Thank you for honoring your oath to protect and serve, and continuing to put on the uniform that sadly has made you a target. Thank you for walking the thin line between life and death to keep our streets, towns, and cities safe. Thank you for doing right by even those who have done you wrong. Thank you for risking your lives to protect ours, and for suffering inconveniences to defend civil liberties. More importantly, thank you for risking your lives for those who misjudge you and villainize you. ThankRead More

First, step back and realize how totally insane the events in Paris have become. Take a deep breath and exit Tweetdeck. Close your Facebook tab on Chrome. Now wander over to the window and look outside. Notice how unless you’re in Paris, nothing has changed. Anything still sitting with you? The frustration and anger you feel toward someone thousands of miles away murdering a couple of satirical cartoonists is justified. Don’t feel anything? No worries, I’m not going to hound you about it. The reactions to the Charlie Hebdo shooting,Read More

Joachim Garraud has been making electronic music for decades. The DJ and producer first began his foray into dance music in the late 1980s and has been going full steam ahead since then. Known both for his unique sound as well as  for his one of a kind video shows, Garraud has seen the ebb and flow of the dance music scene and taken it in stride. As a producer, Garraud has been behind some of the biggest dance anthems of the 2000s (“Love is Gone” and “Love Don’t Let MeRead More

Every holiday season brings something new, and this year brought for me some observations. This being my first holiday season an appetizer contributing adult, I noticed things I had never considered in my many years as nothing more than a young gift receiver.   1. Each day closer to Christmas and New Years everyone’s driving gets worse. Everyone is desperate to finish shopping and beginning to lose their minds from all of the contact with distant relatives.   2. After December 20th, don’t even try surviving the mall. If DecemberRead More

The NFL is down to its final eight contenders, and over this weekend, that number will be whittled down to the final four. Here’s what to expect this Divisional Playoff weekend. All picks are against the spread, with lines reflecting January 9th. I’ve thrown in predictions at the end for good measure. HOME TEAM is in caps. Happy playoffs!   Baltimore Ravens (+7) OVER NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS Make no mistake, I think New England is the superior team here. However, I do think the Ravens are very capable of covering seven points. ForRead More

I am obsessed with order, symmetry, perfection. I hate gray areas, in-betweens, grounds of ambiguity. Last year, I strove for an all-or-nothing “balance” that I thought would regulate and organize my life. However, what I’ve realized is that balance is not about “extremes” leveling each other out. It is not always about saying a hard yes or a hard no. It isn’t about making a definite decision. Rather, a true balance is about finding the middle ground that I have hated so much. Last year, in an effort to maintain aRead More

When I started college last year, I averaged about five hours of sleep a night. As the year tolled on, my alarm clock chirped an hour earlier. Four hours of sleep definitely wasn’t something I enjoyed, but it was a routine necessity just like everything else on my to-do list. I enlisted it as another adjustment to becoming an “maturing.” Adulthood meant being career-driven and hungry for success—so naturally, sleep deprived, right? Unfortunately, even only a few months, in the human body realizes that it simply cannot operate with soRead More

I am the biggest sucker for sunsets, and Los Angeles particularly seemed to know that. My first time there was enough to have me stumbling over, in love. The term “takes my breath away” has always been a cheesy one. Walking into the sunset is clichéd. But that was exactly what LA was – sheer beauty – and no other way to describe it. LA punched me, slapped me – enamoured, enthralled me. I gazed with glassy eyes over sunsets brighter, bloodier than any I had ever seen. I stumbledRead More

I’ve made it back home after a three week solo roadtrip on the west coast – and I am in one piece. My limbs are all still attached, my physical state is intact except for a bike scrape on my ankle. I’ve returned with all my possessions present, minus one lost hair elastic and one tube of lipstick. I would consider my sanity partially stable, and my mental health only mildly shaken. My bank account will need a whole year to recuperate, but I feel exponentially richer than before IRead More

-Melanie Adams- Twitter: @MelAdamsFitness Instagram: melanie_adams88 Known for: Being an Australian Olympian in the pole vault, being a gorgeous fitness model. -There might not be any Olympic Games this year, but that doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate beautiful Olympian women. Melanie Adams is an Australian pole vaulter with a body that’s pretty close to perfect. Take a look at the photos below, and you’ll find yourself agreeing.               http://instagram.com/melanie_adams88/                Read More

We can’t stop, and we won’t stop—Well, you should stop. New Year resolutions are great—if you’re the type of person who is so self-disciplined that you can actually follow through with your promises for longer than one week—aka, you’re probably not human. So, as imperfect humans, we are typically more prone to listen when we are told no, don’t, STOP. The negative is always more powerful, and I’m going to put that to the test.   15 Stop-It’s for 2014 Stop spending more on material goods than on experiences. It’s greatRead More

In the spirit of full disclosure, I went to day 1 of Decadence last year and I was sure I wouldn’t go again. The DJs that played were major names, but the Colorado Convention Center is not an ideal music venue. I found that the sound was often too low (poor Nervo couldn’t get the crowd into their set to save their lives) and the overall feel of the space was more business than music. But after attending this year’s event, all those feelings have changed. Decadence 2014 promised toRead More