Category Archives: News

by | October 21, 2011 · 3:14 pm

The Killing Fields and My Brush with Death in Texas

This morning on the news I heard about a movie called, “The Killing Fields.” It is based on a string of unsolved murders around Interstate 45 southeast of Houston Texas. The killer and possible killers target young women and girls however, after a bit of research there is suspected 12 different serial killers in the entire Houston vicinity, not just I-45. In fact, there have been 200 unsolved murders of girls in the area since 1971. I don’t usually write about this kind of thing, but when I was in college I went on a road trip with my boyfriend. It started out fun and then things got really scary one night when we stopped in a campground a few hours west of Houston off of I-10. Below is an excerpt from the journal I kept during the trip:

Texas, Hayley Rose 2008

 

The Devil’s Triangle

Road Trip Day 13, 14, 15

June 15, 2008

I don’t understand why I have this strange hobby of walking around cities drunk. Maybe I’m immature, maybe I have a drinking problem, or maybe it’s a little bit of both.

New Orleans was really the most welcoming place for this type of behavior, but I tend to do it anywhere. Towards midnight, the stench of vomit wafted through the air infrequently as we walked block to block. It was pretty disgusting, but on Rue Bourbon we quickly realized that it’s legal to walk around and drink alcoholic beverages, so I guess it must also be legal to vomit on the sidewalk.

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by | October 14, 2011 · 2:06 pm

Rescue Animal of the Week on The Veggie Stand

At The Veggie Stand, we’re creating a new weekly feature “Rescue Animal of the Week.” If you (or any of your friends) would like your pet to be our next Rescue Animal of the Week, please provide us with the following information by emailing it to me at HRH@TheVeggieStand.com

A picture of your pet

Your pet’s name

Your name, city and state

Where did your pet come from?

How did you come to adopt/ rescue your animal?

And anything else you would like us to include about your animal.

Come back on Monday to meet our first Rescue Animal of the Week, Kya, a Yorkshire terrier from Vancouver, Washington!

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by | October 11, 2011 · 1:12 pm

“Renaissance in the City: My First Trip to the City Solo” on The Huffington Post

Hi Everyone,
Please check out my new article on HuffPost “Renaissance in the City: My First Trip to the City Solo” if you haven’t already read it.
Have a great day!

Hayley

A week ago, I took the train into Grand Central Terminal. I’ve done it many times before but this was the first time I did it alone and I was a bit nervous — well, terrified really. Not much was different from all the other times I’d arrived at the station. I walked up the stairs past the dingy basement that withheld the tracks and ascended into the terminal. It stood like a shrine that brought together the history and life of Manhattan’s past and present creating a timeless existence encased entirely in large bricks of white marble. I stood in awe for a moment as I always did upon arrival, but this time I stood there mainly because I was unsure of where to go next. All I knew was that somehow I had to find the subway. Somehow. As I pondered, I looked up at the ceiling eternally painted midnight blue and adorned with stars and constellations. They looked down at me as if they were the answer to all my navigational questions; the star map that would lead me to the subway and all subsequent stops on my journey.

Read the rest of the article after the jump.

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by | October 2, 2011 · 8:32 pm

Rape: Just Another Four-Letter Word?

The other day, I was texting a friend while driving. Well, I wasn’t actually texting in the conventional sense (that is illegal); I was speaking into my phone’s voice recorder, which takes what I say and transcribes it into text. So there I was in the middle of a heavy text conversation — as heavy as a text conversation can get — talking about how I was raped. I looked down at my phone and noticed that one of the words read “r****” in place of “raped.” “R****?” Really?

Not often is anyone daring enough to censor me, least of all my cell phone. In the past, I’ve noticed that the voice recorder has blocked certain words and changed them from their original form into a more symbolic “f***,” “b****,” and “s***.” That I can understand- well, no, not really, but I do know that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) blocks many of those words on open channels, so in the conventional sense, I am familiar with those “swear” words being censored, but “rape?”

The rest of the article can be found here at The Huffington Post

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by | September 23, 2011 · 9:10 am

I Was R****

The other day, I was texting a friend while driving. Since that is illegal- I wasn’t actually texting in the conventional sense- but I was speaking into my phone’s voice recorder -which takes what I say and transcribes it into a text. So there I was in the middle of a heavy text conversation- as heavy as a text conversation can get- talking about how I was r****. I looked down at my phone. R****? Not often is anyone daring enough to censor me, least of all my cell phone. In the past, I’ve noticed the voice recorder had blocked a few words from being transcribed and changed certain words from their original form to words like f***, b****, and s***. That I can understand- well no not really, but I do know that the FCC also blocks out many of those words on open channels, so in the conventional sense it is common in the US for those typical “swears” to be censored, but rape?

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by | August 30, 2011 · 7:42 pm

New Post on the Veggie Stand, “Confessions of A Vegetarian: Before and After, My Two Selves”

As a biased free spirit, I am rooting for the Frida on the right. This painting strongly reminded me of an event in my life that occurred the other day when I picked up a pizza.  I scanned the menu while I chatted with the hostess. On the menu the buffalo chicken pizza caught my eye. It had roasted peppers, onions, hot sauce and homemade Gorgonzola dressing- oh and chicken. It was certainly the most delicious buffalo chicken pizza I’d ever heard of. “Your buffalo chicken pizza sounds really good. I don’t eat meat, but I used to lovebuffalo chicken pizza- before I became a vegetarian,” I blurted to the hostess. Our conversation ensued and she suggested I get it sans chicken because it would likely be just as delicious as with the chicken, I concurred and went on to tell her that when I used to eat meat, like buffalo chicken. I thought about buffalo chicken for a moment. Maybe she was right. I loved the hot sauce, the fried crispy breading, and the dressing, but never truly liked the chicken part. She nodded her head in agreement knowingly as we continued to discuss this issue.

I walked out with my vegetarian pizza, crushed tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and basil, I thought about our conversation.  As I spoke of my former self, the one who loved buffalo chicken pizza, It felt like I was talking about someone else. Indeed we were no longer the same person, but how could that be?

Read More At The Veggie Stand

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by | August 18, 2011 · 11:58 am

How to Stay Forever Young Now on Huff Post

If you haven’t checked out my article, “How to Stay Forever Young,” make sure you stop by The Huffington Post!

In our culture youth is coveted like never before — 50 is the new 30, they say. I often get mistaken for being a lot younger than I actually am. People sometimes even think I’m only 18, which is a great compliment, but they’re wrong! I want to talk about how I’ve accomplished this “agelessness.”

Like a lot of people, I’ve had a lot of really shitty stuff happen to me throughout my life, and there was a point where I promised myself that I would try to make the best of my life and stay young forever.

It wasn’t just about looks, though a good moisturizer does help. It was about attitude. Regardless of what happened to me, there are a few things I’ve consistently done to keep myself forever young.

  1. Never Bring Anyone Down. People are shocked when they find out about my past because they cannot fathom how I am such a positive person after what happened to me. There are many reasons why I am so positive. When I went through the difficult times I was in so much pain that I never wanted to make anyone else feel as bad as I did, so no matter what I was always positive and supportive of those around me. I don’t believe in bringing people down just because you’re in a bad mood.
  2. Give Yourself the Freedom to Do Whatever You Want. When things really weren’t going my way, I had to do whatever it took to make myself somewhat happy. So I did whatever I wanted: shopping, trips, working out, eating chocolate, whatever I wanted that was within my means at the time. And I remember there was a time where I only had300 in cash to my name and no job prospects. I was around 20 at the time and had just broken up with this guy. One night, for the heck of it, I took off and drove to Woods Hole, Massachusetts and took the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard, where I stayed for the day. When I got home I only had about200 left, but I didn’t care, there was always more money to be made.

Read the rest here.

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by | August 2, 2011 · 6:02 pm

Does Gender Bias and Victim Blaming Put Both Sexes at Risk for Sexual Assault? Now on HuffPost Crime

A friend recently brought an article to my attention about a seasoned sexual assault detective who, after years on the job, was sexually assaulted. Aside from the irony of the victim’s profession, I read the article to see why else this story had attracted so much attention. It was not surprising to read that the officer-turned-victim experienced the same shame and anxiety that is common for most victims of sexual assault. Additionally, like 95% of sexual assault victims, the officer did not want to report the crime to the proper authorities. There was only one outlier in this story: the rape victim was an adult male.

When most people hear the term “rape victim,” the image of an adult male is not what typically comes to mind. In cases of rape, men are usually associated with assailants rather than victims. Perhaps this is because 90% of rape victims are female, and the majority of rapists are male. These statistics do not make men immune from rape, in fact, 1 in every 33 men are sexually assaulted in their lifetime. In the US a sexual assault occurs every 2 minutes.

Why is it that most people think of women when they hear the term “rape victim?” Is it because of statistics, or has the media and culture accepted this as the status quo? Globally there are still many cultures that shun female rape victims. Victim blaming occurs, even in modern American society. Think back to two of the most common excuses made by victim blamers and rapist sympathizers: “She was dressed provocatively,” and “She had a bad reputation.” Both excuses not only sexualize rape crimes, but place the blame of rape on the female victim’s sexuality.

Check out the rest of the article on The Huffington Post

 

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by | · 9:40 am

Why Did Kat Von D and Jesse James Break Up? A Look At the Psychology of the Bad Boy and How Women Get Sucked In

I came across this headline the other day “Why Did Kat Von D Tattoo Jesse James’ Face on Her Body?” Wow, good question! You would think that someone who makes their living as a tattoo artist would know that tattooing someone’s name or face on your body is considered bad luck. Tattooing someone’s PII on your person is never a good idea. As a child, I couldn’t help but wonder why my uncle had “Nancy” tattooed across his arm when he was married to my Aunt Helen…

After I was done rolling my eyes at the headline, I was compelled to read the article, why would a talented and well-known tattoo artist like Kat Von D walk right into this well-known curse?

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by | August 1, 2011 · 7:13 am

Announcement

So I’m in the process of moving—my site that is. I am moving Hayley’s Comments and The Veggie Stand to a new host- they would’ve been there this morning and already settled in nicely had Hayley read the directions…. I am still hoping to launch The Veggie Stand sometime this afternoon.  Stay tuned…and send good vibes that the WordPress technicians have enough patience for the mess I made….Thanks!… and btw I was just  kidding…there were no directions!

Hayley

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