Day 8

Fuck my anterior cingulate cortex (the part of your brain that makes you feel bad when you get rejected). Its a survival reflex, but utterly useless in this world (society?) of abundance.

Went out with some guys to some new places I hadn't been to before. Originally intended to meed up with cafepuck, but coldplayer came along and absolute_beirut and aepower were there as well. The first place was pretty dead. I opened a set almost immediately. The TV was on so I said something lame related to that. They blew me out with "we're trying to have a conversation here." Doesn't matter.

The place was pretty dead, so we moved onto another venue. This place was pretty empty, but there were some sets to open. I didn't approach, and ended up feeling like a chode while other people opened them.

Next we went to another venue that seems to be pretty crowded on Thursday nights in that part of town. When I got there, I had AA pretty bad. Didn't want to approach. Stood around acting like a chode.

I tried to open a set, but got blown out almost immediately (two of the people in the group weren't there, I wasn't on, etc...). Still not there. Wandered around the club, and then talked to aepower for a while. We agreed that he would pick out sets and I would open them. He pointed out a pretty nice seated three-set, and I went over to approach them.

I opened with my pirates opener, and made the target the drunken pirate. I think that she might have been a little bit drunk, because she seemed to . It turned out that we had a fair amount in common, and even though it looked bumpy, the set hooked for a while. She gave me her card, but I'm not sure whether it would be ok for me to call (I didn't feel like it was on between us). After a while, I started to get ignored, so I ejected. I think that my biggest problem was that the set was seated, and I was standing up. I should have sat down next to the target, but I didn't for some reason. Anyways, it was a pretty good set, and it put me in a positive mental state for opening the next set.

The next set I went for a 1-set who was by herself while her friends got hit on by guys. She seemed receptive enough, but we were standing in a bad place where drunken people kept bumping into us. I should have isolated her and moved to a better location, but I didn't. I stayed in set for a little while, but ejected after a few minutes.

The last two I blew out of pretty quickly. I can't remember what happened with one. I just remember that I was in there for about 10 seconds. The last one I opened with "who lies more"?

The final set was basically one that I told coldplayer I would do before we left (it was close to 2 AM at this point). I couldn't think of anything else to run, so I ran "who lies more?" She told me "men", and it sort of stalled from there. I think that the obstacle was creeped out (she hid behind her friend after I lightly kinoed her on the arm), so it didn't go too well. I ejected from there, and we went home.

Learning points from the night:
- Get rejected early and often. It takes a couple of rejections and one hook before I get into state. Also, you have to get over rejection anxiety before you can open well. Running a good set when you're nervous is kind of like attempting a double black diamond without a warmup run or two. Pick ugly chicks so that you can run an easy set and get in state.
- Stay in set longer. Sometimes it looks like a set is blowing you out, but its just a shit test. I think that a certain type of girl likes to shit test guys to see whether they can take it. To be honest, I like girls who are into giving guys shit. From now on, I'm going to try to stay in until: 1) they ignore me and I can't get back into the set
or
2) they say "its been nice meeting you" or something else

- No opinion openers. From now on, I only run my own shit. Let's play a game type openers. Why not push the girls into the desired frame with the opener, and stay there?

I believe that I get two points for last night. Getting to my goal, although more slowly than I would like to. I feel like big things are starting to happen (the iceberg below the surface). If I keep opening sets, I know they will.