1701

As a prescribed crazy person, I find it actually has sort of the opposite effect. When I am in internet dating social mode and actually associating with other people, it makes me MORE outgoing - not less. I talk to more people that I don’t know and spend more time around strangers than I would otherwise (when I mostly squat in my underpants in a corner of my darkened cave stroking my possessions). For me - a guy who is utterly and completely incapable of dealing with random strangers under normal circumstances - it actually serves to open me up somehow.

1702

My outlook on interwebs dating is kind of like this. Dating in the real world sucks ass, as in trying to meet folks. People tend to go to bars and restaurants that have fake eclectic flair, etc… It’s hard to just meet somebody unless you like bottom feeding and trolling bars at closing time. Either that or the all-time standard asking a friend if their SO has someone to let you meet.

Personally I love chatting with folks, I have zero problem walking up to a Woman in a bar and saying Hi, but the internet affords me the ability to avoid alot of people I don’t want to deal with. So yeah, I suppose it does make us lazy, but in an efficient way.

1703

Online dating was interesting for me. I liked the quick filtering and the availability of so many woman to contact. The downside was that I almost missed out on my wife. She contacted me, cold, with no profile photos - and against my better judgement and instincts I responded. She obviously won me over but her profile wasn’t one I would have contacted had she not made the first move. So … I dunno. I think online dating is definitely valuable and superior to having to go to places I don’t want to go (bars, mixers, etc) to meet people.

1704

I totally read this as “waking up to a woman” the first time.

1705

He probably has no problem doing that, as well.

1706

You know, it can be awkward trying to make small-talk with someone you don’t know. Much easier to do it when you’re both relaxed.

1707

1708

Oooo, I forgot. I have a good “dating gone wrong” story. Well, not too bad, but I thought it was funny.

I was emailing (on the site) this girl back and forth. We moved to IM eventually. Anyway, so we start talking about what we do for a living, etc. So she tells me that she’s in grad school for film production. To which I replied something along the lines of “Oh, interesting!”. I didn’t know they had graduate degrees for that. What does that entail? What kinds of things do you study? Budgets for production, and organization or crews, and such?" She then asks me back what I do for a living (before answering) and I say mostly IT work. She replies back with a whole paragraph of text that says, paraphrased, “That explains it. I try to surround myself with people with open minds and and who are wordly. The fact that you didn’t know there was a film production graduate program speaks volumes.” And continues berating me for narrowmindness and such. For just asking a question.

I don’t know what her problem was exactly, but I’m very glad I found how how defensive and touchy she was before setting up an actual date in a public place. I can imagine my reaction if she said something like that to me in person.

Check please!

1709

She’s probably defensive because she’s gotten flack about her choice of studies in the past and assumed you were doing the same. Ironic that she’s the one complaining about being you being narrow minded when she’s made the assumption that you’re deriding her chosen career path.

She sounds rather self-centered as she expects non-film school folk to know the specific graduate programs offered in her field and what each entails. Not to mention “production” can have vastly different meanings in different industries, hell even different companies in the same industry can have almost completely different job descriptions.

1710

She was probably defensive because she was lying. Created the whole thing to make herself sound somewhat interesting. Either that or TheTrunkDr said… :)

1711

I AM NOT A WHORE!!! …wait, nevermind.

1712

It doesn’t really matter what words come after “I try to surround myself with…”, I’ve never met anyone who’s said that who wasn’t a nutjob.

1713

The danger with film degrees is most are a joke really, partly because a lot schools that want to open up a program don’t really have the people on staff to help shape it into a decent program. It also really depends on the type of program you want. So a lot of them end up being a mish-mash of stuff cobbled together from other disciplines. That’s essentially what mine was, but I was just looking to finish school before my Cal Grants ran out. As a side note, my favorite class was the silent film class. That had the most reading I’d ever had for a class since it was basically history class as well as a film class, but the professor was charismatic and there was plenty of detail in the material.

My degree was much closer to a lit degree, but with movies. If someone was interested in production and still wanted to go to the school I went to, they’d be better served looking in the Art program under some new media art stuff.

I remember looking at graduate programs, one I came across actually required that your graduate degree be in a different field, that you then apply to film as cultural texts for the very reason stated above.

But yeah, she was likely making it up.

1714

I was very consciously trying to not say that, even though that’s all I’ve ever heard.

1715

Universities don’t always offer degrees that are practical. Look at all the MFA degree mills out there.

My daughter is a theater major. Hmmm. All I can do is suggest she have a backup plan…

1716

Unfortunately, at least my program was. I certainly don’t mean to disparage my professors. I had a lot of great professors, insightful and knowledgeable, it’s just that structurally, the program was a mess. It was a grab bag of classes from a bunch of different disciplines.

1717

In this case, it’s not even an issue of being practical. I knew I wasn’t getting into (or well switching to) a hands on trade school style training in production program, but your daughter will likely be better served in a theater program than I was in a film one. Many schools haven’t really figured out what a “film studies” program is even supposed to be. It’s more of a definitional issue than anything.

1718

Most Arts/Humanities can be that way. Those degrees become what the student makes of them rather than delineating a clear path for them. It becomes a “I went to college!” placemat.

1719

I try to surround myself with air. I find inhaling pure argon just doesn’t work very well for me.

1720

I personally try and surround myself with assholes, but I don’t find the methane very conducive to respiration as a whole(harhar).