2009-10-21:

Reading more of the excellent Geeks Dream Girls lead me to the article on "<a href="http://geeksdreamgirl.com/2009/03/13/dealbreakers-how-much-do-they-mean-to-you/" title="">The Dealbreaker</a>". The preverbal straw that broke the preverbal camel's back. That thing that makes it so you just can't see yourself with that person. And this is important, because no matter how specific I try to be with my "help wanted ad" the person that shows up for the "interview" will have some, but not all, of the qualities I am looking for. And some extra qualities I was not looking for.

It's like looking for the "perfect" computer. The one that's the perfect speed, the most storage, and the right price. Sure, if you wait six months you'll get that machine at a lower price, but then you won't have a computer for those six months.

You could wait forever, and get the best deal, but never actually HAVE a computer.

So I was thinking about my Dealbreaker(s) because, hey, what if, like her, (and if you don't know which "her" I'm talking about you need to keep up around here) I have to send a "we're too different" mail? What would be *my* reasons?

Luckily I'm pretty easygoing. Don't care if you're neat or a slob, I'm a bit of both myself. Hate my music? I'll listen with headphones on then. My lawn needs cutting? I'd rather spend that time with you. (awwww)

Probably not accepting I'm Wiccan would be the biggest one. Someone always trying to talk me into their religion would get tedious fast. And Wiccan's don't try to talk other people out of theirs, so that's all good. Smoking's another, I've seen what it does to the insides of computers. Most of the comments in the article were that, or drinking too much. Not liking my cats, that would be one. Or my friends, but who wouldn't like Sean? (I mean, come on, right? :)

You have to be careful though- let's say the first girl I meet likes video games, can go back and forth with me quoting Red Dwarf and thinks skinny guys are sexy. BUT she's never done any Role Playing in her life. Is the conversation over? Is that a dealbreaker? I mean, I'm playing games both Friday AND Saturday this week (thank goodness for skype). And next week it's over to RIT for Rudicon and I'll probably be there helping Sean Friday and Saturday. Someone I couldn't share that with? I don't know. THAT'S why you have to ask the follow up question!

"Can you see yourself doing that activity?"

Which makes you think. Take, I don't know, ballet. (didn't know how to spell that one!) Let's say she LOVES, LOVES, LOVES the ballet. But I've never seen one in my life. Is that her dealbreaker? But wait! She asks the follow up question:

"Can you see yourself going to the ballet?"

So now I have to consider this activity. Could I see myself walking into the theater to watch a ballet?

Alone? No, probably not.

But with her? Someone I liked otherwise, and maybe did something together with me even though she didn't LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it?

Yes.

And I would ask her: "Can you see yourself RPing?" And if the answer was yes, heck, I've just got a three hour conversation ahead of me, with her, extolling the virtues of the HDL system and making a character and having a mini adventure to get her up to speed, then she can meet my friends in a non-threatening way, and, and, and and look at kittens. Maybe she's just shy and I never noticed, and we the other players need to involve her more because she doesn't like to speak up. This is something I do plan to do now that I've both noticed it and want to practice interacting with people.

My feelings are the same, to a lesser extent. The RPing isn't the thing, the getting together with friends is the thing. But the activity is the RP, and I throw myself into whatever the activity is, so I give it my all.

And that's the kind of thing I'm talking about. Maybe I don't go to the ballet NOW because I don't have anyone to go with. But maybe, once I've gone, I'll see it in a new light and come to enjoy it. Maybe not. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't go the next time, to be with her.

"Oh, and remember: yout have otherwise."

-- geeksdreamgirl.com

So then the question becomes do I revise my ad to say I want a girl with geek "tendencies", and go from there, or leave it that "yeah, here's what I do, if you don't, forget it." Maybe I have my sights set on a clone, and that wouldn't work.

This dating stuff is hard, and I haven't even STARTED YET!!!! I guess if the ad attracts the wrong kind of person I can always change it. I'm not carving it on tablets, after all.

As you can guess by this lengthy "article" I had nothing better to do this morning. I did draw a comic though.

Ate lunch.

Here's something all spooky and paranormal. Look at these horoscopes for me from last week:

[[image:horoscope.jpg:Scans of a paper:center:0]]

I know, I know, horoscopes? Me? A scientific "find the answer" sort looking at horoscopes? Hey, they're fun to read, you know. And I mean, look at them! Is that not too weird? And it's been like this for two weeks now. I read others (like for leo and cancer) and they don't relate to me, but mine, yipes! Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it would be interesting to talk to other Pisces and see if they are going through "paradigm shifts" in their life right now. Stupid age of Aquarius. It was the age of Pieces before this, you know, and one day it will be again! Pisces People Unite!

Tried, in vain, to get map data to my GPS1000 using a USB->serial adapter and an emulator running Win2k. First I couldn't find the drivers, Belkin doesn't make them available any more. Found them on driverguide.com but windows wouldn't load them right, so the device didn't work. Where's a crappy old Win98 machine when you need one for two minutes? Tried just downloading the maps manually onto the handy SD card they have in the back, but apparently it's either in the wrong place or I got the wrong thing, it doesn't see it at all. Oh well.

So I worked on the Story Editor. You can now add multiple things to the page, and delete them again! Slowly but surely I'm getting there. It does mess up the undo though, not sure how I'm going to handle that. If at all. If it's documented it's a feature, not a bug!

Looked at my mother's new Facebook page. Pretty soon she'll be blogging too! Of course, then I'll have to start twittering, just to stay one step ahead. :-) Now I just have to get my father into it. Don't get me wrong, he's got his own Mac, and uses ebay, and emails and things, but facebook? Not so sure. He'd have like 1000 friends though, he knows everybody.

Yesterday's ODST party turned into a castle crashers party, as Neil's Xbox is acting up. Oh well, it was still fun, it's such a neat game.

Had four calls today, but one was also from yesterday so that's cheating. Made three appointments for tomorrow. One in my favorite place of all to go, Hilton. Well, it's only twenty minutes from where I'll be before it, it's the half hour drive home that I don't look forward to.

Only 8:00 now, plenty of time to do nothing tonight!

Current Mood: Powerfully Calm (How powerful? <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiMHTK15Pik&feature=related" title="">OVER NINE THOUSAND</a>!!!!