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Metalsmith

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Posts posted by Metalsmith

  6. Posted

    Over the years, I've traveled to almost 35 different countries.

     

    Some simple rules to live by that have kept me out of trouble.

     

    1. Friends. Have them, bring them along.

     

    2. Drunk. Don't get too drunk, unless you have good friends (see 1) to get you back home/hotel.

     

    3. Common Sense. Have some.

     

    4. Personality matters. If you are a shittrouble-magnet in your home country when you go out, that will not change when you're overseas. If your friday nights downtown often include a bouncer or a cop, that will likely be the case when you travel.

     

    5. Hackles. You know 'em....when they get raised, listen to 'em. The worst spot I ever got into cost me about $200 US to get out of....the bar in Egypt was fun....but we had to pay off the bouncer to let us leave...somehow our bill got...well, rather large, rather unexpectedly. My hackles were up, I knew something wasn't right, but we stayed....and paid....

     

     

    Oh yes, haggling...

     

    6. When shopping overseas, any market you go into, haggle like hell. I got a gold statue for $12/gram once upon a time...the guy came down from $18/gram. In daylight, in a public market (souk) it can be fun to do some of this. In Turkey, they offered me apple tea, and were surprised when I asked for Turkish coffee instead. When you're haggling over something expensive, the seller will accommodate such requests....I dropped $1.8 million turkish lira that day (about $400 dollars I think) so it was worth his while to keep me happy. I got some nice stuff, I paid a fair price, he got his money, I got my coffee and baubles....it was good fun. That said, the annoying guys in the market that follow you...I'll refer back to point 1 and have some friends along.

    MS

    • Like 2

  13. Posted

    Stress? Yup. Got that. In spades.

     

    Paperwork? Yup. Personnel? Yup. Operations? Yup. Training? Yup. Public Speaking? Yup. You name it...what's the #1 thing I do to manage?

     

    1. Breathe & Relax

    2. Focus.

     

    Get your tasks done one at a time. My biggest problem is jumping from one task to another, and having my attention drawn away prevents me from completing a task properly, and end up with poor results, which can mean a re-do, and certainly means extra work.

     

    Pick a task, bring it to completion. Pause, breathe/relax then focus on the next task.

     

    Getting things *done* is a very good thing. I actually had a day last week where I got every one of the items on my daily "to do" list DONE. It was a damn good feeling to attain that.

     

    Get a manageable list of short-term items you know you can complete, and do them. Then with some positive feelings under your belt for your little successes, you can tackle something bigger.

     

    YMMV, but that's kind of what I try to do.

     

    MS

    • Like 1

  18. Posted

    tactical-bacon.jpg

     

    I sent a can of this to a buddy in A-stan a while back...along with bacon mints, and bacon bandaids.

     

    :-)

     

    Truly, the only thing better than bacon (other than sex) is Costco Maple Bacon. Even comes in 1.8 Kg two packs...that way there's enough for more than 1 person!

     

    MS

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