<strong>On my skates</strong> – <em>I stand up…and a spark runs down my spine.</em> Fluid motion winds into blood heat, the wheels resonating across the pavement expanding awareness down and out, peeking, peaking.<strong>Sharing plates</strong> – <em>I sit down…and a spark runs down my spine.</em> An elemental synthesis and affirmation of sustenance, indulgence, and prosperity: banter, friction, and laughter are fused with visceral, savory and visual.<strong>The rat race</strong> – <em>I think…and a spark runs down my spine.</em> An unsolvable problem, an impossible timeline, the wrong question, the certainty of infinite outcomes.<strong>Intimate</strong> – <em>I lean in…and a spark runs down my spine.</em> Contact.

<strong>On my skates</strong> – <em>I stand up…and a spark runs down my spine.</em> Fluid motion winds into blood heat, the wheels resonating across the pavement expanding awareness down and out, peeking, peaking.

 

<strong>Sharing plates</strong> – <em>I sit down…and a spark runs down my spine.</em> An elemental synthesis and affirmation of sustenance, indulgence, and prosperity: banter, friction, and laughter are fused with visceral, savory and visual.

 

<strong>The rat race</strong> – <em>I think…and a spark runs down my spine.</em> An unsolvable problem, an impossible timeline, the wrong question, the certainty of infinite outcomes.

 

<strong>Intimate</strong> – <em>I lean in…and a spark runs down my spine.</em> Contact.

I have had some commentary/questions about my hair color choice. Here are my big motivators for keeping it:
• It’s pretty – It makes me so happy to see my hair that some days I look in the mirror to boost my mood. Very handy!
• It’s social – people are surprisingly comfortable approaching me with orange hair, much more so than other colors I have had. I ike this because I like meeting people. Very handy!
• It’s safe – Pavlovian training makes it so I can get drunk and wander into traffic and trust that no one will run over this safety cone. Very handy!
• It’s memorable – I can go to a bar or restaurant once and tip well and rely on good service. Very handy!
• It fits – All my favorite peeps like bright colors on hair, skin, clothes, sunsets, etc. This can be especially important in the northwest where the dim happens 300 days out of the year. Very handy!

There are downsides, of course.
• Lighting? - Depending on how bad the fade is and what the lights are like, my hair can look peachy or even green colored. sigh.
• Inference – some people feel the need to make up stories about my hair. They aren’t always accurate. sigh.
• Bleeding – when it’s fresh it bleeds a lot. That means I can leave stains. This is exacerbated by skating. sigh.
• Expensive – it’s hard to find a good colorist and when I do, they have to be paid. sigh.

So I get to have a little conversation with myself every 6-8 weeks about whether to keep it up or go lazy. I wish laws were the same way, where the government would consciously have to re-examine and confirm laws are still valuable.

Since OKC did a big change, so am I, but I want to save the old stuff, just cuz.

 

I am omni-flavorous, sponta-travellous, and mono-spoilous

I am looking for:

* Banter - idle conversation, gossip, and wit that distracts and entertains.
* New Thoughts – New books, movies, plays, conversations. Actually old is fine, too. I have a terrible memory for specifics.
* Trust – It's the weaver from the wild.
* Destinations - I like to travel and do it well alone. It's even better with a conspirator.
* Indulgence - Sometimes five senses don't seem like enough. Umami is the new black.

I compulsively read. I roller skate. I love language, cheese and dressing up. I always share my food. I am an extrovert.

I was just reminded that most people only skim these things, so practically everything I put in here is just noise anyway. "These three assumptions are fundamental: information is partial, information is contaminated, and information costs." – J. Traub (1988).

Found out what a [[villanelle]] is today, and decided to write one on the bus.  I think this is the OKCupid classic.

 

OkCupid Quickie

Put my profile straight up.
No time for a Photo shoot,
It’s just until we make up.

It was a nasty break-up,
The way it went was so cruel.
Put my profile straight up.

Not cruising for a date/fuck,
Searching for my Ego boost.
It’s just until we make up.

Posting that same old lame fud,
Or maybe it’s the whole truth.
Put my profile straight up.

These people say some great stuff,
But, of course, they have no clue.
It’s just until we make up.

Maybe this is a fake up,
An outlet for my poor blues,
Put my profile straight up,
It’s just until we make up.

 

PS - I know I am not a poet.  doggerel is all I got. ;)

I have now looked at probably 300-400 profiles and I am astounded at the profile pictures that people choose.  An extraordinary number look as if the profiles were punk'd!  

This just seems crazy since both intuitively and statistically this is the most important aspect of any profile. (see http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/2009/11/17/your-looks-and-online-dating/) 

And amazingly it is imminently controllable. In the physical world, projecting your best possible self all the time is prohibitively expensive (and takes a level of neurosis that no person should experience).  But online, You can take as much time and as many retakes as necessary.  There is *NO* excuse for blurry, off-angle, or bad framing.  

Regardless of a person's relative beauty, I pan anybody who doesn't spend the effort to get a reasonably nice shot of themselves in their profile. You really need only one perfect profile pic (you can reuse it as much as you like).

The cupid blog had some interesting stats how people's self-evaluation (based on how they answer questions) and their actions (based on messaging behavior) don't really match up.  This is actually a pretty common phenomenon.  People often over-estimate their own abilities. Like the genius stats in this one: http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/2009/10/26/mofo-and-other-mysteries/. clearly 40% of the population are not genii (even on a site like okcupid).  

Some people interpret this as self-deception, but this is not really so.  Think about scheduling.  Most people instinctively pack a schedule more densely than they can handle.  It requires a separate discipline (similar to editing) to revise a schedule to something more reasonable.  

Interestingly, this is often solved by just getting more input.  While people over-estimate their own abilities (and thus mispredict themselves) they are remarkably good at accurately assessing others. So if you just consult with someone else, their feedback will often provide a needed course correction.

I am not sure how this could work on okcupid, though.  Maybe having someone read a profile and then answer predictive questions about that profile?