You've replayed it a hundred times. She stood three feet away, scrolling her phone. You had an opening. You composed the perfect line — after she was gone.
For all you know, she's married now. To some guy who said something. Anything.
Openers are cheap. Almost any sentence works when it's delivered within three seconds. The expensive part is the standing there, drafting and deleting, while the window quietly closes.
The "22 Rules" stripped out my hesitation. What to open with, how to keep it alive, and the one habit that costs guys more women than anything else: waiting for perfect.
You paid for dinner. You drove. You said "whatever you want is fine" every single time. All the effort, no expectations.
And she left anyway — probably for a guy who makes her pick up the pizza.
Painful. Also predictable. Her mind quietly concludes that anything requiring zero effort from her is worth exactly zero. You became a free sample, and free samples get taken for granted.
The 22 Rules flip the dynamic. Small shifts that get her investing effort, money, and time in you — until SHE'S the one afraid of losing YOU.
Dude, get your panties out of a wad.Unbridled_Phoenix said:I hope that story gets all the exposure it deserves. If I was writing for a national instead of a local paper, I'd get it in.
STR8UP - you are a c0cksvcker, straightup. I've been with you all along, but your little comment about "take a tour in Iraq, it'll make you a real man pffft" should be said aloud in public so an ex-Marine like myself can about face and k!ck your fvcking @ss. I saw my friends blown to pieces, and we endured things a lifelong civilian PUNK like you cannot possibly imagine.
Your attempt to discredit the honor and courage of veterans is as feeble as your own character and, consequently, your manhood.
You've said it a hundred times. Maybe a thousand. And every time you say it, you train your brain to freeze the next time she walks into the room.
Leagues are a myth invented by guys who are scared of women.
She's a person. She has bad breath in the morning. She picks songs she can't sing in the shower. She overthinks her own texts.
Walk over. Say something. The league dissolves the second you open your mouth.
You are getting VERY close to offending a lot of vets, both serving and retired . Back off this one STR8.. it is not a scrap you want to start.STR8UP said:This is the problem with men these days. You're brainwashed into automatically believing that since you are a man, you were born to sacrifice yourself for the good of society. Whether it's playing Cap'n save-a-ho or jumping in front of a bullet, you think your life is worth so little that
I'm not saying that they are eager to die. I don't doubt that the military instills positive traits in a man, but I don't buy the fact that there is a "high price for not joining".Unbridled_Phoenix said:Wrong. Eighteen year old guys don't join the Marines because they're so eager to die, they do so because they want to live. They want to know what brotherhood is. Honor, courage, and unselfish gallantry are not the Disney movie, "feminized social conventions" you rationalize them to be. But men can only know these things by chancing death, never by chasing women.
It was far worse than the cost of not joining.
That part was supposed to be deleted due to the fact that it wasn't the best way to express my thoughts, but I make no apologies. If it offends someone I know they haven't stopped for a second to think about it.jophil28 said:You are getting VERY close to offending a lot of vets, both serving and retired . Back off this one STR8.. it is not a scrap you want to start.
STR8UP said:That part was supposed to be deleted due to the fact that it wasn't the best way to express my thoughts, but I make no apologies. If it offends someone I know they haven't stopped for a second to think about it.
That sentence contains at least five follow-up questions she WANTS you to ask. Where in Florida? What brought you here? How long have you been in the area? What do you miss? How does it compare to here?
She handed them to you on a silver platter. And you said, "Oh cool. I come here every week. I love this band. Ummm... pretty crowded tonight."
She smiled politely. Nodded. And never texted you back.
I was that guy for years. Talking too much. Listening too little. Panicking about my next sentence while she was literally feeding me the answers.
Then I found 22 rules that fixed the whole thing. Rule number one: shut up and listen. She'll tell you exactly what to say.
No, you don't understand the fact that I am not insulting their sacrifice, I am pointing out the fundamental mistake most guys make getting caught up in the groupthink that leads them to believe that they are actually getting a fair return on their investment.jophil28 said:Ahh, never mind...you will never understand why men are prepared to risk their lives to give you the freedom to insult their sacrifice.
As with many things in life, this is both a strength and a weakness depending on context as well as one's perspective.Danger said:their weakness often lies in their ability to follow orders without question.
The military is not supposed to be some brotherhood academy and a place where one goes to learn to be a man.Unbridled_Phoenix said:Wrong. Eighteen year old guys don't join the Marines because they're so eager to die, they do so because they want to live. They want to know what brotherhood is. Honor, courage, and unselfish gallantry are not the Disney movie, "feminized social conventions" you rationalize them to be. But men can only know these things by chancing death, never by chasing women.
It was far worse than the cost of not joining.