Slashdot Mirror
Your Valentine's Day Plans for 2003?
Nos. writes "Valentine's Day is rapidly approaching, and though some of you Slashdot readers will be spending the day alone, there must be some of you out there who won't. So, what are you doing for that someone special this Feb 14th? My fiance is not a geek, and so wouldn't appreciate a 'geeky Valentine's'. Instead, I'm thinking a nice quiet dinner in one of our favourite restaurants. However, I recently got the 'You don't do anything romantic anymore' speech, and quite honestly am out of ideas. Can slashdot help? Obviously slashdot isn't the best place to ask, but I'm sure others are in a similar situation."
As a discordian, I will be celebrating an important religious holiday instead of Valentine's day. Emperor Norton I (patron saint of Emperor Norton I, and all things related)'s birthday is also on Feb 14.
Trees can't go dancing
So do them a big favor
Pretend dancing stinks!
More often than not a geek knows how to treat a lady better than a lot of guys. Or so it seems at least. Must be because the typical geek is not a "manly-man." Whatever the hell that is supposed to mean. You'll also find that a lot of geeks like poetry and junk - expect that from the Apple folks. They're typically creative people. ;) Maybe one of them will write a love poem for you to give her.
For me, my wife is not a geek but does play an awful lot of DAOC lately... She says she wants a keyboard without a "stupid windows key", I guess it must be a DAOC thing.
Here's what you do - get her an appointment at one of those beauty spas on the 14th, in the evening. Make sure she'll be there for a while, maybe an hour or two. Ya know, the oil treatment, the massage, the whole nine yards. Then, when she gets home - you've got dinner waiting for her. Not any Taco Bell dude, make some spaghetti or something simple - yet not too simple. Make sure to get the red wine, if you can't cook you'd better get her drunk...
Women love this stuff and it's very much worth it - the rest of the year she will always remember this day and you'll NEVER get the "You're not affectionate" speech again.
If you didn't blow your wad on the oil treatment when splurge for diamonds. Doesn't have to be huge or expensive - just a little nugget of love that will always remind her of you (and the great Valentines day you gave her!)
Why don't you cook the meal yourself?
Obviously, cooking a decent dinner takes a lot more time and effort, but isn't that an important part of romance? There are plenty of recipes available over the Internet, and you still have plenty of time to get the ingredients, so you have no excuse! If you live with your SO, get the afternoon off and start preparing and cooking then, so it's ready for just after she gets in.
Myself, I shall be spending SVD with friends, as my girlfriend will be on the other side of the world. Bit of a drag really.
Try cooking a meal yourself, nothing says "I love you" like a home-cooked meal. I know my wife would much rather have a lasagne cooked by me just the way she likes it than go out to a restaurant.
Then afterwards, we might go and run Siege on Asylum MUD together.
Listening for the sound of the coming rain...
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/1/28/22056/9730
Hi,
/. community members. Please don't tell me your valentine's day plans. I really don't need to know. More importantly, you don't need to tell me. Just don't do it. The entire frigging world doesn't need to feel all 'together' by telling each other anonymous details about Valentine's day. If you're really that addicted, just get a blog and be done with it. In fact, for future reference these are some other things well worth not sharing with every random stranger:
Dear
1. Your approach to long term financial management
2. What you're going to do when you mom comes to stay next month.
3. Your preferred brand of dishwasher, and why.
4. How you deal with awkward family moments, like funerals of uncles you never really knew that well to begin with.
5. How you brush your teeth.
6. Poetry you write.
7. Anything about Ayn Rand.
8. Your opinion, based on ample experience, on how to deal with failed relationships.
9. How much high school sucked for you personally.
10. Anything about Anne Rice.
Good, I'm glad that's cleared up. Can we go back to interesting stuff now?
Give her an orgasm, that usually works...
My other account has a 3-digit UID.
For this day, at least.
I try to make my girlfriend feel nice whenever I can see her. It doesn't take much; a glance, a nice thing to say about something she bought, make her laugh...
These are things she lives all year long and make our relationship strong. If you have a fiance and you are waiting for one day to make up for the rest of the year, you are doing it all wrong.
Think of you relationship with your significant other as one of your projects; if you don't assign time and thought to it, it will fail.
Do some fairly normal things like you usually would, if you have kids, make sure they're at a babysitters, give her the present of a vibrator, use said present on her in a very sensual way, go down down down and stay there for a while, and make her actually beg you to put her out of her misery with your "big unit" or whatever.
When you actually do give it to her, make sure you last at LEAST 15 minutes. And no athletic shit either. Slow and gentle. Act loving!
No matter if you took her to Arby's previously, that will have been a special Valentine's day.
>From power@powerandfury.net Mon Feb 03 16:53:47 2003
Received: from galaxy.genext.net ([66.45.212.50]) by mail.ncidata.com
with ESMTP (IOA-IPAD 3.02) id 5819600 for ; Mon, 03 Feb 2003 16:53:47 -0800
Received: from power (ip-66-45-209-11.nw-tel.com [66.45.209.11])
by galaxy.genext.net (8.10.2/8.10.2) with ESMTP id h140fNu20906;
Mon, 3 Feb 2003 16:41:23 -0800
Reply-To:
From: "James \"Power\" Bowen"
To:
Subject: Men's valentines
Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2003 16:53:17 -0800
Organization: NWGO
Message-ID:
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="us-ascii"
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook, Build 10.0.4510
Importance: Normal
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1106
Every 14th of February you get the chance to display your fondness for your
wife or girlfriend by showering her with gifts, flowers, dinner, shows and
any other baubles that women find romantic.
Every Valentines Day you rack your brains for that one special, unique gift
that will show your wife or girlfriend that you really love them more than
anything. Now ladies, I'll let you in on a little secret. Guys really don't
enjoy this that much. Sure seeing that smile on your face when we get it
right is priceless, but that smile is the result of weeks of blood, sweat
and consideration. Another secret guys feel left out. That's right, left
out. There's no special holiday for the ladies to show their appreciation
for the men in their life. Men as a whole are either too proud or just too
embarrassed to admit it. Which is why a new holiday has been created.
March 20th is now officially "Steak and Blowjob Day". Simple, effective and
self-explanatory.
This holiday has been created so you ladies finally have a day to show your
man just how much you love him. No cards, no flowers, no special nights on
the town. The name of the holiday explains it all. Just a steak and a
blowjob. That's it. Finally, this twin pair of Valentines Day and Steak and
Blowjob Day will usher in a new age of love as men everywhere will try THAT
much harder in February to ensure a more memorable March! It's like a
perpetual love machine. The word is already beginning to spread, but as with
any new idea, it needs a little push to start the ball rolling.
"I recently got the 'You don't do anything romantic anymore' speech, and quite honestly am out of ideas."
Funny how this "holiday" falls (more often than not) on the guy. What about the woman being the romantic one and coming up with that "something special".
Eh, fuckit, I'm just bitter. Just out of a slightly-longer-than-a-year relationship and sick this 'You don't do anything romantic anymore' shit. Bleh.
Co-founder and designer at Music Nearby: http://musicnearby.com
Ah, I see you need education, Grasshopper. Speaking the language of love and romance is vital to successful geeks. First, to be successful, you must put aside the thought of "just one day a year". It may be difficult, but plan on starting to do something romantic *at least* once a month. Better is to have a date night *every week*, without fail. Let your parner help plan the dates, and even if you don't get enthused about their hobbies at least learn enough to discuss them intelligently. Some of you may ask why this is necessary for a geek. It is simple, so simple. You can expect yourself to want something throughout the year. If you have treated your partner well, they will be much more inclined to treat you the same. If they feel they have to scrape to get anything from you, they will probably not easily give in for anything you want. I have found this to work over the last 12 years of marriage, and I plan on continuing the cycle.
Oh, and maybe it's too obvious to need pointing out, but romance doesn't have to be confined to one day a year. What happens the rest of the year makes more of an impact.
11.0010010000111111011010101000100010000101101000
It echos my thought exactly.
Back when we were dating and then engaged, living in New Orleans, my wife and I would always go out to a romantic restaurant on Valentine's Day, like the amazingly popular Mona Lisa. Now that we live in the Northeast, we prefer to avoid the restaurant rush -- especially since Valentine's Day is on a Friday this year -- so we're staying home and having a meat fondue.
There's hardly a more fun and social meal than a fondue. The basic concept of a meat fondue is quite simple -- you cut a couple of pounds of good beef into approximately 1" cubes, skewer them on long fondue forks, and dunk them in a pot of boiling oil. We build a big fire, light candles, and have the fondue accompanied by a variety of sauces, French bread, good cheese, and of course a bottle of two of good red wine. Yes, it's amazingly decadent and terribly unhealthy, but it's a lot of fun, requires minimal preparation, and, because you're always pausing to skewer a new chunk of meat to dip in the oil, the meal is naturally unhurried and gives plenty of time for enjoyable conversation.
I did this for my wife a couple years ago. Ask her what the best present I ever gave her was, this is it. Ask her what present I got her when I did this, she has no idea.
I started about 2 weeks before Valentine's Day. I created a document and thought of one/two liners about my wife. Things I like, things I love, fond memories, etc. After 2 weeks, I ended up with like 35 things. I went to Hallmark and bought a couple packages of little kid valentine's cards.
I printed out the sheet, cut it up and put one in each card. Valentine's morning, I was out the door before she got up and she woke up to 35 cards throughout the house.
Just a warning, if you do this and figure out a way to top it, let me know.
The diamond industry is controlled by a global monopoly (DeBeers, who make Microsoft look like boy scouts); they have been known to use violence and intimidation against independent producers/sellers, with machete-wielding militias cutting off the hands of those who don't comply. In southern Africa, the diamond industry exploits miners in atrocious conditions. Those precious stones you may be thinking of buying for your girlfriend/wife/partner fund bloodshed.
The association of diamonds with romance is recent and wholly artificial. It was
engineered in the 20th century by DeBeers' marketing people. They did their job excpetionally well; in America (and to a lesser extent elsewhere in the West), many women are so conditioned to associate diamonds with romance that failing to pay the DeBeers Romance Tax can mean the end of a relationship.
If you're a Linux user, you have said no to the Microsoft monopoly. Why not extend this noble principle to an even more pernicious and murderous multinational corporation? Say no to diamonds, and tell your partner why.
Personally, going to a french restaurant we really like, then have reserved a 1 hr private dance lesson for us for ballroom dancing :)
Figured it was kind of original, plus we'll have fun, it won't be "one of those default v-day gifts", and maybe we'll (me specifically) will learn enough to dance more often at formal events
My wife and I have banned Valentines Day from the relationship. Since it's a faux holiday anyway - brought to you by Hallmark - we decided that we would be better off expressing our love for each other on every other day of the year, forgoing the pricy sentimental pap that comes around every February 14.
And yes, I am blessed to be with a woman who shares my point of view on that issue. In fact, it was her idea.
SpyDock: Scientific Python in a Docker container
5% of /. readers are getting laid... ... the other 95% wish they were!
I have tickets for two to a[n off-Broadway] show in NYC. Dinner, show, greeting card, a small token of my esteem (Buffy DVDs!) and I'll get off for about $150.
I have discovered a truly marvelous sig, unfortunately the sig limit is too small to contain i
Depending on the restaurant and where you live, it may already be booked up for Valentine's day. If you go restaurant, book now.
That said, cooking her a nice meal is a great idea. Generally, putting your time and effort into doing something scores more points than plunking down some cash.
Some tips if you don't do dinner parties:
- Set the table, and take some time to make it look nice. A tablecloth, napkins (cloth if you've got 'em), some candles a nice candle holder, some flowers (or scatter some flower petals over the table, it saves room and doesn't require a vase) -- it doens't have to be Martha Stewart, but make an effort. You can do this ahead of time. (If you're broke, the dollar store is your friend for this one.)
- Clean up as you go. Nothing is less romantic than a big pile of dirty dishes.
- Except maybe dirty socks and dust bunnies. Clean the house ahead of time too. Make the bed.
- Read recipe instructions carefully, and pre-plan your cooking so that everything is ready at the same time. Like, if the main meal needs to bake for an hour, and dinner is a 6, the whole thing needs to be put together by 5. And while it's in the oven, you have an hour to clean up and get on to the next thing. And remember that you only have 2 hands -- you can't stir 3 things contantly at once while chopping veggies. (Think scheduling algorithms. You are the CPU.)
- Better yet, find recipes that can be made (or mostly made) in advance. You don't want to be frantically racing around the kitchen while your girlfriend sits alone waiting for you. Less time in the kitchen for you means more time with her.
- Don't cook anything heavy. Sure, both of you may love a big meal, but feeling bloated and full is not conducive to romance.
- Consider her favourite foods when choosing a recipes. Sounds obvious, but keep that in mind.
- That said, plan a meal that makes some sense. A really spicy dish will overpower a delicate one. This isn't hard to do if stick to a theme (Italian, French, Mexican) and keep things simple.
- If you're trying a new recipe, and/or you're not an experienced cook, make it ahead of time. Make sure it tastes fine, cooks for the time you expect it to, that you have all the cooking utensils required, etc. Recipes usually need to be adjusted to your kitchen.
- For the adventerous: Pay attention to how you serve and plate the food. You don't need to go overboard, but a little parsley never hurts. Put dinner rolls in a basket or a bowl instead of tossing the plastic bag on the table. Don't spread pots all over the table if you can help it.
Hope that helps. It may seem silly, but taking some time to make things look nice (as well as taste good) is part of what restaurants do. Though it may sound like a lot, there really isn't much to it -- you don't need to go overboard, but just take a moment to think about how everything looks. If this isn't something you normally do, you'll really wow her by making the effort.I can spell. I just can't type.
Second that suggestion.
GET A REAL CORKSCREW. Pocketknife/multi-tool corkscrews don't cut it. At the VERY least get a proper "winged" wine corkscrew, they're only a few dollars.
Brookstone has some REALLY nice corkpullers. Push a lever down and it automatically twists the screw in, pull it back up and it pulls the cork out. Insanely easy, and it's a flashy way to open a bottle of wine too. I'm sure you struggling to get the cork out of your bottle of wine with a crappy pocketknife will kill the mood. Plus I don't know how many times substandard corkscrews have resulted in small chunks of cork ending up in the wine for me... (I have one that is not a Brookstone puller, but is 99% identical to the ones they sell. It is GREAT.)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Sorry I'm posting as an AC, but I'm having problems with my account.
What do girls want on Valentine's Day? Just something that a) shows that you care and b) shows that you know her.
My (also geek) boyfriend likes to get me stuffed animals (cute things like Chococat and Hello Kitty and Nyago) and flowers. I love that! He also made me a KDE desktop theme that was really cute.
But, seriously, geek girl or not, you can NEVER go wrong with flowers. Pink rosebuds are nice, and less expensive then long-stemmed roses.
Dinner and flowers, plus a little something (wrapped up?) is failsafe, and really easy to customize.
If your girl wants romantic, take her to a place where she can really dress up; girls like to dress up. Or order in gourmet (gourmet grocery stores will some times do that) or reserve a night at a nice hotel.
Hotels are good options (if you don't mind being late for work the next day) because, as long as it's a nice one, you get a beautiful ambiance, room service, fine dining, and a chance to surprise her with something new and romantic. Add fresh flowers and a (sexy?) gift, and you're set!
Now maybe you guys can help me- WHAT DO I GET MY GEEK BOYFRIEND???
Valentine's Day? Aw crap, I forgot to get a girlfriend again!
She said 'you don't do anything romantic anymore'? Guess what, it's over. Pack your bags, next train leaves for splitsville. If she needs to be constantly entertained, she's already looking past you.
What you need is a woman like my wife. She hates valentine's day. With a passion. I never cared one way or another. If anything, on February 14th, we celebrate the one week anniversary of my birthday. She doesn't need a special day, as I prefer to surprise her with little things throughout the year. I'm grocery shopping, and I see a type of candy she might like, so I buy it. She's happy; I was thinking about her when I wasn't with her.
Sure, she liked the 'big gun' romantic things (like the eight hour drive I made after we had been broken up to beg her to come back. Before we were married, BTW) but she's mature enough to understand it's the little things that count.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Ligaguinggligagiggagoogoogwillgo
I have lots of fun things in mind for Valentine's Day!
- Trying not to weep openly in public
- Trying not to think about all the great sex my ex-girlfriends must be having right about now
- Stockpiling cheap hooch, 'cause once you get started, it can be tough to find the booze store when you need more
- Finding a comfortable, out-of-the-way gutter
- Maybe looking into that heroin addiction idea I've been kicking around
That's all I've got planned so far... anyone else have ideas?
Valentine's Day
Venereal Disease
VD. Coincidence?
I'm the urban spaceman babe, but here comes the twist... I don't exist
Okay here's where you've got it all wrong. And coming from a girl's point of view, I'd advise you listen. It's not so much the diamond that the girl wants, it's the DeBeers commercial! Think about it... two wonderfully in love people hanging about in shadows exquisitely dressed. That's what the girl wants... and since on the whole guys aren't more unique and tend to let commercials dictate what they do... diamonds epitomize the moment. So it's not really the fault of the diamond. If it's the bloodshed you're worried about, do some research. It's diamonds from the war-torn Congo that are funding the fighting. But you can get diamonds from other parts of the world. Some jewellers use these "peace" diamonds exclusively...but then... they are more expensive... Personally I don't want my guy to spend a fortune on me, I just want him to spend a lot of time on it. =) oh and as a side note, it DOES have a history: Wearing a diamond ring on the fourth finger of the left hand dates back to ancient Egypt, where it was believed that the vena amorous (the vein of love) ran from that finger directly to the heart.
Here in the Netherlands a lot of people totally ignore valentines day. It was introduced here by shops and such and now everybody that can get a bit of money of it (TV, *shops, magazins, blah) acts like half our country does something to celebrate valentines day while we don't:) It's a bit the same with christmas - until TV was invented nobody had thought of the possibility of putting presents under a tree in the living room (we did have the tree though). Instead we put presents under the chimney with Sinterklaas (5 december) but since everybody got a TV and TV got controlled by money more and more people don't celebrate Sinterklaas anymore and have all started to put presents under a tree to celebrate a religious holiday from a religion nobody even remotely believes in anymore. Though many people think "Valentines day? One big commercial" and totally ignore it. The same for christmaspresents.
0x or or snor perron?!
Not all women judge men by how much they spend. Maybe it's the "You don't spend enough time with me anymore" speech, which resembles the "You spend too much time playing Everquest/UT2003/[fill in your favorite game]" and "You spend too much time watching football" speeches. It may also be the "lack of spontaneity" speech, or simply code for "foreplay has been reduced from an hour to five minutes, and you wonder why I only have one orgasm."