Our Hearts, They Break Too Easily
It's official,
Science Daily says that young men are actually way more vulnerable, emotionally, than young women. Deep down, we've always known that.
But here's the thing: This does not mean we want to be woken up in the middle of the night to have talks about where we are in the relationship. That will only make it worse.
Nice Guy, You Keep Using That Word, Maybe You Don't Know What It Means
I love this
article from Wired. I've been a victim of the "I can't get a date because I'm nice," feeling before. It's a natural place to go with your resentment against the whole other gender sometimes, but the reality is usually one of the scenarios he describes here. For me, it's usually the second one: confusing "what women want" with "why won't that woman I've had a crush on for three years date me?"
It's somewhat confusing because, often, I am pretty nice guy. But that usually has noting to do with the particular woman I'm getting wrapped up over.
Look at my Nook!
Just overheard a woman at Panera (Great coffee and adequate WiFi) tell her friend that the book she is reading draws people into conversation wherever she goes. I used to get that from the books I read, but now not so much. Probably because I'm reading them on my Nook, which has a gray cover.
So here's my latest FREE OF CHARGE invention: a book-cover that would fit the Nook, Kindle, or whatever, that has a graphic display and would show the world the cover of the book you're reading. You could turn it off, say, when you're reading something "just for research" that you totally disapprove of.
What does "Undateable" really mean?
Statistically, if your women friends were to point out some guys on the street and say they're "undateable," 80% of those guys would turn out to be either married or in a long-term relationship. Even the dreaded "comb-over," which is always an easy target.
Still, I noticed a promo for the book:
Undateable, and got curious. The excerpt I saw was pretty much common sense, like don't stand up in the middle of dinner on a first date and say: "I've got to take a dump." Oddly, a lot of guys don't know not to do that.
Since the book seems to be giving advice about things that are pretty easy to change, I'd sort of endorse it, not having read it. (and no, I don't get paid. Unless Google randomly serves up the book as an adwords ad. I'm not holding my breath.
Women Will Divorce a Man if He Is Too Much Happier Than She Is
True story, I really was getting a lot happier when suddenly the wife asked for a divorce. She even acknowledged that it was more her family that was crushing her, but she needed to divorce one or the other. But
this article really hit home. Seems like one person's happiness isn't easily shared, and may make the other person even more miserable.
Of course the other way of looking at it would be
Hemingway's take.
Cleavage, I Just Don't Understand
Frankly, the internet is full of naked women. And female beauty is not new, or even uncommon. Eyes can pin me, tossed hair draws the eye no matter how neutral or professional I'm feeling. But it's that teasing cleavage that has the effect of lowering my IQ and making me regret perfectly rational decisions. (It would never work with her, but...)
Maybe it's the incongruity, the appearance of seeing something you shouldn't, something she doesn't intend. Or, if she does, that she can deny so completely and thoroughly as to leave me feeling foolish. Cleavage, then, I feel like I'm doing something wrong if I DON'T follow up. Sure, I may not have time, space, or band-width for any real dating, but I can't NOT create some avenue for possibility. It would be, as they say, a sin.
Just When You Think You're Over It (and by IT I Mean Cleavage)
Talking away, look over, woman leaning WAY forward. I can definitely, in the immortal words of Carrie Fisher, see all the way to Bakersfield. Afterward, she comes up and talks to me, pauses, waiting for something. I think she knows I've been stunned by her visual taser, and wants to see the results. I know I'm supposed to do something, but can't remember exactly how. Not quite ready to ask for her number, but I do give her my card, and mention a couple places where we could, possibly, run into each other again.
Online Dating is Now "Hyper-Mainstream"
Yea, I don't know what that means either. But the
quote came from the Washington Post, so it must make sense to someone. They're talking about how online dating is now that most common source of marriage:
"It does seem to have displaced all other forms of dating," says Susan Frohlick, a cultural anthropologist at the University of Manitoba who has studied online dating. "I would say that it's been in the last five years that it's become hyper-mainstream."
What makes more sense is that the Match.com sponsored poll showed the best results for Match.com:
Online dating statistics have always been hazy and are frequently contradictory. The Match.com-sponsored survey, for instance, found that 17 percent of couples who married in 2007 met through online dating sites, but a Harris Interactive poll sponsored by eHarmony found that only 9 percent of couples married that year were introduced through such services.
