New Plan

New plan – scrap the old blog format and topics. Also new plan – write this shit as a script for a podcast. What should this be about? I don’t know, everything – technology, movies, idiots – whatever bothers me at the moment.

Topics of the day: thrifting, new chair, echo chambers and some photography. Picture in the end!

After much procrastination due to actually having to do some actual work (imagine that!) and due to my new living arrangements lacking proper work desk I am finally getting to this.

Thrifting: being a native New Yorker I’ve heard about thrift stores, but never actually been to one. Until recently. Turns out – for those who are unfamiliar with the concept – these are awesome. There are two kinds – one is an actual thrift/donation store where you drop off your old crap and buy yourself some new crap someone else had dropped off earlier. And there’s consignment store – which is when someone drops off their old crap with the purpose of being paid something for it. Which means thrift stores carry laughable items at laughable prices (like a dollar or two) while consignment store may try to sell a brand new something for 60 – 70% off the item’s price.

Some of the thrift stores are running silent auctions, which artificially inflates the price on certain items. It’s good for their bottom line, but pretty bad for me as I am not looking to resell these items. When there’s no profit to be made – there is no reason to buy anything that’s above ten dollars.

Since I am temporarily living in Pennsylvania for now – and I have discovered this whole thrifting thing – I’ve been all but obsessed. So far my finds have been pretty limited – a vintage Minolta, a pair of binoculars and a few props for the shoots (some of which I have already put to a good use). Next level finds I am looking for – guitars. I want a couple of guitars – both as props and as actual musical instruments to play.

New chair: since I am now living in an apartment completely furnished by someone else in a most generic way possible I need a set up to be able to work. I twitch a lot and change a lot of poses and lean on every side possible while sitting, so I need a real chair. I went to my favorite place to shop (yeah, Amazon – what else) and found a gaming chair at a pretty decent price – under a hundred bucks. Never owned a gaming chair before, so I have no idea what to expect, but I am pretty fed up with cheap 50-dollar chairs that fall apart in a couple of months or so uncomfortable that you’d rather lay on the floor. Alternatively, I can’t afford the 250-something for a premium setup since I am still in need of a desk.

So I did my research on Amazon and it seems there aren’t that many variations of chairs. Looks like a pretty standardized offering – short chair, tall chair, adjustable chair, same options with mesh and then there are those huge rubber balls to sit on. Something feels missing, a dash of crazy – a fully adjustable chair that allows going from seated to semi-reclined to a completely horizontal position with laptop/tablet stands adjustable for each position. Extra points for being able to roll over from “on the back” to “on the belly” positions without leaving the chair. Amazon can totally invent this withing their AmazonBasics brand – they can even add a magnetic dashboard to stick their “buttons” and have even fewer reasons to leave the chair. We’re definitely missing some creative ideas in the chairs’ department.

Echo chambers: today, after a long while, I had an extended conversation regarding the current state of politics. It just so happened that people who participated in the conversation were out of their echo chamber and the conversation have been meaningful. It wasn’t aggressive and it wasn’t in the “we all agree to the same thing here” key – but it was constructive and interesting. I thought that inside their echo chambers people tend to label anyone who even slightly disagreeing with them as an enemy. Weather it happens because they are so narrow-minded or because trolls use any sign of agreement to push their own agenda – doesn’t really matter at this point. The key issue is that we all become polarized and get triggered at a drop of a pin. So echo chambers get smaller because the borders become tighter and more rigid. These days it’s not enough to just dislike Trump – you have to actively hate him. It’s not enough to hate him – you have to participate in hate squads. As soon as someone starts “I hate this guy” – anything that’s not upping the ante is considered a betrayal. It’s like 1984 all over again – I’ve seen this shit in Soviet Union, now I get to witness it again in US.

Ultimately, we want to make sure we’re checking the government’s powers and direction – that’s what democracy is supposed to do. We want to call out wrongs and mistakes and things we disagree on. But at the same time, we want to make sure we’re not doing this to the detriment to the whole country. And I just don’t see this happening. The propaganda – especially from the democratic side – is so vile that it literally reminds me of the Soviet Union shit that was poured over hearts and minds of Soviet people. Quite frankly – it’s disgusting. We all need to listen more to people we disagree with. They have a point.

Some photography: I finally broke through the wall – if only by a little – and had a couple photo shoots. They’re still in the works, but it’s progress!

In the meantime – here’s something that’s been sitting for a year on my hard drive to be edited.

"We can do it" poster - by Vlad Grubman / Zealusmedia.com

Undercover Report – eHarmony.com – Part 2

Undercover Report about eHarmony.com – Don't Date Guy Blog, Part 2 One thing I forgot to share about the profile without pictures was that there was about a hundred of closed communications (that is when eHarmony sends you “check out this match” and you decide to close it for whatever reason), with the sole reason of profile missing the pictures.

This is important. In fact, this is the most important thing ever. eHarmony pitches itself as a service that matches you on a zillion levels through their overly complicated and annoying questionnaire process. However, think of it this way – if you have decided to bite the bullet and pay for matchmaking service, you want to get your money’s worth. Without an excellent picture in your dating profile you are wasting your money. Was that the idea? Hardly.

No matter how many questions you answer and how carefully eHarmony’s algorithm will be picking your matches, if your potential soul mate will see a garbled picture with someone wear something flashy shot against some kind of car – you pretty much making sure they won’t be interested. Imagine the girl of your dreams passing by because you yourself didn’t make any effort to make the connection.

One good thing about eHarmony is that even after another party has decided to close the connection, you still have a “grace shot” at it, sending your kind of closing message. After I have posted pictures to my profile I went through most of closed communications and shot back with “I have uploaded the pictures”. I bet only about 10 – 20% of ladies will give it another look. Just think about the rest of them and how much you are missing by simply being a lazy ass and not posting your pictures.

Remember: before you can get to her ears you need to please her eyes. Regardless of how many questions eHarmony will have you answer, not a single one of them makes you closer with your match.

Dating In Pictures

(This post have been intentionally left without the pictures. Think of one yourself.)

It’s year 2008 and there’s no need to remind you that almost all communications are now online. There’s also a great chance that you are trying to find your dates on the internet, on one of numerous dating web sites. That – or rather pictures on those profiles – would be the focus of our attention here.

The most common mistake almost everyone seems to make is taking a picture with something that should translate a “subliminal” message. Guys take their pictures with their supposedly hot car in the background, while girls prefer to lean heavily on party or travel photographs. Let’s look at these cases a little closer.

There’s nothing wrong in posting you picture in or around your car – IF YOU DESIGNED THE CAR YOURSELF! Otherwise the message you’re sending is basically “I am so fat/ugly/dumb that I had to put my car into the picture to make the photograph worth looking at“. Think about it for a moment. Unless you are on a hunt for a gold digger the expensive car in the background doesn’t really add anything to your profile. By the same rationale you might have took picture with your neighbour’s car, so if you think you project an image of a wealthy individual – you’re wrong.

Same kind of thought process should be applied to the pictures from parties. Just think there for a moment: if you post your pictures from your friend’s bachelor partwhere you’re surrounded with at least three almost naked strippers – you’re saying that you are unable to be in a serious relationship. If you have that macho look with a bottle of beer in your hand – it means that’s pretty much what you want to do in life. If you pose semi-naked showing off your muscles it means there’s nothing else about you but those muscles. Good for a one-night stand, but nothing more. Picture of you and similarly drunk friends – well, you got the idea.

So what’s a good pciture? Honestly – I don’t know. The picture I had on my dating profile that won me the hottest girl that was around wasn’t of a good quality. It showed me from shoulders up, the naked shoulder muscles were out, with one of my cats sitting on my hand. I wasn’t quite shaved and had a regular inquisitive look on my face. As I have found out what girls thought was something like “Well, this guy is strong – look at those muscles – but has a tender side to him, since he’s holding a cat just like he would have held a baby. Let me give him a try…” Can’t say how close to the truth all this is, after all – this was said on a date in order to get me interested, but I think you got the drift.

Of course, the picture alone won’t give you a perfect date, as it has to be YOUR picture. You also should think about what you say or write. And good luck with dating, the season is long open.