Johnny Belgium

The first time I drank alcohol was a disaster. I had just turned 16, the legal drinking age in Belgium, and was at the wedding of a cousin of mine. The waitress kept bringing me beers and I was too much of an anxious people pleaser to say no. So I kept drinking the beers she brought me and I got very very drunk. I had no idea what alcohol did. I got so drunk that I vomited on the dancefloor on my way to the bathroom. I spend the rest of the party dry heaving outside on a chair. I couldn’t keep my head up because I was spinning like a dreidel on Hanukkha. The mother of the groom cleaned up my mess. Some members of the family still bring it up to this day more than twenty years later. Bad choices, good stories. But better someone else. The bride later cheated on the groom and tried to steal his life savings but that’s beside the point. My grandfather on my father’s side was an alcoholic mailman. When he got his paycheck he got blind drunk and terrorized his family. My grandmother fled th...

  1.   Exercise At Least 2 Hours Per Day. (Walking Or Dancing Or Aerobics Or Shadow Boxing Or PushUps&Squats Can Be Done With No Equipment) 2. Get 8 Hours Of Deep Sleep Per Day. Check Out CBT-I (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy For Insomnia). 3.   Drink Regularly. (Water, Green Tea, (Decaf) Coffee) 2 To 3 Liters Of Liquid Per Day. 4.   Eat A Healthy 'Whole Foods Plant Based' Diet. You Get Most Of Your Nutrients From Plants But It's Not As Strict As Veganism. You Must Take Vitamin B12, Omega-3 EPA/DHA, And Vitamin D3 Supplements And Watch Out For Deficiencies In Calcium, Iodine, Iron, Selenium, Zinc, Protein, Fiber And Calories. Avoid Processed Foods, Avoid Added Sugar (Soft Drinks, Cookies) And Artificial Sweetners, Avoid Trans Fat (Margerine), Minimize Saturated Fat (Palm Oil, Coconut Oil, Fatty Meat, Milk, Butter), And Go Easy On The Salt.  If You Add One Thing To Your Diet, Let It Be These Three: Beans (Legumes = Beans, Chickpeas, Lentils, Peas, Tofu), G...

I love to whet my horns (hone my skills) in internet debate. I've been doing it since 1998. It was on UBB forums then (Ultimate Bulletin Board - a forum software most forums used). It's how I learned to write English. People tell me the internet is just people yelling at each other and you can't change minds but I have gained lots of insights from debating people online. Often deepening my knowledge about a subject, even if they don't change my mind. I love to challenge what I believe against people determined to prove me wrong. On the internet. In real life I find it awkward. It's horribly embarrassing when you realize you have been proven wrong. It has happened to me a few times and it feels like a punch in the stomach. It makes me sick to have been wrong. Tip one would be to be graceful in defeat and admit that you were wrong. Do not start writing gibberish or moving the goalpost. Live in doubt. Doubt everything you believe, everything people tell you and keep ha...

Bad advice that I often come across is to be yourself and not to care what people think. If you really decide not to care what people think you might become a sociopath. You may find yourself masturbating on a bench in the park, if you really really stop caring what people think. We are social animals. We as a civilization are a super organism of hyper collaborative apes. We depend on others whether we like it or not. What people think of you is very important. Being successful is very much a process of being selected by people who were successful before you. If you want someone, like a bank, to lower down a ladder for you, then they need to like you. If you are selling a product, it will sell itself if people like you. If you want to make friends, which is even more important than being financially successful, you have to work on being a person people want to be around. If I think about myself and the people I know 5 years ago, and another 5 years before that  and so on... the cha...