Still More Words To Live by, Part 3

1. For any occasion where you have to "dress up" or dress in a particular way (including when it's cold out), remember that more is better. You can always take off a jacket, or a tie, or a suit coat to go less formal, but you can't dress "up" if you don't have the tie or coat to begin with.

2. Take lots of notes. In school, in meetings, or if you're a writer, write everything down. If you're studying, it helps you remember dates and facts. If you're a writer, you can always choose not to use an idea or bit of dialogue, but if you don't write it down and you forget it, then you can never use it.

3. Learn to cook a few simple but satisfying meals. Grill a steak, roast a chicken, and properly cook pasta (don't rinse or drain, but scoop it into the sauce - a little pasta water is good) and you will impress people for the rest of your life, especially dates.

4. Speaking of dates, never be afraid to ask the beautiful woman out. She might say no, but if you don't ask, she can't say yes.

5. As soon as the low gas light in your car comes on, fill it up. Don't wait to see how far you can go before you run out of gas. No, this never happened to me, but it makes sense - sort of a Boy Scout "always-be-prepared" thing.

6. For the screenwriter or filmmaker in us...you can take a good story and make a bad movie, but you can't take a bad story and make a good movie.

7. It's never too late to become what you might have been. Don't remember where I heard that one, but I like it. Reminds me of...

8. ...Morgan Freeman's character in the excellent "The Shawshank Redemption" saying you have to "get busy livin', or get busy dyin'."

9. Speaking of Morgan Freeman, he said something that I've made my motto, as I work daily - even at age 46 - to achieve my dream to become a successful writer. He was on "Oprah" - a year ago, I think, so that would have made him (according to IMDb) about seventy - talking about his career. Oprah commented that it took him a few years to become famous and successful, and asked him how he did it. Freeman replied, "one small step at a time."

10. Advice is always easier to give than it is to follow, especially if you're trying to follow your own advice.