Rule No.126: Don't ever forget two things I'm going to tell you. One, don't believe everything that's written about you. Two, don't pick up too many checks.

I have the perfect example for this one, the second half that is. A friend of mine agreed to have a college over from another country for a week on a business/pleasure trip. The idea was mentioned by the college and my friend politely agreed. The first night arrived and as any host would, my friend payed the rather large bill, as the man was quite a size himself and was not shy. The following day he got them breakfast, lunch and dinner happily, but by the third day he noticed there was no sign of any hands going into any pockets by the college at any time.

After a week my friend walked in looking a little worse for wear. Turns out, for the entire week this other man had not so much as even pretended to offer (you know that motion when you go for your bag/wallet as a polite gesture) A whopping 1800€ tab was counted at the end of this week, for food, drinks, petrol and you know, stuff in general. As my friend said, he would have paid for everything anyway, but a gesture, or a single drink would have been really appreciated but because my friend had insisted on getting the first couple bills, it became expected of him.

Picking up checks around friends is great. If you can, then why not. It's when your friends start expecting it though that you need to maybe have a look at who's your real friend and who's in it for the ride.  

As far as the 'don't believe everything you read' part, in the past its only been the celebrities and royals ect, that needed to worry about that, but with technology today it can happen to any of us. It's easier said than done because reading something bad about you is never going to be fun. It's how you deal with it afterwards that is the important part. 

Someone commented "yawn" on one of my posts a while back and immediately I took it personally. I took offense thinking I am NOT a boring person, I don't deserve this and this silly yawn comment got me into a little tiz. After reading the post again however I realized that it was possibly one of the most boring things that have come out of my fingers onto the keyboard and I vowed not to ever put up a boring post ever again. That's why there are sometimes long gaps between posts, if I can't think of anything to say about the rule, I leave it for a couple days, weeks, until it comes to me. 

So no, I was not being called boring, my post was a total bore and I've kept that comment there to remind me every now and again. If something mean has been written about you, check yourself to see how true it is or relevant to your character and either use it to your advantage or throw it out of your mind. It's no good to you or your soul if you can't use it constructively.