15 Quirks Girls Have That Guys Go Crazy Over

15 Quirks Girls Have That Guys Go Crazy Over

by Derek Marshall, 
18th 2013

1. A Level-headed Sense Of Self-Deprecation

Not having one’s shit together can be very attractive. If it’s balanced properly–i.e., not overdone–it can be breathtaking.

2. The Knack For Being A Compelling Storyteller

When in relationships, girls talk a lot. Being a good narrator makes all the difference–if we’re smitten everytime you open your mouth…well, it’s not the worst.

3. Being A Sweatshirt Queen

If you can pull off wearing a guy’s oversized sweatshirt, chances are he’s gonna wanna hang around all day. Just don’t steal that varsity football ’09 hoodie!

4. A Random, Organic Enthusiasm

Random, unprovoked happiness. Is there anything better?

5. An Uptight Sense Of Humor

For the super serious types, who crack joke after joke without seeming to know. It’s a strange game they’re playing. I think the jokes on us–which is more than ok.

6. Great At Dancing, Unintentionally

Those who did 12 years of ballet need not apply. We’re talking about the unprovoked dance party girl, who drags you out onto the makeshift dancefloor that is your apartment kitchen. It’s not supposed to be this fun.

7. A Happy Clumsiness, That Shows She Doesn’t Take Herself Too Seriously

When babies fall or trip, they generally have two reactions–they bawl incessantly, or they laugh. Not sure if the same could be applied to “beautiful babies” (in the words of Vince Vaughn’s character from Swingers), but there’s always something about a girl who takes something ungraceful and turns it into beauty.Shutterstock

8. A Sexy Accent

Nothing to explain here. Think this one goes for both sides of the coin.

9. A Language Unique To Them

Not like Dutch or Swahili, but with their own unique brand of diction. A girl who can properly pull off a “wazzz poppin!!!” is a rare gem.

10. Says Things Like “I Really Like Ranch Dressing?”

The official thing here is “ending declarative sentences with an interrogative inflection.” Basically, being completely sure of something but ending in question form anyway. For some reason, this is great.

11.  Having A Big-Time Obsession With Pizza

Do we need to elaborate on the obvious?

12. The Innocent Hair Twirl

When it’s all subconscious-like. We don’t like to address it, because sometimes you’ll immediately stop. Which ruins the incredible charm.

13. Cute Hat Wearer

Not all the time. But a girl who can rock a winter beanie, or her man’s Yankee cap, is a girl with options.

14. Tells A Joke, Never Smiles

A ruthless staredown, like a comedian who doesn’t laugh at her jokes. Blunt, dry humor can go a long way. Why is this attractive? I guess it doesn’t really matter why. It just is.

15. Is a Genuine Person

Okay, a bit more than a quirk. But being completely true brings out the best of quirks, be them on this list or not. Staying true is alluring.

5 Words Of Advice On Getting Your Heart Broken

5 Words Of Advice On Getting Your Heart Broken

by Ashley Twigg
October 18th 2013VinothChandar

1. You can only mask your feelings for so long.

Drinking, partying and eating or not eating your feelings away gets old really quick. You aren’t going to just be OK instantly, but adding self destructive behavior is just going to make more issues for yourself and your current ones even harder to deal with.

2. Don’t blame your decisions on your current mental state.

Trust me, you just feel worse after. At the time you will give yourself ten reasons why whatever thing you are doing is justified (sleeping with someone you shouldn’t, eating a tub of ice cream in bed, wearing the same pair of yoga pants for four days). These things aren’t helping you and by you just dismissing it as “I’m a mess right now” you are going to let yourself perpetuate that behavior. You are stronger than you think.

3. Stop overanalyzing.

This is one is virtually impossible but you need to make a conscious effort to TRY not to think about things. You will drive yourself crazy living and reliving conversations and memories in your head. Unfortunately, THIS is where you are now. When you think about things you should have said or done or how WONDERFUL things used to be you are holding yourself back. You can’t move forward if your head is still stuck in the past.

4. Stop playing the blame game.

At this point does it really matter whose fault it was? Whatever happened, happened. It sucks but really there is a good chance too much damage has been done to go back to how things were despite whose fault it may or may not have been. Blaming yourself for something you can’t change will make you feel terrible. Blaming someone else is just harvesting negative energy and the only one it will ultimately hurt is you.

5. Tell yourself that some of the BEST days of your life are still ahead of you.

After a breakup there is certainly a BIG fear of the unknown that settles in. Will I find someone else? What if they don’t live up to that other person? OR, what if this is a second chance for something even BETTER to come along. Maybe your story isn’t going to end the way you planned, but it’s quite possible that it could be even better than you anticipated. Sometimes you have to deal with a LOT of bullshit to get to the good stuff, and this might just be a necessary detour along the way.

20 Life Lessons You Get From Having Anxiety & Being A Worrier

20 Life Lessons You Get From Having Anxiety & Being A Worrier

by Christopher Hudspeth, 
August 21st 2013

1. According to the disturbing worst-case scenarios it regularly cooks up, your imagination is much crueler than the universe and actual life tend to be.

2. Sometimes you’ve got to look out for your own comfort in social situations. That’s why I excuse myself to the restroom during icebreakers and I’m habitually late to things because I didn’t want to be a little bit early. This B.J. Novak tweet sums it up:I am often 15 minutes late because of my inexplicable anxiety about being 2 minutes early.

3. Our bodies do a lot of random, weird things and have unexplainable tendencies, but every headache isn’t a tumor, Arnold and every cough isn’t a symptom of lung cancer, Walt.

4. Although you may never stop striving for it, perfection is pretty non-existent. Aside from like, Rashida Jones and DiGiorno Pizza cooked in a properly preheated oven, then baked at 400°F for 22 minute, it’s unattainable.

5. People will often mistake anxiety and wariness for negativity and dullness. Not keen on the idea of sitting aboard shaky rides at the state fair because you aren’t comfortable with the fact that they were thrown together in a few hours?Lame, why don’t you live a little. Don’t want to go 100mph on a curvy road? Sheesh, dude, color outside the lines why don’t ‘cha?

6. Final Destination movies are predictable child’s play to you and you’re confident that you could assist them with devising ideas for ill-fated people in potentially gruesome situations.

7. Your mind’s favorite time to try and wrap itself around the concepts of gravity, physics & technology is from the moment a plane is airborne to the instant it successfully lands.

8. You’re more likely to get in an accident in a car than on an airplane. How do you know? Because everybody in the world tells you this when you express concerns about flying as if it’ll somehow make you feel better about the notion of plummeting thousands of feet to your death.

9. To some degree worriers are warriors, battling & staving off their constant flow of unpleasant thoughts and concerns as they try to manage a somewhat normal day/week/month/year/life.

10. Generally speaking, people aren’t paying nearly as much attention to your every last move as you sometimes think. Unless you pick your nose or trip, then somebody was probably watching.

11. Horror isn’t limited to masked killers or haunted houses – vulnerability in every sense of the word is the equivalent of being face to face with a knife-wielding clown.

12. When you anticipate potential disasters and expect things to go insanely wrong today, it’s kind of a relief when you make it home in one piece. Expect a killer tornado so when all you get is a strong gust of wind that blows your papers out of your hands and makes you run down the street trying to retrieve them like you’re Mother Nature’s puppy playing fetch, it’s actually not so bad.

13. Low, unhappy ending expectations like the ones mentioned above are bad, as are any expectations, really. We’re not psychics and rarely will anything pan out as we pictured. It’s better (and easier) to live in and respond to the next moment than to try and guess what’s to come.

14. The best way to make someone who is on the fence about doing something not do it is to draw attention by noisily encouraging them to do as you wish, so there are more eyes and an increased pressure. James won’t do his stellar Dane Cook impression? Nancy won’t get on the dance floor? Ask LOUDER, but don’t ask, so much as borderline aggressively demand it as you tug at their arms.

15. Seemingly everybody is dealing with some degree of apprehension or fairly constant concerns like you, it just might be a less extreme case. Or they simply do a better job of hiding it.

16. The past is a monster that needs sustenance to continue being relevant, and you spending yournow reliving it is like feeding unpleasant history a steak dinner. Trust me, I’ve spent countless hours feeling terrible about not taking advantage of an opportunity to travel or that time in third grade when I let a bully make fun of that kid who thought that he was gay, but you’ve got to learn not to dwell on the unchangeable.

17. Much like dollar bills, people’s opinions are only as valuable as our minds allow them to be. It’s easy to stress about how everyone perceives us but if we can narrow our caring down to a select few (mom, best friend, pet fish, Netflix recommendations, etc.) we’ll feel a weight lifted off our shoulders.

18. Going to bed and falling asleep are two entirely different concepts. One can go to bed at 11pm and, despite a valiant effort to keep their eyes shut, remain awake into the wee hours of the night, worrying about things. Hence, this tweet:Love yoga? Try the ‘Worrier Pose,’ which consists of sprawling out, biting your nails & imagining worst-case scenarios until 3am every night— Christopher Hudspeth (@CEHudspeth)October 16, 2013

19. The little things that drive you crazy only get worse if you play into them and give them control.  Can’t stand mislabeled song files in your iTunes library? Go in there are organize until you flip your lid at a Coldplay song mistakenly listed as a Muse song. Hate upside-down boxes of food in the pantry? Turn ‘em upright until you go ballistic at the sight of some capsized Fruit Loops. Can’t stand uneven numbered lists?…

20. … I’m here for you. There’s always someonewho understands your neurotic, strange philosophies and nervous habits – even if you haven’t met them yet. 

17 Things You’ve Been Mistaking For Love

17 Things You’ve Been Mistaking For Love

by Chelsea Fagan, thoughtcatalog.com
October 17th 20131.

Getting isolated moments of affection or attention from someone who is otherwise very distant and, because of that, makes you hang on every move they make to see if it’s going to be one that ruins or completely makes your day.
2. Having really incredible sex with someone who proceeds to turn off like a light switch once the physical part of it is over. (This is often followed by an unceremonious re-dressing and a “I’ll call you” as they extricate themselves from the cuddle attempt.)
3. Being interested in an excessive amount of the same obscure pop culture stuff. Although, if this person happens to be Joseph Gordon-Levitt circa500 Days Of Summer, feel free to mistake that for a real connection.
4. Thinking about someone constantly, with very little interaction in real life, so that most of your thoughts and desires about them are from what you imagine them to be in your head.
5. Finally meeting someone who fits the description of “ideal partner” you have held onto, even if they are only good on paper and you don’t really feel a connection with them.
6. Having some kind of shared experience or past that enables the two of you to feel close without ever forming a bond as a couple.
7. Spending so much time together that you start to see each other as the “default” option and become incredibly comfortable with one another without really feeling any romantic emotion towards them. (This often results in the dreaded “dating-for-convenience” syndrome” that plagues many a hometown.)
8. Meeting someone again after a long separation in the kind of circumstances that lead the more reptilian part of your brain to believe that it’s “fate,” “destiny” or “meant to be.”
9. Being treated like shit by someone who has mastered the art of tearing you down and building you back up again, so you come to associate them with the “repair and soothe” feelings they provide without ever realizing that they are the ones making you feel like crap in the first place.
10. Finally getting attention from someone you perceive to be much more attractive, popular, or worthy than you. Feeling like you are honored just by getting a bit of their time, and not really caring how reciprocated the emotions are.
11. Being with someone for so long that you assume you must still be in love with them, even if it’s been a really long time since you’ve felt anything resembling connection or desire towards them.
12. Staying in said relationship more out of loyalty, comfort, and not being a quitter than anything else.
13. Seeing someone in a way that has to be discreet and somewhat hidden — maybe because one of you is getting out of a relationship, or because you work together — and being so overwhelmed by the forbidden nature of it all that you can’t really tell how you actually feel about that person.
14. Finding someone who is very stable, responsible, and perhaps financially settled at a time in your life where you have absolutely no ties to anything and can’t keep your shit together whatsoever.
15. Lusting after someone you are hot for, but who is completely unavailable.
16. Meeting someone while you’re traveling and having that perfect week-or-so slice of a relationship that allows you to feel like you love them without really knowing them at all. (This can often lead to the weird, awkward period where you try to prolong something that should have been a fling and is thousands of miles away.)
17. Wanting so badly to get back together with an ex, mostly to prove to yourself that you can do it and get back that sense of comfort, that you completely forget all of the very valid reasons you had for breaking up in the first place. Painfully re-igniting or prolonging a relationship simply to recreate a feeling you usedto have.

Public transport in the Klang Valley

The Star
Published: Sunday June 23, 2013 MYT 3:14:00 PM
Updated: Wednesday July 10, 2013 MYT 3:19:34 PM

Public transport in the Klang Valley: #MyJalan journey

By MICHELLE TAM, TASHNY SUKUMARAN and T.AVINESHWARAN

PETALING JAYA: You have likely read something about it or perhaps even had a lively debate about it - but how many Klang Valley residents actually rely solely on public transport on a daily basis?

On Friday, three intrepid The Star Online reporters set out to experience the efficiency of the city's public transport system for themselves.

The challenge put to them was simple - make the "morning commute" from their respective homes to the KLCC and arrive there by 9am. From then on, follow suggestions from Twitter posts with the #MyJalan hashtag and see where the tweets take them.

They were not allowed to use taxis, and could only take trains and buses to get to their respective destinations.

Here are their accounts of their respective #MyJalan journeys:

Moving with Michelle

THE Metro bus puttered to a stop next to the steep incline.

"Universiti LRT, here!" said the driver, eyes fixed on the road ahead to Kuala Lumpur.

Only, not quite.

Commuters alighted the vehicle quickly and made their way up the slight hill with practised ease. Vehicles whizzed by on either side - one stumble and you're roadkill.

I couldn't have asked for a more thrilling start to my experiment of the public transportation in the Klang Valley!

One had to manoeuvre carefully - a good sense of balance recommended - over the road divider before a walkway emerges.

Next was the wonky traffic light okaying pedestrian crossings, which according to a frequent commuter, "hasn't worked in recent memory". So we made a quick dash across the road to reach the LRT station.

Happily, the rest of my public transport journey was less eventful, save for a blue car that crashed into the bus on my way back to Menara Star in Petaling Jaya.

A trip to Zoo Negara from KLCC took under an hour, and if not for an unexpectedly lengthy journey on another Metro bus out of the area, one could even slot in another bus ride that will have you within walking distance of Solaris Dutamas before 4pm.

All the journeys cost much lesser than a cab ride, but took substantially more time and planning to complete.

The commuters I met were more resigned than unhappy with their everyday situation.

One Idah, noticing my discomfort from the heat and haze, offered some papaya pickles before bidding me a warm goodbye.

As a student and during my internships, I had to travel via the KTM, LRT and bus every day. Each trip generally took a minimum of two hours. Thankfully, a kind colleague would later let me carpool with her.

I still don't have my own set of wheels, but I now live much closer to work to avoid the hassle of using public transport when possible.

Travelling by public transport in the Klang Valley is affordable and largely efficient if you rely on the LRT but it can be time consuming and may pose a risk to your safety. - Michelle Tam

Tashny's travels

THERE'S nothing quite like the smell of yuppie in the morning - a heady mix of coffee in paper cups, perfume, and the exhaust fumes of the bus you're crammed into.

My public transport journey seemed to be the easiest - from Bangsar to KLCC and then to Taylor's Lakeside University in Subang. Little did I know, I'd end up waiting for God-knows-when-the-train-would-arrive.

#MyJalan began with the RapidKL T634 bus which goes from Bangsar LRT to Pusat Bandar Damansara and back, which I took it from outside Bangsar Shopping Complex.

Unfortunately, the driver didn't tell me that I had to catch it from the other side of the road, so I ended up making a long roundabout route circling Pusat Bandar Damansara, passing my starting point, before snaking my way to the LRT station.

The LRT ride to KLCC was uneventful, as was the LRT back to KL Sentral.

There, however, I encountered the fearsome KTM Komuter trains.

Although the train to Port Klang (I'd be alighting at Seri Setia) was only seven minutes late, it was stuffy and warm.

Somewhat embarrassingly, I fell asleep and missed my stop. I got out at Subang Jaya and had to take the train back one stop.

Alarmingly, there is excessive construction going on at the Subang Jaya KTM - the trains going to Port Klang and returning to Kuala Lumpur use the same track. Scary.

At Seri Setia, I waited for the bus to Taylor's Lakeside Campus for a good 30 minutes.

Unfortunately, it being lunchtime on a Friday, none showed up.

At my editor's behest, I hitch-hiked to the university campus, thanking my lucky stars that so many students were headed there. At the campus, I saw about five buses parked here and there. Depressing.

Thankfully, my editor then called me up with an urgent story I had to write, so I got into a cab back to the office.

This is something I definitely could not do every day - I smelled like a used sock and the heat and haze were awful! - Tashny Sukumaran

Avineshwaran gets around

FOR the first time since I started working in the Klang Valley, I had the experience - or should I say the privilege - of using the Klang Valley's public transportation system for the entire day.

After many suggestions, I decided to check out the services in Putrajaya - which tied in with my need to renew my road tax. The first destination was the JPJ headquarters in Complex D in Putrajaya.

After months of driving, relying on public transportation was a humbling experience.

Taking a train to Putrajaya was a breeze, and the ERL services were efficient.

The trains were on schedule and many civil servants use them to get to Putrajaya.

Once at Putrajaya, I had to take a bus to the JPJ headquarters, on the Putrajaya bus line.

I had my doubts at first, but I was impressed with the services, though I reached JPJ a little late.

The driver was courteous and even calmed me down when I was running late for my appointment at JPJ.

Ticket prices were cheap, too. For only 50 sen, I travelled from Putrajaya Sentral to Kompleks D, where the JPJ headquarters is located.

It turned out that I could not renew my road tax there. So, I had to rush back to Petaling Jaya to get it done.

I thought it would take hours, but thanks to the ERL and LRT Rapid KL, I reached the Petaling Jaya JPJ office on Jalan Sultan in less than an hour.

When it comes to timing and efficiency, train services in Klang Valley are pretty efficient. The only thing you need to bear is the rush hour crowd.

Once I completed my road tax renewal, I headed back to Menara Star - my first experience of taking a bus to Petaling Jaya.

The experience was simply terrible! I had a long wait at the Asia Jaya stop even though the bus to Eastin Hotel (which is adjacent to Menara Star) was parked there - with the driver nowhere in sight!

Once the driver arrived, I got into the bus but was in for a rude shock - he told me to get down from the bus and wait at the designated bus stop.

Had he told me in a courteous way, I could have accepted it, but he was rude!

My journey ended on a sour note, but the overall experience was pretty humbling.

There were the pros and cons, but if you were to ask me whether I would opt for public transport in the near future, my answer would probably be in the negative - driving is still the best fit for me! - T. Avineshwaran

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