14 Fun Survival and Relationship Tips from TNT's New Drama Good Behavior

Juan Diego Botto as Javier (the hitman) and Michelle Dockery as Letty (the thief).

Good Behavior is TNT’s thrilling new drama where a thief/ex-con/drug addict woman hooks up with a hitman to save his next target, but things don’t go according to anyone’s plan.

Least we can do is to learn some fun lessons on survival, dating and relationships in general from the show.

Most of them will be obvious to the rational person, so bear with me. It is meant for good old fun. And let’s face it: Even if we manage to stay clear of the several obvious, we don’t always take the rational road.

And if the tips intrigue you about the show, all the better. You can read my Good Behavior review and plot summary here.

Enjoy!

1)  Don’t run away from home before you finish high school.

2) Don’t get addicted to drugs or alcohol.

3) If you are smart and beautiful, maybe try other career paths than being a con artist.  You don’t have to be beautiful to be successful, but looking at least presentable never hurt anyone. And people do tend to be more positively biased toward to more physically attractive, which Michelle Dockery’s Letty is.

4) If you insist on being a con artist and realize you’ve just stolen from a professional hitman, maybe don’t seduce him as a way of saving his target.

5) If you do seduce the hitman, don’t admit you’ve cheated him. In fact, even if you try to save his target, don’t confront him with  a shotgun.

6) If you have cheated him, maybe don’t run away with his car and money.

7) If the hitman knows where your son lives, don’t be an obnoxious brat until you know for sure he won’t come after you or your kid.

8) If you owe money to a hitman, don’t screw up his plans. You might end up being an accomplice to a second crime.

9)  If you try to save someone from a bad marriage, whose husband your love interest wants to kill, make sure they don’t have a Tesla. Teslas are awesome, but you might want to be driving a regular car that runs on gas if you are on a timeline with two dead bodies in the trunk.

10) Don’t cover for a lying junkie even if you are a former junkie. If you take the blame, it will come back to bite you.

11) Don’t be afraid of human connection. But that doesn’t mean you have to be friends with insecure, jealous people who can’t let go.

12) If you found a person who’s genuinely into you and is after your best interest, keep them in your life – just make sure they don’t have deadly career paths.

13) Letty knew what he was going in, but he didn't know what Letty was up to. He introduced himself as a philanthropist. So if a guy this cute, interesting and charming tells you he helps saves lives for a living, do check out him on Google and LinkedIn before falling for him.

14) And for the love of God or whatever you believe in, do learn how to type on a computer! 

:)

There you go. Watching the show? Any more tips? Let me know in the comments.

*All images via TNT.

7 Fun & Invaluable Relationship Lessons from the Film Your Sister’s Sister

Image via movieposter.com.

Your sister’s sister is a fun, heartfelt romantic comedy/drama about friendship, love, sisterhood and loss. If you want a non-spoiled plot summary and review for the movie, head out to my movie blog. I strongly recommend seeing the movie, so if you want to come back after watching, I won’t mind. Just don’t forget to bookmark this post J

So the plot:

Jack (Mark Duplass) is a nice guy, still trying to recover from the death of his brother a year later. He’s not doing well, so his best friend/brother’s ex Iris (Emily Blunt) sends him to her father’s cabin in the woods to sort himself out. But he finds Iris’s sister Hannah (Rosemarie DeWitt) there, trying to get over a break-up. They talk, drink and have fun, and despite being a lesbian, she decides to sleep with Jack. What the hell, right?

Unfortunately, Iris decides to show up the next day, sending Jack into a frenzy to hide their one-night stand Hannah is amused, deciding that Jack has feelings for Iris, though he denies it. Irish later confesses to her sister that she might be in love with Jack.  Upon hearing this, Hannah decides to keep the night to herself too.

There’s just one problem: Hannah wants to get pregnant, so she might have “rigged” the condom.

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It’s a toughie: to have a potentially pregnant sister, fathered by the guy you love, who happens to be your dead ex’s brother. So you have problems regardless of Jack’s feelings for you. Of course Jack is in love with you too, but with a dead brother, he will make sure you make up with your sister first. Still, a lot of the drama can be avoided (for real life. For the movie, the amount/intensity of conflicts were just right.) if you just share your feelings with your sibling and the object of your affection.

So below are 7 fun, but essential, pearls of wisdom inspired by this lovely film:

1) Keep your sibling up to date about your relationship status. Your sister deserves to know if your boyfriend/girlfriend is suffocating you. It’ll relieve you too.

2) Keep your sibling up to date about your feelings for your best friend. Hannah wouldn’t have slept with Jack, had she known Iris’ feelings.

3) Don’t try to get pregnant by your sister’s best friend without telling the guy. Obviously it’s always unfair to get pregnant under false circumstances and without letting the guy know. It’s especially atrocious if he’s in love with your sister and she’s in love with him.

4) Don’t try to get pregnant by your sister’s best friend without telling your sister about this idea first.

5) Don’t get hammered and sleep with your best friend’s sibling if you have feelings for the best friend.

6) Get suspicious if your bestie’s lesbian sister suddenly wants to sleep with you. Emphasize on the word lesbian.

7) Assuming that you somehow found yourself in this dilemma, let your best friend know before he/she learns it from somebody else.

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Have you ever been in a tricky situation regarding your sibling and/or best friend? Please let us know in the comments.

And do share this article if you’ve enjoyed it J

The Matthew Hussey Guide to Everything Dating

Matthew Hussey, for those late discoverers (like me), is a dating expert who coaches millions of women. Thousands at live events, millions online. And he really has the correct answer to everything. 

Now, don’t raise your eyebrows at the phrase “dating expert” or “dating coach.”  He knows his stuff, and has a knack of disclosing that knowledge in a very fun and sincere way.

And trust me, having only liked He’s Just Not That Into You (and What The Hell Is He Thinking for why he is not) as far as any dating tip (collection) is concerned, I am very picky. I’ve been there, done that, heard it all. Or so I thought.

I first heard about the dude through a Glamour article. The writer said that she was sent to the event to bust his bubble, but was so impressed by what she saw that she decided to write a piece about getting a guy in 7 days, with guidelines from Matthew Hussey of course.

Now, while it was a fun piece and made me wonder if the guy was nearly that good, it was just easier to assume the writer got lucky.

Nevertheless, I googled him and decided to check his website. It turned out he was a life coach, not just a dating coach. After watching one of his live events entirely, I decided that he was a damned good one at that. But more on that later.

His dating advice website Get the Guylooked decent enough in design, but even with all the credentials (he has been featured on NBC, CNN, The Independent…), I still thought he would be all hyped. Hell, I was ready to bail the moment I detected tips on game playing. Well, he did no such thing. (If anything, he is against game playing. And makes a point of showing why playing hard to get has never worked.)

So then I went on to watch the sales video of The Man Myth. Now, it is a sales page that actually sells. And what he offers is the video (online) of a live event where he covers a lot from meeting different men to scoring dates, from getting to see following dates to managing relationships. It also includes a 14-day free trial for the more detailed stuff. And it is $29.95.

So yes, I bought it. If it'd turned out to be disappointing, I would have had material to write for the blog. As it turned out, I got so much material for pretty much everything, including answers to any question I’ve ever had about dating and guys.

None of the links I used are affiliate links by the way. I just really liked what I saw.

Here’s some of the stuff I found out:

 *Why I attract so many guys I don’t want to attract (the one I was most curious about!)

*How that not-so-pretty girl could land that gorgeous, nice and successful guy

*Why taking risks is important

*Why you have to risk rejection, but how you can minimize the chances

*How to meet anyone

*How to make the first move without making it seem that way

*Why some things worked and many things didn’t.

*Men and women are from the same planet. We just have different languages.

*Why couples love hanging out with couples, and how it is not productive for the singles to socialize with them all the time

*How to make yourself understood without ever having to fight or losing your temper.

*Why the best-looking guys might not be the hardest to approach

*Why any of your excuses (your looks, age, location….you name it) are not valid. (and I believed I had some pretty good ones!)

…..and a whole lot more.

You might think you know the answers, but trust me, you don’t. Not for the most part. And even when you do know the answers, you learn about why you can’t seem to put that into practice, and how you can go about applying them with success.

And you know how I know that he’s right? Because I did some of the stuff he said in the past, sometimes consciously and sometimes not, and it all worked. I just didn’t do it enough.

His video is bound to kick your ass into gear. Because throughout, he proves that he knows what he’s doing over and over again. And it is so much fun. This is coming from someone who actively avoids any training/how-to videos. Seriously. They bore me. I would rather go through an e-book at my own speed, skipping if there is anything irrelevant or boring. Well, he doesn’t say anything irrelevant or boring. 

And he practices what he preaches, and he looks the part. He’s good-looking and very cute, confident but not arrogant, funny and blunt but never obnoxious. It sounds like the kind of guy you’d like to date, right? Someone who knows what they are doing, approachable and friendly.

Trust me, Matthew supports my line of thinking. Just listen to how he picked his fitness coach.

And the best part is? You don’t have to hire him as a life coach to learn a lot more than how to manage your dating life.

Just watch his event, and you can learn about how to:

-Be a great public speaker

-How to build your brand

-How to start and manage your own successful business

And if you are a blogger, you can learn about promotion, design, brand consistency, using video and so on. I should make a whole other post on this for my writing blog.

Bored with my praises? You don’t think he is worth it? Go try it, and we’ll talk then. 

He’s Just Not That Into You is a good resource. But it fails to tell you why he is not just that into you. And how he could have been.

And if you don’t want to spend $29.95 right away, just go through his blog posts, watch a couple of his videos. Trust me, you’ll want more. 

Book Review: What the hell is he thinking? by Zoe Strimpel

I had a great laugh while I was watching Mel Gibson’s What Women Want. It was a great comedy/romance about a chauvinistic, guys’ guy who starts to change after he unexpectedly begins to hear what every woman thinks. The movie had gotten a lot of things right, but then again it was written and directed by a woman, Nancy Meyers (also the writer& director of Something's Gotta Give, It's Complicated). I had then contemplated the opposite idea. I remember thinking it would be a great idea to hear what men think…But the truth is, as long as the ability comes with an off switch, it would feel more like a curse than a blessing.

Image via cinemablend.com

Still, it sucks not being able to figure what they think, doesn’t it? Especially if you like a guy who is giving you mixed signals or acting weird. It gets even more complicated when he turns out to be the exact opposite of what he claimed to be when he was first met you. You want to give him the benefit of the doubt, but the longer you stay in the relationship, the more you realize he was an asshole who had disguised himself as a nice guy.

As for the benefit of the doubt, there is no need to be naïve about it. I used to believe that every man was innocent until proven guilty. I was just being a nice girl and a romantic. But I realized that being a cynic does more good than harm and it is better to accept the opposite: Assume guilty until proven innocent. And there is an awesome book on relationships to help me prove my point: "He is just not that into you".

Don’t think that I am being particularly feminist or sexist- when I covered the book and the movie on the same article, I made sure I believed the books’ points made sense for both sexes. The most important to take from it is that if he/she is making you confused, making you second-guess them, you feel like there are mixed signals…well, he/she is not just that into you. It’s that simple, right?
But sometimes, you wonder why that person is like that. What the hell is crossing their minds? Why aren’t they that into you in the first place? Why are they acting like jerks?

The difference is, while “He is just not that into you” can be considered unisex in many aspects (if guys can be smart and take hints), What the Hell is He Thinking?: All the Questions You've Ever Asked About Men Answered is strictly for girls.

Image via amazon.

The author Zoe Strimpel is a British writer, born in 1982. She has been writing a dating column but she wasn’t less clueless than the majority of her friends and the rest of the female population when it came to the puzzling behavior of men. So she talked to many men, including strangers, friends, friends’ boyfriends, dating gurus…that cover a wide range of ages, physical appearance, jobs and personality.

And while it is a very fun, fast and true-to-heart read, it is not for the faint of heart as you will listen to true stories of men who only want to date skinny women but consider having sex with plump women “lovely” (they just wouldn’t date them), men who read Cosmopolitan so that they can get laid more often and fool more girls (-they don’t read these mags to make their women happy), men who get possessive over women they are not in love with, Casanova wannabes who try their initial games on you, men who give mixed signals, men who openly lust after other women while their girlfriends are present and much more depressing true stuff…

While I still believe that "He is just not that into you" the pretty much the only relationship book you’ll ever need to get to be with people you deserve, What the Hell is He Thinking?: All the Questions You've Ever Asked About Men Answered is the next best step, if you are trying to figure out what the hell was that behavior all about. And yes, many of the reasons and explanations are going to be too superficial or too brutally honest. But don’t forget, it is coming directly from the source and you did ask for it.

12 Things in a RelationshipThat Should Make You Bolt

Relationships start on a good note. Both sides seem willing to make gestures and necessary compromises. However the honeymoon period eventually ends and couples are faced with the true personality of each other. People tend to relax after they have settled in to a relationship. However, there is a very fine line between settling and taking the other person for granted. There is also a fine line between relaxing too much and driving each other nuts with extra attention.

Below are the warning signs that should make you run for the door.

1.       He is calling 10 times a day. Unless you are dying or dealing with a sickness, there is no logical explanation for calling someone 10 times a day. It suggests obsessively controlling tendencies over your life.


2.       If she is calling once in every 10 days. You keep calling her but she is barely calling you back. Unless you are in a fight, she shouldn’t be playing hard to get. You are in a relationship because you wanted to communicate with this person regularly. She should be wanting to hear from you.

3.       If he is overly possessive and/or jealousy. Jealousy and Possessiveness are no prettier than the ugly step sisters of Cinderella. It indicates lack of trust, both in one self and both in each other. And if you don’t have trust in a relationship, you shouldn’t be in that relationship at all.

4.       If she is overly controlling. Another ugly step sister or brother to jealousy and possession. Sharing your email and facebook passwords, using joint accounts, checking each other’s messages, getting paranoid every time someone from the opposite sex calls or texts.

5.       If he is placing extreme importance on your physical appearance while not taking care of himself at all. Hypocrisy and one-sided demands are not attractive qualities. Many men love the idea that their girlfriends should be fit, stylish, well-groomed and well beautiful. It is understandable that your partner needs and wants you to look your best- so as long as they are willing to put in equal effort into their looks.

6.       If she is constantly criticizing you, comparing to other people, especially to her friends’ or acquaintances boyfriends. You are your own person and the only benchmark relationship should be your own.

7.       You can’t remember what attracted you to him in the first place. When you first met, he was sweet, considerate, romantic and loving. However he has turned into a selfish, inconsiderate and an ever-practical human being. Either ask for the guy at the beginning to make a come back or pack your bags. This is not what you signed up for.

8.       She is not there for you when you need them her though you have always supported her. A relationship is a two-way street. Everything should be mutual. There is something very wrong if you are feeling lonely in a relationship.

9.       He doesn’t have faith in your relationship. If he doesn’t think it is not worth fighting for, listen to him. It means he doesn’t want to put an effort. Neither should you.

10.   She is suggesting threesomes and open relationships. Boys are often stereotyped as sex-crazed people who would love to have threesomes, which means they want to sleep with two women at once. However, there is another side to the coin, depicted very well and funnily in the British sitcom Coupling. Womanizer Patrick decides to dump his new girlfriend because she has rejected the notion of threesomes. However he is glad when she ”comes to her senses” and admits that she is seriously considering it and says it will be fun. So she tells Patrick that she will arrange  their partner. But Patrick is terrified at the sight of the third person. It’s none other than Jeff, his mate. The next time your partner suggest a threesome, make sure they can visualize how disturbing it can be. If all else fails, bolt.
 
11.   If he is constantly and openly lusting after other people when they are with you. This one need not be explained.

12.   If she is valuing her time, dreams and career vast over yours. Both of you are equally important as individuals.  Don’t underestimate your life or overestimate hers.