You Go Cam!

Why The “IKEA Effect” is Making Us Miserable?

In his book “The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic”, Dan Ariely tells about the “IKEA Effect” as “the increase in valuation of self-made products. Participants saw their amateurish creations – of both utilitarian and hedonic products – as similar in value to the creations of experts, and expected others to share their opinions”

It is the last part of the definition I’d like to talk about. “and expect others to share their opinions”.

We all love what we make and find ourselves baffled by our surroundings lack of interest or in other words WHY DOESN’T EVERYBODY SEE I'M THE BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD!!!!?????

You know the feeling when you post a picture of the omelet you made on Facebook, a tree in autumn on Instagram, had the cleverest insight on Twitter or wrote the best blog post ever, you press “send” and wait… and wait… and then your mom really “likes” it. How come our mind makes us feel whatever we make is god’s gift to men?

Really thought the Vatican would buy it.
From @jonrudas

If you read some of my posts you noticed I too sin in the DIY here and there and more than once I found myself posting something I thought was genius but didn’t get the traction I expected. Or giving a handmade gift only to realize no one uses it. It is devastating.

Is the problem with me or the rest of the world? Of course the rest of the world suck and wouldn’t know the next Da-Vinci if he drops on his head but I must realize there is a slim chance I'm not the hot potato I imagine myself to be. And that goes to the rest of you.

Well.. this post is not about getting too much into details. For that you’ll have to read the book.  All I'm saying is you must recognize at some point no one attaches the same value you do to your “Paris-London” FB album although it looks like you’re holding the Eiffel Tower with your finger.

The sooner you’ll realize that the sooner you’re therapy costs will drop.

FYI, people who spend their lives thinking they are good as they think and expect everybody around them to feel the same are called “Drama Queens” or Douchbags artists.  

Mega Vintage 16-Bit

When I was 10 or so I’ve worked the whole summer as a delivery boy for the local shop. I wanted to save 150$ so I can buy the brand new SEGA MegaDrive (16 bit).

I had it all. The Atari, the first MegaDrive, the first Nintendo…

By the time the X-box and PlayStation were introduced I have long abandoned my passion for gaming. It just got so complicated and frustrating to follow.

So imagine my happiness when I found these games FOR SALE at my local store. I can’t really put my finger to which console they match but it is good to know some things last.

All pics taken with Camera+

BTW I still have a working 16-bit MegaDrive ready for use although my mom wants to throw it out.

I just have nowhere to plug it to. 

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The Price of Milking It

I’ll always remember the month I spent travelling the Australian Gold Coast as one of the greatest in my life. Some friends and I rented a place in Byron Bay, surfed every day surrounded by easy going people and always had the fridge stacked with bacon and fruits. 

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

One of the major concerns on the average backpacker’s mind is food. Especially if you’re a big guy who’s used eating around six meals per day. The local supermarket (HomeBrand I think it was called) had this great thing where after 21:00pm they would sell grilled chicken for half price. No need to tell you I was starting to look like a grilled something by the time I left. 

This was in the beginning of 2004 when I was just a stupid kid (later became a stupid adult) without any professional education or real understanding of the market forces. But this grilled chicken thing will follow me every time I’ll walk into any grocery store.

Stop Playing With Your Food

I hate waste, especially when it comes to food. My father in his endless wisdom always said food was for eating and was appalled by the concept of “food fight” or any other use of food other but eating it.

The first thing my Economics professor taught me was how prices are determined by supply and demand. In other words, people will present a certain demand for a product at any given price. Since then I can’t help to think about that Aussie grilled chicken every time I go out to buy some milk.

How come a box of milk with an expiration date due in a week cost the same as milk which expires in another two weeks?

 Basically they are not the same product. The value each milk box brings me is different. One has double the value of the other. The demand for week old milk is far lower than the demand for fresh milk but still they both cost the same. Does that sound right to you?

My suggestion is simple; once a dairy, meat, Vegetable or any expire-able product is close to the end of its shelf life, just cut the prices accordingly and trust me – it will be sold.

Once the price drops -> demand goes up. Especially for such basic goods. Simple as that.

I just fixed the food retail world with my awesomeness. How about that?

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The Threesome Golden Ratio

Warning: the following text is written in the mind of a dumb college kid so if you’re looking for smart, mature and interesting articles go here.

Scaling

Yes, guys rate girls. We do it all the time almost like breathing. There are many different scales and it varies between cultures, countries, schools, generations and so on. But all will agree the most classic and universal rating system is the 1-10 scale.

Guys know girls rate us but unlike girls, every guy knows more or less where he stands on the scale. Mainly by experience of the girls he dates or “hook up” with along the way.

If a guy constantly goes out with 7-8 girls he knows that’s where he is and he will usually leave the 5’s and 10’s for others.

Don't be a hater

Another (unsurprising) fact about guys is we all espier to share our bed with two women at once during the course of our lifetime at least once. Not an easy task if you found yourself on the outside of the hardcore porn industry.

Most will say it’s a childish mission and they are right. But still we all think about it. Most of us never accomplish it and when we grow up it just adds to the list of stupid things we wanted to do together with driving at 250 km/h on the freeway and a “Mother” tattoo.

If you still feel like you can’t let go of the dream and you won’t give up, the next formula should at least help you wrap your head around it.

The Formula

This formula should not be taken seriously and is not to be viewed as sex guideline.

If you’re one of those guys who can’t let go of this goal you will probably have to make some adjustments to your rating system.

Let’s say you’re an 8’s guy. All your life you had great success with 8’s and from time to time you find yourself with a 9 or a 7. Can you really imagine you will succeed getting nasty with two 8’s?! That’s like 16!! But of course you won’t like to hook up with two 5’s as it’s too obvious.

Introducing the Threesome Golden Ratio:

If Z = your rating (1,10)

And; X,Y = girl’s ratings (1,10)

Than;

1.5*Z ≤ X+Y

Example: If you are an 8, the sum of the two girl’s ratings should be 8*1.5=12 or higher. It can be two 6’s or a 7 and a 5. You got the point.

Good luck dudes.

For my final words I’ll just mention that although it seems cool and all, wasting your energy on this kind of shit is stupid. You should be grateful if even one girl chooses to spend any time with you.

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NYC Researches Find New Species of Humans

“That is a groundbreaking discovery” Say the research director.

“We never imagined such species exist. It really gives hope to many Jewish guys out there”

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Which group is watching a military operation and which group watches soccer?

I just had to

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Meta Smell or Duty-Whiffing

Ever since I accidently ate bad whip cream as a child, I smell everything before I eat it. The experience was so awful and scarring I keep working and improving my sense of smell if only to never eat expired dairy again. Plus I got a fairly large yet strong nose so it helps.

When I found myself killing time in the duty free shops in between flights I was amazed how much of my life is flashing before my eyes when I walk across the perfume shelf.

Anything can trigger it basically. It may attack you walking into a room, opening the car window, bumping into someone on the street, walking into a market, a restaurant, an elevator, the train or whatever. These small flashbacks catch us unprepared and paralyze us for a few seconds.

Each person, place and memory has a unique smell that is filed in our archives. For me at least it is very hard to remember a smell by memory but the opposite happens all the time. With a single whiff I can vividly feel the moment I last or first smelled a memory. 

I remember.. I remember!!!

The Nose Knows

The perfume shelf is basically a direct access point to these archived memories as they are filed by scent.

 

The smell of my first love which I haven’t thought of for a while, the smell my cousin wore at this wedding she danced with me and I wanted to puke, the perfume my grandmother sent me 15 years ago which I’ve never used, my grandfather’s after shave which meant I won’t itch after he gives me a thousand kisses, CK One just reminds me of everything happened between 91’-95’, the girl who left in the morning leaving only a hint, the one still sitting on the shelf in my late friend’s room, the old spice from my teen years, the one I used when I stayed the night and the one smell who seems to make my eyes work as well..

And then the airport’s McDonald’s smell.

Try it the next time around.

If you are anosmic I’m very sorry for this post.

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Apple - Coming Soon to ABC

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MTA Tribute or Take Me

As a native to a non-subway city when I came to New-York I couldn’t get enough of it. Well… I couldn’t get enough of it at first until I had enough.

But every ride was very educating. I think in any given time the subway represents the exact distribution of mankind. It’s like a small UN.

More than any social network, the public transportation system’s main goal is to connect people the best way it can. Of course there’s much to improve still but I always had some insight while cramming myself between a sea of sweaty people trying to fit in a shoe box.

What I realized is that every person is going to a different place for a different purpose but we still meet here sitting across from each other. It sounds a bit mundane but I love it.  

To thank the MTA for all those nice moments, I introduce to you here my campaign for the NYC public transportation system. 

Everybody is going somewhere

Take me to the money

How Easily

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Free Money!!! or Siri do I have your attention?

Utopia Disrupted

Wish it was that simple. I could just write whatever is on my mind, what bothers me or makes me happy and you would just read, share it with others, comment or contact me or just think about it for a little while.

But I’m just one person, a regular Joe if you will, among many others. So if I want someone else beside me and this woman from Texas to read it, I need to come up with an out-of-this-world title, wicked design, write like the bastard child of L. Cohen and Jerry Seinfeld and spread it like a virus so maybe someone would choose me over all the rest out there.

And there’s a lot to choose from. Every second of the day I face a 10 choice questionnaire of what to read, watch, and hear. It’s a bloody war and porn is winning.

Shave

Might Just Be the Manliest Product Ever

Jack Daniel's
Horseradish
Mustard
Yeah

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Everyday Dilemma – Why Can’t I Eat That Sandwich?

You know the story. It’s happened to all of us at least once. You go to a bar or a restaurant and while waiting for your food you notice the table next to you left an untouched plate of fries, half a sushi roll, half a sandwich or even some wine.

You gonna eat that bro?

You want this half of sandwich. You can’t take your mind off of it and you know the waiter is coming any second to take it and probably just throw it away. What is holding you from taking it? Do you worry about what people think? If you were alone would you take it? what is the big deal really? Is there suddenly too much food in the world that we just throw food away now? We know for a fact it is becoming harder for us to feed ourselves and that a big portion of the world lives in relative hunger so why is it so socially frowned upon to take food left by other people?

Level of Connectivity or The Most Astounding Fact

I was always into astronomy and astrophysics. If I was a bit smarter I might have pursued a career in the field.

You don't need to be a scientist to enjoy this short film. It is telling, most likely, about the most astounding fact. 

This feeling you have burning inside your body was actually born in the burning inside of a star. That is astounding

Plus, if you master this pitch you can totally get girls with it.  

A Call For Action: The Language Gap or Eat and Shut Up

I’ve being thinking about this post for a long time but my belief in the urgency of the matter made me wait for I think this should be discussed at a higher level or by a much more influential media than myself. I thought someone would pick up the torch and I could follow him. But it didn’t happen. Everybody just go around like there is nothing missing. So again it is up to the Regular Joe to deal with what really matters to us.

Although I’m not a native English speaker (as some of you saw fit to point out to me), English is still a language used by many. Any time a German, a French and a Zulu will sit down for lunch most likely they will talk in English. I love English and the decision to write in English was not just for popularity reasons. I find it easier sometimes to express myself in English thanks to its rich vocabulary (171,460 words more or less).

Also you can say the American culture, although some might say absent, has a great influence on all of us like it or not.

So how does a rich culture with such a beautiful language lack one important thing?

I’ll use an example: recently I had the pleasure to spend a few months in NYC. During that short time I went out to countless dinners sucking the city of its food supply. Every time I encountered with the problem of greeting my company before we start with all the eating.

Babeiation

There’s a phenomena I encountered as a young man when me and my friends became 16 in the mid 90’s. It was later given the name “Babeiation”.

Basically it means this; when a group of man hang out together, and it can be at home, a bar, a plane, a sinking boat, a hostage situation or basically any other forum, they are acting in a certain way.  It varies by culture, group, connections and types but let’s just call it “behavior Y”.

Once a female presents herself to the group, behavior Y ceases to exist and is replaced by what we call “behavior YX”.

 There is no way a male group will keep up with the same behavior with or without a female present.

“I always eat pizza with a knife and fork”

You can see it at home when some guys are watching football and act in a loose, free, no thought, and no filter manner until a girl walks in.
even if unnoticeable, each one of the group will change  his behavior in that instant. Some more than others but that is not the point. Even if each guy changes his behavior just by slight the ripples go long. The group is not the same. Even if it’s a girl they know forever and is married to their best friend.

Yeah, Ruling the world is soooooo hard!!
think she heard me?

Babeiation has different levels off course. The last example showed the mildest situation known. Think about the last time you went to the beach or a club with your friends and were surrounded by women. Did everyone act regularly? Didn’t you change even a bit the way you normally walk, talk or eat? Were you not more aware of yourself and the surroundings?

The level of Babeiation is determent by 4 factors:

• Volume – how many women are around you in a 10m radius?
• Intimacy – how close are you with the women? In the same table? Same plane? Waiting room? Club?
• Looks & attraction – how you find these women? Attractive? Good looking? In theory, when a group/male find his surrounding to be unattractive the Babeiation will be eliminated completely. Such a case never been measured yet.
• Coolness – How cool are you? Are your friends cool enough to hide the effect Babeiation has on them?

Cause & Effect

Why is this important to understand?

For guys it is important for personal and social reasons; personal reason of being aware to Babeiation can help you catch yourself on time and minimize its effect.  Social reason to help you figure out why your friends are starting to act like total morons all of a sudden.

Girls need to know about it for successfully assessing their effect on a guy or a group of guys. Does everyone around you walk straight, in slow motion and eating without using their hands? You made an effect. 

Dark Matter

We now know that most of the matter in the universe is dark matter. We cannot see it but we know it’s there by the effect it has on planets, orbits and everything out there. 

You don’t have to be a scientist to know women have physical and psychological power over men. Even if we still don’t completely understand it we need to keep measurements and documentation.   

So if you see your usually idiot, XBOX freak best friend sitting beneath a tree reading a book, you better stand up straight and tuck in your belly – there’s a babe around.

For more tips on how to save yourself from your own wild nature Subscribe to my Feed and for extra cool stuff check out my FB Page, follow me on Twitter and on Tumblr.

  

Airlines Logic or 1+1≠2

I love reading science and tech papers. People are doing amazing things all over the world; Reaching the speed of light, making fuel of droppings and bananas ,educating the developing world and much more. Just when I think we are making some kind of progress as a species I get to fly.

I won't bother you again with my thoughts about airlines and the changes the industry made in the past decade.

I did encountered a new phenomena in this trip though. 

After the tempetures continued to drop at NYC I decided to move myself to warmer grounds. I packed most of my worldly belongings in one suitcase so I knew it was heavy and was prepared to pay the overweight with a sense of understanding.

But when the ground crew lady calmly told me I need to pay 400$ for my overweight I was sure it's a joke. The flight ticket cost less then that.

Now get this, there was option B. the ground crew suggested I'll buy another bag, move some weight around and then just pay 40$ for a second bag..

Yeah..

That's how I felt..

Dazzled..

Confused.. 1+1=40 and 2=400 ?

I fight with weight all my life and from summer to summer but I was never more aware of my overweight like in that moment.

One bag with overweight is 400$ and 2 bags with the same total weight is 40$??!!

Why?

I just need an answer. Some reason that brings some sense to this crazy parallel universe called airlines.

Please, I beg of you, if you know anyone in the airline business, a pilot, a flight attendant, someone.. Pass this post to them.

One last thought. Don't buy an apartment, don't go to college, don't get vaccines. Just save for a privet jet. My new must have item for the free man.

"Look at me now Continental !"

Stupid Things Celebrities Say

In my intro post I mentioned I hate and love celebrities without knowing them. This sentence summarizes everything we feel about the whole celebrity phenomena. We have such strong feelings regarding these people we don’t even know and they don’t know us and usually we are just a bunch of idiots reading stuff other idiots told these idiots to say so some stupid paper can print it along with shocking headlines.

Look how good looking I am
 and I don't even care

I too have some celebrities I just love with no reason other than the editor picked their best shots to some movie and some celebrities I just hate with no good reason but I just do.

They always take everything so seriously.. you're only making movies! What I love the most is reading stupid things celebrities say. Who really believes this crap? Who’s buying it?

For example something like: “I just want to act. I hate the fame and the lack of privacy. I wish I was just a regular person”. How many times have you heard some young actor saying that accompanied by a shirtless picture of his new abs? Don’t like the fame? Go act on off off off Broadway one man shows! I promise you no one will ever hear your name again. Wanna be a regular person? Come fill in for me flipping burgers while I’ll go sex your supermodel girlfriend!

My father who has many celebrities as clients always told me “never get involved with a celebrity for they have no grey area. It’s either up or down”. A plumber can’t afford to be like that. He has real things to do.

I would marry the first guy who tell me a knock knock joke

You see!!! I just wanted to write a stupid, funny post about stupid things celebrities say and you got me rambling for an hour. That’s what they do to us!!!

Right after the Golden Globe and before Oscars season,

Here are some more typical gems celebrities say and their true meanings:

"No one would hit on me" – usually said by young actresses or bikini models

"I was an ugly kid" - usually said by an actor moments after he was named a sex symbol.

"I really relate to the role" – how exactly do you relate to a platoon leader in Vietnam? By eating in the new raw Vietnamese place on Rodeo Drive?

"I only look for a Guy who makes me laugh" – you mean he has enough money to get Jerry Seinfeld make you laugh.

"I eat only cakes and ice cream" – that’s how you got these abs? So you throw up only ice cream as well? 

That snack will keep me untill 2nd lunch

"It's genetics" – your parents were cheek bones?

"I'm in a place in my life where I'm looking for a committing relationship" – when I first saw your yacht I just thought “this is a yacht of someone who is ready to commit”

"I don't care what people think. I'm doing my own thing" – you mean your stylist and manager invent your “thing” over lunch.

"That's how my hair looks when I wake up" – do you fall asleep at your hairdresser? That’s rude

"I hate paparazzi" – so go to Africa. Only National Geographic there.

"Being a sex symbol is a burden" – I can help you carry the load.

"My clothing line is young and fresh" – you mean the people who make your clothing are young and fresh.

"You got to have a tough skin" – there’s a great cream for that

I’m sure this post will keep updating in the coming months. If you have some of your own insights feel free to comment, Tweet (#StupidThingsCelebritiesSay) or go to my FB page.

So come on! Make me famous!!

  

Life Is Suffering, Or Is It?

In the first of the Four Noble Truths Buddha said “life is suffering”. There are a lot of discussions surrounding the translation or the real meaning of the phrase and after a long contemplation on the subject I was enlightened and found out the truth. 

Buddha was misunderstood (he had a heavy accent). Life is not suffering, life is surfing.