Look at this dude's analysis: Why I Will Never Have a Girlfriend - nothingisreal.com Clif notes version: Seriously Octavia....Hot.
Hey, I never claimed to be perfect. Your chances are 100% if you'd settle for me. Sadly, I'm aware that my chances of you settling for me are zero.
Well, you could outsource the 'finding' :[ame=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/38180402#38180402]msnbc.com Video Player[/ame]
Good idea. Hire an assistant to get the rejections. Actually, before the internet there were matchmakers. That's what I need. "Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match..."
Note that the analysis assumes that only 2% of the women in the relevant age range are sufficiently beautiful to meet the author's requirements. Unless the author has a combination of attributes (physical appearance, intelligence, personality, earning power, etc.) that would allow him to score in the top 2% as perceived by the women in his demographic age pool, forget it.
Well, there appears to be something of a solution-set: 1. Move to an area where the demographics are in your favor (aka the S.F. option where there is a 2-1 bias in favor of single hetero males). 2. Increase the volume of matches so that the odds of meeting the perfect fit are in your favor. 3. Outsource the matchmaking so that you don't have to deal with the rejections. Slightly off track, but there is a reason why even in today's culturally liberalized environment, match-making (aka arranged marriages) thrives in India. One of my former employees had an arranged marriage. The way they explained it was that the parents did the filtering (match-making) while he still had ultimate veto power.
No, that movie was much later, 1993. The infamous line is from Newsweek's cover story "The Marriage Crunch", June 2, 1986. See their retrospective twenty years later. DW and I were married just a few weeks before her 40th.
I've gone on several very enjoyable adventure cruises on small boats that carry about 35-50 passengers. The Galapagos, Costa Rica, and Panama were particularly interesting. The big ship cruise that I took to Alaska was much as you describe - a crowded hotel with an offensive caste system that divided the jobs on ethnic grounds. As Patrick says, you've got to play the numbers. Singles groups are made up of people who get together for camaraderie with other singles. Many of the people have been in unsuccessful relationships, and are not interested in repeating their earlier miseries. For some, it's just a matter of time before they are ready to accept someone new. The important thing is to do something that is fun or worthwhile by itself, and let the relationship thing develop over a longer period of time. Given your interest in hiking, I'd recommend the Sierra Club, and/or any other outdoors oriented group in the area. Meetup.com has 80 social groups listed in the Spokane area. You might be interested in the "Burning Boots Trail Club", the "Spokane Non-Violent Communication Practice Group", the "Inland Northwest Hikers", "The Spokane Secular Meetup", or... "The Spokane Gadflies". The Gadflies want to discuss religion and politics, and to help others "reconsider their dogmatic stance and open their minds a little". No mention if they want to do it for themselves, but they do want to challenge others... Lots of groups to try out. The weight treatment that I suggested earlier certainly has not passed through the rituals of Galaxie's faith, but I think it could if a way of financing the process were found. There is clearly not enough profit available for any pharmaceutical firm to invest in a material that went generic long ago. Anyway, the pointers I gave above can be used to check out a process that I found successful. There's also a Meetup.com group listed for Spokane.
Rob: Thanks for telling me about meetup.com. A lot of those "groups" have something like three members, but some seem like real groups. I'll be looking into some of them. As for your characterization of Galaxee's science as "faith," note that the difference between science and faith is that science is a METHOD of learning about the world, which involves EVIDENCE and a rigorous system of investigation carefully designed to minimize personal bias; whereas faith is belief without evidence, without logical consistency, generally based on the assertion that this or that "authority" has received a divine revelation which followers are not permitted to question. As for weight-loss drugs, no drug is without side effects. scientific study is needed to determine what those side effects are, so an educated decision can be made as to whether or not they are justified. In the case of weight-loss drugs, the side effects range from addiction (when you stop, you put the weight back on) to chemical and nutritional imbalances due to mal-absorption of nutrients and alteration of metabolic processes. Of course, some don't do anything but require you to restrict your calories, and of course if you do that you will lose weight without the pill. Finally, since they are unregulated, black-market drugs of all kinds are often contaminated, and often contain significantly different dosages from one batch to the next.
daniel, rational thought and logic are lost on some people. don't bother. i'll take science over the "faith" of someone who desperately fears the AllNatural(TM) process of getting old and will try anything else hawked by quacks and con artists that is supposedly AllNatural(TM) to counter it. [shrug] if i had no conscience, i'd be taking advantage of these people, too. it pays a fair bit better than doing it the right way.
:blush: Thank you. I will admit to doing some pessimistic analysis myself and finding similar odds. Lately though, I've lost interest in figuring out my odds of finding a life partner and have instead been focused on figuring out what my salary will need to be in order to buy a house on one income. Agreed.
It depends on what market you are wanting to buy a house in. In my neck of the woods (even with the current depressed R.E. market), 1,800 sq. ft. (30+ year old tract) houses are going for North of 600 large....
around here, they have "condensed" housing. zoned 8-10 units per acre. to be able to build so close together, they must also provide certain amounts of park and rec land for residents. we have several going for $190,000 or so up to 1700 sq feet. same houses were going for $250 K 2 years ago. good time to buy right now. dont think interest rates will get any lower.
Now may be the best ever time to buy. Some are saying that financial reform may make it harder to buy because banks will get much more conservative in their loan underwriting decision process. Only time will tell.
