I know we have another "general fashion" thread, but I think we need to quarantine this particular discussion (and sharing) in it's own space.  (If I'm wrong I'm wrong and I'll take full responsibility.)

Being in a United States state that has a "face covering" policy in place now, I am interested to see what excellent fashions we are wearing across our country and the world at large when we step out into our land where "lockdown" will end RSN ("real soon now").

I sported this getup when I blazed out to a store earlier today to pick up some beers.  I got some great looks from others wearing medical masks and had laughs with people in socially distanced lines along the way.  No hot chicks around tho, sadly, so no real approaches -- which was a bummer since I was raring to go.

Note the high-fashion cravat look under the well worn work-out cap and goggle-like sunglasses atop a well-fitted Adidas hoody zip-up.  Full protection + fashion = target lock acquired.  The rest of the ensemble was black tapered jeans, thick black belt with a large buckle, and black combat-like boots.  No mobile phone outline in any pocket or place.

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Hey all,

I'm sure some of you know this stuff about me but I'm a townie fuck. I literally have never left the US. Most of my adult life has been spent in one town, though I did travel the US a bunch as a teenager. I just got my passport not too long ago in anticipation of finally leaving the US for a bit. I don't really care about poosy paradise that much (please don't call me a heretic) I'm sure I'll get it done as far as the ol' dick is concerned, not too worried about it. I have zero interest in mongering, more on that later. I also have no reason to be in my town anymore, pretty much no anchor or roots. I'm a free man.

So I'm looking at Costa Rica. Seems dope. Looks like you can get a beach apartment or small house for around 500-650 US which to me in my area is a fucking unheard of, in the rainy overcast garbage of the PNW a beach side apartment would run thousands of dollars, for a shack. So I'm really intrigued by that.

They give you a 90 day tourist visa for just showing up and presenting a bus pass/airline ticket, so that's cool. Visa runs seem like a piece of cake if I want to stay longer. Costa Rica seems fairly safe for a LatAm country. Sounds like everything about the country is not all bad, but then again I've been reading for days trying to figure out how to navigate the situation when I get in it.

Like I said this is going to be my first venture outside of the country, and I'm still trying to figure some stuff out. I was looking for advice from anybody experienced in LatAm. If it helps, I do plan on learning spanish up to a ideally a conversational level before I go but barring that I should at least be able to get around by then. I know enough spanish to get by already because I live in a Mexican neighborhood, but I am in no way conversational.

Visa runs
Sounds like all you have to do is run to Nicaragua or Panama and purchase a return bus ticket for around 25 bucks. It also sounds like some border people will fuck with you and only stamp you for 10 days or 30 days if they see you doing this a lot. Now, reading in between the lines here it sounds like you should act very polite and tip your border official to avoid not getting the full 90 days. Anybody know about this?

Apartment/beach house
I'm dead set on being somewhere around the caribbean. I lived on the pacific my whole life just about and I want to see and experience warm waters, I'm just not going to settle for less. So limon looks like the place to be but looks like there's a lot of crime and a lot of black fellas around there. Not too scared of crime, but it is a bummer about the girls. I have no issue with black people, I get along with American blacks famously actually, I just don't like the women. It sounds like in Costa Rica you can only purchase utilities etc with citizenship, so most places that rent to gringos come with that already. Any tips on not getting ripped off? Alternative areas next to a larger city? I don't want to be somewhere where there's less than 30,000 people in the surrounding area.

Transportation
I don't like public transit that much but I will take it if I have to. Looks like you can get a half decent motorcycle over there for around 500-800 US, but the roads are shit. So that's my plan, probably motorcycle tour the country but in the larger cities like San Jose I'll probably be taxi-ing ubering whatever. I hear that costa rican drivers are insane but maybe that's just a LatAm thing. Iunno, I'm a red-blooded American I don't know much about it.

Legal
This is the part I'm having a really hard time navigating and preparing for. Costa Rica seems fairly nationalist and hot bloodedly political. I have no real interest in their politics or even their laws. BUT, I do want to be respectful of the local culture, and if that means following laws cool with me, if that means agreeing with being a nationalist cool with me (really, I respect nationalistic countries). I just don't want to be disrespectful with my American mentality. In the US I'm already fairly socially unacceptably apolitical and criminal. I just don't follow the rules, no real interest in them. I am a very respectful person, but laws don't really interest me. So I'm thinking of contacting a well regarded lawyer when I get there. But I want to prevent ever having to use one. Does anybody know about the "gift" *ahem* *ahem* situation over there? Is it like I hear it is in Mexico where some local policia shakes you down and you just give him a gift? I don't know how to navigate the gift situation at all, it's something in America that's just unheard of. Is it customary? Can someone with latam experience help me out? Last thing I want to do is get thrown in a latam jail after a night of drinking or whatever minor trouble I would get into.

Medical/shots
So from what I understand you don't really need a ton of injections before going over. Apparently malaria isn't even that big of a deal.  I ideally would take none, I don't like needles and I don't like vaccines. I'm not a anti-vaxx fag, so if something is completely necessary I will definitely do it. But if I can get away with it I would not like to take shots. Anybody know about this?

Also from what I understand the pharmacies there are very friendly. Sounds like you go in, ask for a thing, they tell you that you need a script, then they tell you they have a doctor on staff and if you're cool with him he'll write you a script for whatever. Only thing I would be interested in is the occasional anti-biotic and valium for my increasingly bad nerves as I get older. Is that pretty much the deal?

Budget/income
I'm fully prepared to go over there for 3 months with a budget of about 5,000 US which i will have before I go. As a gringo you can't work there from what I understand. I do plan on getting some remote freelance work, which is legal. They just don't want you to take jobs from the natives (mad respect for that). I think it should be fairly easy to earn about 1000 US a month with my skills. There's transcription work and tech/programming work available all over the world and most people are happy to work with Americans. Does anybody have any leads on this kind of thing? I have programming and tech skills that usually could land me a middle level programming gig anywhere in America. Does anybody know of any of my blind spots here, is there other work available?

Whores
I'm just not interested in whores at all, not my thing never has been. It's my understanding that there's kind of a blurry line in latam. In America, it's really easy to tell if a woman is a whore, money gets involved sooner rather than later. But I hear all these horror stories (especially from the philippines) of guys picking up girls and when they get back charging them or threatening to call a thug. This is fairly intuitive to me, if a girl is too easy then she's a whore. Makes sense right? But it's uncharted territory for me. It also seems like it's pretty normal to have a strong provider mentality in latam, like it's just normal. I don't know that in the US at all, it's usually the opposite, girls usually buy stuff for me.  Anybody have any tips on avoiding whores? Or like customary relationship dynamics? I don't like paying girls for shit, I'm cool with like a lunch or whatever but I have no interesting in being anybodies SD. Of course if what it takes is you to be a strong provider to enter into a relationship, I'll consider it.


Also does anybody just have any tips for a complete fucking newbie greenhorne going to live in latam for a bit? I would appreciate some discussion and a little advice. Thanks in advance fellas.

So i'm 20 years old, ive worked in the laborers union the past 2 years making a decent income (60-80k a year). I've traveled to a couple different countries and love everything about it, the girls, the parties, meeting new people, but i have everything lined up to make the move out to San Diego from the east coast, and work as a laborer out there. I'm a little torn between living in my idea of a perfect city with little money to save or stay living at home with my parents saving up money with the option to travel further down the line.

Hi, I'm a European victim of the Facist lockdown measures. Basically I could not enjoy most things that I like to do for more than 1.5 months, I was getting depressed and stressed out so I decided to leave this hell. 

Country options : Sweden or Iceland were the open countries in Europe without horrible rules like being forced to wear a mask. There was also Mexico that I think was open. I chose Sweden because it's the cheapest for the airfare, has hot girls and all the gyms are open. 

Escape plan : Normally you are allowed to take the plane only for emergency or for work. So I created a fake work contract with a Swedish company (I took a microsoft template from a previous consulting company I worked with, just changed the company names and dates). At the airport there was the police checking everyone, they actually asked me to show the work contract. I'm not sure they actually cared, I suspect it's just do that to scare people away to take the plane, but they'll accept most people in. The airport was very empty. A few flights were showing "canceled". But the plane was almost full. 

Arrival in Sweden : There wasn't any border control.. I called my embassy in Stockholm before coming and they bullshitted me saying they'll check my documents and justifications. Complete bullshit. Came out of the plane, straight out went outside the airport. 

It feels good to be free again. People here are just normal. No masks, nobody is neurotic like back "home". In my country there were multiple times I got verbally agressed by boomers for not doing social distancing. 

Sweden just feels... like a normal life. 

Don't forget : there are countries in this crazy world that are still sane.

I hate people who use "no pun intended"

I hate security researchers who, when writing an article about a new vulnerability that they found, add a little faggot note "the vulnerabilities have been reported to the company"

I hate people wearing coronavirus masks

I hate the medias

I hate when a company is late to pay me

I hate myself for not being nazi enough in contract negotiation with said company, which could potentially use some clauses to delay further payments and cause me stress

I hate getting a bad haircut

Ok, I saw the post earlier today, "wish we had a drunk lounge."

9 Mui Thais deep, I'm drunk.

I do not know where these drinks came from, one day (earlier this week), I show up at the store, and now they're selling canned, high-proof pre-mixed alcohol.

Shit hits hard.

As for me yes, I will have another bartender. Social distancing makes me the bartender, client, and the entertainer.

Here's to a future where I get fucked up with other (female) patrons at the bar.

Cheers!

A girl from Asia just texted me and said I should check for HPV.

I said what makes you think it's me who gave you that, she said I'm the last guy who fucked her without condom (8 months ago).

Then she said I'm cruel for not checking it, girls will catch it and have symptoms, although men don't have symptoms.

It's totally possible that I have it, since at that time when I fucked her, I catched the usual chlamydia from another girl.

But I have no symptoms from HPV.

fml what a night

This has been a question that has crossed my mind a lot recently. The only thing we run out of day-by-day is our time and our youth. And before going forward, I have to say I don't think there's a right answer to this question. You can probably break this question down into sub-components.

1) Career/ career development/ finances- Do you start at the bottom and climb a ladder? Make your own opportunities? Or create a business?
2) Health/ fitness- How do you instill good habits in yourself now, and what do you do to sure you're at your peak, and will be in good shape years from now?
3) Social development/ women- Do you take every opportunity to be social, or balance that against other more fruitful endeavors? How do you handle women, when many your age are flaky or unwilling to "be serious"?
4) Travel- Where ought you be traveling in your 20's?
5) Valuable life skills/ personal development- While netflix is always there for you, what's to stop you from reading books or learning life lessons from older mentors and elders? What skills ought you learn that will have some positive impact on your life.

My thoughts:

1) Personally always knew I was never a fit for "corporate". Thus, I am learning programming to go into a consulting related field. If you don't have some shitty jobs in your 20's, you are missing out on how shitty the job market is, and its cold hard realities.
2) My belief is better to do a manageable fitness program than to fail to meet goals. Fitness is a long term thing and improves cognitive function. Sport is a way to meet like-minded people who are not drains on you.
3) I go in bursts based on where I am. Try to surround myself with people more interesting than me.
4) Travel before you have commitments or jobs taking 80hrs weekly of your time.
5) I gave up video games to focus on more important pursuits. Reading in particular. History, philosophy, textbooks. Finally learned how to drive a stick and tie a bowtie. Small skills to be sure, but really cool things to know. Have multiple mentors.


What do you guys think?

One of the things I love about our community is the focus on self-improvement. There is tons of value across so many different areas that often the only problem is integrating this into your daily/weekly life. 

This is a thread for the refinement of habits and goals, as well as discussion around tracking, reviewing, integrating, etc. 

My first suggestion is to have an easy way to track your desired habits, as this serves multiple purposes. You want a checklist to keep you on track, a history to see your progress, and a reminder to encourage you to not "break the chain" of momentum and success.

I've tried searching for various Excel sheets for tracking but I've never found one that I was satisified with. I also believe that it's easier when you can mark off habits quickly rather than waiting till you're at a computer, or carrying around pen and paper. The best solution I've been using so far is a Repeat Habit Tracker app that is free on Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/detai...y&hl=en_CA



(Note: I have no affliation and make no money from this, and I am open to other suggestions)

I realized through this app that one of the areas that was previously missing is the flexibility to track habits on non-standard schedules. For example, there are certain things you may want to do 2x every week, where it doesn't actually matter which 2 days you choose for completion. 

I also recommend writing down what I call "Anti-Habits". These are habits you check off for completion when you successfully refrain from them (i.e. no irrelevant Youtube/Social Media/News browsing)

It seems to be a common refrain that you can only change a few habits at a time. I personally do not believe this. With the right productivity systems, schedules, resources, etc. we can be vastly more efficient than we realize.