I was happily munching on my chocolate brownie, while Rachel was telling me all about her latest fling when...

'It's all over with Jay' she announced dramatically, so everyone in the cafe suddenly stopped and looked over.

Reddening I said: 'You only got together two weeks ago, how can it suddenly be over?'

'He just wasn't right for me. So I've signed us up to try speed dating. Next week.'

'Speed dating, you've got to be joking!' I said assuming she was.

'No it'll be heaps of fun and if not, we'll leg it!'

Gulp.

So, is "fast" the new "it" thing in dating? Does it take the place of "lets take it slow" and introduce you to the folks before we share a roof? Or perhaps the old-fashioned concept of my friends actually calling you by name before we call ourselves a "couple?" That you know if I drink coffee or tea before skywriting your proposal...

I get it, really I do. There is something to be said for that moment of KNOWING that this person is a yes or no. Some people are just immediate no's. Perhaps the porn-stache takes you back to not distant enuf memories or the glassy-eyed high as a kite girl next door just really doesn't work well with your high profile job in the DEA. However, its the immediate yesses that encourage me to slow down enough to get a clear eyed glimpse of this new person who I think is so yummy. If we go with the whole chemistry concept being the best driving factor in mate selection (or symmetry of feature as some studies suggest...but that is a whole other topic indeed...) and it works so well, then our divorce rate goes down instead of up? Hummmm...I'm not sure that its working. Or perhaps we should just give up the whole marriage idea and go back to cave man ponytail dragging contests (I don't think the Geico Guys would really like that idea as it sets back the image campaign a bit, but it would fit our need for speed, chemistry and instant gratification.) 

With instant gratification permeating every strata of our society from Sesame Street and McDonald's to instant messaging and "smart" phones, somewhere along the way "fast" became the new "real." We've been so consistently mainlining our dating lives that we've become rather autobahn-ish in our approach to mating and dating. "Meet," "Mate" and THEN see if you actually like each other. Hitting the on-ramp at 90 mph is nothing new to the modern dater. Swerving around the defensive drivers and moving straight into the "fast lane" has become an expected behavior with the new guy or girl. We warn...I really want to take this slow which somehow translates into waiting at least 2 dates to have sex and 5 dates until we talk marriage. Yikes!

Call me old-fashioned (I kind of am) but what happened to the slow simmer of savory? The sultry simmer of a courtship? To take up the driving metaphor on again...the long and lazy rides with the top down along the California coastline or thru the Texas bluebonnets where you literally stop to smell the flowers and take gorgeous pictures of dazzling colors, memories and moments? I find something incredibly sexy in the relationship that grows from a friendship with potential into a full-blown romantic escapade that goes the distance.

I hear the old stories of "We fell in like and then we fell in love" and actually have a flashback to Hepburn, Grant and Stewart or Hitchcock and Kelly. At that speed, life takes on a black and white pristine beauty that slowly grades itself out into dynamic, real life "magic hour" colors. Siennas and cinnamons... the periwinkles and sage greens. Deeper breaths become easier and my foot eases off the gas pedal in order to really take in the story's every nuance... savoring the beauty that came from a time before cell phones and emails. A time that I really do wish we could re-introduce a bit into our world. The stories of, "We met and danced all night and then slowly got to know each other as we fell in love"... or "I knew he was the one and we wrote each other letters for months before we were able to get into the same town so we could go out again."

I know, they seem silly in the fast paced, solar driven sexcapades of the 21st century, but don't you ever yearn for the relationship that simmered, and saturated itself with love and longing, respect and appreciation instead of whams and bhams and thank you m'ams?

Verlief ungefähr so:

Kontaktwütiger auf Freundesjagt: (KaF)" Heyyyy where are you from?"

Ich: " Ja hier Germany ne, weisste bescheid und jetzt Abflug"

Nee...hier Spass ne ... nur "Germany" und dann die selbige Gegenfrage.

dann

KaF: " Coooooool/ Sweeeeeeet how do you like it here"

Ich: "Mhhh... I don't like it that much...." kurze Pause um die Reaktion abzuwarten -> sakastischer Lacher ->" No... I am loving it" Hahaha, burner Witz. Dann wieder Gegenfrage. Im weiteren wurde meistens noch kurz das Studienprogramm ausgetauscht weil sich diese anonymen Speeddater dann meißtens auch schon wieder jemand anderes vor geknüpft hatten.

Und so stand man denn am Ende des Treffens da, Handy voller neuer Telefonnummer und Namen, denen ich schon als ich zuhause war, kein Gesicht mehr zuordnen konnte.

Glücklicherweise habe ich schon einen soliden Kreis von Partywütigen gefunden. Und da jeder immer noch irgendjemanden mitbringt, kennt man dann eh man sich versieht 100000000 Leute.

Und so war ich dann in der letzten woche auch fast jeden Tag in irgendwelchen Strandbars und Clubs unterwegs. Partymäßig geht alles. Mal sehen wie die Uni nächste Woche wird.

I don’t claim to have made an exhaustive assessment of the various online dating options, but this is certainly the first site that I am aware of that features video interaction. I think that this will make all the difference and should propel this model to the forefront sooner than later.

What is so great about video interaction? There is one problem that I have noticed that is common to most, if not all, online dating sites; the absence of the ability to really trust the information that you receive. In short, when I review a profile, how can I know whether the information that I am viewing is an actual representation of the person that placed the profile?

The issue of trust is not a new problem and companies like Amazon have made famous third party methods of trust development. Amazon has introduced the third party review, where others in the community review the book, CD, etc. Ebay does something similar allowing customers to review the various vendors. If 99.9% of the reviews are positive, you can feel pretty good about your choice.

The problem is that third party reviews do not work to provide us with the sort of information that is sufficient to know whether you want to date someone or not. In short, Sally may have been a great date for Joe, but this doesn’t mean she will be a great date for me.

Furthermore, if Joe really likes Sally, he hardly has any incentive to promote this on a dating site!!

Now its important to note that third party endorsements do help to build the sort of trust that can serve to assist in developing ones social networks. This has a lot to do with how the social networking model works – why Facebook is as powerful a model as it is. There is a some likelihood that if you are friends with Joe and Joe is friends with Sally, that you can be friends with Sally (if not date Sally!).

So, how can the next level of trust be developed? The sort of trust that can be the source of a more intimate relationship can be developed via face-to-face interaction. This is why when we use online dating services, the next step is to meet for coffee! Meeting for coffee allows us to observe each other in a manner that results in us gathering further information about each other, the purpose of which is to increase our level of trust of the other person.

It’s important to note that what enables us, when we are interacting face-to-face, to gather the sorts of information that can increase our trust of the other persons is our ability to view Implicit forms of Communication (forms of communication that are not necessarily intended by the other person). You can view what the other person looks like, how they dress, their body language etc.

So what does all of this have to do with Speeddating.com? Well, by making video interaction the basis for their model, they are jumping to a form of contact that immediately enables us to gather the sorts of evidence about the other person that can provide us with the basis for determining whether the other person is someone that we might be able to trust. It will eliminate a lot of the time that is wasted on other online dating services.

I predict that this model will be the future of online dating!!

(This is not an endorsement to invest in the company. It only represents the first impression of the authour of this piece and was written without any contact with the company.)

Suresh Fernando

Also check out the Technology And Social Change Wiki

SCREEN CAPTURE OF SPEEDDATING.COM

Yeah, how’s that for a Web app? White-label speed dating. Indeed, a service by the name of Randodate has arrived with just that sort of development. And it’s free. And it offers 50/50 advertisement revenue sharing!

Say you manage a social network of romantic flavor. Want to quickly enable your users to interact with one another in a side-by-side video-based situation? Randodate provides the software. It claims to deliver all included functions in just a few files. Some hosted by Randodate - again, at no cost to the user - and others by you to manage user-related business.

"What fun! It was a great way to meet new people!"

"What a fun evening."

"This is a great way to spend an evening."

"I had  wonderful time.  Thank you!"

"Everyone was so nice and the conversation was great!"

"I'm glad I came!"

"This is a great idea.  Good luck with your future ones!"

"We need this here.  Thanks for starting it."

And....

"We have matches! The odds are fantastic!"

A young Belfast woman talks frankly about life with ME (or chronic fatigue syndrome) in the first half of the show.  She discusses how the illness arrived, how it induced swearing and rattiness from her, and what the trade-offs have been.  Also: whether she wants people to push her in the wheelchair, her plans for family or nunhood, and how she's found men look at women in a chair.

In the second half, foster mother Susan Hagan talks about all the babies that have come in and out of her home.  She, along with her husband and family, has been fostering newborns for the past seven years through a Pittsburgh agency.  The babies stay for a weeks or months, and Susan describes what life with them (and without them) is like -- including the health concerns, naming choices, attachment issues, and relationships with birth and adoptive parents.

Nessa onda de redes sociais, um site limita em 90 segundos o tempo para usuários encontrarem nada menos que a procurada cara-metade. No SpeedDate os usuários podem utilizar webcams e outras tecnologias, para encontrar aquela química e, caso ela não aconteceça nesses 90 segundos, vão em busca de outros parceiros.

Um dos conceitos do site é que uma pessoa geralmente leva 30 segundos para decidir que não gosta de outra e, assim, aplica a tecnologia ao conceito de encontro rápido - speed dating.

Fonte: G1

* E claro que me lembrei que há um episódio de Os Simpsons - Regarding Margie (2006. Episódio #20, da 17a temporada) -, em que Marge, durante uma amnésia, vai a um speed dating.

..............................................................................................................................................................................

Gente, tudo bem que a internet facilitou o encontro de pessoas que, para mim, deveriam, de fato, cruzar nosso caminho um dia, de alguma forma. Mas daí parar na frente da tela, se cadastrar num site pra achar a cara-metade é apelação! Sem contar que a tal cara-metade não se procura, ela simplesmente aparece, assim, do nada, sem dar sequer uma mínima explicação! #prontofalei

Etruevalue is going to organise an event "Startup Lunch" in Delhi in first week of September. Etruevalue is organising this event on behalf of CellStrat, a US based Management & Technology Consulting Company. We are their strategic partners and market their services in Asia Pacific region.

Hearing the name "Startup Lunch", one always wonders as to what is it all about? what will happen there? who will be the participants? Etc. etc. etc. In the following paragraphs, I will try to give answers to all these questions.

What is a Startup? A Startup is a company which is in its early stage of growth. It is most probably the founder of the company with a small team of five to ten people (or maybe less) working hard at a fabulous problem and to grow. There are two ways a startup could go: a) Really really big, or b) Go nowhere. The option is that you learn a lot from being part of a small group of people since you learn everything related to running a company and everything that goes on, which is an experience you will never get working for a corporate, and also if the startup grows big, you make a lot of money along with the founders.

What does it mean to work for a Startup? It would mean:

1. A committed job which would be an amazing place for passionate people
2. Slightly long hours of work
3. A very tightly knit team which is dedicated, passionate and probably the smartest set of people you will meet
4. Slightly lower salaries
5. High Payback options on success

Who all can be part of this Startup Lunch? If you believe you do possess the skills to contribute to a Startup, you are more than welcome to put-in your name. Some of the verticals you might be coming from are:

• Programmers
• Management Grads
• Marketers
• Visual Communication
• Animators
• Etc.

If you are a Startup, You must:

• Should atleast be a year old and less than five years old
• Should be an Indian company, based out of an Indian City
• Should have a logo and website done which is complete with information on what you do.
• Provide reference and contact number for that employee on your payroll that the candidates can talk to.

How Does this work?

The principle is roughly the same as the SpeedDating concept. The startup founders are seated on one side and the candidates get to say hello and have a quick conversation to talk about what the background of the founder is, why he started the company and what sort of person he is looking for, while asking questions to the candidate about the reason to join a startup and what his/her passions are and ten minutes later the same process continues with the next founder. Within an hour, you would have met/spoken to most of the startups, and by the end of the day would know whom to get in touch with for your first/next job.

If there are more questions...revert with queries/ comments and we will elaborate on them...

They are just like job interviews. No one conducts interviews for future friends! Friendships just happen. So why should relationships be any different?

Today I went on my very first 'advertising date' with an art director from Watford. He was a great guy- affable, knowledgeable and he had a great book. I'm naturally quite shy around people I've just met. The room was either really hot, or I was nervous- I can't tell, but I do know I was 'glowing' a bit too much for my liking (boys perspire/girls glow)!

Luckily it seemed to have gone well, cos we're gonna try working together the week after next, and see how things go. 

Next week it'll be round two- I'll be going to The Lonely Hearts Club over at NABS. I heard it's kind of like speed dating.

God, give me strength. And a partner.

I was expecting something completely different. I was going just for fun, and to kind of make fun of everyone there, but I was pleasantly surprised.

I forgot how it feels to meet new people, what it's like to hold a conversation with someone who knows something you don't. You can learn something new from every person you encounter, and it's fantastic how you can be whoever you want. You can be a better person, you can be more interesting, you can not be the stereotype everyone else has shoved you into. It's a relieving feeling. And it makes you sweat. (in fact, and this may be too much info, I was very glad I wore a white shirt to keep from showing how much it made me sweat.)

No, I don't think I will ever see any of the guys I talked to ever again. But they were all intensely interesting, and one of them even offered me a job.

Wow. This sounds much too philisophical for a blog about speed dating. Long story short: good times. don't be hatin.

• Iwannagothere: ¿Qué mejor para planear un viaje que contactar con gente que ha estado donde deseas ir? Esta fue la idea que impulsó a María Martínez a crear esta comunidad de usuarios destinada a compartir experiencias. Puedes comentar los lugares donde estuviste, hacer recomendaciones, dar consejos sacados de tu experiencia viajera, sugerir rutas...

• Publicatuslibros.com: esta compañía creada hace cuatro años en Jaén cambia el concepto tracional de empresa editorial ofreciendo a cualquiera la posibilidad de editar, publicar y distribuir electrónicamente su propia obra literaria. El autor únicamente deberá abonar 50 euros para que su obra sea maquetada y se añada al catálogo de la web.  Desde allí todas las obras pueden ser descargadas en PDF de manera gratuita.

• Woome: Inspirado en los famosos speed dating o citas rápidas esta web ofrece una nueva alternativa para establecer relaciones personales en la red. La reentabilidad de estos negocios en la web, como demuestran Meetic o Mach.com, ha impulsao a Skype a invertir en este proyecto donde los participantes tendrán la oportunidad de buscar pareja a través de videoconferencia.

• Livra: es una comunidad que ayuda a los consumidores a realizar sus compras o conocer los productos disponibles en el mercado. Destaca por sus funcionalidades que fomentan la comunicación y participación de los usuarios.

• XGIl: agregador de noticias que muestra en tiempo real los temas más relevantes y las noticias tecnológicas más comentadas dentro de la blogosfera hispana. Creado por Óscar Vargas e inspirado en Techmeme, ademá de la valoración y comentarios de los usuarios, la información que ofrece sobre el número de blogs en los que se habla de la noticia y la calidad de los mismos resulta muy útil para darse a conocer en la red si dispone de una web enfocada a la tecnológica.

Not quite what you were thinking, not a dodgy DVD served under the counter or a boast from a rock star. This is a type of diary of my experiences in the dating game over a period of three months. I want to dispel the myths about speed dating and discover if it really is a way of meeting women or do I have to go back to the drawing board. The reason for meeting one hundred women is that I want to get a proper degree of success or failure and have it in a percentage at the end of the period.

I had never attended a speed dating event before and always had misapprehensions about them. I will prove or disprove the theory, will it be a total disaster or will I get some success from it? Only time will tell but more than anything I would like to try out different methods to see if they work.

My event was at Sin café on a Friday night or day one of the first one hundred. I was the first one there and given the number one so a good start. The host was chatty so it eased the nerves. I was talking to one of the men at the event and then some others started to arrive. We were joined by one of the girls so it seemed friendly enough. Everybody was seated at their tables and I started off with the same girl that I was talking to earlier so it started well. We discovered that there would be only six women and nine men there so three men would have to step back and hang out at the bar.

I was pleased to get through the ordeal first so then I could recap at the end. I had a laugh with all the women and it went well. There were two Polish girls there and the organiser was telling us that more Polish men were going back home and the girls were staying over here. I got on very well with them. At the end of the event we all stayed to have a chat in a relaxed atmosphere. It was different to trying to get a conversation out of person too drunk to stand let alone to converse to the opposite sex.

We were given cards to put down the names of the women and if we wanted to see them again as a potential partner or not or a friend. So the first event was out of the way and the idea was to put ticks against the profile name on the website the next day. I got one tick from one of the Polish girls, so success. I emailed her and then we arranged a date for the next Saturday. I was a bit miffed that I didn’t receive even a tick from the Irish girls as it did go well. One out of six wasn’t bad.

Although the date went better than expected, it turned out to be only one date. I counted it as a success as she gave it a go and I was never going to meet the love of my life just like that so the search went on.

Success rate 1 out of 6 = 16.66% My Rating 8. This was very good. Highlight: Date out of it. Lowpoint: No response from Irish women

My attempt at writing a play entitled: The Next Tyler Perry

Speed dating round at local bar in Chicago

Men and Women are sitting across from each other,

trying to make a connection in 30 seconds.

ERIC

Hi, I'm Eric.

SAMANTHA

I'm Samantha.

ERIC

Well, I'm trying this out, I went online and it hasn't worked out for me, I thought I'd try speed dating. I'm a sales rep for a pharmaceutical company. I like to take walks on the lake front and get into free parties! What do you do?

SAMANTHA

I'm a director. I direct stage plays...(brief silence)

ERIC

Oh man! I love plays! I try and catch one when they come to town. So what are you the next Tyler Perry?

(The BELL rings)

MARK

Hi, I'm Mark. I'm down to earth, I like walking on the lake front, I like going out to eat. I would consider myself a cultured guy. I even like to take in a play now and then. So tell me about you, what do you do?

SAMANTHA

I'm a director. Like for the stage? (brief silence)

MARK

So you're like the next Tyler Perry? Wow, that's unique! You're artistic...I like that!

(The BELL rings)

ROBERT

I'm not an artistic person at all. I'm more into my business. I hardly get a chance to check out plays or anything like that.

SAMANTHA

Finally a guy that likes something different. (SHE smiles)

ROBERT

So what do you do?

SAMANTHA

Oh, a little this and that. I'm a (SHE hesitates) director. Like for the stage?

ROBERT

Oh snaps! Like Tyler Perry? Oh man! I think I've met the next Tyler Perry! Yo, Yo! Did you hear this? She's a director! Wow, that's so unique, interesting...would you like to go out?

(SAMANTHA gets up from the table)

SAMANTHA

This is unbelievable!

ROBERT

Yo, baby! What did I say? You too good for me now? You too good? Fa'git you!

Now, this maybe a little fictitious but it's so real to me! But not the part about speed dating. I don't care how removed I am from theater in a particular place, time or what have you...I'm always being compared to as "The Next Tyler Perry." What is that all about? I mean, I've been bustin' my butt for years and no one even knows how difficult it is to make headway in this business. I've worked with some very notable people. But as soon as I say I'm a director, I get people trying to compare me to Tyler Perry. As if he is the ONLY person in the world creating theater.

I thought about this for awhile. So what did people call you before Tyler Perry? Well, I remember, I was called...Spike Lee? I often had a dumb-founded look on my face. Spike Lee is a film director. My genre is stage...and just because he's black and wears glasses, doesn't mean I'll follow in his footsteps of being a film director! Ugh, that really annoys me! I'm like, can a sista just be the next Sydney? Why do I have to be the next Tyler Perry?

I'm torn by that comparison. The "next Tyler Perry" indicates that I'll be making large scale theater pieces moving from one city to the next, charging $50-80 dollars a ticket, poorly written scripts, buffoonish, stock characters, gospel singing and some Transvestite carrying a gun saying "piece be steal!"

On the other hand, I can't deny the success he has had in making theater popular again to many black people in small Southern communities and large Metropolis cities. He has great marketing strategies, he has gorgeous actors, radio and TV ads and he gives you more for your money...every time.

People just don't know anything about theater...but yet, they spend their money on a show, buy the newest outfit, pay for parking and get dinner to see one of his shows and still they think they can tell ME something about theater? And that makes me even more upset.

Don't get me wrong, I don't claim to know everything and I would never call something that someone put lots of time and work into "bad." But come on people? Why must I be compared to Tyler Perry? I'm not a 6'5" black man dating Oprah with millions in the bank. He doesn't believe in the Actors or Stage Unions. He writes and directs all of his material. Not even allowing someone else with a better eye to come in and collaborate.

He has garnered a few admirers that think that "it's money to be made, I'm trying to get some!" These Urban Theater plays have popped up all over the place. But I'm so tired of seeing the same stories. The same rough acting, the same gospel songs, the same poorly written scripts and buffoonish, stock characters.

I just want to produce relevant, entertaining theater. I'm concerned about my community in Chicago and Gary as well. I want the audience, the people to participate in helping to create this type of theater. But whenever I say that, I get so much backlash. Oh, people aren't ready for your "type of theater." "You need a star in your show if you want people to come and see it."

Why do I fight with trying to validate of Tyler Perry's work? Apparently, he has touched many lives. Why does it bother me so much that I'm compared to Tyler Perry? Many will say I'm jealous, he's got money, fame, a large house, cars etc...you should want the same thing. But has Mr. Perry compromised his own life in order to make a few bucks? Does he ever feel good about the subliminal minstrel-like message(s) that he sends out to the black community as a whole?

I don't know, I want to be respected for the choices I make as an artist. And not have to put a star from a TV show in my play in order to make a few bucks.  Or have a man dress in drag or tight clothes to get a laugh.

I want to be the NEXT SYDNEY CHATMAN...can that even happen?

The stage boss has spoken...leave a comment!

]]> http://westsoundspeeddating.wordpress.com/?p=9 Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:49:02 +0000 booktoots http://westsoundspeeddating.wordpress.com/?p=9 One requirement for a successful online profile is a photo.  Many people put their glamour shots online for this purpose.  How unrealistic is this?  With speed dating, you avoid this deception.

To help explain the frustration of glamour shots...recently I met someone in real life.  She looked very haggard, older than her age, and simply unappealing.  Then, I found her online profile.  What do you know?  The photo was very appealing, had her looking like a movie star, and there was no indication at all that she was really as old as she was.

Even in nondating situations, glamour shots can put the person in an unrealistic light.  Get real.  Face-to-face contact, as found in speed dating, avoids this scenario.

There are no online photos required in speed dating.

Just a little funny doodle, this one, but a good illustration of our era of narcissistic hurry. This was hand drawn as usual, with a TOMBO ABT felt tip pen.

My backstory: I'm chronically single, spending far more of my life not in a relationship than in one. I'm far too comfortable being single, I'm shy at all the wrong moments, and I probably have 33 fundamental misunderstandings about human nature (down from the 2,300 I had in my early twenties, but OH WELL), so I'm just single single single. Bah. Anyhoo, in my youth I did a ton of internet dating. Like, a fuckton. A metric fuckton. So much internet dating that it really became soul-crushingingly awful, and I vowed after my last breakup (January 2006?! holy fucking shit) to never look for love online again.

But you know what? I just don't meet people in my regular life. Chatting up random women fills me with horror, I don't go to bars, and I don't do the randomly social things that are necessary to put me in the dating millieu. I'm more of a books/internet/movie person, plus I'm shy, plus see above, etc. So I decided to try speed dating. You get thrown together with 6-12 guaranteed single women, you chat for 5-8 minutes, and move on. It's low stress if you want it to be, and try not to take it personally if the Unrequited Love Train flattens you.

(And can I just take a moment to mention that after 36 years of saying "gee thanks but no thanks" to women I dated, I finally got run over a few times in the past year by the "gee thanks but no thanks" boomerang? It fucking sucks. Not that I didn't know that, but it's now a practical understanding, not a theoretical one.)

So, my first speed dating thing was a KEXP party, where they organized a bunch of listeners together and semi-randomly paired them up. This was a great idea -- lots of single people with a mutual interest -- but was ineptly managed. There were probably 80+ people in the room, but they only set us each up with 6 or 7 potential matches, then we all went home. Damn! What about all the other women who were there? Shouldn't everyone get to talk to everyone?! Organize more events if there are too many people, etc... So that was annoying; even still, I hope they'd do another, cuz I'd go. KEXP people are sexxxy.

My second and third speed dating things were with HurryDate. You create a dumb profile online (god I hate online profiles!), and then go to the party on a weeknight evening. At the party, a woman with a weak voice will take 20-30 minutes to tediously and poorly explain the rather simple process while you sit across from Dream Woman #1 wishing you could get the Quiet Disorganized Leader Lady to just shut up. HurryDate lets you meet all the women who come to the event (a plus!), and the venue (O'Asian bar downtown the two times I went) is perfectly acceptable. The women I met at the first event were pretty darn cool; two or three of them were definitely worth seeing again, and one was obviously my soul mate. (Or so I thought!)

Sadly, on the way home from my HurryDate, I dropped my piece of paper with the notes I'd made about which women I did and didn't want to see again. Which brings up the stupid flaw in their system: In order for Aphrodite and Adonis to get together, they have to correctly enter Byzantine code numbers online after they get home, indicating their interest in each other. No codes, no match. No match, no email. No email, no twoo wuv. But even if you enter your code correctly (I remembered Dream Girl's code), there's no guarantee that she'll remember to go home and put in your code; she might get busy, lose your code in a pizza restaurant like I did, and drive you to drink. (FastLife has a better system, see below). The other annoying problem with HurryDate is that 90% of the women at the events I attended didn't say Yes or No, so you're left wondering if they got hit by a bus, or what. After two HurryDate events (the women at the second event were less interesting, and similarly unresponsive) I threw in the towel.

FastLife is more expensive ($50 for an event versus $30 for HurryDate), and fewer people came. (There were 10-12 of each gender at each HurryDate thing, and only 6 women/8 men at the thing tonight.) I think they're just getting started in the area, so those numbers should grow. The instructions were much faster, and although we got started late, things were basically run pretty well. You hand in your card to the guy at the end of the night, he will enter the results tonight, and we'll get people's email addresses in the morning. Their default position is that they assume you say "yes" to everyone unless you specifically say "no", which means there should be less accidentally missed connections between potential Henrys & Junes.

The one serious downside of the FastLife thing is that they chose a really noisy bar with a loud techno DJ in the next room. It wasn't a deal-breaker, but it was pretty annoying. I think they'll try to choose a quieter place next time.

If you've been thinking about speed dating, you should take the plunge. You learn a ton about a potential date in the first 30 seconds of talking to them, and after 6-7 minutes you can be pretty sure whether you'd like to spend another hour or two with them. Speed dating is a pretty efficient and fun way to meet singles; go for it!

Did I meet the woman of my dreams? Well, you'll just have to stay tuned, won't you?

You question the person about the discrepancy. And, what do you hear? “It's different lighting” or “I had a different hairstyle”. There could be any number of reasons as to why there are stark differences between the pictures. The culprit is usually.....glamour shots.

Glamour shots are not realistic. The purpose of them is to take anyone and make them attractive. Needless to say, glamour shots are common in the online dating field. This is due to the fact that pnline dating places extreme importance upon one's picture.

You do not have to concern yourself about this when involved in speed dating. Speed dating lets you know upfront what you are getting. There are no deceptions or false promises. If you meet, or “date”, someone that night and are not happy....you simply check off on the reply card that your are not interested.

Speed dating frees you of the deception that is so rampant in online dating.