How To Find A Lost Dog
On day 12 of searching for my dog in a heavily wooded area, distraught and hopeless, I ran into a couple of hunters. They said they lost the occasional dog on a hunt but always got them back. What they told me has helped many dogs and families be reunited. I’ve given their advice out a few times in the last couple days, so I thought if reddit has any lost dogs out there, this could help:
The dog owner(s) should take an article of clothing that has been worn at least all day, the longer the better, so the lost dog can pick up the scent.
Bring the article of clothing to the location where the dog was last seen and leave it there. Also, if the dog has a crate & familiar toy, you can bring those too (unless location undesirable for crate). You might also want to leave a note requesting item(s) not to be moved.
Leave a bowl of water there too, as the dog probably hasn’t had access to any. Do not bring food as this could attract other animals that the dog might avoid.
Come back the next day, or check intermittently if possible. Hopefully the dog will be waiting there.
I was skeptical and doubted my dog would be able to detect an article of clothing if he didn’t hear me calling his name as loud as possible all day for 12 days. But I returned the next day and sure enough found him sitting there!
Never co-sign for a loan, contract or other financial commitment unless you’re prepared to pay the whole amount yourself.
Generally, if someone asks you to cosign for them it’s either because 1.) they can’t get approved on their own, or 2.) they’ve been approved (but at a high interest rate) and a co-signer would get them a lower rate.
Cosigning isn’t just “putting in a good word” for someone. It’s asking you to cover their debt in case they don’t. Lenders generally know how to assess risk, so when you co-sign, you’re taking a financial risk that underwriting experts refused to. If the friend / family member / coworker you cosigned for falls behind (or just chooses not to pay his bills and party instead), you’ll get the harassing calls demanding payment. It’s a lose-lose situation: lose your friend/family member; lose your money.
Read news from sources which do not agree with you politically. e.g. if you are left wing, read right wing news (and vice versa) every once in a while
It’s important to read news articles from other parts of the world to limit your national bias, from both conservative and liberal papers.
Try and find good sources from the powerhouses of the world to best educate yourself. Read both sides, and draw your own conclusion in the middle.
Don’t validate people’s delusions by getting angry or frustrated with them
You’ll perpetuate conflict and draw yourself into an argument that quickly becomes all about countering the other person’s every claim. Stick to a few simple facts that support your argument and let them reflect on that
Use the Socratic Method to persuade others
Humans are egocentric and we don’t usually contradict the data we generate from our own mind. Therefore, when persuading someone of a particular course of action, do not set it up as a you vs me debate. Rather, ask good questions that get the other person to think through all the options. By portraying yourself as a curious individual who wants truth rather than an enemy to be fought against, you can collaboratively find answers rather than become opponents.
Example: I want to live in City #1 and fiancee wants to live in City #2. Rather than each of us picking a city to defend, I would ask questions about what are the most important qualities of a city for each of us and how they are ranked, then invite my SO to do the research with me and figure out which city scores the most objectively on those metrics.
If you find yourself lost in unfamiliar wilderness, immediately STOP and begin marking your location – break brush, organize branches, or stones, or dig trenches into clear man made shapes
People who are lost often begin to wander, and this strategy marks the first location you realized you were lost for both yourself and possible searchers. Make your marking clear enough it will be able to withstand rain/weather, ideally for multiple days or even weeks.
Once you have established your “home base”, you may begin searching for the trail or other signs of human activity. It is incredibly important however to do this with a calm and collected mind, not panicking and trying to push yourself in a random direction in desperate hope. Begin slowly, and always count your steps. Mark your path away from your “home base” as you move, so that there is a clear way back. At first, only try say 20 steps in as straight as a line as you can manage, before returning to your home base. Now try a line in the opposite direction, 20 steps and return. This approach is much safer with a compass, as you can stick to cardinal directions and there is less chance of you becoming turned around. Always be marking your passage, and always try to return to your base as it is much more likely to be close to where people would be traveling or looking for you.
A goal towards a tidier home is not through periodic ‘binge cleaning’ but by keeping the house clean through small, everyday tasks.
To have a tidy, livable house that is always ready for unexpected visitors, you should focus on small tasks that keep your house clean everyday.
For example: If you pick up a book or a magazine up or play a board game, put it back after use.
If you use a blanket, fold it up after you get up. Anything that is displaced when in use – even a pencil or a remote.
Instead of piling dishes in the sink, try to wash your cup or plate immediately after you use it. This will leave the sink free and you will only need to wash the larger cooking dishes after you’re done cooking.
What this leaves is a tidier, clutter free home which will only require mostly vaccuming, dusting, and/or mopping. When unexpected visitors arrive, you don’t have to scramble.
If you lock your keys in your car, don’t call a locksmith, call a towing company. They will typically unlock your car for less than a locksmith, arrive faster, and are available 24/7
Save your resume as a PDF before sending it out. This guarantees the layout, structure, typography to be 100% consistent for all viewers, and no one will have issues opening it
If you’re poor, homeless, just hungry, or know someone who is, go to a Sikh temple for “langar.” a free meal is served to all the visitors, without distinction of religion, caste, gender, economic status or ethnicity
When you are visiting a friend who is unemployed, don’t ask him how the job search is going. Let them bring it up first if they need to do so.
Your friend has been dealing with the stress of looking for work all day long, isolated, ruminating over what could happen, feeling self doubts. Having you come over is a mental health break from all that, a welcome distraction. Don’t harsh that by asking this common questions and getting his mind back on that track again.
When being a designated driver, don’t drive your car, drive one of your friend’s. Keeps your car puke free
Use the phrase “My understanding was…” instead of “I assumed…”
If you use the phrase “I assumed…”, you’ll be viewed as having hastily jumped to a conclusion based on insufficient evidence.
If you use the phrase “My understanding was…”, people will merely think you misunderstood something, and will be far kinder to you (and in instances where what you misunderstood was something they said, they will often apologize, or fault themselves for not being more explicit).
This is especially useful in a professional/workplace environment. Telling your supervisor you “assumed” something typically results in a reprimand; saying “My understanding was…” will instead be attributed to a miscommunication, or a lack of clarity in their original instructions.
How to develop friends after college
While there are no silver bullets here, especially because great friendships usually develop over long periods of time through sustained, meaningful and shared experiences, here are two tips that have helped me turn people I’ve met into real and new friends in my late twenties. The hardest part is really meeting people for the first time — friends of friends, work, clubs, sports teams, coffee shops, local public events, all of these offer opportunities to meet new people, but then what do you do?
Treat people like they’re already your friends, even if they aren’t yet. As you are getting to know someone, try to be honest and open as soon as you feel comfortable doing so — try not to put up any unnecessary barriers between yourself and others, even people you just met — be friendly with people, it will open them up to being friendly back to you.
Also, do things for people you know that you already do for your existing friends — coworker lands late on Sunday and needs a ride home from the airport? Offer to pick them up, but do so casually, don’t make a huge deal about it, just throw it out there (and be okay if they decline). Notice a friend of a friend struggling with something? Ask them how they’re doing, and help if you can. Someone in your running group stressing about things to do with their in-laws, who are visiting this weekend? Send them an email with your favorite spots in the city, sprinkle in stories from when your in-laws visited a few months ago. Try and do little things for people as you get to know them, the sorts of things that happen naturally with your existing friends. Fake it ’till you make it, treat people like friends and they will often reciprocate.
Invite people to things. Shared experiences are what really turn acquaintances into friends, and instead of waiting around for people to suddenly start including you in their plans, start including them in yours. Next time they’re planning something, they might think to invite you, and onward and upward the friendship may build from there.
Turn your radio off and listen to your car once in a while. Noises from the engine, tires, breaks, suspension, etc. can tell you a lot. You can catch many mechanical issues early, before they become expensive repairs.
If your fire alarm goes off, call your pets and give them a treat. Eventually they will come when the alarm goes off, saving you from wasting time looking for pets during an evacuation..
Harvard is offering an "Intro To Computer Science" course that provides weekly lectures and assignments which can be submitted and graded electronically
It assumes no prior experience and is 100% free! It’s a very esteemed course, they have offered it before and it is renowned as one of the absolute best places you can start your CS journey. If you have been wanting to get your feet wet in programming for a while, this is seriously the time and place to start
When trying to get into a good habit, such as working out regularly, don’t tell other people that you are about to work out or that you plan to workout regularly.
When you tell other people that you are about to work out or plan on working out often, it triggers the release of dopamine in the ‘reward center’ of our brain. Because of this, it feels as if we have already been rewarded for the action that we were planning to do, such as working out, and we are less motivated to actually complete the action.
By not telling your friends that you are about to workout, the rewarding feeling is postponed till the workout is completed.
If you are screwing up at work or feel like you may get in trouble; call a meeting with your boss before they can call a meeting with you.
Tell you boss you’ve been struggling; unfocused; whatever and ask for help. They will bend over backwards to help you get back on the right path and you will stay out of trouble.
Admit when you are wrong instantly
It stops many a conflict, it creates an opportunity for you to learn. Also humbling yourself in such a way is very respectable.
Once you have a child, create an email for them. Write them an email as often as you like as they age.
I started this after I had my second Daughter. I write to her as though she will be an adult when she reads it. I like to share little stories that I think they will enjoy when they get older (like how she got that scar on her chin) that I might forget along the way.
If you know you’re going in for a hospital stay, take a big bag of candy with you
Due to a sort-of-a-rare illness, I get to stay in hospials frequently. The one trick I’ve learned over the years is to take a gallon sized ziplock full of individually wrapped chocolate (like Kisses and mini candy bars), Starburst, Smarties, mints, gum, etc. Then during my stay, I proceed to liberally share it with every single person I meet….doctors, nurses, orderlies, my roommate, housekeeping, the people that bring my food, and random patients on my floor to name a few. I sprinkle that shit around like being the damn Sugarplum Fairy is my job.
When you share something so welcome with a group of people (especially medical pros) that are often having shit-sucky days you suddenly start noticing your requests for sleep meds come quicker and are brought faster, all your tests get scheduled on the same day, and the nurses that stick you for your IV and labs are much gentler and they take more care with you. As for the service personnel, you find that they’ll trick your food tray out with lots of extras (like more butter, small snacks, and better condiments), housekeeping will be extra nice, and your techs will stop by your room to check on you more frequently and will bring you the much coveted red popsicles or strawberry yogurt from the snack fridge for patients (getting either of those bitches while you’re in is like winning the frigging lottery). Roommates become less irritable and more friendly, visitors to your room are nicer, and random patients on the floor are always grateful.
College isn’t the only way to start a good career. Apprenticeships, Trade Schools, and Military Training can be great alternatives in today’s world
The price of four-year universities in the US, among other countries, is huge and growing. There are many situations where the degree is worth the cost, but not for everyone. Obviously if you wish to be a doctor or lawyer, a college degree is inevitable.
If, however, your desired path isn’t so rigidly grounded in universities, or you just aren’t sure what you’d like to do, take some time to think about alternatives before applying to colleges.
To high school juniors and seniors:
Your parents/guardians might be pressuring you to go straight to college because that was practically a guarantee for a good life in their time, but things are different today. If you’re going to broach this subject with them, get your sources ready ahead of time. Here is a good overview, but you should find other data, analyses, and opinions before fighting that battle.
Why are skilled trades more relevant now?
These jobs have been around for a long time, but baby boomers have been over-represented for decades. As that generation retires, demand for skilled trades will be a lot higher than it was twenty years ago. According to this article , 53% of skilled tradespeople are over the age of 45. Anecdotally, I work in an industrial setting with a lot of tradespeople, and almost all the hair here is grey.
Is there any money in it?
There definitely can be. Unlike some college-bound fields, you won’t likely be making six figures right out the gate, if ever. That doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be worse off. Assuming you go the apprenticeship or military routes, you can be making money the day you start, and won’t have any crippling debt to deal with. I’d recommend reading up on personal finance for more details on the matter, but if you start contributing to your retirement at 18, even with less income, you could certainly retire with more money than someone who had a higher income, but couldn’t contribute until [_ years to complete degree + _ years to pay off debt] later.
That’s assuming the college grad can get a job right away. There are plenty of highly educated baristas and retail workers in this country who may never be able to retire thanks to student loan debt. Moreover, one can’t get rid of student debt by filing bankruptcy. You’re stuck with any loans you take for school.
What are my options?
There are a ton of ways to start a career, but I’ll talk about a few.
Apprenticeships are a great way for experienced tradespeople to pass their hands-on knowledge to pupils that will some day replace them. Apprentices will generally be paid very little at first, but the cheap labor is in exchange for valuable training. Once an apprentice is proficient enough to work on their own, they will generally be making a nice, middle-class wage.
A recent report from NPR took a look at how apprenticeships play a part in Germany’s industrial success. The US government is also pretty aware of the potential, even if they face challenges in funding programs. The federal program is here and you can take advantage of some of their resources in person by finding the nearest American Job Center
The federal government is definitely the only organization pushing apprenticeships. In a lot of cases, labor unions organize and administer apprenticeships and training. One example would be the IBEW for electricians, but there are a too many unions that vary from place to place, so I won’t bother trying to list a bunch. Searching for unions near your area may be a good place to start identifying other opportunities.
Trade Schools can be a good way to get the kind of classroom training you might expect from college, but much more focused and time/cost-efficient. Many community colleges offer trade programs that lead to certifications and associate’s degrees. There are also standalone schools that might specialize in a single trade, like welding. Job Corps is a national program that can be a good option if a person isn’t in a good position to pay for training. It isn’t for everyone as I understand it is very structured and somewhat militaristic, but I know a few people who have completed training there and gone on to nice careers.
Training doesn’t have to be years long though, especially in the arena of computer sciences, “boot camp” programs are becoming very popular. A computer programming boot camp might be a big expense for such a short program, but its much less expensive than a degree in computer science, and could give you enough tools to land a good job right away or even to work for yourself.
Military training can also be a great economic ladder. The pay and benefits are good from the start. Depending on the specialty, the training can be really valuable (and free). Plenty of employers offer some hiring preference to veterans. There are some huge risks associated with this route though, so I would reserve it as a last resort.
Regarding benefits, the basic wage isn’t a lot higher than minimum wage, which is often the subject of salty memes. That is not the only income, though. In most cases, living expenses are taken care of, so no need to budget for food, housing, or utilities. That’s the bulk of what the working class is trying to stay on top of, so you could plausibly invest every dollar of pay you earn if you didn’t have a cell phone or car. Even then, if you are sensible, it would be easy to live below your means. Another huge benefit is free medical for the whole family. On the outside, that would cost a lot.
Regarding training, if you win the “job lottery” you could receive extensive training in a really valuable field. Some people can walk away from four years of service making over $100,000/yr. You could also be a bus driver. You don’t really get to choose, and that is the first big risk. I would say it is much better than a 50% chance that the job training you’d get in the military would be worth more than a high school diploma, but if you don’t want to be a cop, and they make you a cop, that is a lot of wasted time.
Regarding lifestyle, it can be a great time. I really enjoyed most of the time I spent in the military. There were a lot of people around me who absolutely hated it and had to suffer through a six-year-long mistake. The good stuff is, you’re part of a community, you might get travel a lot, you might have really exciting work to do. The bad stuff is, the culture can be very very toxic, you might have to be away from family for years, and being the military, there is an above average chance of being killed, injured, assaulted, or developing a mental illness.
I know that sounds dramatic, but a person shouldn’t consider it lightly. In reality though, chances are high that you could walk away with a pretty good financial start and good opportunities to have a satisfying career.
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