Revival of Blog - 4 months of travelling - Guide Overview

Hey!

It's been a few years since I've blogged. I have been quite busy with work and investments, and finally made a big break from successful personal investments in shares and cryptocurrency, so I am taking a holiday and break time I have done extensive travelling across the world. I will update this with an overview of the city and a personal guide catered for those who are similar to me and are quite picky with what they see and do and the way the information is presented to them. Also some stories and memories of what happened in those cities.

July: 
Singapore
Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur)

August:
Thailand (Krabitown, Aonang and Bangkok)
Singapore

September:
Australia (Brisbane)

October:
Canada (Toronto, Hamilton and Niagara Falls)

November:
United States of America (Buffalo, Washington D.C, Philadelphia, Atlantic City, New Jersey, New York City)
China (Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong)

好好真心

好好真心

Why do liberals vs. conservatives have different views?

"I blew dried my dad's hair and now he looks like Margaret Thatcher", said one of my friends who sparked my interest in finding out the differences of why people lean towards conservatism vs. liberalism in their political views in light of the state election which is still being counted.

To the right-wing conservatives, this would have been an honour, almost a blessing to resemble one of the greatest conservative leaders in history who saved Britain's economy, leading the state out of a recession to become more productive, more competitive and more profitable.

To left-wing liberals, this event would have been humiliating and offensive to resemble such an evil, hardline, rigid and heartless baroness who led up the sales of Judy Garland's "Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead" in the wake of her in 2013, landing in UK's top 10. Jokes aside, the real reason was that she wiped out 15% of Britain's industrial base with her dogmatic monetarism and made Britain unbalanced and unequal. Many see her as one of the most evil women in the 20th century with a list of her crimes here. 

Despite both views, her economic revolution was a success, just as her strong, determined and resilient background story. Thatcherism continues to have a huge influence in fighting for free markets and a small state rather than planning and regulating business and people's lives. 

So I wondered...

A few images of far-right conservative friends flashed in my head, including Margaret Thatcher.

Note: Symbolic representation 

Then the some of the far-left liberals.

Ok, maybe a little too far left, let me fix that up 
(Note: Canada's Green Party Leader)

Is that better?

Ok Sir.

What I really meant is there's the United States of America. 

But seriously, there's a visible difference.

In fact, the changing of my opinion to help cater for Obama just then is a very liberal and adaptive habitual response when cues indicate it necessary in face of conflict. This habitual response is due to a much higher neurocognitive sensitivity to response conflicts. Hence, some of my views are quite liberal, especially for conflict resolution, whereas in other areas it is quite conservative.

There must be a reason between the differences, whether that be environmental, economical or social influences. Not only that but it's visibly clear appearance wise through facial expression, muscle build and that way one unconsciously composes themselves.

Neuroscience and psychology has the answer.

In light the upcoming state election... our votes are relatively already predetermined by our biases and views which are related directly to our brains chemistry and structure which shape the way we view things. I have seen that this not only applies to politics but to all aspects ranging from type of religion, education preference, partner preferences and preferred stimuli or information. 

The rigid conservative right are more orderly, more better organized, more sensitive to fear, rely on quick efficient low effort thought, learn from negative stimuli and try to prevent them, are not open to new experiences, want to preserve purity and cleanliness, sleep more soundly and have more mundane dreams.

The open minded and creative liberal left have more tolerance to uncertainty, effortful and deliberate reasoning processes, will seek to advance positive outcomes, open to new experiences, sleep more restlessly and have more bizarre, active dreams.

In the 16 peer-reviewed scientific studies summarized below, researchers found that liberals and conservatives have different brain structures, different physiological responses to stimuli, and activate different neural mechanisms when confronted with similar situations. Each entry below cites the source document, and a PDF of each study has been included. The studies are arranged from most recent to oldest. We included all the peer-reviewed studies on this subject that we could find. If you know about others, please contact us with details.

1. Conservatives spend more time looking at unpleasant images, and liberals spend more time looking at pleasant images.

"We report evidence that individual-level variation in people's physiological and attentional responses to aversive and appetitive stimuli are correlated with broad political orientations. Specifically, we find that greater orientation to aversive stimuli tends to be associated with right-of-centre and greater orientation to appetitive (pleasing) stimuli with left-of-centre political inclinations."

Michael D. Dodd, PhD, Amanda Balzer, PhD, Carly Jacobs, MA, Michael Gruszczynski, MA, Kevin B. Smith, PhD, and John R. Hibbing, PhD, "The Left Rolls with the Good; The Right Confronts the Bad. Physiology and Cognition in Politics,"  Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Mar. 5, 2012

2. Reliance on quick, efficient, and "low effort" thought processes yields conservative ideologies, while effortful and deliberate reasoning yields liberal ideologies.

"...[P]olitical conservatism is promoted when people rely on low-effort thinking. When effortful, deliberate responding is disrupted or disengaged, thought processes become quick and efficient; these conditions promote conservative ideology… low-effort thought might promote political conservatism because its concepts are easier to process, and processing fluency increases attitude endorsement.

Four studies support our assertion that low-effort thinking promotes political conservatism... Our findings suggest that conservative ways of thinking are basic, normal, and perhaps natural." Scott Eidelman, PhD, Christian S. Crandall, PhD, Jeffrey A. Goodman, PhD, and John C. Blanchar, "Low-Effort Thought Promotes Political Conservatism,"  Society for Personality and Social Psychology, 2012

3. Conservatives react more strongly than liberals to disgusting images, such as a picture of someone eating worms.

People who believe they would be bothered by a range of hypothetical disgusting situations display an increased likelihood of displaying right-of-center rather than left-of-center political orientations… In this article, we demonstrate that individuals with marked involuntary physiological responses to disgusting images [measured by change in mean skin conductance], such as of a man eating a large mouthful of writhing worms, are more likely to self-identify as conservative and, especially, to oppose gay marriage than are individuals with more muted physiological responses to the same images."

Kevin B. Smith, PhD, Douglas Oxley, PhD, Matthew V. Hibbing, PhD, John R. Alford, PhD, and John R. Hibbing, PhD, "Disgust Sensitivity and the Neurophysiology of Left-Right Political Orientations," PLOS ONE, Oct. 19, 2011

4. Liberals have more tolerance to uncertainty (bigger anterior cingulate cortex), and conservatives have more sensitivity to fear (bigger right amygdala).



"In a large sample of young adults, we related self-reported political attitudes to gray matter volume using structural MRI [magnetic resonance imaging]. We found that greater liberalism was associated with increased gray matter volume in the anterior cingulate cortex, whereas greater conservatism was associated with increased volume of the right amygdala...

...[O]ur findings are consistent with the proposal that political orientation is associated with psychological processes for managing fear and uncertainty. The amygdala has many functions, including fear processing. Individuals with a larger amygdala are more sensitive to fear, which, taken together with our findings, might suggest the testable hypothesis that individuals with larger amagdala are more inclined to integrate conservative views into their belief systems... our finding of an association between anterior cingulate cortex [ACC] may be linked with tolerance to uncertainty.

 One of the functions of the anterior cingulate cortex is to monitor uncertainty and conflicts. Thus it is conceivable that individuals with a larger ACC have a higher capacity to tolerate uncertainty and conflicts, allowing them to accept more liberal views."

Ryota Kanai, PhD, Tom Feilden, Colin Firth, and Geraint Rees, PhD, "Political Orientations Are Correlated with Brain Structure in Young Adults," Current Biology, Apr. 7, 2011

5. Conservatives have stronger motivations than liberals to preserve purity and cleanliness.



"...[R]eminders of physical purity influence specific moral judgments regarding behaviors in the sexual domain as well as broad political attitudes...

...[E]nvironmental reminders of physical cleanliness shifted participants’ attitudes toward the conservative end of the political spectrum and altered their specific attitudes toward various moral acts... When taken together, these two sets of results point to the possibility that political orientation may be, in some measure, shaped by the strength of an individual’s motivation to avoid physical contamination and that resulting vigilance for threats to purity may serve to reinforce a politically conservative stance toward the world."

Erik G. Helzer and David A. Pizarro, PhD, "Dirty Liberals! Reminders of Physical Cleanliness Influence Moral and Political Attitudes," Psychological Science, Mar. 18, 2011

6. Liberals follow the direction of eye movements better than conservatives.



"In the present study, we examine whether gaze cue effects [the ability to follow the direction of another individual’s eye movements or gaze] are moderated by political temperament, given that those on the political right tend to be more supportive of individualism—and less likely to be influenced by others—than those on the left. We find standard gaze cuing effects across all subjects, but systematic differences in these effects by political temperament. Liberals exhibit a very large gaze cuing effect while conservatives show no such effect at various SOAs [stimulus onset asynchrony]...

Perhaps conservatives are less likely to trust others meaning that they are also less likely to trust a gaze cue..."

Michael D. Dodd, PhD, John R. Hibbing, PhD, and Kevin B. Smith, PhD, "The Politics of Attention: Gaze Cuing Effects Are Moderated by Political Temperament," Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, Jan. 2011


7. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to interpret faces as threatening and expressing dominant emotions, while Democrats show greater emotional distress and lower life satisfaction.



"Independent sample t-tests revealed group differences in the averaged threat interpretation scores of the 10 facial stimuli. Republican sympathizers were more likely to interpret the faces as signaling a threatening expression as compared to Democrat sympathizers. Group differences were also found for dominance perceptions, whereby Republican sympathizers were more likely to perceive the faces as expressing dominant emotions than were Democrat sympathizers...

Collectively, when compared to Republican sympathizers, Democrat sympathizers showed greater psychological distress, more frequent histories of adverse life events such as interpersonal victimization experiences, fewer and less satisfying relationships, and lower perceptions of the trustworthiness of peers and intimate affiliates."
Jacob M. Vigil, PhD, "Political Leanings Vary with Facial Expression Processing and Psychosocial Functioning," Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 2010

8. Conservatives and liberals react similarly to positive incentives, but conservatives have greater sensitivity to negative stimuli.


"Our findings suggest that conservatives are sensitive to avoidance motivation [motivation through negative stimuli], which produces 'inhibition' responses manifested in greater rigidity... Based on the studies' findings, we would not expect differences between liberals and conservatives in responding to positive stimuli or incentives (i.e., approach cues), but we would expect greater inhibitory reactions by conservatives in response to negative, avoidant cues. Self-regulation appears to provide a useful perspective for understanding how one's political views may affect categorization processes and, more broadly, the association between political conservatism and rigidity."

Mindi S. Rock, PhD, and Ronnie Janoff-Bulman, PhD, "Where Do We Draw Our Lines? Politics, Rigidity, and the Role of Self-Regulation," Social Psychological and Personality Science, Jan. 2010

9. Conservatives have more activity in their dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, the part of the brain that activates for complex social evaluations.



"The conservatism dimension, which corresponds to the liberal-to-conservative criterion, was associated with activity in the right DLPFC [dorsolateral prefrontal cortex]...

In this study, we speculate that activity in the DLPFC may reflect a role of this region in deliberative decision-making in complex social evaluations... The observation that this region was increasingly activated by conservative beliefs could be explained by claiming that conservative statements require more complex social judgments marked by greater cognitive dissonance between self-interest and sense of fairness...

[W]e showed that the representation of complex political beliefs relies on three fundamental dimensions, each reflected in distinctive patterns of neural activation: The degree of individualism of political beliefs was linearly associated with activation in the medial PFC [prefrontal cortex] and TPJ [temporoparietal junction], the degree of conservatism with activation in the DLPFC, and the degree of radicalism with activation in the ventral striatum and PC/P [posterior cingulate/precuneus]. Our findings support the interpretation that the political belief system depends on a set of social cognitive processes including those that enable a person to judge themselves and other people, make decisions in ambivalent social situations, and comprehend motivational and emotional states."

Giovanna Zamboni, MD, Marta Gozzi, PhD, Frank Krueger, PhD, Jean-René Duhamel, PhD, Angela Sirigu, PhD, and Jordan Grafman, PhD, "Individualism, Conservatism, and Radicalism As Criteria for Processing Political Beliefs: A Parametric fMRI Study," Social Neuroscience, Sep. 2009

10. Conservatism is focused on preventing negative outcomes, while liberalism is focused on advancing positive outcomes.



"Political liberalism and conservatism differ in provide versus protect orientations, specifically providing for group members' welfare (political Left) and protecting the group from harm (political Right). These reflect the fundamental psychological distinction between approach and avoidance motivation. Conservatism is avoidance based; it is focused on preventing negative outcomes (e.g., societal losses) and seeks to regulate society via inhibition (restraints) in the interests of social order. Liberalism is approach based; it is focused on advancing positive outcomes (e.g., societal gains) and seeks to regulate society via activation (interventions) in the interests of social justice."
Ronnie Janoff-Bulman, PhD, "To Provide or Protect: Motivational Bases of Political Liberalism and Conservatism," Psychological Inquiry: An International Journal for the Advancement of Psychological Theory, Aug. 2009

11. Genetics influence political attitudes during early adulthood and beyond.



"The present research attempts to characterize how the transmission of political orientations develops over the life course... [G]enetic influences on political attitudes are absent prior to young adulthood. During childhood and adolescence, individual differences in political attitudes are accounted for by a variety of environmental influences... However, at the point of early adulthood (in the early 20s), for those who left their parental home, there is evidence of a sizeable genetic influence on political attitudes which remains stable throughout adult life."

Peter K. Hatemi, PhD, Carolyn L. Funk, PhD, Sarah E. Medland, PhD, Hermine M. Maes, PhD, Judy L. Silberg, PhD, Nicholas G. Martin, PhD, and Lindon J. Eaves, PhD, DSc, "Genetic and Environmental Transmission of Political Attitudes Over a Life Time," The Journal of Politics, July 21, 2009

12. Compared to liberals, conservatives are less open to new experiences and learn better from negative stimuli than positive stimuli.



"In this study, the relations among political ideology, exploratory behavior, and the formation of attitudes toward novel stimuli were explored. Participants played a computer game that required learning whether these stimuli produced positive or negative outcomes. Learning was dependent on participants’ decisions to sample novel stimuli... Political ideology correlated with exploration during the game, with conservatives sampling fewer targets than liberals. Moreover, more conservative individuals exhibited a stronger learning asymmetry, such that they learned negative stimuli better than positive... Relative to liberals, politically conservative individuals pursued a more avoidant strategy to the game…

The reluctance to explore that characterizes more politically conservative individuals may protect them from experiencing negative situations, for they are likely to restrict approach to known positives."

Natalie J. Shook, PhD, and Russell H. Fazio, PhD, "Political Ideology, Exploration of Novel Stimuli, and Attitude Formation," Experimental Social Psychology, Apr. 3, 2009

13. Conservatives tend to have a stronger reaction to threatening noises and images than liberals.



"In a group of 46 adult participants with strong political beliefs, individuals with measurably lower physical sensitivities to sudden noises and threatening visual images were more likely to support foreign aid, liberal immigration policies, pacifism, and gun control, whereas individuals displaying measurably higher physiological reactions to those same stimuli were more likely to favor defense spending, capital punishment, patriotism, and the Iraq War. Thus, the degree to which individuals are physiologically responsive to threat appears to indicate the degree to which they advocate policies that protect the existing social structure from both external (outgroup) and internal (norm-violator) threats."

Douglas R. Oxley, PhD, Kevin B. Smith, PhD, John R. Alford, PhD, Matthew V. Hibbing, PhD, Jennifer L. Miller, Mario Scalora, PhD, Peter K. Hatemi, PhD, and John R. Hibbing, PhD, "Political Attitudes Vary with Physiological Traits," Science, Sep. 19, 2008

14. Liberals are more open-minded and creative whereas conservatives are more orderly and better organized.



"We obtained consistent and converging evidence that personality differences between liberals and conservatives are robust, replicable, and behaviorally significant, especially with respect to social (vs. economic) dimensions of ideology. In general, liberals are more open-minded, creative, curious, and novelty seeking, whereas conservatives are more orderly, conventional, and better organized... A special advantage of our final two studies is that they show personality differences between liberals and conservatives not only on self-report trait measures but also on unobtrusive, nonverbal measures of interaction style and behavioral residue.”

Dana R. Carney, PhD, John T. Jost, PhD, Samuel D. Gosling, PhD, and Jeff Potter, "The Secret Lives of Liberals and Conservatives: Personality Profiles, Interaction Styles, and the Things They Leave Behind," International Society of Political Psychology, Oct. 23, 2008

15. When faced with a conflict, liberals are more likely than conservatives to alter their habitual response when cues indicate it is necessary.



"Our results are consistent with the view that political orientation, in part, reflects individual differences in the functioning of a general mechanism related to cognitive control and self-regulation. Stronger conservatism (versus liberalism) was associated with less neurocognitive sensitivity to response conflicts. At the behavioral level, conservatives were also more likely to make errors of commission. Although a liberal orientation was associated with better performance on the response-inhibition task examined here, conservatives would presumably perform better on tasks in which a more fixed response style is optimal."

David M. Amodio, PhD, John T. Jost, PhD, Sarah L. Master, PhD, and Cindy M. Yee, PhD,"Neurocognitive Correlates of Liberalism and Conservatism," Nature Neuroscience, Sep. 9, 2007

16.. Conservatives sleep more soundly and have more mundane dreams, while liberals sleep more restlessly and have a more bizarre, active dream life.



"Conservatives slept somewhat more soundly, with fewer remembered dreams. Liberals were more restless in their sleep and had a more active and varied dream life. In contrast to a previous study, liberals reported a somewhat greater proportion of bad dreams and nightmares. Consistent with earlier research, the dreams of conservatives were more mundane, whereas the dreams of liberals were more bizarre...

Conservative men sleep a bit longer, with better quality sleep; they recall the fewest dreams, but have the most lucid awareness. Liberal women have the worst quality sleep, recall the greatest number and variety of dreams, and have the most dream references to homosexuality."

Kelly Bulkeley, PhD, "Sleep and Dream patterns of Political Liberals and Conservatives," Dreaming, Sep. 2006


Conclusion:

Perhaps this article may present to the reader that their views tend to be their views. and not representative of the collective whole, and thus showing the differences of views from a neuroscientific and neurocognitive perspective should remove any biases that we may have.

We live in a democratic society, not a exclusively far left, not an exclusive far right society. 

Things to Note when Choosing a Travel Partner

As an avid traveller, I came across this article which hilariously and cleverly articulates five things to note when choosing a travel partner by Ladyironchef . Although I would like to discuss about my own opinions about choosing a travel partner, I would like to firstly provide a brief introduction to one of my favourite travel blogs Ladyironchef.

The blog began with humble beginnings by a man who has an inexplicable love for food, travelling and finer things in life. Sound quite familiar right? He writes about his personal experiences from his daily life, dishing out honest reviews about food and dining places, countries and cities that he travel to and visits, and generic lifestyle products.

Travelling to different countries, different places presents various experiences. Upon returning from Sydney, I took notice that some of my travel experiences were a letdown because of extremely different travelling styles between myself, my friends, or fellow travellers that I've met whilst exploring certain cities. Although, I do try to rationalize to myself that a bad experience, is an experience in itself and is often more memorable than a happy experience. It is often a good idea that we shall skip the lie that some of us tell ourselves and jump straight into choosing our travelling partner.

The blog hits the nail on the spot, as it is often that as we travel more in the company of friends, that we have come to the unfortunate realisation that not all good friends make good travel partners. Gaining an understanding that different people have different travelling styles and habits goes a long way in helping us to choose the right travel partners and ensuring our trips go as smoothly, or as interestingly, from my perspective, as possible. 

#1 THE GET UP AND GO, OR LIE DOWN AND NO

Some of us fall into the latter category of laid-back travellers. When we indulge in a holiday, winding down from our hectic schedule back at home is our top priority. A morning lazing in our lush queen-sized hotel bed? Perfect. Spending our entire afternoon on the beach’s daybed with our favourite read? Now that’s more like our cup of tea.

Travelling with the former group of people may then prove to be problematic. Unlike the laid-back ones, the busy travellers love their itineraries packed full of activities. From trekking in the morning to visiting 5 museums in the afternoon and a night full of shopping, such a travelling style may leave laid-back travellers gasping for air and frustrated.

Whether you are a busy or laid-back traveller, it is best to pick someone who is similar in travelling style.

I guess for me, it really depends on where we travel, the purpose of the trip and generally how energetic I am. I enjoy a good balance of both, but usually leaning towards the quarter slice formula consisting of:

• 1/4 unplanned for spontaneous adventures and experiences
• 2/4 packed itinerary visiting the iconic tourist sites, as well as the off-beaten hidden gems
• 1/4 of just pure indulgence relaxing and lying in the king-sized bed of 5-star hotel overlooking the city scape, the seascape, the landscape, whatever iconic, beautiful and majestic view that the city I am in has to offer or just spending some quality time with a loved one.

#2 THE NEAT FREAK, OR THE MESSY MONSTER

When we travel with a partner, we are bound to expose a little more of ourselves (not literally, of course). We all have bathroom habits. Some of us need only 15 minutes to shower, others, an hour. 

Does uncapped toothpaste tubes set off alarm bells in the morning? What about the navigating through your travel partner’s field of scattered cosmetics? 

If these bathroom pet peeves tie a proverbial knot in your robe strings (or literal), we suggest talking to your travel partner about them prior to the trip. Communicating these expectations in an amicable manner would prevent you from brushing your teeth with that tube of concealer. 

The key here is to also understand that different people possess different habits. Try not to fret over these personal differences and the trip will be a more enjoyable one for both you and your partner.

I am the neat freak, but of course with conditions. I like everything to be easy to find, clean, efficient so that I am always prepared for what may lie ahead. I do not want to walk through a mine-field littered with junk, clothes, whatever you can imagine, to be able to reach my bed or the shower.

I prefer the luggage to be neatly set out on the luggage rack, clothes that will be worn to be hanged carefully in the closet and shoes preferably in the closet too. Although communicating these expectations with your fellow traveller is important to ensure that both needs and wants are accommodated, but it'll definitely be so much easier with a fellow travelee that follows the same rules, this of course negates those who are messy but fun to travel with, you guys are the only few exceptions.

#3 THE ADVENTUROUS FOODIE, OR THE SAFE DINER

It cannot be denied that food is the one thing that brings people together and often a huge reason why people travel to a country (think Bangkok and Hong Kong). However, the glorious quest for food is not for everyone – divisions can happen if one traveller is a foodie and the other is not. 

We all know that one person who wants to put a live octopus tentacle in his/her mouth and wash it down with a cup of crushed crickets deep fried to perfection just moments before. However, while some of us have the industrious palette of Bear Grylls, it is important to remember that not everyone has the same taste. Some of us are much safer diners – we prefer to stay within our comfort zones and going for familiar food choices. 

Remember that not everybody shares the same sense of curiosity in food, and that if you are a foodie who is out to seek out a culinary adventure, it is best to bring along someone who’d appreciate a good food hunt. Finding out and deciding how far one is willing to travel for that sumptuous, glistening bowl of udon is the key in this situation. Nothing spoils a trip more than an unwilling party. 

Things other than the cuisine can sour the meal as well. For example, splitting the bill evenly down to the last decimal point may scratch the inner OCD itch in some of us, where others prefer not to deal with the nitty-gritty.

 

I can travel exclusively just for culinary delights. Although eating a live octopus is bordering close to the limits of my adventurous side, I'd probably do it and regret it, but leave with a memorable moment and not-too-appetizing experience that I have gained in life. I do prefer to go for quality food that is reputable, delicious, well-made and I know that I cannot get back home in Brisbane.

My palette of course is no match for Bear Gryll's, but I can manage and prefer to to go out of my comfort zone to try different and new things. I'd travel far and wide to find that sumptuous, glistening bowl of ramen, of which is one of my favourite dishes.

It's always interesting for me to learn as much about what I am eating, especially if it's special, delicately and carefully prepared and cooked, and this may include asking what specific potato's they may use (I did actually ask this when visiting the Mad Spuds Cafe in Sydney for a brunch with my friend where I ordered the Mad Spud Stack which was a crispy potato cake with haloumi, avocado, roast onion, spud skins, sweet potato and mint yoghurt) as shown below.

.. and just for your information they were using the King Edward Potato, a commonly available potato with fluffy texture that was sourced from local farms in Robertson on the Southern Highlands of NSW, which give the potatoes a robust unique flavour.

#4 THE ZEN BEN, OR WHINY NELLY

Murphy’s Law states that what may go wrong, will go wrong. Sadly, this particular adage won’t be far from the truth especially in any travelogue. When travelling to a new place for the first time, the possibility of getting lost, boarding the wrong train or missing that ticketed ferry-ride are all very real nightmares. 

This is when having a travel partner who possesses a calm and composed character, coupled with the ability to think rationally in unexpected situations, helps. The last thing anyone would want when lost in a foreign land is a travel partner complaining and whining about the whole situation without offering any solutions.

This one isnt' too surprising for me. I am well-known for my calm and composed character, but looks can be deceiving as I'm generally quite passive by nature, but once things do cross the line, I do speak my mind and try to alleviate any issues that of a repeat nature. 

But things to note is that there no absolutely not benefit to complain about an issue, unless there's a reason to do so in a manner that allows both parties to resolve on the topic of the issue that is being complained. Obviously there's better approaches to notify, let your friend know rather than complain. 

#5 THE WIDE-EYED, OR THE UNIMPRESSED

 

It is often said that the journey is less important than the destination, and for good reason. Compressing a part of your life into a suitcase and carting it off to a destination unknown is all about taking the paths you would not usually travel. 

Travelling with someone who has an inescapable sense of wonderment makes even the most mundane and routine tasks, such as catching the bus to the stop nearest to your hotel, a real joy. Such wide-eyed travellers make for good companions for someone who shares the same enthusiasm for travelling. On the other hand, if your travel partner is one who lacks any sense of intrigue and is blinkered to the joy of discovery, it can be quite a dampener. 

Making a careful choice of who to travel with helps to make your much-anticipated holiday more enjoyable. However, as John Steinback aptly puts, “A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.’’ It is important to realize that we cannot control everything and things do go wrong when we travel.
In a trip as such, travel partners need to give each other a bit of room for imperfections and flaws, and be a little more accommodating to our travel partner’s idiosyncrasies. The best thing we can do for ourselves is to take things in our stride, and try to make the best out of our holiday vacation.

As a wide-eyed traveller with an inescapable sense of wonderment from every interaction and every unique new thing that I encounter and an unimaginable sense of curiosity and drive to seek new experiences and pleasures, I simply do not enjoy travelling with humdrums, whiners and complainers who easily unimpressed or believe that they know things better. Enjoy the moment, make most of it and most importantly, carpe diem.

How To Rescue A Boring Conversation

When you're trying to have a conversation with someone you just met, and the conversation is not getting off the ground, what’s a good topic or question to bring up to try to get some momentum going? Sometimes I find myself talking to people and simply not knowing what to say next, after the usual small-talk topics have been exhausted.

Thank you for your question.

When next you find yourself in this awkward spot, try a time-tested line: “I’m going to refresh my drink. May I get you anything?” Never fails. Making your way to or from the bar or the fridge, you can allow yourself to get swept up by a warmer current of chitchat and then simply drop off your interlocutor's drink without picking up the thread. This is how to ditch a bore while earning his appreciation. And if you strike out — if your ploy doesn’t yield an upgrade — at least you and your new acquaintance will have something better to do with your mouths than to timidly grouse about the weather.

I don't mean to issue a blanket condemnation of meteorological murmurings. One good reason to talk about the weather is that weather is sometimes bad: Shared hatred and mutual disgust make excellent crucibles of connection, as any good demagogue will tell you. Another good reason to shoot the breeze about the breeze is to take the temperature of a stranger’s temperament and to place his station by working through a classically noncontroversial topic.

The early stages of a conversation are, consciously and otherwise, about determining your interlocutor’s rank and asserting your own. This is human nature, as you will recognize if you learned the least bit of anthropology in college, whether by listening to lectures, studying your peers at room parties, or eavesdropping on visiting professors’ intrigues while working a job at the faculty club.

Entering a conversation with a stranger, one’s first impulse is to speak in a way that maximizes the potential for romantic enchantment, career advancement, status enhancement, so on. Fears and desires are evident in grammar, diction, vocabulary, and elocution, as Paul Fussell discussed in 1983’s "Class: A Guide Through the American Status System." Dismissing Alexis de Tocqueville’s naive belief that this country’s political organization “would largely efface social distinctions in language and verbal style,” Fussell wrote:

Actually, just because the country’s a democracy, class distinctions have developed with greater rigor than elsewhere, and language, far from coalescing into one great central mass without social distinctions, has developed even more egregious class signals than anyone could have expected. There’s really no confusion in either language or society, as ordinary people here are quite aware. Interviewed by sociologists, they indicate that speech is the main way they estimate a stranger’s social class when they first encounter him.

But if you do this, you will have become an active, attractive listener. Cultivate the rare talent for “eloquent silence” described, in 1842, by one Orlando Sabertash, author of one of the countless guides titled "The Art of Conversation":

 [The] man who listens with easy attention to the saddest prosing, — who delights the speaker with the impression his words seem to produce: this man, who only throws in an assenting smile, puts a single, well-timed question, or expresses a doubt, certain of being easily removed, — is the man of real genius, a sort of nonpareil in fact, and the rarest of all apparitions in modern society.

I am going on this detour to mimic the swerve of an engaging conversationalist on a provocative tangent — and also to say that the sooner you consciously acknowledge this truth of casual conversation, the sooner you’ll make peace with it; to remind you that there are steep odds against adults carrying on certain kinds of conversations across class lines; and to remark that it is amusing, when chatting with members of the petite bourgeoisie, to stay on the lookout for the euphemisms and Europeanisms and aspirational ennoblements that distinguish what Fussell calls “the middle-class quest for grandeur and gentility.” What’s the difference between a lawyer and an attorney? The latter, introducing himself as such, believes that the extra syllable confers an extra degree of fancy-schmanciness.

May I trace a reciprocal of the tangent? (As I say—as the Encyclopédia Moderne said — “Conversation is not a regular attack on any particular point, but a ramble at hazard through a spacious garden.”) “What do you do?” is not a great question. We all resort to it, granted, and it is no longer widely considered crass and vulgar, but it’s a bit dull, and it has a way of taking the bloom off the roses in the garden.

“What do you do?” points toward an old sin of American talk. One throughline of Stephen Miller’s 2006 book "Conversation: A History of a Declining Art" concerns the dreariness of talking about work. In the middle, Miller studies Charles Dickens’ remark that the U.S. “is a place where the pleasures of conversations are rare, mainly because the ‘love of trade’ makes Americans narrowly self-interested” and also quotes Gustave de Beaumont, Tocqueville’s road-trip buddy, noting that “American men are occupied with but one single thing, their business.”

Near the end, Miller observes that American advice on conversation has frequently proceeded from the careerist example of Dale Carnegie’s "How to Win Friends and Influence People": “Carnegie thinks of conversation as instrumental. The title of the book is misleading. The book is not about winning friends.”

To win a friend — or, at the very least, to gather data that will enrich your appreciation of the human comedy — you should ask something like “What are you excited about?” — which is nice and wide and cheerful. Just thinking about tomorrow clears away the cobwebs, you know.

To say, “What are you looking forward to this fall?” invites the other party to remark on enthusiasms and travel plans and hopes and dreams, and it allows him his choice of a momentous or delightfully trivial answer. He looks into the future while you look into his eyes.

It will be your duty, in this joint improvisation, to ask good follow-up questions. It will be your pleasure to reveal something of yourself — the slant of your curiosity, the cast of your mind — by drawing him out and encouraging a self-portrait.

Remember: Within many a superficially boring person, there is an interesting person waiting, all too patiently, to get out. Sometimes, to access the inner person, you have to probe as much as tact will allow — or even to prod, in the manner of a reporter or a shrink or a hiker poking a forest-dwelling furball with a stick to see if it’s alive. 

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-rescue-a-boring-conversation-2014-8?IR=T

2015

=============== 2015 NEWS YEARS RESOLUTION ===============

This is my New Years Resolution of things that I want to achieve. This will require things I will achieve rather than should. This will require commitment and discipline. Goals and more goals. This is my own resolution. This resolution will motivate and invigorate me. This will resonate closely with my values and long-term plans. 

This years theme will be 'objective driven' towards the idealized image. 

The idealized image being: Eudaimonia Happiness  

Overarching Ideologies 

Productiveness and Effectivness

Determination, Discipline and Focus 

Utilitarianism, Positvism and Respect 

Conscientiousness and Objectiveness 

Prominence and Leadership 

General Health, Lifestyle and Well Being 

Wake up with goals to do each day. Write them down. 

Complete those goals. 

Go to sleep reflecting on effectiveness and potential strategies over goals.

Begin food log - general eating

Begin fitness plan - general fitness

Career and Work

Always approach work with grit and determination, work twice as hard

Academia and Research

Continuous intellectual engagement, increasing the drive to engage in idea, rational thought and search for truth

Seek to learn three new words a week 

Finance 

Keep track of net worth - as indicator towards financial independence (asset vs. liabilities)

Consistent saving of 74%

Savvy investment 10%

Everyday spending 16%

Spend less to enjoy it more (focus on value of money bringing true happiness)

Be aware of buyers remorse / avoid emotional purchases 

Maintain emergency fund of six months of expenses 

Morals and Values 

Leave behind smiles and positivism behind every interaction. 

Always determined, in face of adversity, push forth, remain disciplined, remain calm

Remain pragmatic and realistic in everyday matters and goals 

Further affective engagement to investigate emotions as a poet does 

Hobbies 

Herb Gardening

Bonsai Tree

Socializing

Public Speaking

Blogging and Writing 

Philosophy, Science and History

Photography 

Cooking

Skills 

Furthering aesthetic engagement, the emotional absorption of artistic and cultural stimuli from finding beauty as a painter does

Prioritization, prioritization and prioritization 

**

In summary, all these can be accomplished with the best weapon of determination.