Every now and again, I get nostalgic about my less-than-normal childhood. While other mothers would gently brush and braid their daughters' hair, I remember my mother taking a pumice stone and scraping my skin raw in an attempt to rid me of the dark coloring I inherited from my father.

Thanks to her full-blooded Spanish grandfather, my mother has a very European look with fair skin, slender lips and a petite nose. My father, on the other hand, carries the more typical Filipino look with darker skin, full lips and a nose that looks like the result of being laid on his face as an infant. [Read article]

Feuds are the stuff of legends. Take, for example, the warring houses of Montague and Capulet, or the Appalachian tribal wars between the Hatfields and the McCoys.

It's the unbridled fire and passion emerging from such quarrels that fuel our imagination - the raw, primal animosity that attracts us to such tales. In these blind hostilities, we are far removed from the rational, thinking world and delve headlong into the heady, reckless world of pure human emotion. [Read article]

Though it's a horrible clichŽ, there is some truth in the old adage that the small, brief instances of serendipity are what make life worth living. For some people, the sun setting over the horizon is enough to take their breath away. For others, elation is found in climbing the highest peak in all the land, surveying the land beneath and the air above. While these examples are all well and good, they simply cannot compare to the utter spectacle and thrill of watching a drag queen work it in all her cross-dressing splendor. [Read article]

I probably will lose my reputation as a serious movie buff by saying this, but I have to confess: I love chick flicks. Don't get me wrong, some of my favorite films feature mind-blowing plot twists, intense character development and Anthony Hopkins.

Yet the chick flick will always have a hold over me. It's the cinematic equivalent of comfort food, unabashedly trite, but satisfying nonetheless. One of my favorites is "Steel Magnolias." [Read article]

Ah, the joys of a Tucson spring. Hailing from Seattle, I am astounded by the climatic wonder that is Tucson, where temperatures reach 90-plus degrees ÷ in the month of March, no less. Meanwhile, conditions in my hometown will remain damp and dreary. It's a place where brief glimpses of the forgotten sun instill fear in the hearts of the natives, the giant yellow orb in the sky is an unfamiliar, alien presence leaving one to regain composure in the nearest double tall latte, bottle of Prozac or Nirvana record that any self-respecting Seattlelites should have in their possession. [Read article]

Ah, the joys of a Tucson spring. Hailing from Seattle, I am astounded by the climatic wonder that is Tucson, where temperatures reach 90-plus degrees ÷ in the month of March, no less. Meanwhile, conditions in my hometown will remain damp and dreary. It's a place where brief glimpses of the forgotten sun instill fear in the hearts of the natives, the giant yellow orb in the sky is an unfamiliar, alien presence leaving one to regain composure in the nearest double tall latte, bottle of Prozac or Nirvana record that any self-respecting Seattlelites should have in their possession. [Read article]

If you are the average college student, you know that the chief function of a Saturday morning is to sleep in and make up for the precious hours of REM time lost due to projects, papers and procrastination.

Yet a group of about 80 UA undergraduates gave up the comfort of their comforters Saturday to attend the second annual Women's Leadership Conference, presented by the Susan Bulkeley Butler Institute. This daylong event, which took place at the Student Union Memorial Center, featured lectures from prominent women in business and science, and workshops designed to endow participants with stronger leadership skills and strategies to deal with the stresses and hazards of the working world. [Read article]

Though the stoned-out-of-my-mind mug shot that runs alongside my column suggests otherwise, I do get asked out on the occasional date, which only goes to show you that personality can make up for a lot of things.

Though I like the idea of someone liking me back, I have to agree with many others out there who hate the whole dating process.

My discontent can be attributed to movies, especially those featuring the ever-debonair Cary Grant, where conversation is turned into a verbal tennis match. [Read article]

What with Ash Wednesday coming up and all, I'm nostalgic for my days in Catholic school.

Being in Catholic school shaped me - whether for the good or bad remains to be seen - as I can attribute most of my strengths and neuroses to that time in my life. Though no doubt the Catholic school's environment was better than that in the public schools in my area, there were some obvious drawbacks, most notably the use of a ruler in things other than just measuring. Sometimes I still have flashbacks of a frail nun with a name like Sister Mary Francis and a top speed of 2.3 mph who could wield 12 inches of cheap cardboard like the spirit of Zorro himself. Even today, walking into an Office Depot is enough to send me into panic attacks. [Read article]

Howard Dean's push for the Democratic presidential nomination looked like a Cinderella story ÷ told in reverse. Groomed and shaped from the get-go to be the leading Democratic candidate, Howard Dean practically had the nomination in his hand.

However, last month's Iowa caucus served as the sobering stroke of midnight and has all but dashed dreams of manufacturing little Dean for President buttons and the matching bumper stickers that go along with them. This new paradigm in the Democratic races placed John Kerry as the new front-runner, leaving Howard Dean to choke on his dust. [Read article]

Before I left for college, I noticed a change in my mother. She'd usually been a very agreeable woman, but that all changed one day. Without warning, she launched into the most irrational tirades. Alternating between her native tongue of Tagalog and English, she combined the two to make up dirty and clever bits of profanity that I have yet to hear topped.

My father, brothers and I were dumbfounded by this new behavior. Naturally, to make sense of it all, we blamed each other. The finger-pointing led us nowhere. In lieu of a rational explanation, we made every effort to see to her happiness, like making sure to turn all of her ceramic elephant figurines east, lest she decide to let my father know what she really though of his mother. [Read article]

Fresh from a high school containing a little more than 600 students, I was a bit unprepared for the UA, to say the least. I was fully expecting that college would provide the same sort of environment as my high school. However, it was my first encounter with WebReg that made me realize that college is a different kind of beast.

Being ignorant and naive, I thought that you could get all the classes that you would need for the semester. Like a good little freshman, I logged in at the appointed time expecting to have a neat little schedule with days that would, at their earliest, begin at 10 a.m. and end at 3 in the afternoon. I was set to experience the stereotypical college life that I'd seen in the movies where students wouldn't get up until lunchtime, have class for an hour or two a day, subsist on a diet composed entirely of vending machine fare and then graduate with a nice little bachelor's degree. [Read article]

I've got a birthday coming up, number 20 to be exact. Though I probably should be happy to celebrate the fact that I've survived yet another year in this world, I'm not approaching the day with the same unbridled school-girl giddiness of years' past. Key word to describe my state of mind: indifference.

This indifference stems from the fact that age 20 doesn't bring much to the table in terms of rights or privileges. Age 20 pales in comparison to the last milestone birthday of 18, when you could vote like a fiend and legally buy all the porn and tobacco products that you wanted. Additionally, as another slap in the face, 20 still leaves you at stranded while older friends don their barroom best in the hopes of meeting some hottie on the dance floor and humping one another's legs like Jack Russell terriers. [Read article]

If you look at life from a purely biological and physiological stance, then all that humans need to survive is shelter, clothing, food and water. Everything else, on this view, is just irrelevant and a waste of time. Yet we are not entirely practical and utilitarian creatures. Having our basic needs met is not enough for the human experience. We need not only to survive; we also are driven by the need to communicate and share thoughts. [Read article]

Last week, the Theta Nu Xi sorority hosted its second annual "Create a Hate-Free Zone" forum. Guided by the spirit of multiculturalism, the forum provided students with the opportunity to confront, among other issues, stereotypes regarding race and ethnicity.

Multiculturalism, as an ideology, maintains that we should accept different cultures under the premise that all are equal and beautiful. Though this seems like an entirely altruistic idea, multiculturalism holds back the improvement of race relations in a number of ways. [Read article]

A few weeks ago, on one of those nights that you find yourself wandering around Tucson in search of anything remotely entertaining to do, I happened to wander into an Arizona Commons party.

Whoever was hosting the festivities seemed to follow the unwritten rules that govern any normal college party - shoving as many people as possible into a confined space, mixing in spirituous beverages and adding some sexual tension - all set to the background music of burnt gangster rap mixes made by some kid straight out of the suburbs. [Read article]