Weekends are, of course, prime going out time*, but I'd never been to a Startup Weekend before so I registered and decided to pitch one of the ideas I shared on http://karol.gajda.com/free-ideas/

Specifically this: http://karol.gajda.com/free-ideas/travel-together/

You get exactly 60 seconds to pitch and then there's 30 minutes of voting. Every attendee has 3 post it notes and they stick the post it notes on a large sheet of paper you write your idea on.

Everybody who pitched basically walked around with their sheet of paper trying to solicit votes from other attendees.

I got the 5th most votes (including from 2-3 "mentors" aka business people who are there to help). This doesn't actually mean anything other than we're going to attempt to see my idea into fruition by Sunday evening. We being a team of 5 (including me).

Interestingly, the top vote getter was very similar to this: http://karol.gajda.com/free-ideas/live-video-language-learning/  (I voted for it, of course)

This event for me is more about meeting people doing fun things than actually starting a new business that I don't have time for. It's a fun challenge to try to build something in a weekend. And who knows what can grow from a seed.

*I also figured if there were any pretty girls here they might be pretty perfect for me, considering the event. I made a very lame** attempt at hitting on the prettiest girl there because I was busy soliciting votes. There's always tomorrow. And Sunday. ;)

**Lame also because I was distracted by her beauty*** and soliciting votes and it was as she was walking by me in a sea of people. (Though it did get a nice response, I didn't follow up.)

***Usually the prettiest girls are the easiest to talk to. But usually I have a few**** seconds to think first. I was in "sell my idea" mode!

**** Infinite loop*.

I bought the Polish print and audio versions (audioteka.pl for audio). I'm reading the print book ~10 pages at a time and then listening and reading along to that same section. It takes me a good 40 minutes to read 10 pages in Polish, depending on how many words I have to look up. The audio book goes about 20 minutes for 10 pages. It seems grueling, but it's actually fun. I'd prefer to read it in eBook form with an ereader that has a built in Polish dictionary though. That would speed up the process considerably. I use Google Translate to look up words/phrases for now.

I read the Alchemist (Paulo Coelho's most famous book, something like 65 million sold) in Polish last time I lived here. I hadn't though about using the audio book as well though! It helps a lot with comprehension. (And I'm sure it helps that I've read the book in English and watched the movie.)

Gonna do the same thing with Fight Club next. My preference would be American Psycho instead, but it doesn't look like there's a Polish audio version.

Guy asks for leads on places to live in Detroit because he has hippie feelings about being part of the "evolution" and most of the responses recommend cities that are not Detroit, but suburbs of.

I've mentioned this before, but I don't know a single person who has "Detroit pride" who actually lives in the fucking city. Even the people who supposedly love and support the city don't want to stay there at night. That's not pride. It's nothing to be proud of. It's weak. It would be like me telling you, "you know, you shouldn't eat meat," while eating a steak. There's nothing of substance behind the words. That's typical American (maybe human) for you. ;) And, interestingly, this has a lot of correlations with "game" theory. (As opposed to Game Theory.)

Basically, museums open until Midnight on a Saturday and entrance is free. 

It's finally warming up to a respectable level. Lots of people out and about when I went on my bike ride today.

Women like assholes. It's sad, but true. But it's not a woman's fault. As of late (pre-Poland) I had much more success being more me (not keeping my asshole-ish-ness at bay) than being normal me. Guys and girls will both deny this until pigs fly. But as we know, what we think we think and what we really think are not often the same. More accurately, what we want to believe and what is true is not the same.

As much as I dislike "game," it works because it hits on psychological triggers that some guys (as referenced in the links above) naturally pull. If you're in sales or marketing you do the same thing. And probably to a more sickeningly disgusting effect. "Game" is simply perpetuating biology in an increasingly tough field. What I mean by that is waistlines are expanding at an ever-increasing pace so options aren't what they used to be. (50 years ago ~10% of the population was overweight. Now it's somewhere in the 50% vicinity.) The male population is not shrinking in relation to the available & acceptable female population so competition is increasing at an alarming rate. Science (and life, for that matter) has proven that worthy females often (not always) go for not-quite-worthy male counterparts. So the worthy male counterparts either need to take on traits of their competitors or wallow in singledom.

Hell, Liz Phair built her career on the fact that she always falls for jerks. It's through no fault of her own. Just biology. Cosmo built a magazine empire based on this. Your favorite TV drama show is probably based on this. They're not perpetuating stereotypes. They're showcasing truth. 

When I was young and wanted to know how to get a girl’s attention, people always told me “just be yourself”. I remember how frustrated I was with this line! I used to complain, “obviously ‘being myself’ doesn’t work, because I am myself and it’s not working!”

When I was a youngster I had a dream. Building a helicopter and flying it far, far away. I don't know why I had this dream. I don't know why it was a helicopter. (I've still actually never flown in a helicopter.) I remember telling my Dad about the dream and he said he'd help me build it. haha. And that was that.

Now my dream could be somebody else's reality. Thanks to Kickstarter, I'll still feel part of it: http://kck.st/L3SF8r

But beyond that, years ago I was a dummy and to save a bit of money on taxes I dumped a shit ton into a self directed 401k. There was a small-ish chunk just sitting there not doing anything so I bought FB.

Here's the thing: I probably won't be alive to see my 401k anyway. (gotta be like 62+ to take money out without penalty) So it's like Monopoly money. It's not real. And I don't really care. If it all goes to $0 it doesn't change a single thing in my life.

As they say, don't gamble what you can't afford to lose.

The Listserve is a large mailing list and every day somebody new writes a message to everybody else on the list. You have to win "The Listserve lottery" to write to the list. I haven't won it yet. :)