Copilots & Homies

  YouTube and I have a twisted relationship. I tell it to leave me be time and time again as I try to finish up my papers and study for finals or get some rest before work or just get out and live my life away from a computer screen, but alas, I keep turning back to it. And it welcomes me with open arms. Sometimes it takes me down the road with a bunch of Jimmy Kimmel/Fallon viral videos and other times it takes me to the dark side of the internet. Both of which I'm completely fine with. And I'm always learning something new, And this week I stumbled onto my latest craze: the Norwegian version of The Voice. So I'm pretty sure this season is over, but I just caught on and HOLY CRAP THESE CONTESTANTS ARE AMAZING!! I'm talking ALL of them should be Grammy-award winning artists in their own right. Pronto, And I am really rooting for the homie Filip Bernard to pull through because that fool has got it going on. That rendition of "Hey Ya"? Glorious. Check. It. Ou...

Dedicated to all the high maintenance human beings. You, good human, set the standards. ✌️ I didn't actually become broke until I had my first job with a steady income. When I was smooching off the Motherload, I didn't have money of my own to spend, let alone to become indebt. If I wanted to do something, it had better be free or I'd have to sign a petition, present the details of my case for how much I needed and what for to a court appointed judge (the she-wolf that is M.O.M.) and make an appeal when she'd rule: NO DEAL. The frugality was the way of life to paying rent on time, to putting food on the table and to putting clothes on thine back. And then I went and got a job.  It wasn't by any means a Fortune 500 company that paycheck, but it was enough to get the economic juices flowing. I began to contribute as full fledged capitalist-American consumer. We got cable, we got internet, we got cell phones with bills higher than Afroman. Our standards of livin...

Swapmeets were a huge staple in my childhood. This was where I got my school uniforms from every weekend for three years. This was where I got my clothes all the way to the eighth grade, come to think of it. While I was busy learning my ABC's, this was the spot my mom, aunt and grandma used to hold it down at until 2:20 pm, when I got out of the torture chambers that was school. This was where I first experienced the magic stick that is a churro. This was where I learned the value that anything could be bargained down because, let's face it, we're all trying to pay bills and every little bit helps. And this was the same place I learned that bargaining isn't always the best solution because five dollars off is five dollars short of a vendor's light bill or rent. So it was nice to relive the glory days. This place never fails to inspire me: from the vibrant colors, to the eclectic products and even to health tips.  And oh-so-cheap jewlery. Believe it or not...

An Ode to the old Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon: You. Complete. Me.  P.S. Fuck you, Disney. You had nothing on this shit. Recently I had to prepare for an upcoming speech. That's a sentence I will always come to hate to utter. Anyway, during my preparation I had to make those damned attention-getters/hooks/etc and I couldn't escape the draw to an episode of Dexter's Laboratory. So after getting lost in the infinite black-hole of YouTube and countless episodes later, I did some deep thinking about the staples of my childhood. And I came upon this question: was I fucking high?! The creators of my favorite 90's shows must have been tripping out on hallucinations to even imagine the stuff that made it on the network; my mom must've gotten a contact high from the shows to have let me watch the stuff in the first place; and holy shit I love both for being able to get away with it and giving me some damn good memories. Dexter's Lab : Dexter, the answer to the...

Holy macaroons. I can't remember the last time I devoured a book this quickly. It would've taken me only one day, but you see, the way my work schedule works out? It doesn't. So I had to wait nine more whole hours until I got home and relish the last few pages. Now Gayle Forman is relatively new to me; my first experience with her was with Just One Day and Just One Year (highly recommend! adventure, love, all-around-amazingness) and she shot up my Top Ten List, which is ridiculously exclusive, occupied by the likes of JK Rowling, Sarah Dessen and Jenny Han (these are THE homies). I like her writing style, her effortless ways of telling a story so good the book just lingers in your head days after you finished it, and just the overall adventures her characters take. I get jealous. Of characters. In a book. That's how you know you did a good job. When your readers want to meet a three headed dog and fly at 98 mph on an unsafe cleaning utensil or have a one night stan...

I've gained enough confidence to step into the kitchen again. I didn't want to sprain myself on my first day back, so I settled with something easy: strawberry shortcakes. Yasssss! And, if I do say so myself, they rivaled anything Bobby Flay would turn out. Maybe. Ingredients : 3 sliced strawberries                      packet of spongecake shells                      whipped cream                      sugar Das ist alle!Es schmeckt mir gut. Look. At. THAT SWEET THANG! Finishing touches Ain't she a beaut?

Hi, my name is __________, and I have a problem. *Hi,_______.* Thank you. It's nice to feel welcomed. Well, it all started when I was a unicorn. At first I thought I had it under control, but then my life spun into total chaos when I joined the Dark Lord's army and from that moment on, Edward never loved me the same again. Wait....whaaaaaaahhhh? Welcome to the land of Fanfiction, where crossovers and cross dressers are welcomed with open arms, no questions asked. If you're confused, then you're not a true believer in the magic of your fellow human being's imaginations. I would just like to make in knownst that though I am a recovering FF addict, worry not, for I will not relapse. I've gone about three years clean from the wretched hands of the likes of TypoKween and ocdmess. I have long accepted that endings of books and movies will stay that way. No matter how much the original sucked compared to the FF version. And the likelihood of a FF story being adap...