Author: LaMarGoti

Cockblock: The Male Birth Control Pill, Coming Soon

Posted on by LaMarGoti

Sorry it’s been a while. I have been MIA from everything lately due to work commitments. That said, I am back and better than ever. I have been writing a bunch for the TNGG site and below is my most recent post (which was originally posted here).

Jump back! Could it be real? A male oral contraceptive? A pill for dudes?! According to a recent New York Times article, the little pill we’ve all been waiting for could be right around the corner.

Of all the options for birth control, there are currently four for men, compared to over a dozen for women: a vasectomy, condoms, spermicide and the so-called withdrawal method (which really shouldn’t be included anymore). But thanks to modern science, it seems likely that we will soon also have the male birth control pill.

Similar to the female birth control pill, scientists are using a combination of hormones (testosterone and progestin) to make men stop producing sperm all together and “other ways of interrupting sperm production, maturation or mobility.” There’s been even talk of a biceps implant, which would work similarly to the female implant.

For too long, contraception and reproduction have been viewed as something only women are supposed to worry about. But I’m pretty sure the cliche holds true for a reason, and it takes two to tango.

Feminists and females alike see men taking “the pill” as one small step for man, one giant step for womankind. But why has it taken so long to get off the ground?

Dr. John Amory told CNN that “while women make one egg a month, men produce about 1,000 sperm every second.” Adding that “it proves more difficult to shut down that level of production.” The delay is logical; the pill forces women’s bodies to do something it already naturally does, not ovulate, as opposed to not producing sperm, which is not normal for men’s bodies.

Even with delays in male contraception, there is a “greater interest in this technology than there ever was in the past and there is now more funding available worldwide than ever before,” according to an interview Dr. Christina Wang gave to MSNBC.

Wang’s outlook was confirmed by a survey graduate student Alexa Hassaram conducted at Bentley University. The 22-year-old surveyed 98 co-eds on campus (86% of which were sexually active) and found that 59% of the respondents would either willingly use, or encourage their partner to use, a male birth control pill. Also, 13% of those surveyed would use it if their partner wanted them to, compared to only 11% who would not consider it at all.

Rob Morton, 25, of NYC, is more skeptical, and sees this advancement as “just another excuse to not wrap it up, and spread disease. Also, I could see people saying one thing and doing another.”

Morton pointed out that just like the pill so many ladies swallow every day, a male contraceptive will not protect against the spread of STIs. For that, it doesn’t look like condoms are going anywhere anytime soon. Unfortunately, Hassaram’s survey confirms Morton’s fear: she found that while 56% females on the pill still believe in using a condom concurrently, only 28% of the males would use a male pill and condoms concurrently.

As for Morton’s second thought, men could lie about being on the pill, but then again, so could women (and it happens) — all it really boils down to is trust of your partner.

Just like most innovations, there are mixed reviews. Some men want it. Some women wouldn’t trust their male partner to take the pill. Catholics and pro-life supporters don’t support contraception as a whole. Feminists think it’s about time for men to step up to the plate. Pro-choice supporters think this could be great for men who don’t want to father a baby now.

But now it’s your turn: What do you think? Tell us in the comments.

Photos by Marquette La, Stacy Lyn Baum and n.Stauffer.

Bike for a Cause: How an Adventure sparked a Movement

Posted on by LaMarGoti

I present my latest piece for TNGG.

“The biggest thing to fear in life is settling and not chasing your dreams,” says Fred Piumelli, 25, of New York City. “Because life is too good not to make things happen.”

It all started with six men with six things in common. They’re all recent college grads, they’ve got time on their hands, a sense of adventure, good hearts, a love of biking and they’re all looking for a little more out of life.

The group, consisting of high school classmates and Bentley University swimmers, graduated college in 2008, and decided to take on an adventure most people wouldn’t dream of. They biked across America, partnered with ACCION International, to spread the word about how valuable microfinance is to fighting poverty.

For the non-business minded folk, you are probably asking yourself, what is microfinance? It is a way to give the poor an opportunity to help themselves and promote human rights and human dignity.

As Keith Kolakowski, 25, of Orlando, FL describes it, microfinance is “a fantastic means of progress” for the developing world. “The cool thing is that microfinance isn’t the only sustainable means of helping the poor.” Kolakowski thinks the model is translatable to other forms of generosity and charity. It values empowerment and accountability and personal story, which ascribes worth to people; it acknowledges the universal dignity of being human.

While most of the developing world does not have access to a banking system as we know it, it still have entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs are trying to make money to support their families and communities, but don’t necessarily have the startup capital to do so.

In today’s economy, anyone studying economics or the effects of micro finance can understand just how valuable the concept can be. When the boys graduated from college in May, 2008, they didn’t realize just how soon it would become a necessity to help keep the global economy alive.

After college graduations wrapped up, Mike Belorenzo, Tyler Heishamn, Keith Kolakowski, Fred Piumelli, Bryan Stinchfield and James Watson departed Darien, CT, headed for San Francisco, CA. As they prepared to bike, they raised $34,000 for an ACCION project in Ghana. Their journey lasted only 63 days.

All six knew they shared the same passion to help bring an end to poverty. What they didn’t know was how this ride would change their outlook on life. (And as any good Millennial would do, they blogged their experience along the way.)

As the guys planned their nine -week adventure across the good ol’ U.S. of A., Heishman, 25, recalled that “it seemed selfish to not connect our plans to a broader goal.” They brainstormed ideas and decided on “searching for a charitable cause that we could relate to and thought would have the greatest potential.” Enter microfinance. “The fact that it was fairly unheard of motivated us to become advocates for the cause,” he said.

A group of six guys biking across the country with just the packs on their backs and not even a help van seems, well, “ludicrous,” as Kolakowski puts it. While he was looking for a ludicrous adventure, Kolakowski also wanted “to do it for the very poor of the earth, who deserve a dignified helping hand.”

While Kolakowski set out peddling for an adventure, he got an experience that taught him so much more. “We received an amazing experiential education in American culture, American hospitality, and American spirit of people when we would tell them what we were doing, and they instantly wanted to be part of it.”

Kolakowski isn’t as active with the cause today, but he’s excited that microfinance is gaining in popularity in the mainstream.

It’s becoming such a mainstream thing that Bryan Stinchfield, 25, has recently left the states, and his job, to join the Peace Corps in Madagascar as a Small Enterprise Development Volunteer. Stinchfield now works “with small groups of fisherman, weavers and farmers trying to educate them on money management and entrepreneurship while encouraging the use of [micro-finance] if, and only if, they understand the terms of the agreement upfront.”

Looking back, Stinchfield sees the trip as “a chance to reflect on our lives, when up to that point the only thing we had been accustomed to doing was being a sponge within the great educational system of America. We finally had an opportunity to give back in term of begin a teacher instead of a student on the journey.”

The bikers’ journey didn’t end in San Francisco. Not only has Stinchfield taken to keeping the cause alive, but so has MicroBike USA. Today, just as the original crew put together their ride, anyone can take on a ride of their choice of length to ride for the cause.

These guys wanted an adventure. They began a movement.

What have you done to make an impact on today’s society?

Photos by MicroBikeUSA, Michael Kuhn.

Millennials & Charity Work

Posted on by LaMarGoti

As you probably know, I write for a site TNGG. This article was originally written for them, but instead became the inspiration for my new themed articles that will be coming out about once a month on Millennials and charity work.

“It’s not how much money you make or whether you’re able to gain the approval of your peers. Inspiring hope by aiding those lacking the very essentials we take for granted every day is something that actually makes a constructive impact not only to yourself but to those impacted by your generosity. Only through helping those less fortunate than yourself can a person truly gain perspective on how lucky they really are.” — Mary June Olson

Mary, 25, volunteers with Denver’s Habitat for Humanity because she believes that “far too often members of our generation lack perspective on what really matters in life at the end of the day,” and she wants to make a difference. Olson is not the only millennial working with charities and helping raise money to make our world, and the world our children will live in one day, a better place.

Millennials are stepping up and volunteering in many ways to give back to the community as a whole. The number of volunteers for the Peace Corps and Teach for America has increased since the economy took a turn for the worse, but even millennials in college and the working world are volunteering daily around the world. A very common cause that millennials, and everyone, supports is cancer, but there are other smaller charities and causes that we support as well.

If we’re talking smaller, let’s talk micro — micro finance that is. As many business people, and anyone who studies the effects micro finance can have on the economy, know, this is a spectacular cause, especially these days. Little did a group of 2008 grads realize just how important micro finance would become as they graduated college in May 2008 and embarked on a 9-week trek to travel across the US by bicycle.

The group partnered with ACCION International to spread the word about how valuable micro finance was to fight poverty. When asked why they decided to undertake this challenge, Tyler Heishman, one of the creators of the plan says “the fact that it was fairly unheard of motivated us to become advocates for the cause, and we really liked the sustainable model that many organizations were striving for.”

Tyler and his friends aren’t the only crazy millennials biking the country to raise money and awareness. Every year since 2002, 25 college students bike from Baltimore to San Fransisco for the Hopkins 4K. Biking 4,000 miles may seem daunting to most, but the experience to help support such a great cause has left some wanting to bike 4,000 miles twice! The summer of 2007 Greg Gotimer “did not know what to expect from the trip and only hoped that (he) would be able to make a difference in the life of someone who was battling cancer. What (he) was not expecting was the magnitude of support we would get throughout the country for (the) ride.” That support left him wanting more — another 4,000 miles the following summer as well.

Not all of us have the time it takes to dedicate to training and biking across the US, but we’re going out to support good causes on our feet as well. More and more people are running marathons to support causes. Tim Loher ran the Boston Marathon in 2010 for two reasons. One, because he “wanted to achieve something that (he) never thought (he) would be able to do. Having never run more than 4 or 5 miles at a time, 26.2 seemed unfathomable.” And two, because he ran for the Boston Fund for Parks & Recreation to raise money for a program to help keep Boston teens off the streets by giving them “a source of income and the pride and self-respect that comes from holding a job.” Running the marathon and raising money for a cause left Tim with one of his greatest memories from his life.

The support that Greg felt biking across the States and the sense of accomplishment that Tim felt crossing the finish line are similar to what so many others feel when they are doing something for a good cause. Millennials have found other ways to reach out and give back as well. Specifically through mentoring and working with the younger generations. Organizations like Big Brother/Big Sister, Mentoring USA and the Mentoring Partnership of New York provide great places for millennials to get hands-on with the younger generations and help give back. Kristina Sorfozo mentors with Prime Time Through Urban Impact in Connecticut as a way to use her talents to “to love on these kids, break racial barriers and to teach them that love and correct conflict resolution wins outs in the end.” While these ideals seem simple enough to pass along to the younger generations, it’s a goal many of us have seem fit to take on ourselves.

How have you gone out to make a difference for tomorrow?

Rules for Attending Graduations

Posted on by LaMarGoti

“Graduates, I ask that you move your tassels from the right side of your cap to the left. You’re officially graduates of NCC.” I probably shouldn’t put quotes around that. I’m not actually sure what the President of NCC said last night when my friend graduated. Why? Not because I was preoccupied, nor was my attention lacking. I couldn’t hear a lot of what he said, I could, however, hear everything the people in front of and next to me were chatting about though. As I attended another college graduation last night, I was reminded that it seems some people lack social etiquette. As I attend my alma mater’s commencement tomorrow, I’m hoping for a better experience than last night. (Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled I was able to be there for my friend, after all, she feels like family, I just wish i could have experienced the entire ceremony.) That said, I present a few basic (what I thought were common sense) rules of how to act at a graduation…

If you talk, keep it quiet and short.
Of course when you sit through a multi-hour ceremony of any sort, you are probably going to have a comment or two about what’s happening that you want to share with those you are sitting with. And by that, I mean the people you came with, not every family within spitting distance. Graduations are not a time for you to start talking about the project you’re working on at the office, or about some ailment you have that should be kept in the family. Full blown conversations, especially if you don’t know how to whisper, are only distracting to those around you and make you come off as rude.

Proper use of cell phones.
One, keep them on silent. I’m well aware that no one wants to hear Irish rock blast from my phone during the ceremony — and I don’t want to hear Lady Gaga or Jay-Z blasting from yours. All phones have the ability to be turned to vibrate or silent, learn to use that function.
Two, whatever you do, don’t pick up your phone mid-graduation to carry on a conversation (see above). And to the man sitting in front of me to the right, use of a blue tooth does not make it better.
Three, use of your phone to text, check your e-mails, tweet or take pictures is all OK! I texted during my own graduation, my sister’s and well, any other graduation I’ve been to. I’m not glued to the keyboard, just using it sporadically, and typically using it to communicate with the graduate. Tweeting, playing games, doing whatever you want with your apps is OK too. Graduations are long, especially when 500+ names are being called. Keep yourself occupied, but remember you should only be entertaining yourself, not everyone around you too.

I love balloons, but not in my face.
Balloons are great for parties and pictures, but they are not meant for blocking my view. If you want to give your graduate balloons, leave them in the car until after the ceremony. As much as you try to keep them low, they will blow around, get loose and end up in front of someone else’s face.

Some cheering is OK
Cheering, applauding and the like is great to show support to your loved one. But remember to keep it low key so you don’t distract anyone else from missing hearing their graduate’s name called.

Kicking Cancer to the Curb: What We Can Do

Posted on by LaMarGoti

So a little late, but this is my latest post from TNGG, originally published here.

Son, daughter, mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, friend, or neighbor, we all know someone (or many someones) who has been diagnosed with cancer.

A cure to cancer will come one day because society as a whole wants it and supports it — and young people have taken action and will continue to do so. We are going out and trying to kick cancer’s butt. Millennials all over the world are going out running marathons, walking miles, writing letters on end and raising money for all forms of cancer.

Emily Jasper, a Forbes.com blogger, wants to “make a meaningful difference in the fight against cancer” and she’s not the only one putting up a fight and trying to help fund finding a cure.

Relay for Life is a team event that raises money for the American Cancer Society (ACS) and involves at least one member of a team walking the entire night, or longer, as some relays may be. These events are held all over America and beyond (even in Australia). Lately, due to the amount of interest, they are popping up at college campuses everywhere thanks to grassroots organizations like Colleges Against Cancer.

Another way Millennials are supporting ACS is through Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. In Boston, the MSABC walk is full of young participants and volunteers. Co-eds of both genders, though mostly females, wake up early in masses to participate in this event every fall. Last fall, Katelyn D’Eramo, 25, was just one of the many participants, walking for her Nana Barbara. According to D’Eramo, “the best part of doing the Making Stride for Breast Cancer this year was this feeling that all 40,000 walkers, all walking 5.7 miles, wearing pink, smiling, were working together for a cure.”

Perhaps part of the reason so many are supporting a cure for breast cancer specifically is because every three minutes, one more woman in the U.S. is diagnosed with breast cancer. It was this statistic that caused me to walk 39.3 miles in two days for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer a year and a half ago. I agreed to raise $1,800, which I thought would be hard in a tough economy, but it wasn’t. Support poured out from around the world, mostly from my friends, all Millennials.

Carrie Bishop, 25, has walked the Boston AWBC multiple times for her aunt, a two time breast cancer survivor. She says she is “lucky to be able to participate and help those who are less fortunate and raise money to find a cure.” She “was raised with the value of giving back, and will always keep that and pass along to [her] children” — this value, and Carrie’s personal reason for doing it, is one that is all too familiar to many.

We’re not only out there searching for a cure through purely physical means. Those who can still be found on a college campus generally like to stay up late. Though Up ‘til Dawn, you stay up all night writing letters to friends and family to support the patients at St. Jude’s Research Hospital.

College students sacrifice sleep for many things, but even those who need a solid 8-hours a night are willing to give up one night a year to help support this great event that so many campuses host. It’s easy — all you need to do is the addresses of all your extended family and you’re sure to have enough addresses for the bigletter writing party.

Whether our feet or hands are doing the walking, we’re all heading in the right direction. Cancer has already significantly affected our generation. We’re so determined to prove to the world that we can be better than they expect and that we have a social conscious, it’s only a matter of time before one of our own is the one to fine the cure.

Walking miles on end or writing letters all night not your calling? How do you help support the cause?

Where Were You When Osama Bin Laden Died?

Posted on by LaMarGoti

There are certain days that everyone will always remember where they are. Millennials will always remember and be asked where they were on 9-11. I was a sophomore in high school. The second tower was hit and the first one fell during my second period free. I watched all of this happen live on the TVs at the senior end of the cafeteria along with my biology class. The bell rang to end the period, we bolted up two flights of stairs, turned on the news on our bio classroom and saw the second tower fall. My bio teacher walked in, turned off the TV and yelled at us for turning it on without permission. You see, I live on CT, in an NYC suburb — many parents from my town work in the city, my father included at the time. As many recall, getting a cell phone call to go through to the city was hard that day. My dad didn’t work in the towers at the time, but he had dropped me off at school that morning telling me he’d be heading to Windows on the World for a meeting with old co-workers. (Windows on the World was above where the plane hit, no one who was there survived.) Frantic, I tried getting through to anyone. Finally, using the inter-school extensions, I got through to the elementary school my mom worked at. I asked the secretary if I could talk to my mom, only to be told she was on the other line and to please hold. Before being put on hold, I asked if she had heard news of my dad. She did — my dad was on the other line with my mom, he had caught the last train out of Grand Central to get home. My dad watched the towers get hit and fall from his boss’s window. He felt his heart sink as he knew he had friends who were hurt or dead. He packed up his bags and left, he wanted out — turned out that he ended up leaving working in the city shortly thereafter. That afternoon, my mom left school early. My sister was in middle school and my mom knew that all kids in any school but the high school needed a parent, or adult neighbor, to sign them off the bus (normally only kindergardeners need someone to get them). Not knowing if my dad would make it home in time, she came home to collect my sister and all our neighbors. While the school wanted to make sure no kids were stuck at home with no parent coming home that night, my mom didn’t want anyone we knew to sit through that. All my neighbors hung out at our house until their parents got home — fortunately, they all did. I will never forget this day.

When asked where I was when Osama died, my answer is much simpler — I was sound asleep. I went to bed at 9:30 last night, I was exhausted from a day in the sun. I woke up at my boyfriend’s house at 3:41AM. Not knowing what caused me to wake up, I checked my phone. I had 42 text messages — one from my sister and 41 from Twitter (since I don’t have Internet at work, I follow about 8 or 9 people, including local news, who I get their tweets texted to me so I don’t miss something big during the day.) I read my sister’s message first; “Osama dead go amurrca – I hope you caught the address”. In a half sleep, Osama Bin Laden did not cross my mind — I thought she meant Barack Obama and that she, a huge Obama supporter, was being sarcastic. Then I knew that’s why I had so many tweets to read, although I then found out she really did mean Osama. I slept through a huge event in life, but fortunately it didn’t take long for me to hear it all thanks to social media. Now all that’s left is for me to turn on my computer tonight to watch Obama’s address online — because I can, because today we can find everything we need at our fingertips.

A Book Review — The Millennium Series

Posted on by LaMarGoti

I’ve been totally MIA for far too long — I’m sorry. I’d like to say it’s not going to happen again, but I know better than that and it will. Life gets crazy and the blog gets put on hold… but now back to my ramblings on life.

I recently finished reading the Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson on my nook. I read all three back to back, as if they were one book. After seeing person after person reading these books, on the train, in the park, at the library, at work, pretty much everywhere, I decided that maybe it was time for me to give in and read them. I got hooked on Harry Potter and theTwilight series and had hoped that I would get hooked on this one too. The three books were overall good, but now I see why I saw so many people reading them — they are generally easy to read. Coming from someone who likes to read Bret Easton Ellis, author of American Psycho, Less Than Zero, Lunar Park and many others, I found Larsson’s style of writing easier than I expected.

Not only was the style of writing and simplistic vocabulary a bit of a drawback, but it took me a good 100 pages to get into The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. When I started reading the trilogy, I was bored, it was almost painful for me to find the motivation to continue reading. When I mentioned that to a coworker who had also begun reading the books, she told me that she had been forewarned that the beginning was dry. Since I had purchased all three books from the get-go, I decided to push on and keep reading. By page 150, I was hooked and kept reading. When I finished the book, I picked up The Girl Who Played With Fire the very next morning. I assumed that this would pick up right where the last left off, and I would be just as hooked as I was by the end of book 1. Unfortunately, Larsson’s beginning was a bit dry for my taste, but again I kept reading. Fortunately it didn’t take me 100 pages to get hooked on book 2.

By the time I finished and was ready to pick up The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest, I was worried I would be let down with the beginning again. Fortunately, this one picked up exactly where it’s predecessor left off. I was hooked and it was painful to tear my nook out of my hands in the morning when I got to work — I needed to know what happened next.

Overall, I’d give the trilogy a thumbs up, but it wasn’t necessarily my cup of tea. Larsson’s style may not have been up my alley, but his books were able to entertain me and at least at the end he left me wanting more.

The Greatest Sex Scandals in (Our) History

Posted on by LaMarGoti

My contribution to TNGG’s sex week — as originally posted here.

“I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” Heck, we can all quote other presidents – “Four score and seven years ago…,” “Speak softly and carry a big stick,” “We will go to the moon. We will go to the moon and do other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard.” These are the types of quotes that we should remember from our presidents, but instead, we have Bill Clinton’s blatant denial of sex. How patriotic? At least Bill’s sex snafu taught us a couple things. For one, never lie under oath (especially if you become POTUS, ’cause then you’ll get impeached). And two, don’t cheat.
President Clinton was just one of first celebrities who taught this generation this lesson. The following are some of the biggest sex scandals  we’ve “witnessed” thus far in our lives:
MONICA-GATE: Bill Clinton’s sex scandal actually began with a lesser-remembered one, when Paula Jonessued him for sexual harassment.Lewinsky was working as an intern in the White House when the affair began. First she signed an affidavit denying a relationship during the Jones’ court case, but then another coworker, Linda Tripp, leaked tapes of conversations with Lewinsky in which she spoke of the affair. Unfortunately for Clinton, his inability to keep it in his pants and stay faithful to a devoted wife who always stood by his side, led to his impeachment in 1998 after a highly publicized, 21-day Senate trial.
TEACHER-STUDENT: So if the President of the U.S. can’t be a good example, perhaps we should look closer to home, perhaps we should look up to our teachers? In Des Moines, WA, if your teacher was Mary Kay Letourneau, that would have been a worse idea than following Clinton’s lead. Letourneau was arrested in 1997 for sleeping with her 13-year-old student, Vili Fualaau, who was apparently her “soul mate.” Soul mate or not, she was cheating on her husband and committing statutory rape. Ms. Mary Kay also wound up pregnant with her student’s child (who was born when she was out on bail). While on parole, she was found sleeping with Fualaau again — since this violated her parole, she was sentenced to over seven years in jail. While back in jail, she gave birth to her second child with her student.  After being released from prison in 2004, she married her former student in 2005 and they claim to be living “happily ever-after.” (Although, now that she is a grandmother, she thinks that her kids shouldn’t be dating their teachers — talk about being a hypocrite.)
Father Cutiè: (No really, that is his name.) With the theory of separation of Church and State, if we can’t look to politicians or teachers as role models, let’s turn to the Church, right? Wrong. In the midst of the Catholic Church, which was dealing with residual backlash from a plethora of sex abuse scandals, Fr. Alberto Cutiè, a popular priest in Miami with famous Spanish TV and radio shows, was photographed being very close to a female friend. Keep in mind that the Roman Catholic Church believes that priests are celibate because being ordained a priest means marrying the Church and being the “bride of Christ.” So while Cutiè may not have been caught having sex, he was caught red handed with his hand down her swimsuit — both breaking his vow of celibacy and the seventh commandment – thou shalt not commit adultery.
HOLE IN 15: Sex addict Tiger Woods had not just one, but 15 affairs (at least that’s when I stopped counting…) that all came bubbling out of the wood work after he smashed his SUV into a tree outside his house in November 2009. After allegedly fighting with his wife, Woods hit a fire hydrant and the tree when leaving his mansion and was taken to the hospital. As rumors began speculating, one by one, mistress after mistress came out and publicly admitted to having affairs with Woods. Eventually Woods lost sponsors, his wife and decided to go to rehab for sex addicts. While SNL, Jay Leno and political cartoonists were having a field day, Woods learned (or maybe not) that while getting it the hole may be a good goal on the golf course, it does not apply universally to all aspects of life.

 

Opposites Attract

Posted on by LaMarGoti

In preparation for Valentine’s Day, my latest for TNGG, as originally posted here…

Girl: A business woman working her way up the corporate ladder who comes from a huge Irish-Catholic family. Loves art. Country music fiend. Passionate New York sports fan. Addicted to technology and social media. Wine connoisseur. Social butterfly who feels at home at the bar. Enjoys curling up with a good book by the fire.

Boy: Tradesman who comes from a small family. Enjoys rock music. Gets a thrill from outdoor extreme sports. Doesn’t watch or follow organized sports. Doesn’t believe in social media and dislikes that people put their whole lives on the web. Introvert who enjoys hanging out with only his few close friends. Enjoys PBR and sleeping outdoors.

Back in science class (yes, the same one that taught us Pluto was a planet), we were taught that opposite ends of magnets attract. Magnets aren’t the only opposites that attract — there is a truth to the age-old love adage that opposites attract. None of us want to date a mirror image of ourselves, that would be boring (not to mention creepy if you were dating your identical twin…). But seriously, when we are dating, we crave someone different than we are. We need someone to balance out with our craziness, someone to taking our minds off the stresses from work, someone to challenge us, someone to make us better — someone who complements us.

Granted while dating someone, you are learning about someone new, but at the same time, you are really learning about yourself. Dating someone different can open new doors — when you date someone who has different interests than you, you will inevitably try new things, and hopefully, you like these new things.

While dating someone who is your opposite can open doors to worlds we never knew much about, it can also open doors to “whatever quality or character trait you lack and wish you had”. MTV’s show Made depicts people who live a life they enjoy, but deep down, they are really in search of trying something new. Perhaps this is why “good girls” are attracted to “bad boys;” they see a thrill in living on the edge, but it’s not something they’d dare do on their own. By dating the “bad boy,” she is exposed to the world that always seemed to elude her, giving her a fresh breath of energy and a youthful feeling.

Dating your opposite can do more than just open doors to experiencing new things. It can give a fresh perspective on how to view the world and deal with problems. You may start looking at situations from a different perspective, which allows you to find better outcomes or faster ways to solve problems. Or perhaps in explaining your frustrations, you will be given new insights into how to overcome them.

Opposites pose challenges, but overcoming challenges only make us grow and become stronger. A type-A person can learn to let go and be more laid back or someone lacking drive can learn to set goals and start working on achieving them. It is from those who pose challenges to us that we will learn the most valuable life lessons, and hopefully even find love.

One thing I’ve learned from dating someone different is that as much as I’m addicted to updating my Facebook status and checking in on Foursquare to let the “twitterverse” know where I am, there’s something to be said about spending a weekend disconnected from that world, enjoying nature and the boy that I’m falling head over heels for.

T.G.I.F!? No, T.G.F.R.

Posted on by LaMarGoti

As seen on TNGG as a part of 90’s week — T.G.F.R.? Thank God For Reruns…

While the days of waking up and checking the news to see if the superintendent or chancellor declared a snow day seem as ancient as the Y2K scare, thanks to Mother Nature, I’ve found that snow days, while rare, still do exist in the real world! Granted, snow days are now filled with compulsively checking my work e-mail, digging out my car and shoveling the driveway instead of building igloos, having snow ball fights and sledding. One thing has stayed the same, though, thanks to good ol’ TBS: my snow days still start with an hour of Saved by the Bell.

Back when Zack Morris’s cell hone wasn’t considered enormous, we used to have some pretty rad TV shows to watch. My recent snow days have left me reminiscing about “simpler” days when Nickelodeon rocked and everyone’s Friday plans were the same week after week, because, of course, we were all home, tuned in to ABC’s T.G.I.F. (which for anyone who spent the 90s living under a rock, means Thank God It’s Friday). Before the days of boy geniuses and pop stars with their own shows, we had a dancing tattoo named “Petunia” and a teenage boy madly in love with his next door teacher-turned-principal.

As we embark on a journey full of car and mortgage payments, insurance, investing in 401ks and repayment of our student loans, it can be easy to wish we were back in the less stressful times when we could turn on Nickelodeon to be amused by the different faces of Face. Nickelodeon’s line-up of shows in the 90’s may have been their best line-up of all time — it was home to many of our favorites, including:

– The Adventures of Pete & Pete, wherein though brothers shared a name, they were extremely opposite people

– All That, where some of the most hilarious things we saw on TV occurred and we saw some comical actors begin their careers. It was SNL for kids and Kenan Thompson even made it to the big leagues after getting his start on All That.

– Are You Afraid of the Dark? We all got spooked sometimes, even though no one wanted to admit it.

– Clarissa Explains it All. Melissa Joan Hart’s beginnings. We all saw parts of us in Clarissa Darling and we loved the annotations that she offered directly to her audience as well as her awesome bedroom.

– Doug. The kid made being not cool cool and everyone’s heart tugged at his obsessive love over Patti Mayonnaise.

– Guts. An ever-evolving game show which kept getting bigger with each season, it was completely based on skill and mastering the Aggro Crag was the dream of kids everywhere.

– Hey Dude. For all of us who didn’t live in a desert or near a farm, we all had a glimpse of what life out on the range would look like.

– Kenan and Kel. The reason orange soda holds a special place in all our hearts and the show that birthed the phrase “Welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger, can I take your order?”

– Legends of the Hidden Temple. The Red Jaguars, Blue Barracudas, Green Monkeys, Orange Iguanas, Purple Parrots and Silver Snakes battled to advance each round to get to the final round in hopes of making it to the temple and feeling a little bit like Indiana Jones.

– Rugrats. Where babies talked and screwdrivers were stored in diapers, yet were never found when it was time for a diaper change.

– Salute Your Shorts. So many of us wished we had spent a summer at Camp Anawanna tormenting Kevin “Ug” Lee.

– The Secret World of Alex Mack. Alex could do the one thing we all wanted to be able to do: turn into a silver puddle so we could sneak out of our rooms without being seen when we were grounded.

Fortunately, we had more than one outlet for awesome TV. In addition to Nickelodeon, ABC nailed it home with T.G.I.F. The twins, Mary Kate & Ashley, doubled up to play Michelle on one of T.G.I.F.’s original hits, Full House, (which sadly was pulled off the air without a proper good bye). In case one non-conventional family wasn’t enough, we had another that lived in Wisconsin; Step-by-Step was our very own version of the Brady Bunch. Sticking with the family theme, who could forget the Winslows’ and their obnoxious neighbor who wore his pants above his waist with suspenders (don’t lie, you loved Urkel and thought Stefan was smoking HOT) from Family Matters? And then we had my personal favorite, Boy Meets World, where Cory and Topanga were hopelessly in love, Mr. Feeny was the teacher we always wanted, Eric was hopeless, and I was madly in love with bad boy Shawn.

As shows of this caliber are not likely to be repeated again, there is not much left to say other than, “class dismissed.”