Dinhternet

I hope you all had a great Valentine’s Day!

Once again, I was single, but I didn’t let that stop me from having fun with some friends. I’ve actually been forming this post in my head all week now, and I was going to post it on Valentine’s Day, but I didn’t have access to a computer, and didn’t want to write a long post on my phone.

Difficult break-ups are immortalized in “the majority of white person art” with a special focus on first loves. (Yes, I know Hikki’s not white, but she grew up in New York City, so she was exposed to white culture.)

When I read The Game, one of the things Style mentions is that the pick-up community developed for nerds who for one reason or another lacked natural social skills, and the training gave them those tools. He also mentions that because of this lack of natural skills, a lot of pick-up artists were unsuccessful with their first loves. They then “put the pussy on a pedestal” and that fixation leads them to the pick-up community.

It reminds me a movie I saw a long time ago. I don’t even remember the title, actors, or majority of the plot line anymore, but it involved a group of friends doing a road trip across the country. The girl in the group had a childhood romance with a neighborhood boy, but it was broken up before anything really happened because her family moved away. She idealizes this old flame and all her relationships since then have been measured against this ideal and failed. Well, since they are doing a road trip, they decide to stop by her old hometown and see if her first love still feels anything for her. Turns out, he’s married with kids, and a bit of a jerk to boot. But the kicker is that she meets her first love’s little brother, who was always into her and kept the keepsake she exchanged with the older brother as she was moving. He also reveals that the older brother was only trying to hit it all those years ago anyways. (By the way, if you can tell me what movie I’m talking about, I would really appreciate it… it’s been bugging me since I first started thinking about this post.)

There seems to be a bit of truth to the idea. I don’t consciously make comparisons between love interests, but I can understand how your first experiences can influence your attitudes towards love. So tell me, how did your first love turn out? Are you a Marshall, who is still with your first love and everyone else is jealous of what you have, or a Barney, whose first love was a disaster and you have difficulty with relationships now, or something in between, which I guess Ted is?

I just finished reading The Game by Neil Strauss. It’s an interesting look at a world that all guys want to be a part of, and I think it’s really cool how Neil, or “Style” went around to all the mPUAs (that’s “master pick-up artists”) and synthesized their techniques together.

I wonder if there have been any new breakthroughs in the field, or if the subculture just kinda imploded, as Style implies it was in the process of doing as his book ended. The majority of the advice I see online seems to fall under the “cocky funny” category started by David DeAngelo’s Double Your Dating. (The link Peggy S sent me in response to an earlier post seems to be a toned down version of Tyler Durden’s “plowing,” though.)

The end of the book really drives home the point that I’ve been hovering around and denying for a while now. Ted said it a while ago on How I Met Your Mother, too. Style’s girlfriend tells him that she likes him for who he really is, and all that he learned as a pick-up artist almost drove her away from him. But he counters that if it wasn’t for all his experiences as a pick-up artist, he never would have had the balls to approach her and give her the chance to choose him.

I, like Ted, hate doing the whole bar thing and just want to skip ahead to the relationship. But I can never get to that without going through the bullshit first. First order of business, then, is to grow some balls. Next time I go out with friends, need to give myself a good psych-up in the mirror first. (I’ll try to stick with Jack’s “It’s winning time, you magnificent sonuvabitch!” instead of Liz’s “Stop sweating, you idiot! What is wrong with you, you stupid bitch?” even though that comes more naturally to me.) And maybe pick up a gimmick routine to use?

I went to Davis to hang out with Tommy L and Gloria B for their birthday today. Wiggy S and Cin S were at Tommy L’s dinner, so it was cool to catch up with them. I got to meet Yance, Cin S’s boyfriend, who knows a lot of the people I know, but we haven’t met before.

Found out that Davis Sushi Buffet has a better vegetarian menu than most sushi places. When you ask for vegetarian options at other places, they usually only have futomaki, which is some pickled vegetables inside rice with a ring of nori around the whole thing. Some places “experiment” with other vegetables, but the generic maki roll is about all you’ll get anywhere. Davis Sushi has the Vegetable Dragon Roll, the only vegetarian specialty roll I’ve ever had. It’s cucumber and tempura yams inside with avocado and teriyaki sauce on top. Nothing earth-shattering to write home about, but it’s definitely nice to have the option.

Afterwards, I took Gloria B to a potluck with her high school friends. Stepped inside to say hi, and it hit me how out of place I am in Davis now. I think that’s a good thing, but I’m not sure. Sign of maturity, or just regression into further social awkwardness?

Oh, and I got sucked into an episode of Love Of Money 2. So I broke the Week Without TV, and it was only the second day! And for a show like that… what a waste. I’ve got good stuff just sitting on my computer, waiting for next Monday. Hopefully I’ll do better for the rest of the week.