most girls don't like football either but the regular guys don't find that a problem.
Yes, but regular guys are also 'cool.' With high-school aged females it's not about what they're interested in, it's about how it will help their social life. They date the football guys because that's who they think will improve their social lives. The ones who aren't like this are the geek girls, and they are few and far between. The ratio of male to female geeks ensures that only the moderately attractive male geeks can be with the female geeks.
Case in point: Almost every girl I ever talked to has said "why can't I find a guy like you." This frustrated me, because I'm as much like me as anyone. Once I actually said to one "I'm a guy like me!" She just laughed. The point isn't that they want a guy like me, it's that they want society to look favorably upon me so that they won't be ostracized by their peers for being with me. And that they don't want sensitivity. Ref: "Bedazzled" starring Brendan Fraser.
Luckily, my fiance was able to see beyond this and see how much I would be earning in the future, which is what women are interested in after they graduate college and have dated for a while. It helps that she's pretty and fun and nice and sexy and will be a good mother, but her foresight has saved me a lot of trouble chasing women in college.
Finally, the best thing you can do to improve your love life is to have a girlfriend. It's kind of like having to have had a job in order to get a job; it shows that you must have some attributes that are desirable. Being a senior doesn't hurt either.
Yeah, I guess I was pretty lucky. My school was so small that it lacked a critical mass that makes clique-based social structure possible. It didn't make me attractive, but it kept me from being ostracized entirely.
I would like to add a caveat: Being yourself, depending on the culture of your particular area, may take a long time to be attractive. I was myself since 6th grade. When everybody else wanted to be 'cool,' I was more concerned with learning stuff. I didn't have a girlfriend for more than a month until October of my 10th grade year, when my fiance asked me out.
But it wasn't for lack of trying. I would ask girls to go out with me. They all said no. I was always the dumpee, not the dumper. One was because I didn't call her, but I hate using telephones. One went on one date with me and dumped me the next day because I was weird. Another dumped me because she couldn't stand sitting next to me in a movie theatre because I was 'too virile.' (Which is probably BS.)
At any rate, I never gave up being myself. One thing you must NOT do is to pine over a girl. I did that for a long, long time. It sucked. She doesn't want to be with you, then she's not worth it.
Much of this has to do with the fact that Wal-Mart actually makes an effort to try to serve the customers.
This, for the most part, is bull. Walk into a local computer store, and you'll probably find someone who knows something about computers and can help you. Walk into a Wal-Mart and you'll find a slack-jawed, pimple-faced nitwit who is too busy trying to pick up Lou Ann in housewares to help you out.
Maybe that's a bad example. A better one would be if you walked into a small record store. They know music. They love music. They'll help you find a record, and maybe they'll point you to something else you might like. Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. don't really care about you, because there are thousands of other suckers who they can take money from. And the turnover is so high that they don't care about good service. So it's a trade off; limited hours and great service, or great hours and poor service. I'd take the former, but most people choose the latter because their jobs force them to run errands at weird hours.
The reason the small stores close is because they don't have the capital to pay someone to sit there doing nothing just in case you need to buy something. Also, most of them are run by one family, who also have a life.
As for alternatives to unhealthy foods: It's not that they're not available, it's that they're not readily available. Making healthy food involves selecting fresh produce, storing it, preparing it properly, and storing the prepared food properly. It's a lot of work for some people. It's easier to go through the drive-thru at Mickie D's and pick up some burgers. You don't have to cook it, and the only leftovers are some boxes and bags.
If alternatives were readily available, people wouldn't be able to start businesses specializing in preparing healthy food for people who don't have the 'free time' to cook healthily (a company in Chicago is making a killing in this area). And, no, frozen or boxed dinners don't count.
Today's fuel cells require large amounts of platinum. Although some companies sell fuel cells today, they are nothing more than a lab curiosity - you'll never see them powering more than a few prototype cars on the road because nobody will be able to afford them.
Fortunately, platinum is available in huge quantities in the asteroid belt. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like we'll have the technology to harvest it before I die.
Darn tootin' I'm going to preview movies. I went to see Final Fantasy, and some grandmother had taken her granddaughter, assuming since it was animated and it was called "Final Fantasy," it was somehow safe for a six-year-old child. The kid left screaming bloody murder after about 45 minutes.
My point wasn't that people aren't lazy, but the fact that a lot of geeks need to be true to who they are. If a woman won't let you be yourself, or if you have to change to be with her, then she's not worth it. Granted, it's really hard to find a woman who appreciates the subtleties of a well-obfuscated Perl script, but that doesn't mean you have to not be yourself to just to have something warm next to you in bed. It's like being religious; some Christians drink, others don't, and others have become monks and taken oaths of silence. It's all about how far you'd like to take it to be true to yourself.
How about... no. I'll fix up my bike and ride it to work as much as possible. Take my car, but you'll have my Coke when you pry it from my cold, dead hands. *strokes his 2-liter bottle lovingly* I won't let them take you, my darling.
Brother, if a gorgeous girl came up to you, you're obviously no geek. Real geeks are oblivious to the wants of the flesh. Besides, anyone who sits in front of a computer enough to be a geek isn't the type of person a gorgeous girl is attracted to. Pasty, scrawny/fat and greasy isn't attractive, no matter how smart you are.
How about this: VoIP for the last mile, but wirelessly. Use WiFi to provide coverage for each home, and have it hooked up to a phone line. Walk into an area with one of these repeaters and your phone automagically recognizes this and switches over, mid-call.
I live in a basement right now. I can get cell reception, but only after 9PM, when everything electrical is off upstairs. I'm going to try the cellular repeater mentioned above, but I would prefer something that won't have to be hacked together, and my landlord probably would, too!
From the article "If you or I accidentally kick one of these hidden transmitters, should the feds be able to seize our Macintosh and photos of Aunt Betty?"
They took his Macintosh?!? Those bastards!
Re:Off topic, but I'm really curious...
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Shrek 2 How-To
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· Score: 1
I think it's okay to show this sort of thing to kids. Everyone laughed, even the little kids who didn't even know that wearing ladies underpants is weird. By introducing it early, it helps to make it seem that it's less 'evil' or 'naughty.' Granted, that could take some of the fun out of sex, but it would allow for a more open discussion, which would probably help parents talk to their kids about safety in sexual situations.
Besides, they had that "Thong Song" on continuous repeat a few years back, and I don't think society has crumbled yet.
Here's how they know
on
Shrek 2 How-To
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· Score: 1, Informative
Don't mod this up, so I don't ruin it for people who haven't seen the movie, because this is one of the funniest parts.
Shrek, Donkey, and Puss are hanging in the dungeon. Their friends are trying to break them out. Pinocchio is dangling a la "Mission Impossible," but has gotten tangled up in his puppet strings. The Gingerbread Man is on his back, and has the keys to their manacles. Donkey says "Tell a lie! Say something crazy like 'I'm wearing women's underpants!'"
Pinocchio says "Uh, um, I'm wearing women's underpants." And his nose stays the same size.
Shrek says "You ARE wearing women's underpants!"
"No I'm not" says Pinnochio, and his nose grows.
Gingerbread man pulls lifts Pinnochio's pants away from his back and screams "It's a thong!"
So, yes, they now know what a thong is. I don't care, I'm just their uncle. Their parents are the ones that have to deal with it now. LOL
I took my nieces and nephew to see Shrek (big mistake, now they all know what a thong is) and I was amazed at the realism. Granted, we weren't in very good seats, but more than once I thought they had taken a live human and composited him/her into the CG scene. It was really amazing.
As CG gets more and more realistic, I think we'll start to see a different kind of movie star, one who can do excellent voice work instead of just looking daring/pretty/hunky/etc.
Then how can they legally perform John Doe lawsuits when they know who's doing it? Shouldn't the person who's purchased the internet connection have the responsibility to see it's being used for legal purposes?
I don't want to use your email server. That's why I got a web host. If you block port 25 so that I have to call and complain, you will lose my business. I don't care if the alternatives are 75% slower; I will not tolerate a utility company telling me what I can do in my own home.
If you want to stop zombies, use your clout to get Microsoft to fix its POS operating system. Stop supporting Windows, and maybe Microsoft will fix it instead of relying on other companies to fix their own problems.
Sincerely, A Customer Who Could Ruin you in the Harrisburg Market, not that you'd care
That's not the point. The point is that the TOS is sufficiently vague as to put someone running a small web server or remote login is jeopardy of prosecution.
Unfortunately, as I was saying yesterday, I live in a small market where Comcast is the only game in town for truly high-speed (read: > 1Mb downstream) internet access. So it's either forego high speed internet or grab my ankles.* Fortunately, my community has someone like me looking into other solutions.
* This statement has been deemed offensive and in violation of my TOS. I must now go tell my corporate masters that I was a naughty boy.
Considering that people won't go to a place they don't know about, and that Wal Mart and Blockbuster are backed by huge marketing departments with huge budgets, not to mention the purchasing power to ensure that videos and items are always available, people do go to them. Not because they want to, but because they don't know of any alternatives.
So if your friend had as much money as Blockbuster, and could afford as much marketing as Blockbuster, then, yes, he probably would still be in business.
The same thing with fat Americans. They know that fast food is bad for them, but they eat it anyway. Not because they want to, but because they don't know of any alternatives (or don't want/know how to cook). And in many areas, those alternatives aren't available.
Those are excellent points, but I'm not just talking about privacy issues. Walmart comes into a town and undersells every mom and pop establishment out. Mom and Pop then start shopping at Wal Mart, because they've lost their choice. It's not that they want to, it's that they have to, because Wal Mart's the only game in town.
Case-in-point: If I wanted to shop at a supermarket that didn't have a "rewards" card I would have to drive 15 miles from my home and pay almost twice as much for my groceries. Right now, I can't afford that. So I'm forced to give money to a corporation that buys land and leaves it vacant so their competitors can't move in.
For someone in a large market, it's easy to say "well just don't shop there," but most of America is in very minor markets. (For example, my town, the capital of Pennsylvania, got its very first Starbucks in March 2004.) There isn't another game in town. And since any entrepreneurs are either prevented from going to market by large start-up costs or bought out as soon as they become successful, we have no choice but to do business with the companies we loathe.
Unfortunately, that's the way it's got to be. Because corporations won't do the right thing, they have to be regulated so that it's unprofitable to do the wrong thing. Unfortunately, people are so against regulation that they never get changed, so the people who run the corporations and get caught doing the wrong thing simply treat fines as costs of doing business. And anyone who thinks they should be regulated so that they act in the best interests of the public *and* their shareholders is an unpatriotic communist who should move back to Russia.
Slashdot Mirror
It is? I assumed it was PG. I mean, it's not like there's blood or anything. I bet the thong thing pushed it over the top.
Yes, but regular guys are also 'cool.' With high-school aged females it's not about what they're interested in, it's about how it will help their social life. They date the football guys because that's who they think will improve their social lives. The ones who aren't like this are the geek girls, and they are few and far between. The ratio of male to female geeks ensures that only the moderately attractive male geeks can be with the female geeks.
Case in point: Almost every girl I ever talked to has said "why can't I find a guy like you." This frustrated me, because I'm as much like me as anyone. Once I actually said to one "I'm a guy like me!" She just laughed. The point isn't that they want a guy like me, it's that they want society to look favorably upon me so that they won't be ostracized by their peers for being with me. And that they don't want sensitivity. Ref: "Bedazzled" starring Brendan Fraser.
Luckily, my fiance was able to see beyond this and see how much I would be earning in the future, which is what women are interested in after they graduate college and have dated for a while. It helps that she's pretty and fun and nice and sexy and will be a good mother, but her foresight has saved me a lot of trouble chasing women in college.
Finally, the best thing you can do to improve your love life is to have a girlfriend. It's kind of like having to have had a job in order to get a job; it shows that you must have some attributes that are desirable. Being a senior doesn't hurt either.
Man, I should write a book...
Yeah, I guess I was pretty lucky. My school was so small that it lacked a critical mass that makes clique-based social structure possible. It didn't make me attractive, but it kept me from being ostracized entirely.
I would like to add a caveat: Being yourself, depending on the culture of your particular area, may take a long time to be attractive. I was myself since 6th grade. When everybody else wanted to be 'cool,' I was more concerned with learning stuff. I didn't have a girlfriend for more than a month until October of my 10th grade year, when my fiance asked me out.
But it wasn't for lack of trying. I would ask girls to go out with me. They all said no. I was always the dumpee, not the dumper. One was because I didn't call her, but I hate using telephones. One went on one date with me and dumped me the next day because I was weird. Another dumped me because she couldn't stand sitting next to me in a movie theatre because I was 'too virile.' (Which is probably BS.)
At any rate, I never gave up being myself. One thing you must NOT do is to pine over a girl. I did that for a long, long time. It sucked. She doesn't want to be with you, then she's not worth it.
This, for the most part, is bull. Walk into a local computer store, and you'll probably find someone who knows something about computers and can help you. Walk into a Wal-Mart and you'll find a slack-jawed, pimple-faced nitwit who is too busy trying to pick up Lou Ann in housewares to help you out.
Maybe that's a bad example. A better one would be if you walked into a small record store. They know music. They love music. They'll help you find a record, and maybe they'll point you to something else you might like. Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. don't really care about you, because there are thousands of other suckers who they can take money from. And the turnover is so high that they don't care about good service. So it's a trade off; limited hours and great service, or great hours and poor service. I'd take the former, but most people choose the latter because their jobs force them to run errands at weird hours.
The reason the small stores close is because they don't have the capital to pay someone to sit there doing nothing just in case you need to buy something. Also, most of them are run by one family, who also have a life.
As for alternatives to unhealthy foods: It's not that they're not available, it's that they're not readily available. Making healthy food involves selecting fresh produce, storing it, preparing it properly, and storing the prepared food properly. It's a lot of work for some people. It's easier to go through the drive-thru at Mickie D's and pick up some burgers. You don't have to cook it, and the only leftovers are some boxes and bags.
If alternatives were readily available, people wouldn't be able to start businesses specializing in preparing healthy food for people who don't have the 'free time' to cook healthily (a company in Chicago is making a killing in this area). And, no, frozen or boxed dinners don't count.
Fortunately, platinum is available in huge quantities in the asteroid belt. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like we'll have the technology to harvest it before I die.
Darn tootin' I'm going to preview movies. I went to see Final Fantasy, and some grandmother had taken her granddaughter, assuming since it was animated and it was called "Final Fantasy," it was somehow safe for a six-year-old child. The kid left screaming bloody murder after about 45 minutes.
WITH MY MIND!!1!11!!one!!
My point wasn't that people aren't lazy, but the fact that a lot of geeks need to be true to who they are. If a woman won't let you be yourself, or if you have to change to be with her, then she's not worth it. Granted, it's really hard to find a woman who appreciates the subtleties of a well-obfuscated Perl script, but that doesn't mean you have to not be yourself to just to have something warm next to you in bed. It's like being religious; some Christians drink, others don't, and others have become monks and taken oaths of silence. It's all about how far you'd like to take it to be true to yourself.
How about... no. I'll fix up my bike and ride it to work as much as possible. Take my car, but you'll have my Coke when you pry it from my cold, dead hands. *strokes his 2-liter bottle lovingly* I won't let them take you, my darling.
Brother, if a gorgeous girl came up to you, you're obviously no geek. Real geeks are oblivious to the wants of the flesh. Besides, anyone who sits in front of a computer enough to be a geek isn't the type of person a gorgeous girl is attracted to. Pasty, scrawny/fat and greasy isn't attractive, no matter how smart you are.
I live in a basement right now. I can get cell reception, but only after 9PM, when everything electrical is off upstairs. I'm going to try the cellular repeater mentioned above, but I would prefer something that won't have to be hacked together, and my landlord probably would, too!
"If you or I accidentally kick one of these hidden transmitters, should the feds be able to seize our Macintosh and photos of Aunt Betty?"
They took his Macintosh?!? Those bastards!
Besides, they had that "Thong Song" on continuous repeat a few years back, and I don't think society has crumbled yet.
Shrek, Donkey, and Puss are hanging in the dungeon. Their friends are trying to break them out. Pinocchio is dangling a la "Mission Impossible," but has gotten tangled up in his puppet strings. The Gingerbread Man is on his back, and has the keys to their manacles. Donkey says "Tell a lie! Say something crazy like 'I'm wearing women's underpants!'"
Pinocchio says "Uh, um, I'm wearing women's underpants." And his nose stays the same size.
Shrek says "You ARE wearing women's underpants!"
"No I'm not" says Pinnochio, and his nose grows.
Gingerbread man pulls lifts Pinnochio's pants away from his back and screams "It's a thong!"
So, yes, they now know what a thong is. I don't care, I'm just their uncle. Their parents are the ones that have to deal with it now. LOL
As CG gets more and more realistic, I think we'll start to see a different kind of movie star, one who can do excellent voice work instead of just looking daring/pretty/hunky/etc.
3D always makes me nauseous. Does it come with barf bags?
Okay, sorry. I'm a little "special" this morning.
Let's not forget the scrapping of the exploration fleets in the 1400s.
Then how can they legally perform John Doe lawsuits when they know who's doing it? Shouldn't the person who's purchased the internet connection have the responsibility to see it's being used for legal purposes?
If you want to stop zombies, use your clout to get Microsoft to fix its POS operating system. Stop supporting Windows, and maybe Microsoft will fix it instead of relying on other companies to fix their own problems.
Sincerely,
A Customer Who Could Ruin you in the Harrisburg Market, not that you'd care
Uh, question: If one of these people is on a DHCP system, how do we know who they are. What if I get assigned that IP address? Now that's scary.
Unfortunately, as I was saying yesterday, I live in a small market where Comcast is the only game in town for truly high-speed (read: > 1Mb downstream) internet access. So it's either forego high speed internet or grab my ankles.* Fortunately, my community has someone like me looking into other solutions.
* This statement has been deemed offensive and in violation of my TOS. I must now go tell my corporate masters that I was a naughty boy.
So if your friend had as much money as Blockbuster, and could afford as much marketing as Blockbuster, then, yes, he probably would still be in business.
The same thing with fat Americans. They know that fast food is bad for them, but they eat it anyway. Not because they want to, but because they don't know of any alternatives (or don't want/know how to cook). And in many areas, those alternatives aren't available.
Case-in-point: If I wanted to shop at a supermarket that didn't have a "rewards" card I would have to drive 15 miles from my home and pay almost twice as much for my groceries. Right now, I can't afford that. So I'm forced to give money to a corporation that buys land and leaves it vacant so their competitors can't move in.
For someone in a large market, it's easy to say "well just don't shop there," but most of America is in very minor markets. (For example, my town, the capital of Pennsylvania, got its very first Starbucks in March 2004.) There isn't another game in town. And since any entrepreneurs are either prevented from going to market by large start-up costs or bought out as soon as they become successful, we have no choice but to do business with the companies we loathe.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.