Tag: Social Skills

It’s more than halfway through the year, which means I’m overdue for an update on my dating situation. If you’re just tuning in now, I took three years off dating with the intention of looking for a serious relationship, starting January 1st 2015. Thanks to an introduction from a reader, I met a fantastic girl…

I can’t imagine that working at a car rental place is much fun. Especially if you’re working in Las Vegas and the line is full of angry customers who have waited an hour only to be barraged with company-managed upsells. I wasn’t angry, but I was definitely in line for about an hour waiting to…

As you must know if you read my blog regularly, I really enjoy making extreme resolutions and then sticking to them. One was deciding in 2012 that I wouldn’t date until 2015. I had a weird mental shift in 2012. I’ve always wanted to settle down and start a family, but until 2012 I would…

If you’ve ever led a group of more than a couple people, you know that timeliness is a big factor. If there’s any leeway for people to show up late, someone is going to do it every time, which means that nothing starts on time. Then when people see that things don’t start on time,…

There’s a concept called Radical Honesty that was made popular by a book with the same name. The idea was that you were to be not only completely honest, but also completely forthcoming. If you met someone and they reminded you of Jabba the Hut, you’d be obliged to tell them so immediately. It may…

On the cruise a friend was asking me about my days in pickup. What was the worst rejection I experienced, he asked? That’s a path paved with so much rejection that it’s sort of like asking which leaf on a tree is the greenest, but one stuck out in my mind. I was at a…

Sometimes as a plane takes off, or a line for a bus inches forward, I occupy myself by making a mental list of things I’m grateful for. The list is never-ending, but the item on the list that I’m always most grateful for are the people in my life, my friends and family. I don’t…

Las Vegas is a city that has its own set of rules and norms. When you check into a hotel in any other city, you get the room that you paid for. But Vegas is built on comps and kickbacks, and the room you end up in doesn’t necessarily have much to do with the…

I was talking with a really accomplished photographer the other day. The guy is an immense talent, has been hired by all sorts of celebrities and productions, and has a very impressive body of work. And he was thinking about quitting photography. He was also incredibly humble and open to advice, which I have to…

Before going to Romania, I decided I’d try to learn a bit of Romanian. By almost any measure it’s sort of a pointless language to learn, but I figured I’d get a kick out of pretending to my I didn’t speak any for a couple days, and then all of a sudden surprising my friends…