that is all I’m going to say about it, because that is everything that you could get from just watching the first ten minutes of the film (and the trailer).

Just like the first movie, spooky footage is caught by way of home video. This time around, though, they also enlist surveillance footage, which is a brilliant way of updating the first film without straying from the original concept. It is fairly genius, because they are able to build suspense in a way that the first movie couldn’t – no one can know WHERE the fear will occur, let alone when. Read More »

Recently, graduating from college, it seems, has sprouted a ripe mid-life crisis for the college student.  It may not result in buying a convertible and a condo in southern Florida, but it does send soon-to-be college grads in a downward spiral as they freak out about their futures, their jobs and, well, surviving real life.

Graduating is almost like watching Paranormal Activity; it’s just plain terrifying.

Because of the current economy (read: in the toilet) many of us are making some pretty rash decisions when it comes to choosing majors and getting the ball rolling on our futures. Students are trying to do whatever they can to get ahead of their peers, often choosing majors early in order to get a head start on internships, jobs and other experiences valuable to an attractive resume. Some schools are even getting rid of their “useless” majors – like Philosophy – in favor of majors that will actually get students some jobs – like Business.

But is being so totally focused and career minded in college really the right way to go?
Some people don’t think so.

Besides specializing in “Ramen Cuisine,” college is an essential time to focus on your career. I mean, that’s why we’re here, right? It often feels that you haven’t even unpacked your bags into your tiny dorm room before your academic advisor is pressuring you to declare your major, and fast. And it makes sense; money is tight and it’s important to get moving on a path that will secure a successful job in the future.  Unless you want to live in your parents’ basement with the family pet, college is the key to jump-starting your life.  Declaring your major early gives you more experience in the field and the opportunity to rope in an internship right away. All things that will eventually make you more appealing to that HR guy in the suit.

At the same time, though, maybe this isn’t the only aspect of college we should be focusing on.

Is getting a job the only reason people get a college education? And is a business student who only knows statistics, finance and how the banking industry works really the most appealing job candidate? What happened to being well-rounded? To being multi-dimensional? That was really important during the college application process, so why not now? Even more, how are you supposed to know what you want to do if you’ve never given anything else a chance? College is a time to explore. To learn. To try new things and find your path. Not to choose the major that makes the most money and hope you can survive it.

College, if you take advantage of all the opportunities it has to offer, opens more doors than Inconsiderate Ian did for you on your last blind date.  It also happens to be the last time you’re really given the freedom to explore such a wide variety of options. I get that we’re all desperate to nab those highly coveted jobs post graduation, but that doesn’t mean we have to lock ourselves into a box just yet. Nor that doing so is the key to success.

So, what do you think? Are we wasting our time on those art and religion classes? Should we be more focused on our trade?

As summer bleeds into autumn, and the school- work comes piling in, we are rapidly approaching Halloween – the first excuse to throw a huge party since Welcome Week.

Sure, Halloween might be, as Cady Heron puts it, “the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it,” but it’s also the basis for urban legends on college campuses across the country.

You might have outgrown ghost stories in high school, but many college students seriously believe the legends and lore that shroud their school, and swear that they have experienced a haunting somewhere on campus.

Hollow Hill, one of the internet’s oldest and most respected paranormal info centers, claims that college campuses are actually prime locations for hauntings and poltergeists. According to the site, “Poltergeist events most often occur when there is someone between ages eight and 25 nearby.” With tens of thousands of students falling into the 18-22 age bracket, this certainly fits the mold. Read More »