Some time ago I wrote something about this pick-up artist trend.
Shortly after I got my hands on some of that material and spent some time on it, it was mostly videos.
Interesting stuff ! So, one night I went out clubbing all charged and I threw myself into the role. The point really is to appear energetic, playful, not needy, somewhat mysterious.. basically to give an interesting mix of a fun personality and constance to keep that going for a whole session while making progresses, earning the woman's respect and confidence.

With little effort I saw some promising results, but that really isn't rocket science. The first thing is to manage to be in a good mood or pretend to be (professional take !), then all it's needed is to try keep the wheel spinning, faster and faster.

Fast forward to yesterday. I went out and I had no intention to talk to anything or anyone I didn't know... that's the normal me 8)
One should be cool and social, but I don't give a crap. I have an attitude worse than a hot chick on a "proud owner of a golden pussy" power-trip.
It doesn't help that there scraps of the last relationship..

The routines, the way to present yourself, the pose, the things you say and so on.. they are all interesting things. There is a lot of truth into it. Though explanations could be synthesized a bit and, to some extent, the whole thing does seem a bit lame.

A lot of stress is put into the problem of anxiety of approach. In this case what Mystery and his gang say is that anxiety is a normal feeling and that it's a bump that one has to learn to overcome thanks to the comfort own his own earned "competence". With "competence" stressed over "confidence", as confidence could be just an illusion.

Recognizing the need for "competence" however is a further kick to one's confidence: now I understand that I just need to be competent, but I realize that I'm not competent and further lose confidence 8)
Those guys tell you you'll get competent after a year or so of spending 4 hours per day, 4 days per week, trying to hit on girls.. that's a long way to go !

Mr.Mystery gives "routines", but the setting is different in my case. I've some off the bat "value" as I'm an Italian in Japan, but I don't have fluency in the language to sneak those "demonstration of higher value" subtleties that one is supposed to. In fact a native language speaker will naturally think some foreigner is stupid just by the accent or a by a misplaced word.

But I'm honestly not even really concerned so much about picking up at all. I'm more concerned about boredom.. !
People tend to go the safe way, to go to the same places again and again, avoiding the risk of getting into a club with no action and basically missing the opportunity to take a chance. Every time me and my friend meet someone new, that person will take us to 2-3 new clubs. At first it's fun but then it becomes boring again. Novelty wears off very fast !

It's important to have fresh thoughts, fresh experiences, new stimulations to make advances at work as much as in life.
Yesterday I went out but there was no excitement. Maybe if 2-3 beautiful chicks accompanied me it would have been great, but eventually that would also turn boring. Boredom is a state of mind, breaking out of it is not easy.
My job is not boring, I get to do cool things, but my social life is definitely not that exciting (though 100 times better than it would have been in Rome). I recognize that it's my fault too (or entirely ?).

One thing this Mystery guy says is to entertain girl with crazy stories. Yesterday evening I was talking to a couple of close friends of mine and I realized that I had some wacky stories they didn't yet know about.
Things about ex girlfriends.. which makes me think, I guess somehow I often (not always 8) end up with the "crazy ones" because I don't want to get bored.. maybe the same way girls like "bad guys".

But you know it, this is just a load of bullshit 8)
All this comes from animal instincts, mating, that's all. ..so much for being romantic !

woooooooooooooo

Something is stuck in my mind. Last weekend I talked to a girl that flat out said that men that don't cheat are no fun.... come again ?!

The other day I saw 5 minutes of OC, the serial TV (which I don't normally see), and there was some woman contended by two men that were making fools of themselves to have her choose one of them. She then literally lashed a whip and told them she'd choose neither.

I'm not sure about male's mind, but women just like that bullshit: to be contended, to put men on a test and see who bends, who breaks. But I'm still not sure if women eventually go for the one that bends the most of for the one that doesn't bend nor break.

It's such a stupid behavior which is obviously dictated by instincts. Relationships are such a joke because they are so filled with reproduction instincts.. and once on realizes it, it kind of sucks. I'm simply too analytical to let myself believe things that are not there.

Analytical people can get some help from alcohol.. for example I need a few drinks to get on the same wavelength of your average latin person.. even though I'm supposedly an Italian myself.
What I have of Italy in me is attachment to family, jealousy, possessiveness and the cultural background from 70s, 80s and 90s.

ahhh

P.S. I was going to translate this in Japanese.. but, forget it.. incidentally I added an automatic Google translator widget that accepts corrected translations (but doesn't immediately use them 8( )

今日は新しいディジカメを買った！ソニー DSC-T100…ブラック！

Today I bought a new camera, the Sony DSC-T100 ...black !

その後、Programming Python (1500ページ！)とAction Script 3.0 Design Patternsを買った。

After that, I bought Programming Python (1500 pages !) and Action Script 3.0 Design Patterns.

大体表現プログラマーけど、いろんなものを試した方がいい。しかも、最近webのことをやってる…理由もいろんなある(^p^)

I'm mostly a graphics programmer but I think that it's good to try many things. Also recently I've been looking into web programming, for various reasons.

それより今日はウディ・アレンの「Anything Else」を見た…かなり面白かった！

On a more interesting note, I watched Woody Allen's Anything Else. Interesting movie !

この映画が付き合いのことを包み込まれる。…ちょっと怖い、僕もその映画に包み込めてる？！
映画に欠陥があるけど、その映画は女性の軽薄性質を表示するのに男性の軽薄を見せてくれない。正直、付き合いの可笑しいさは女性のせいだけじゃない。
ですけれど「Anything Else」はお勧めです！

It's a movie that encompasses relationships. ..a little scary to think that perhaps I'm myself being included into that !
There is however a fault in the movie as it shows the flakiness of females while not really analyzing deep into men's perks. In fact, weirdness in relationships aren't just the women's fault.
In any case I suggest watching "Anything Else" !  read more »

First of all, I went to the fashion school near work at 5PM and I saw no catwalk rehearsal !
I have to say that because otherwise it seems I claimed that I live in a cool world, but in fact it's not all so easy.

A lot has been written recently, on my Japanese blog on Mixi. Mixi is great and tricky at the same time. It entices Japanese by being a closed system where everything is controller. People can only join if invited. I suppose it's a bit like MySpace where one is related to other people. But there is a lot less freedom on posting formats. Only recently some cute cell-phone icons became available. In fact, Mixi is probably mostly used by cellphone... Japanese net services ought to work well on cellphones, ehh !  read more »

I've been very busy ! Too busy to update this blog I guess.
On the train to and from work I read papers. Graphics papers mostly, but also stuff like "Factoring Wavelet Transforms into Lifting Steps" (PDF link !) ...mostly reading and going "whaaaa ???!!!"

At work I've been preparing a PowerPoint presentation.. wooo ! I think of Dilbert every time I say that.

At home I've started to work on a new website. Something that more or less I wanted to do for a while, but also something that could be possibly turn into some sort of business... given enough time and effort 8)

Speaking of building sites, I'm currently mostly involved with CSS. I'm slowly trying to tame the beast.. it doesn't feel right to waste so much time tuning borders, frames and colors, while I could be actually writing down the content... but unfortunately I don't have any web designer friend that could help me with this.
In fact most of my friends hardly ever come with any business idea, in fact most people hardly ever come up with any idea and much less invest any actual time trying to put it to work.  read more »