landslide

1. Stop and have a conversation when you see someone you know if you’re not busy. Don’t just say “hi, how are you?” and keep walking.

2. Remember people want to talk to you.

3. Make observations about what’s happening around you. You don’t have to stun everyone with your killer wit everytime you speak.

4. If you have nothing to say about the topic, say something general that kind of relates. I often stop myself from doing this because it seems random and out of place, but it’s much better than not conversing.

5. Use your hands a bit when you talk to people—you seem really uncomfortable when you keep playing with them, or just leave them hanging there.

6. Listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, ask questions so people know you’re interested in them, and listen some more! If people don’t listen/ask questions back, avoid future ‘conversations’.

7. Remember you can learn a lot from everybody; they are all different from you.

“And the trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.”

- Erica Jong

27. http://covers.fwis.com/
This site has a lot of well-designed covers, and comments from people who sound like they know what they’re talking about. A good way to pump yourself up for the bookstore, perhaps ;)

28. http://www.v1gallery.com/artist/show/3
I don’t know if I can fairly call this one of my favourite websites since I just clicked on it now, but it’s pretty cool. Photographer Peter Funch took a bunch of photos in NY and then stuck them together.

29. http://kottke.org/
This would have been more obvious than the above site, since it’s where I got the above link from. Jason Kottke writes some crap about some cool crap. I’ve never thought to post this link before because I just read it from its RSS feed via google reader, but now that gives me a great idea about where to find more of my favourite websites (why go to them when they can come to you?)

30. http://www.marcandangel.com/
This is my favourite life-hacking blog. Actually, it’s the only life-hacking blog I read since I’d like to spend more time life hacking than reading about it.