#81. Enjoy this weekend.

Spring is wrapping its fingers around our orb.  Birds are resuming the chirp.  Buds are beeing themselves.  ‘Indoors’ is not an option this weekend.  This weekend is a celebration of physical interaction with and mental stimulation by way of nature.  Commit to the bosom of the natural.  Find no complacency in climate control and televisions.  Surrender all hand held devices.  Join with friends and family.  You have time to make plans.  Do not hold this weekend as you do other weekends.  Pick up your telephone now.  Plan a memory.

Drink in the coming of a new season.

#80. Perseverance’s days are numbered.

Perseverance is a blinding force.  Its necessity cannot be debated when attempting to launch a venture, win a woman’s heart, or succeed at any number of life’s races.  It is innate in all of us, from children begging for a new toy to adults demanding a raise in pay.  Perseverance is what helps us ride the more trying waves of life as well as achieve and attemptedly satisfy our exhaustive list of personal goals.

Perseverance mode is such a powerful setting that it can blind even the most aware individuals.  Take, for example, the man trying to win a woman’s love.  In this scenario, a well adjusted man’s perseverance has a short life span, with the all too possible outcome of quickly turning from cute to serious to restraining order.  Or take the entrepreneur.  To him, his business is a flawless money making enterprise, yet the market refuses to buy into his vision.  Draining himself of his energies and cash, he is left with an idea and nothing more.

The successful employment of perseverance boils down to one finite principle: objectivity.  We must successfully nurse perseverance, advantaging the emotion and fire that it provides, all while keeping an outsider’s perspective on our progress, or lack thereof.

Perseverance is no different than a performance enhancing drug.  It can even the field or help crush the competition.  Take too much of it and your (mental) testicles will shrink to the size of raisins, leaving you defeated and (mentally) shrunken.

#79. Fashion or style? Either way, keep pushing.

The difference begs expounding.

A fashionable gentleman is aware of and able to own a trend.  He will look fitting and impressive in his ensemble, embodying the absolute nature of say, a suit and tie.  He will own his look.  A fashionable gentleman is sartorially solid.  He is comfortable in wearing clothing as it comes, as it is intended to be worn, few frills or strays from symmetry and beauty.

A stylish gentleman possesses a critical eye.  In contrast to fashionable man, a stylish man will construct his outfits from a loose canon of clothing, usually acquired through more organic avenues.  He may exist at the center of a trend or miss it altogether.  Most importantly, his attention lies in personal detail.  Through a brooch, a flipped cuff, or an ornately knotted scarf, style is achieved through detail.  Personal detail.  It is the underlying umph of an outfit that can exist left of center.

However varied these approaches may be, they are not mutually exclusive. When married, fashionable and stylish breed a wonder baby of personality and awareness.  Whichever camp you deposit yourself in, keep expanding your sartorial horizons.  Draw from personal expression while respecting the eye of the designer.

#78. Dancing. With a lady.

Until the 1960′s, dancing was a stylized, calculated checklist of dos and donts.  With controlled rhythms and beats never exceeding 8th note tempos, it was quite easy to stay afloat on the dance floor.  The 1970′s twisted our vanilla dance routines, forcing us to get funky fresh with the emerging disco and hip hop scenes.  By the 1980′s, Studio 54 and punk rock stole the scene, prompting an anything goes kit of snowy moves and moshing for the masses.  The 1990′s, well, they had ska.

In this futuristic time we call the present, when entering a venue which prompts fancy footwork, style and class are usually checked along with the coats.  Hips are thrust, asses are grabbed, and the proverbial bed is unmade on the dance floor.  As close to a public sex fantasy as this may be, it is sure to drive a classy girl far (far) away, especially a stranger you met at the bar.  Have fun with your dancing.  Girls are attracted to a guy who plays with the music rather than humps it.

Stay confident and classy while having your fun, even in the gyrating, sexed up jungle that is the dance floor.  And if you are bent on snagging a lady, your chances will greatly improve if you do not leave the imprint of your fingers on their bodacious behind and a rug burn on their face.   That’s an OBA guarantee.

#77. Have an opinion.

Speaking out the trivialities of life is satisfying.  Small talk is after all, the most common talk.  It is the lubricant, the filler, the appetizer accompanying the entree of social interaction. It is safe.  The weather is safe.  There is no option of opinion with weather.  In the social game of Never Offend, the weather is a green zone, the weather is Switzerland.

This conscious quelling of verbal panache has led many of us to talk small and only small.  We forget, whether it be on a date, a round of golf, or over a beer, that there are complex, titillating subjects waiting to be digested.  We have become satiated, our minds have grown a penchant for regaling each other about the absolute spot-on color of the menus! Giggle giggle…

Small talk is no talk.  It is necessary but, if anyone can do it, what is being seen, what is being shown?  Dive into a topic that leads somewhere.  Force yourself and your company into an intellectual meeting of the minds. Healthy, deep conversation does not mean a debate yet, fear not the line of offense! Furthermore, force yourself to pause for that perfect word, the word that you last saw on the SATs you so assiduously, so scrupulously studied for.

Remember, gossip is far lower than small talk and has no place in conversation.  It is a cavernous mess of insecurities and negativity that should never be breached.

#76. Keep a notebook.

The art of writing is dying.  No more penmanship in the schools!  Burn the pencils!  Leak the pens dry!  Merely fossils of a bygone era…  We are dangerously close to this, my friends.

Keeping a notebook is one of the greatest pleasures this author has come to enjoy over the past year.  Penning thoughts is a writeful privilege ignored and shunned by modern society.  Journals are phased out with the coming of the first pubic hair, while access to cheap computing has made writing not only obsolete in classrooms and offices worldwide, but looked down upon as well.

It is through the written word that we have freed peoples and proclaimed the beauty of a million sunsets.  As the all too anonymous Norbet Platt once claimed, “The act of putting pen to paper encourages pause for thought. This in turn makes us think more deeply about life, which helps us regain our equilibrium.”

Whether it be in a Moleskine, an ironically trendy black and white notebook, or even a spiral bound (old school!), the act of physically scrawling our thoughts and placing them on a tangible piece of paper is nothing short of absolute catharsis.

And hey, unlike the swath of microchips we carry in our pockets, a notebook won’t result in a third and very unwanted testicle!

#75. Sweatpants. Really? Still?

For years, citizens of these United States have been under the impression that sweatpants are suitable fair for any occasion not specifically requesting black tie.  The invent of the Juicy tracksuit fanned these flames, introducing fashionable sweat-wear, an oxymoronic, evil polycephaly of newer and lower fashion standards.  With their unabashed lure of comfort, sweatpants have long claimed their spot as the laziest article of clothing a person can own.  With America’s already lackadaisical attitude toward dress, it was only logical that man and fabric marry.  What a couple.

While ease and comfort may be your claim, there is little room for sweatpants in a wardrobe, male or female.  Beyond a pair used to sleep or work out in, sweatpants are never meant to be worn in a social setting, whether it be the grocery store, a bar, or class.  “So what? I don’t care what others think and I am comfortable!” may be your retort.  Yet, no matter how confident you are in your cottony pillow pants, a fuzzy signal is being sent to all, and you look like poop.

Wearing sweatpants in public is like riding around in a wheelchair when you’re podiatrically sound.  Or wearing your retainer to a dinner party.  Your choice.