How Women View the Casual Hookup (And the Rules We Want Men to Follow)

Believe it or not, women are very capable of and enjoy casual relationships, as long as there are no gray areas.

This may come as a shock to a lot of guys, but girls think about sex. A lot. Heck, we crave it – and when we go lengthy times without it, it drives us nuts. So, if we don’t have anyone special in our lives at the moment, we may be just as psyched as guys to travel down the road of casually hooking up with someone. By casual, I mean no commitment, no lovey dovey dates or phone calls, just straightforward, consistent sex with someone.
I know, shocking.
But how women approach casual hookups may be a little different than how guys approach them. Most women see it as a strictly physical thing – a fun means to an end that doesn’t require batteries and actually talks back (ok, that's a bit harsh). Nine times out of ten, we genuinely want to keep it this way, and avoid the confusing, gray areas that come with real relationships. Men may find it hard to believe, but women with the right intentions really do enter casual hookups to just keep things light, fun, and sexy. We like to use Samantha Jones as inspiration.

In order to keep the casual hookup separate from a real relationship, we expect guys to follow a certain set of unspoken, yet extremely important rules. These are all common sense guidelines that keep the sex carefree and string-free. If he breaks these rules, he confuses the sh** out of us, and then the “casual” part flies out the window and suddenly, we don’t know what we’ve gotten ourselves into.
Since no guy (or girl) entering a casual hookup wants that, here are the rules we expect the guy to follow:
1. Don’t call or text unless it’s to hookup.
We don’t want to hear how your day was or worry about your big work deal that just fell through, because we have enough to worry about in our own lives. The reason a casual hookup is so liberating for most women is because we don’t feel the need—at all—to take care of the guy and his problems. He’s not a boyfriend, he’s just the guy we roll around in the sheets with from time to time. The only moment we should be thinking about him is when it’s 1 a.m. on a Friday, we’re wearing our hot lingerie underneath our dress and have had one too many martinis.
2. Be up front and honest.
Casual hookups involve no commitment, which means both parties are allowed to see other people. However, they should be very up front and honest about it, especially if they’re also sleeping with these people. This is a health issue, and a serious one at that! Women expect that if our casual hookup is sleeping around, he will tell us up front so that we can make up our own minds whether or not that’s cool with us. We’re not going to get all jealous, psycho-girlfriendy on him, so there’s no reason for him to lie or omit this really important information.

Strawberry-Chocolate Cake

Here's an easy-to-make layer cake that will appear as though it required hours of time. Using a boxed cake mix, ready-made frosting, and premade whipped topping takes all of the work out of the preparation. Reminiscent of a chocolate-covered strawberry, this appealing cake recipe is a good choice when you want an eye-catching dessert with minimal effort.

ingredients

• 1 package 2-layer-size strawberry cake mix
• 1 cup canned chocolate frosting
• 1 8-ounce container frozen whipped dessert topping, thawed
• 1 tablespoon milk
• Strawberries

directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8-inch or two 9-inch round baking pans; set aside. Prepare cake mix according to package directions. Divide batter between pans. Bake according to package directions. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove cake layers from pans. Cool completely.
2. Spread 2/3 cup of the frosting on one of the layers. Top with remaining cake layer. Frost top and side of cake layers with dessert topping. If desired, in a small bowl stir together remaining 1/3 cup frosting and milk. Drizzle over frosted cake. Decorate top of cake with whole or sliced berries. Makes 12 servings

We-All-Scream-For-Ice-Cream Cake

This cake design is a fun project to do with the kids. The ice cream cake is not actually made with any ice cream; it will just look like an ice cream cone when it is put together. Using a box cake mix and canned frosting, this is an easy cake recipe to make and the kids will have a great time using their imaginations to decorate the individual cupcakes. Learn how to make a real ice cream cake

ingredients

• 1 package 2-layer-size desired flavor cake mix
• 2 16-ounce cans creamy white frosting*
• 1 16-ounce can chocolate frosting*
• Buttercup-yellow paste food coloring
• Red food coloring
• Strawberry preserves and/or chocolate ice cream topping
• Chopped nuts, colored sprinkles, miniature chocolate pieces, and/or maraschino cherries

Dudes With Long Hair: Yay or Nay?

Tom Brady reveals he’s not going to cut his hair any time soon. Drat. But are there other guys who can pull off the look?

We at Lock & Mane love a well-groomed man. You know we all breathed a major sigh of relief when the recent celebrity facial hair craze died down, but there’s something more troublesome on the horizon. Pretty boys with long hair. The Biebs was an early adopter of this trend but since he’s a mere child we can’t heap all the blame at his little man feet.
We can blame Super Bowl winning quarterback Tom Brady.
We actually had a chance to chat with Fabio wannabe Brady last week at the Robin Hood Foundation Gala in New York . The NFL hottie told us he won’t be cutting his locks any time soon. His wife Gisele shook her head and laughed. We cried inside upon hearing this tragic hair news and it led us to a lengthy discussion on men and long hair. Is it ever okay? We reached out to some regular gals for their take on the trend.

The Mercedes-Benz of Helicopters

A European rotary-winged aircraft company has teamed up with Mercedes-Benz to outfit its twin-engine utility helicopter for business-luxury transport.

You can almost hear the call echoing through the Austrian Alps: “The top speed of mein SL65 AMG is too low! Get to ze choppah!” Assuming the angst-ridden Salzburg billionaire hadn’t removed the 155-mph limiter from his V-12-powered Mercedes-Benz, he would be right — but just barely. The Eurocopter EC145 won't exceed 167 mph, but the point-to-point convenience a helicopter affords means never missing a last-minute lunch in Vienna. Until now, however, one couldn’t purchase an EC145 with an interior spec'd out by the lux-meisters in Stuttgart.

Lady Gaga's Trainer Shares a 5-Step Plan for Your Best Body

Trainer Harley Pasternak started out as a Canadian hockey player and later became an exercise scientist for the Department of National Defense. While he was getting his PhD in exercise physiology, he cornered the market on training celebrities who were shooting in Toronto. Halle Berry asked him to come to California to get her in shape for "Catwoman," and his sabbatical turned into a fitness empire. Pasternaks client list includes Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Jennifer Hudson, and Amanda Seyfried, as well as "Twilight's" Ashley Greene and Robert Pattinson. His specialty is effective, efficient regimens that can be done by busy people with little time or space, i.e. movie stars on location as well as busy new moms. I spoke to Harley about his top five tips for getting your best possible body. 

1. Eat five meals a day. "You're never hungry. You're eating because it's time to eat, not because you have to eat. So you have more control over what you eat and how much you eat. From a metabolism perspective it's like a windmill. Small gusts of wind throughout the day keep the windmill constantly spinning. It's a more effective machine."

10 Androids That Outmuscle the iPhone

Samsung Droid Charge

Apple's iPhone had a good run atop the smartphone league, but 10 Google Androids aim to bury the tuckered-out leader this year.  Motorola Mobility, Samsung, HTC and LG have promised to deliver supercharged, ultra-thin, 4G Android devices in the coming weeks and months.
But not always. Before the mobile phone industry got all busy with design makeovers and tummy tucks, there were -- and still are -- some delightfully hideous phones that represented the other side of the beauty trend. The Street has gone back through the past decade to dig up some of the best examples of designs that make you wince and stare in disbelief. The clueless stylings, the flights of fancy into odd shapes, the obsession with square versus rounded -- it is a wonderfully colorful history.
The giant Android attack features bigger screens, better cameras, faster processors and speedier 4G connections than the upcoming iPhone.
The Android's phone screens, for example, start at 4 inches and go to 4.5 inches, advancing the size standard for this generation of touchscreens. By comparison, Apple's next iPhone is expected to have a 3.5-inch screen.

Aussie student finds universe's 'missing mass'

 

SYDNEY (AFP) – A 22-year-old Australian university student has solved a problem which has puzzled astrophysicists for decades, discovering part of the so-called "missing mass" of the universe during her summer break.
Undergraduate Amelia Fraser-McKelvie made the breakthrough during a holiday internship with a team at Monash University's School of Physics, locating the mystery material within vast structures called "filaments of galaxies".
Monash astrophysicist Dr Kevin Pimbblet explained that scientists had
previously detected matter that was present in the early history of the                                                             universe but that could not now be located.

Mother’s Day No-No’s ( Administrator's Message)

Mother's Day 2011 Google Doodle: A Flower for Moms

Happy Mother's Day to Moms everywhere! Just as Google has done for the past 10 years, a Google Doodle has been posted in numerous countries today around the world that are celebrating mothers, including Australia, New Zealand, India, and many more.

Rose McGowan Gets a Freaky New Look in 'Conan the Barbarian'

Rose McGowan in 'Conan' Lionsgate Films Rose McGowan has had some wild looks in the past. The most notorious of which was the barely-there chain mail dress she wore to the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards when she attended with Marilyn Manson. But even that outfit can't compare to just how crazy her appearance is in this summer's new movie "Conan the Barbarian."
McGowan plays Marique, a part-human/part-witch villainess with a high forehead, twisted hair, and no eyebrows. McGowan told WWD.com that her striking transformation "required six hours of makeup each day starting at 2:30 in the morning."
Her all-leather costumes were also challenge. McGowan said, "The costumes were feats of engineering, and it took two people to get me in and out of almost every one of them." Once she was in the outfits, it didn't get any easier. "All of them except for one I could not sit in, so at lunch I would just kind of stand in my trailer because I didn't want to hurt them."
McGowan's character is the daughter of Khalar Zym -- play by "Avatar" baddie Stephen Lang -- the brutal warlord who murdered Conan's father. Taking over the role of Conan is 6'4" Hawaiian native Jason Momoa, who can also currently be seen in HBO's fantasy series "Game of Thrones."

LinkedIn: 4 Biggest Mistakes You're Probably Making

Are you LinkedIn? I admit, I put in a lot more facetime with Facebook. And my experts tell me I'm missing out on opportunities. "Recruiters are using LinkedIn heavily now. You need to be professional — and findable!" says career coach Kimberly Schneiderman, founder of Career City Services.

Indeed, LinkedIn has more than 100 million members, including executives from every Fortune 500 company. LinkedIn's research team recently mined that information to determine the most common names for CEOs. Verdict? Peter, for a man, and Deborah, for a women.

But no matter what your name, LinkedIn can take your networking to the next level with just a little effort. Here are the most common ways people aren't making the most of their presence on the site — and how experts say you can fix that.

Ownership of TV Sets Falls in U.S.

The Nielsen Company, which takes TV set ownership into account when it produces ratings, will tell television networks and advertisers on Tuesday that 96.7 percent of American households now own sets, down from 98.9 percent previously.

There are two reasons for the decline, according to Nielsen. One is poverty: some low-income households no longer own TV sets, most likely because they cannot afford new digital sets and antennas.

The other is technological wizardry: young people who have grown up with laptops in their hands instead of remote controls are opting not to buy TV sets when they graduate from college or enter the work force, at least not at first. Instead, they are subsisting on a diet of television shows and movies from the Internet.

That second reason is prompting Nielsen to think about a redefinition of the term "television household" to include Internet video viewers.