Official Dancing Monkey Project Sticky

I decided I should put up some sort of explanatory sticky for the Dancing Monkey Project.  Why?  I don’t know, man.  It just seemed like a good idea…

For those who are new or afflicted with amnesia and are unaware, I’ve been spending increasing amounts of time on this here blog talking about life as a single person in the incredibly narrow areas of America in which I have been single and a person (mostly the Chicagoland area and Dallas/Ft Worth).  My version of life as a single 30 year-old is odd, but that’s because I’m odd and I’m totally okay with that.  I did some online dating and I’ve written about that, but I’m reasonably certain that online dating is a giant waste of time.

Still, there are options out there.  I intend to explore as many as are practical given the notable constraints of time, money, and, well, practicality.  I’m open to suggestions and will attempt any that seem like a good idea.  And, for the record, “good idea” isn’t limited to “likely to be successful.”  On the contrary, ridiculous plans could be, well, ridiculous.  And funny.

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I have two additional areas I want to cover during the Dancing Monkey Project:

1.  Dating Advice

I’ve been reading online dating advice columns for years.  Most of the time they’re awful.  I’m going to attempt to evaluate online dating advice that I read in some way, shape, or form that I have not yet determined as of January 5th.

2.  Dating Environment

One of the reasons I started writing The Single Life posts is because I was reading the works of Kay Hymowitz.  She seems to be one of the most vocal of the, “Where have all the men gone?” crowd and a definite advocate of the, “It’s okay to blame it all on women, they’re totally bitches,” reply.  I’ve also been paying attention to the Pick-Up Artist community, who are basically assholes who think women are horrible people only good for being sex receptacles.  Further, in the process of reading normal, non-misanthropic dating advice columns I’ve mostly gotten the impression of a dating world populated by jet-setting urban people who probably live right in the thick of the swankiest neighborhoods in New York or Los Angeles or San Francisco.  They seem to meet each other at random while browsing boutiques or taking cooking classes or something like that.

I do not recognize this dating world.  The single guys I know aren’t basement-bound, unemployed, barely socialized assholes.  The single women I’ve met aren’t self-absorbed, overly critical harpies.  The people I hang out with are normal, boring folks who go to work then unwind at concerts or by drinking coffee or whatever.

It’s about time someone put that perspective out there…

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Also, too, I mentioned in my introduction post that I was considering adding a Tip Jar.  I’m not exactly expecting to get a crapload of money out of this, nor do I really intend to turn this blog in to a revenue stream (which is good, considering my traffic).  Still, I figure it can’t exactly hurt.  I’ve added a Tip Jar to the right-side menu bar.  At the very least you should appreciate its awesomeness, especially since my available tools were my iPhone 3GS, a bottlebrush gorilla Christmas ornament, and MS Paint.

Either way, I ain’t broke by a long shot, so if you’re trying to decide whether to donate money to me or give it to some homeless guy, please feel free to help the homeless.

Unless you’re a practitioner of Reaganomics, that is.  In that case, please feel free to send some money my way.  Then the next time I’m passing a homeless person I’ll toss some loose change at him or her, mumble, “Get a job, freeloader,” and then call myself a Job Creator.  It’s a win-win!

Comments

[Inquisitive Raven]

Hmm, I thought the point of a sticky was that it's the first thing readers see on the page no matter how many new posts go up. Dunno if Typepad can actually do that, but you can probably fake it by post-dating the post for sometime after you expect the project to be finished.

[Geds]

Well that's just stupid then, isn't it? Dear Typepad: WTF?

[Geds]

There it goes. Somehow when I set it to auto-publish it didn't publish when I wanted it to and un-featured the post. That's some good programming.

[The Everlasting Dave]

CubsCon is this weekend. Ak just saying.

[woman]

You're totally right about the dating environment. But most of the women still believe they can find a guy out there. Women, not men...I mean... a man without any problems is not online, he lives his real life.

[Cookie]

A young boy and his dad went out fishing one fine morning. After a few quiet hours out in the boat, the boy became curious about the world around him. He looked up at his father and asked "How do fish breath under water?" His dad thought about it for a moment, then replied "I really don't know, son." The boy sat quietly from another moment, then asked his dad again, "How does our boat float on the water?" Once again his father replied, "Don’t know, son." Reflecting his thoughts again, a short while later, the boy asks "Why is the sky blue?" Again, his dad replied, "Don’t know, son." The inquisitive boy, worried he was disturbing his father, asks this time "Dad, do you mind that I'm asking you all of these questions?" "Of course not son", replied his dad, "How else are you ever going to learn anything?"
Don't you think that some articles and even whole sites are much alike this story?