Dating - Ain't it Grand?

Two news items:

1. I went on a date on Sunday; the conversation was easy but the chemistry was not there. Hopefully we can be activity buddies as the guy lives about 8 buildings away from me.

2. One of the people who looked at my profile is the conductor of the community orchestra I play with (when I am not injured). Turns out we both like classical music - who would have guessed?

Grief Bubble

I was walking down University Ave in Palo Alto just now, just after watching "Never Let Me Go" and a big bubble of grief for John welled up. I had to duck into a doorway to cry - luckily, one without a homeless person.

I'm writing a little eulogy of my memories to send to the Slate family.

Rest in Peace, John.

You are missed.

http://www.johnslatemusic.com/

What's Up with House?

Okay people - what is so great about "House"?  The plot is always the same:  person is sick, someone needs to be convinced it's "interesting", they try 5 different diagnoses and the one 5 min before the show ends is the right one.  House insults everyone.  Whee.

Are you saying that you don't hear enough negativity so you want to be entertained by it too?

Please enlighten me.

Wow - it might be working!

So there is a free online dating site called okcupid (http://okcupid.com) that has multiple choice questions you answer for *your* answer and for what you'll accept in a match's answer.  The questions are submitted by the members, and there are a zillion of them, so you can just skip questions that you don't want to answer.  The questions/answers are how the site determines if you are a match.  It's pretty neat, and it's very geek-centric for my population base in silicon valley.  In fact, I think there might be more men on it than women!

So the folks who created the site are taking anonymized (is that a word?) data and munging it to get some very interesting insights into online dating, which they post to a blog (http://blog.okcupid.com/).   They have looked into what sorts of photos get the best results, how long a first message should be (short!), the amount of dead accounts you get matched with at paid sites, how people lie in online dating, etc.

My take-away from reading all their blog entries:  be briefer.  I have trimmed my profile prose quite a bit, and I am sending briefer messages.  I was reminded (indirectly) how dating is like looking for a job.  The point of a cover letter and resume is to get an interview.  The point of a profile and messages is to get a response.  There are going to be a LOT of "No's" -- you are looking for a mutual fit, just like in a job search.

My profile - too long.  My messages - too long.  Not to me - I type fast and I read fast.  But it's like having a resume that's too long - NOT a good thing.

So it's only been about a week since I edited it ... and I got a nibble.  Odds are that it won't pan out, but you don't land a job without interviews.