The Do’s & Don’ts Of a Dinner Date

Photo by freeparking

Almost every date involves taking a woman out to eat. It is not only fun, but offers a perfect opportunity to show your date your manners and character. Below are a few of the do’s and don’ts of dinner dates. If you do the do’s, you’re guaranteed to impress your date and score a second one with her. If you do the don’ts, she won’t be returning your calls.

Do’s

• Open the door for your date and pull out her chair for her.
• Place your napkin on your lap.
• Break off a chunk of bread to butter it instead of buttering one huge slice.
• Come prepared with interesting conversation topics to discuss.
• Say thank you to the waiter each time he or she brings you an item.
• Pre-bus the table to make the waiter’s job easier. (This shows you respect those in the service industry.)
• Pay for the whole bill, and make it obvious you are going to do so to avoid an awkward conversation.
• Leave a generous tip. A tip speaks volumes about your character.

Don’ts

• Wear a ball cap during the dinner. You shouldn’t be wearing one at all, but if you are, take it off when you enter the restaurant.
• Chew with your mouth open.
• Make the waiter’s job difficult with anal orders and requests.
• Obviously check out other women

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How To Survive a Bear Attack

According to Stephen Colbert, bears are the number one threat to America today. Sure, bears look cute when they’re rummaging through a garbage can looking for food, but don’t let their cuteness lull you into carnal security. Bears are “godless killing machines.”

While bear attacks are rare, a man should always be prepared for a bear attack. You never know when you’ll need this information.

How you handle a bear attack depends on the type of bear you encounter- grizzly or black bear. So the first step in surviving a bear attack is to know what kind you’re up against.

Grizzly Bear Dossier

Color: Medium to dark brown
Body Shape: The Grizzly bears has distinct shoulder hump. This is a muscle used for digging roots and slashing prey with their massive bear paw.
Height: The grizzly bear average around 6.5 ft in height
Claws: Grizzly claws are long. They can usually be seen from a distance
Location: Grizzlies are mostly found in Canada. However, populations exist from Alaska and into portions of the northwest United States including Washington, Idaho, the Dakotas, and Montana.

How to Survive A Grizzly Attack

1. Carry bear pepper spray. Experts recommend that hikers in bear country carry with them bear pepper spray. UDAP bear pepper spray is a highly concentrated capsaicin spray that creates a large cloud. This stuff will usually stop a bear in it’s tracks.
2. Don’t run. When you run, the bear thinks you’re prey and will continue chasing you, so stand your ground. And don’t think you can out run a bear. Bears are fast. They can reach speeds of 30 mph. Unless you’re an Olympic sprinter, don’t bother running.
3. Drop to the ground in the fetal position and cover the back of your neck with your hands. If you don’t have pepper spray or the bear continues to charge even after the spray, this is your next best defense. Hit the ground immediately and curl into the fetal position.
4. Play dead. Grizzlies will stop attacking when they feel there’s no longer a threat. If they think you’re dead, they won’t think you’re threatening. Once the bear is done tossing you around and leaves, continue to play dead. Grizzlies are known for waiting around to see if their victim will get back up.

Black Bear Dossier

Color: Black bears exhibit a variety of colors ranging from black to light blond.
Body shape: Black bears don’t have the hump that Grizzlies have
Height: Black bears are slightly smaller than Grizzlies
Claws: Black bear claws are shorter than Grizzly claws.
Location: Black bears are the most common bear in North America. They live in all the providences of Canada and 41 and of the 50 American states.

How to Survive a Black Bear Attack

1. Carry bear pepper spray. As with the grizzly bear, bear pepper spray should be your first line of defense in a bear attack.
2. Stand your ground and make lots of noise. Black bears often bluff when attacking. If you show them you mean business, they may just lose interest.
3. Don’t climb a tree. Black bears are excellent climbers. Climbing up a tree won’t help you out here.
4. Fight back. If the black bear actually attacks, fight back. Use anything and everything as a weapon- rocks, sticks, fists, and your teeth. Aim your blows on the bears face- particularly the eyes and snout. When a black bear sees that their victim is willing to fight to the death, they’ll usually just give up.

Disclaimer

The Art of Manliness does not encourage people to go out and find a bear to practice these skills with. Practicing on your significant other will not do either.

Sources:

MountainNature

Run The Planet

National Parks Service

Poll: Which Presidential Candidate Is The Most Manly?

In honor of tomorrow’s Florida Republican Primary and “Super Tuesday” next Tuesday, I thought it would be interesting to see which candidate people thought was the most manly. Please vote and comment WHY you think your candidate is the most manly. Do you think the electorate is attracted to manly candidates? If yes, what does that mean for a woman candidate like Hilary?

Should classrooms be segregated by gender?

• Yes
• No
• Undecided

View Results

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How To Give an Impressive Handshake

I’m in law school right now and As a future attorney, I’ll be shaking lots of hands: clients, potential clients, other attorneys, and judges. During that brief contact with that person, they’re going to form opinions of me. My handshake could give them the impression that I’m warm person or cold and aloof.

Maybe my handshake indicates that I’m an overbearing jerk or a wimpy McWimpsalot. We want a handshake that creates a favorable impression. We’re going to talk about how to do that.

There are three keys to a successful handshake

1. How you do it
2. When you do it
3. Where you do it

How you do it

• Make sure your handshake is firm, not a dead fish grip. However, you don’t want to crush the other person’s hand.
• Make sure you don’t have food or grease on your hands. You want the person to remember you, not what you ate.
• If your hands are sweaty, give them a quick nonchalant wipe on your pants.
• When you off your hand, look the person in the eye and smile.

When you do it

Handshakes involve timing. Many people avoid offering handshakes because they’re afraid of being left hanging. If you’re not sure if someone will notice your offer, extend the handshake anyways. Most of the time people will notice your handshake offer and quickly grasp your hand.

Be aware of different social customs. Most cultures have different customs for shaking hands. Some find it inappropriate for a man to shake a woman’s hand and some cultures find shaking hands completely unacceptable. Be sensitive to these situations.

What if you’re left hanging?

I hate when this happens. I always feel dumb, especially when everyone but the person with whom you were trying to shake hands saw the rejection. Don’t feel embarrassed. The problem isn’t that the other person doesn’t think you’re important, you’re timing was just off.

• Don’t offer a handshake if the other person is engrossed in conversation with someone else.
• Don’t approach someone from the side with your extended hand. It’s hard to see.
• Do audibly greet the person first to get their attention and then offer your hand.

Where to do it

Handshakes are good every where. Make sure to shake plenty of hands when you go to a social gathering. Make sure to shake the hosts’ hand when arriving and leaving the gathering.

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Lessons In Manliness From Gladiator

There’s a reason men (and women) loved “Gladiator.” The main character Maximus Decimus Meridius is the epitome of manliness. Here are four lessons on manliness that we can learn from him.

Read more

The Art Of Manliness Weekly Roundup: There Will Be Blood Edition

There Will Be Blood is finally playing where I live and I can’t wait to see it. The film follows a turn of the century silver miner who becomes a self-made oil tycoon wildcatting in the California desert. The film captures perfectly what greed and capitalism taken to the extreme can do to a man. Daniel Day-Lewis plays the lead character and is up for an Oscar nomination. I hope he gets. He’s already been jipped an Oscar for his portrayal of Bill the Butcher in Gangs of New York.

Now for some interesting links.

Hemingway Boxing Workout Ernest Hemingway was a boxer first and a writer second. Find out how you can develop the fighting spirit with this short boxing workout. (@ mens health)

License to Thrill: Dress Like James Bond Every man at some point in his life imagines what it would be like to be James Bond. This post provides suggestions on how you can get James Bond Look in Casino Royale. What I liked about the post is that many of the suggestions were actually affordable. (@ just a guy thing)

If You Makes These Mistakes, You’ll End Up Quitting This post discusses the various reasons people can’t stick to a workout routine. I’ve made a few of these mistakes before and every time I did it was factor in me not creating the workout habit. Thankfully, I’ve learned from my mistakes. (@ muscle circuit)

7 Powerful Steps to Overcoming Resistance and Actually Getting Stuff Done This past week I was not in the mood to get anything done. I sat in a state of inertia. Leo from Zen Habits offers some great advice to help you get out of a rut. (@ zen habits)

How Being The Perfect Gentleman Will Make Her Want You More Here at the Art of Manliness, we support resurrecting the lost art of being a gentleman. This post is a nice reminder of things a man can do to show a woman he respects her. If you haven’t already, make sure to download The Art of Manliness FREE Guide to Being a Gentleman in 2008. ( @ just a guy thing)

Generation Y: Soften Your Change to Succeed Generation Y is full bright people who like to come in and change things. However, in their zeal to be agents of change, they often shoot themselves shoot by being too zealous. The Boomers are still in charge. If you piss them off, your efforts will be wasted. This post offers a few tips on what you can do to be an agent of change without being pegged a know-it all whipper snapper. (@ newly corporate)

Rules on the Proper Wearing of Socks

At a company training meeting a few months ago, I was introduced to a new co-worker. This guy was extremely motivated and on the ball. I was pretty impressed with him, until I looked down and saw that he was wearing white socks with a pair of dark dress slacks. Maybe it’s superficial, but at that moment this guy’s credibility as a sharp shooter and go-getter entirely evaporated. I suddenly saw Steve Erkle standing in front of me. Other people at the meeting noticed as well, and got a laugh out of it. No one took the guy seriously.

You don’t want to be this guy. If you want to impress people, you have to pay attention to the details. It doesn’t matter if you’ve put together an awesome outfit; if you don’t have the right socks, you spoil your whole look.

To help you not sabotage your image or credibility like the guy at the meeting, follow these simple rules when selecting which kind of sock to wear with your ensembles.

Wear dress socks with dress shoes

Don’t try to wear athletic socks with dress shoes even if the socks are black. Athletic socks are thicker than dress socks and don’t match the refined style of dress shoes. If you try wearing gym socks with a pair of dress shoes, they’ll bunch out over the shoe and look goofy. Stick to dress socks. The thin material feels nice on your foot and looks sharp.

With jeans there’s a little more wiggle room. Preferably, you should have dark socks even with denim, but you can get away with wearing gym socks with jeans.

Sock color should match your pants, not your shoes.

This is a rule that many people are confused about. I’ve heard numerous arguments about whether you should match socks with shoes or socks with pants. You should always match socks with pants because when you sit down and your socks are exposed, you want a solid line of color from your pants to your shoes. Socks that don’t match your pant color create a jarring break in your outfit. So black socks go with black pants and brown socks go with brown pants. Absolutely and under no condition should you ever wear white socks with dark pants unless you want to look like Steve Erkle or 1980’s Michael Jackson.

No socks with sandals or shorts

The goofiest thing is to see people who wear socks with sandals. Society’s ability to take you seriously will be reduced to zero if you do this. Sandals were designed to be worn with bare feet, so please, do not wear socks with sandals.

Socks with shorts should be avoided as well. Wearing socks with shorts visually makes your legs look shorter. If you need to wear socks while wearing shorts, invest in some ankle socks that aren’t visible when you wear you sneakers.

Novelty socks are for elementary school teachers

No man should own a pair of orange novelty socks that say “Boo!” on them and are adorned with little bats. The only excuse you have for wearing these is if you’re an elementary school teacher named Mrs. Heart. Keep you sock collection simple and classic and you’ll never go wrong.

3 Lame Excuses For Not Saving

It’s common knowledge that if you want to be wealthy, you have to save and invest. But looking at statistics, it seems this knowledge is becoming less and less common. In 2005, the United States recorded a negative savings rate for the first time since the Great Depression. We live in one of the most prosperous times in the history of the world, yet we’re not saving. Why?

Well, here’s a short list of lame excuses that people give to justify not saving.

1. I’ll do it later. This is a common excuse among young people and probably the lamest. A young person in their 20s thinks “I’ve got 60 years to save money. I need to enjoy myself now.”  If you’re in your 20’s, NOW is the time to save. You have plenty of time to let the magic of compound interest grow your wealth. Start young and you can save less and still make more money in the long run than if you started to save later.

To give you an example of the power of compound interest, consider two different people- Jack and Jill. They’re both 22 years old and both have an extra $2,000 a year. Jack takes his extra $2,000 and socks it away in a IRA Account with a 12% return. Jill on the other hand spends her $2,000.

Jack saves $2,000 a year for 6 years and doesn’t save a dime after that.  Jill spends her extra $2,000 a year for 6 years, but decides she should start thinking about the future. She finally opens up an IRA account with the same 12% interest that Jack gets. She invests $2,000 each year until she’s 65. The chart below shows the value of Jack and Jill’s respective accounts when they’re 22 years old. Remember that Jack only invested $12,000 while Jill invested $74,000.

Age	Jack	Jill
22	$2,240	$0
23	4,509	0
24	7,050	0
25	9,896	0
26	13,083	0
27	16,653	0
28	18,652	2,240
29	20,890	4,509
30	23,397	7,050
35	41,233	25,130
40	72,667	56,993
45	128,064	113,147
50	225,692	212,598
55	397,746	386,516
60	700,965	693,879
65	1,235,339	1,235,557

They ended up with the same amount, but Jack saved less. Imagine how much Jack would have he kept saving $2,000 a year after the first six years. Whoa! He would have been a millionaire a couple times over.

2 . I don’t make enough money.  If you earn a paycheck, you earn enough to save. It doesn’t have to be much. Start off small. Sock away 5% of any income you make into a high yield savings account. You’ll be amazed how little contributions can add up quickly. Gradually work your savings up to 15% of your income. Whenever you get a windfall like Christmas gifts or a tax return, put half in the bank. With slow, gradual saving you’ll find yourself with a small fortune.

3. I deserve a little luxury in my life. Many people sabotage their savings plans by taking the money and splurging on stuff they don’t need. Usually the justification is they’ve worked hard and deserve the splurge. I’m battling this excuse in my life right now. I really want to buy a Macbook. I have the money for it and could easily go to the Apple Store and buy one. I justify the excuse by telling myself I’ve earned it from the hard work I’ve done and the sacrifices I’ve made saving. But do I really want to lose $1,000 in savings for something I don’t really need? No way.

Instead of looking at “things” as luxuries, think of saving as a luxury. When you save, you’re giving yourself the luxury of financial freedom. How nice would it be to not have to worry about money? Pretty dang awesome.

What some other lame excuses that you hear people give for not saving money? Drop a line in the conversation box and add to the conversation.

How to Open a Stuck Jar Lid

It’s Sunday afternoon and you are sitting in your man chair, in your man robe, reading your man newspaper. It’s your wife’s turn to cook today. (That’s right. You share in the cooking duties at your house. Manly men know how to cook. Especially meat.) To keep things simple, she’s whipping up some spaghetti and a nice side salad to go with it. And then you hear it: “Dear, I can’t get the lid to the spaghetti sauce jar to open. It’s stuck. Can you open it for me?”

Are you ready for moments like these? Here are five techniques to show off your man skills and open a stuck jar lid every time.

1. Brute force. This technique simply requires you to use your manly strength to twist open the jar lid. You get extra points if you do it without the assistance of a rag.

2. Wrap the lid in a dish towel or rubber glove. If brute force doesn’t work, give your self some extra traction by wrapping the lid in dish rag, or better yet, a rubber glove.

3. Break the vacuum seal. If the bottle is new and still vacuumed sealed, breaking the seal makes the lid easier to open. You can do this by using a bottle opener and pulling the lid away from the jar.

4. Run the lid under hot water. Running the lid under hot water for a minute will cause the metal to expand so the lid comes off more easily.

5. Tap the lid with a spoon. Sometimes food gets stuck in the lid which in turn causes the lid to get stuck. Give the lid a few quick taps on the side with a spoon in order to dislodge any food.

Image by How Can I Recycle This?

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Get Bigger & Stronger with Stronglifts.com

The market is saturated with materials on exercise and fitness. Books, magazines, and videos all promise that they have the newest and most effective workouts that will turn you from a chump to a champ. Unfortunately, most of the stuff is crap and it makes your life more complicated than it needs to be.

Thankfully, there is a site dedicated to promoting a no frills workout that produces results. StrongLifts.com is authored by a guy named Mehdi from Belgium.

Every week, Mehdi offers great advice on strength training, nutrition, and motivation. However, the core of StrongLifts.com is the StrongLifts 5×5 workout. The routine consists of simple exercises that are designed to increase your strength, increase your muscle, and reduce your body fat.

Why every man should use the StrongLifts 5×5 Workout

1. You don’t need much equipment for the StrongLifts workout. Just a gym that has some barbells, plates, a bench, a power rack (for squats), and pull up and dip bars. That’s it. No machines, no girly rubber balls, and no elastic cables.

2. Moreover, the exercises themselves are simple. You’re doing basic strength training lifts like the squat, bench press, and deadlift. You won’t be doing any complicated or awkward moves. Just the tried and true exercises that have been proven to work for decades. And the set and reps formula is elementary: 5X5=5 sets of 5 reps each.

3. Each workout works your whole body and consists of compound exercises that hit multiple muscles at the same time. This is the best and most efficient way to lift weights. Many men’s magazines show you exercises designed to isolate a specific muscle. This is inefficient and a waste of time. The more muscles you activate in a workout, the stronger you will get and the more fat you will burn.

4. You get results. The workout is designed so you can push yourself and get stronger and leaner each week. Each workout out you’ll be adding a small amount of weight. Before you know it, you’ll be bench pressing cars over your head. Because strength training increases muscles and muscle burns more fat, you’ll also get leaner. After a couple of months with this workout and a proper diet, you can kiss your belly and man boobs goodbye.

My Results Using the StrongLifts 5×5

To give you an idea how effective the workout is, here are my results after doing the StrongLifts 5×5 for four weeks:

• My body weight has stayed the same (190 lbs), but my body fat percentage has gone down 4%
• I’ve increased my bench press 5×5: 155 lbs to 5×5: 190 lbs. An increase of 35 lbs.
• I’ve increased my squat from 5×5: 190 lbs to 5×5: 245 lbs. An increase of 55 lbs.
• I’ve gone from being able to do 1 stinking pull-up to being able to do 6.

The last time I was putting up weight like this was seven years ago when I played high school football. The way things are going now, I’m confident I can surpass what I lifted back then. My entire body is also toning up in general. Despite not doing any isolated exercises, my body is getting bigger and more defined.

Time to get crackin’

Are you ready to man up your workout routine? Head on over to StrongLifts.com right now. Yes, right now. Subscribe to their RSS feed or email updates, so you’ll get their latest strength training tips and, best of all, their FREE ebook on How to Build Muscle & Lose Fat Through Strength Training. It’s 55 pages full of useful information.

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