It’s called the Cash Game and everyone plays it on the last day of their trip.  The object of the game, quite simply, is to spend every last baht before getting on the plane.  There are two ways to lose:  #1. Under-budgeting, forcing you to make one last stupid trip to the stupid ATM on the Khao San Road so you can afford the stupid cab fare to the airport and #2. Over-budgeting and shamefully having to visit the currency exchange kiosk and getting jammed on the rate.  Don’t let this happen to you.  Spend wisely.

* Remember to save enough coins in your money belt for at least ten minutes in one of those airport massage chairs.  You’ll be glad you did.

Look, what it really comes down to is time management.  The fewer interviews you have to go to, the fewer shots you have to take, the fewer strokes you have to execute, the more time you’ll have to do cool things.  True, always succeeding on your first try can get a little annoying for your friends but nobody ever said that being cool didn’t come at a price.

Practice makes perfect, but wouldn’t it be better to just skip all that boring practice stuff and jump straight to the perfect?

I wrote this post partially as an excuse to upload this super rad disc golf video that my little brothers showed me.

Answer:  Every single time!!!

An effective one-handed clap is a skill that exists at the very frontier of cool science. Many have attempted but very few people have mastered it, and it is fraught with danger.  It is a delicate balance of form and function.  You need to be able to create enough sound with only one hand while at the same time not look like you’re having a seizure.

And it’s different for everyone.  Some people can generate enough noise by simply slapping their thigh.  Others have found “good echo” from the crevasse on the side of their buttock, while still others shuck slapping altogether and resort to the two-finger-whistle (this is cheating and super annoying for those around you).

Whichever way is most effective to you…. find it!!!  The one-hand clap is a voodoo art and if you can discover it’s secrets, you’re a step closer to cool.

You may also:  Get lost in the jungle, be pick-pocketed, get bitten by a monkey, or nearly die in a para-sailing accident because over there the safety cable is “optional”.

If this bothers you , your trip will just be a hassle.  If you travel calmly, however, these events will become your best stories and they will fill you full of anecdotes and tales to recount for years to come.

P.S.: On my last trip  I was tricked into eating dog, had to leap off a dock onto a departing ferry boat, and lost my shoes and had to go barefoot in Cambodia for a day and a half.  These three stories are on pretty high rotation right now.

The only drawback to becoming awesome at card manipulation is that it requires practice.  Unfortunately, at the beginning this practice usually results in cards flying everywhere.  That sucks.  To fix this problem, you can do one of three things:

1.  Get good quickly.

2.  Have 10 or 15 different decks of cards on the table.  If one blows up all over the place, let it go.  Just grab the next deck and keep on practicing.

3.  Have a couple of kids running around picking up all the cards when they fall to the ground.  To them, you’re just playing 52 Pickup, and all kids love 52 Pickup.

Remember, it’s not wether you win or loose, it’s how you make the cards dance!

There is no greater feeling of community than suddenly breaking into song with a bunch of people and perfectly belting out the lyrics.  It can happen at anytime, the right song comes onto the radio and BAM, instant karaoke bar!

Basically what the group of you are saying is, “I know this song, you know this song, we all know this song and we’re awesome because of it.  Now let’s share it with the world!”

Any record.  We are a culture obsessed with peak human achievement.  Remember how, as a kid, you constantly read The Guinness Book of World Records?  You were preparing yourself for now.

It can be anything from tying knots in cherry stems with your tongue to getting the high score in Donkey Kong.  The important thing is that you now own that particular activity.  The next time one of your friends tries to see how many marshmallows they can stuff in their mouth, they’ll know that they’re competing against you!

You Are Legend!

Guy 1:

Guy 2: “O.K., sure.”

Cut, slice, open, cut, spread, sprinkle, place, cut.

Guy 1: “Here ya go.”

BITE!

Guy 2: “Mmmmm…Woah!  Dude, what’s in this?”

Guy 1: “Sliced tomatoes, havarti cheese, cucumbers, sprouts, spinach, sundried tomato turkey breast, bacon, avocado, granulated garlic dijon mustard, lightly toasted multigrain bread.  Just a few things I had in the fridge”

Guy 2: “This is amazing!”

Guy 1: “It’s what I do.”

What’s better than making your friend an awesome drink?  Making them a killer sandwich.

You’re at a party chatting with a group of people.  Suddenly, while trying to emphasize a point in the story they’re telling, your drunk friend makes an exaggerated hand gesture and knocks the drink out of someone else’s hand!

Because you are constantly in a cat-like state of readiness, you see this happen even before it happens.  You lunge.  Everything is in slow motion.  You are acting on pure instinct.  You can see the matrix.

Just before the drink hits the floor, you catch it!  Didn’t even spill a drop.

You return the drink to Ol’ Butterfingers’ hand and casually whisper, “The first one’s free.”

As always, you want to be kind of casual about this.  A clean backfist to kill an annoying mosquito or the occasional roundhouse to close the fridge is ideal.  Leaving your hook swords out when company comes over is a little tacky.

Now, I’m not saying that demonstrating the Plum Flower Fist is the best way to win an argument, but it sure would be nice to know that tool’s in your belt should you need to be more “convincing”.