Why? Varied reasons. I had just ended a 3.5 year relationship, I had to move out, into a corner of a living room of a friend's apartment, I was stressed, my job was starting to be hell, and quite frankly, I was lonely, hurt, and afraid. I was never one for the dating scene - that relationship that had just ended had been the highlight of my life.
So I started poking around. I believe it was match.com that I found this one on - I sent a reply, she mailed me back - the second email from her was, "Hey, give me a call, 555-1234, we'll go out Friday night". Hrm. Alright - I had kinda hoped to correspond a bit before we met, but what the heck - I've nothing better to do.
So we went out. Went over to her pad to pick her up, she opened to door. Wow. Kneejerk reaction - _not_ my type. At all. Don't get me wrong - she was very pretty (not the type of girl I expected to see off the net, on a personals ad - maybe that was a clue?) but I knew this would probably be a weird date.
So we went out...had a few too many beers...she invited me up to her place when I dropped her off, we smalltalked for a while, she said she was getting tired, I stood up to leave in a gentlemanly manner, and she decided to kiss me.
Rather boggled I was; I am neither the most attractive nor in-shape person I know.
But nature took it's course that night. I should have said no.
I'm a good guy. Raised right, I respect the female gender, I treat them like goddesses. This floored me - I was feeling guilty - we tried to make a relationship happen on nothing but sex.
The silence whenever we were alone together - astounding. The times I wanted to just stand up and walk out of that apartment were countless. After 7 months the decision was made for me - I'm glad it happened before I started to hate her.
So what the hell am I posting this bit on a public forum for? (And quite frankly, embarassing myself in front of millions?)
For one reason - Be You.
Don't care if she seems to be god's gift to mankind, don't care if you can talk about everything _but_ 'puters and science and whatever - don't care if she's the best damn lay you've even had. Be you. If she can't take the fact that you're a hard-coding, game-playing, sense-talking, steely eyed hardware man, give her a miss.
Get to know her. Evaluate her. You, reader, are a good catch. You're going places. You may not be the best looking thing, maybe not even the funniest or the most romantic - but you've got the leg up on 80% of the men out there. You're a good guy, the anti-fratboy, her mom will like you. No matter how lonely you are, how long it's been since you've been in love - if it's not right, skip it.
Just thought I'd pass that along - the synopsis of the "You got a good thing" speech the girl I had the 3.5 year relationship gave me. (we're best friends now)
I've worked at a few departments on my campus the years I've been in college, and I can tell you one thing - if they have even two licenses for a piece of software that they use on 100 machines, I'd be damn well surprised. I rememeber my boss copying NT Server off of a CD a friend in another department mounted in his server...
The fact is, no one cares, and no one checks. We burned off copies of software for professors for use at home, for ourselves...any reason at all. It keeps the departmental budgets down, and makes things look good to the accounting department. Sure, they're supposed to buy licenses, and we get pretty good deals on them too....but....there's paperwork to be done for buying things - and it's easier.
And we all know it's not just my school, it's everywhere - exceptt those that may have draconian accounting policies. I'll wager a large number of corporations do as well.
But hey. I'd launch into a huge comment on piracy, but I'll stay on topic.
Slashdot Mirror
Around last May I attempted the online personals.
Why? Varied reasons. I had just ended a 3.5 year relationship, I had to move out, into a corner of a living room of a friend's apartment, I was stressed, my job was starting to be hell, and quite frankly, I was lonely, hurt, and afraid. I was never one for the dating scene - that relationship that had just ended had been the highlight of my life.
So I started poking around. I believe it was match.com that I found this one on - I sent a reply, she mailed me back - the second email from her was, "Hey, give me a call, 555-1234, we'll go out Friday night". Hrm. Alright - I had kinda hoped to correspond a bit before we met, but what the heck - I've nothing better to do.
So we went out. Went over to her pad to pick her up, she opened to door. Wow. Kneejerk reaction - _not_ my type. At all. Don't get me wrong - she was very pretty (not the type of girl I expected to see off the net, on a personals ad - maybe that was a clue?) but I knew this would probably be a weird date.
So we went out...had a few too many beers...she invited me up to her place when I dropped her off, we smalltalked for a while, she said she was getting tired, I stood up to leave in a gentlemanly manner, and she decided to kiss me.
Rather boggled I was; I am neither the most attractive nor in-shape person I know.
But nature took it's course that night. I should have said no.
I'm a good guy. Raised right, I respect the female gender, I treat them like goddesses. This floored me - I was feeling guilty - we tried to make a relationship happen on nothing but sex.
The silence whenever we were alone together - astounding. The times I wanted to just stand up and walk out of that apartment were countless. After 7 months the decision was made for me - I'm glad it happened before I started to hate her.
So what the hell am I posting this bit on a public forum for? (And quite frankly, embarassing myself in front of millions?)
For one reason - Be You.
Don't care if she seems to be god's gift to mankind, don't care if you can talk about everything _but_ 'puters and science and whatever - don't care if she's the best damn lay you've even had. Be you. If she can't take the fact that you're a hard-coding, game-playing, sense-talking, steely eyed hardware man, give her a miss.
Get to know her. Evaluate her. You, reader, are a good catch. You're going places. You may not be the best looking thing, maybe not even the funniest or the most romantic - but you've got the leg up on 80% of the men out there. You're a good guy, the anti-fratboy, her mom will like you. No matter how lonely you are, how long it's been since you've been in love - if it's not right, skip it.
Just thought I'd pass that along - the synopsis of the "You got a good thing" speech the girl I had the 3.5 year relationship gave me. (we're best friends now)
Anyway. I'm doing making a fool outta myself.
TY
I've worked at a few departments on my campus the years I've been in college, and I can tell you one thing - if they have even two licenses for a piece of software that they use on 100 machines, I'd be damn well surprised. I rememeber my boss copying NT Server off of a CD a friend in another department mounted in his server...
The fact is, no one cares, and no one checks. We burned off copies of software for professors for use at home, for ourselves...any reason at all. It keeps the departmental budgets down, and makes things look good to the accounting department. Sure, they're supposed to buy licenses, and we get pretty good deals on them too....but....there's paperwork to be done for buying things - and it's easier.
And we all know it's not just my school, it's everywhere - exceptt those that may have draconian accounting policies. I'll wager a large number of corporations do as well.
But hey. I'd launch into a huge comment on piracy, but I'll stay on topic.
TY