A Guide to Nerd Guys Meeting and Dating Women: Shoes
I realized something important several years ago that really opened my eyes: women really notice shoes. Think about it. Most guys have at most 2 or 3 pairs. According to Reuters the average woman owns 19 pairs of shoes (which means there are women out there with 50 or 60 pairs). I think it fair to say that women pay attention to shoes (I have theories as to why this is, but won’t get into it here).
This is where most guys fail miserably (Epic Fail image courtesy of the movie t shirt category). Most guys (not just nerds) default to the most comfortable pair they have.
Think about it for a minute. Not only do women own a couple dozen pairs of shoes, but they learn to walk in some of the most uncomfortably footwear items ever invented. High heels are no joke (if you don’t believe me walk around on your tip toes for ten minutes and see how you feel). It’s like the Marquis de Sade was a fashion designer. They do this in order to look good, and you are going to schlep around in a pair of ratty old sneakers and expect to impress the ladies? It is to laugh.
Therefore, you are under an obligation to to not only have good shoes, but several pairs of good shoes. Let me list what I think any guy who is trying to date women should have.
1. Sneakers of some kind. There are definite times when you need to wear something casual. The important thing is that the shoes need to be clean and in good repair. I generally go for skateboard shoes in black. They tend to be very comfortable, nigh indestructible, and by being black can go with a lot of stuff.
2. Running or hiking shoes. Even if you don’t run (and really, you should) women love hiking as an activity and you need to be ready. Nothing will make you look like a tool than going on a romantic hike and having to bail out because you have a massive blister or something. Also, running is a great way to both lose weight and meet women.
3. Brown leather shoes. These are NOT your dress shoes. These are shoes you can wear with jeans or slacks when you are not necessarily wanting to look formal but are not casual. I have a pair of Ecco Unlimited shoes that look great and feel good.
4. Two pairs of dress shoes. One black, one a deep color. I have a pair of deep burgundy shoes that look good. Slacks and suits. Buy belts to match each color shoes you have.
5. Sandals. I know I said to avoid sandals, but there are some times when they are appropriate. This times are at the beach or pool. Generally go with something simple, but absolutely avoid Birkenstocks. And never socks. If it is cold enough for socks put on some damned shoes.
This is the minimum every guy should have, but you can’t go wrong having more pairs. I have a friend who has 150 or more pairs and he always looks sharp. More pairs gives you options of matching your clothes better.
Let me add a few notes. First of all, with the exception of sandals, socks should be worn at all time. Some fashion mags like to tell guys to go sockless with dress shoes but honestly, don’t try it. It just looks gross. Also, except for your athletic shoes go with black or dark socks. Showing a band of white around your ankles with your dark pants and shoes is the express train to lameville.
Learn to polish your shoes (or find someone who can do it for you). Buy ceder shoe trees for your dress shoes. Store them on a shelf, not a pile.
Finally, never be seen in public without shoes. Barefoot is only for kids, homeless guys, and gross Burning Man tree hugging hippies. If that is the look you are going for why are you even reading this?
That’s i
A Guide to Nerd Guys Meeting and Dating Women: Clothing Basics
This section is a little rudimentary in my mind, but I know there are guys out there for whom this stuff might not be as obvious as it is to a lot of others. And like I said before, most of these mistakes I have made in my life, usually over and over again.
These are basic clothing rules, and should be your guidelines at all times.
1. Underwear should be worn at all times. I cannot impress upon you how important this is. Women can get away with no underwear. You cannot. Going commando can do a lot of bad. I don’t want to get into a lot of graphic detail with the kinds of things that can go wrong for the lack of undergarments, except to say it can have social impacts you can never wash away. Also, once as a kid I caught my junk in the fly of my pants, and it was the most embarrassing injury of my life. If you are out of clean underwear use you last clean pair to run out and buy more, or better yet do your laundry.
2. Which brings us to our next clothing basic rule: do your laundry. Do not wear clothing repeatedly without washing it. A rank t shirt can undo all the good your regular bathing has done. Also, fold your laundry so it doesn’t look like you slept in it. If a label says “Dry clean only” first of all congratulations on having a high quality garment and second take it to a dry cleaner. When I am feeling lazy and have money I take all my laundry to a Wash-n-fold laundry and two days later the hand them back to me clean and folded like magic. Iron your shirts.
3. If a pair of pants has loops for a belt, they should have a belt in them.
4. Never wear clothes with holes in it. It is true that a pair of pants can look cool with some holes in it, but if you could correctly pick out the right torn clothes to look cool odds are you don’t need this blog.
5. The same thing for stains. If you have to decide which jacket goes with the marinara stain, get rid of it.
6. Sandals are a bad idea, unless you are going to the beach. Sandals are what guys in relationships wear, after they have reached the point they can safely not care anymore. Also, NEVER EVER WEAR SANDALS WITH SOCKS! Seriously. Those guys make me want to run them over with my car. Finally, Crocs suck. I don’t care how comfortable they are.
That’s pretty much it. We’ll get into more specifics in future posts.
Don Corleone knows how to look sharp (from the movie t shirts).
A Guide to Nerd Guys Meeting and Dating Women: Clothing Part 1
It has been said that clothing makes the man, and this is absolutely true, at least when it comes to impressing women. We’ll talk more later about how women evaluate the men they meet (in my experience and opinion) but for now you should know that women are capable of making assessments regarding your eligibility as a dating partner in micro-seconds, and a lot of it has to do with clothing, both directly and indirectly.
You don’t have to dress like a GQ model (and in fact, in most cases you look work even worse just by trying), but you need to look like you are making the effort. There is very little that makes me laugh more than seeing a couple out on a date where the girl obviously spent a considerable amount of time (sometimes on the order of a couple hours) looking good and the guy looks like he just rolled out of bed.
Fortunately it is the nature of being a guy that your grooming process can take 1/6th of the time it can take a woman, but you really don’t want to look like you only took 1/10000th the time, and the easy way to get around that is to dress up a bit.
Now, given the nature of my business it should be obvious that I love and appreciate t-shirts like this 
awesome Bruce Lee one from the movie t shirt section, but if you think the time for a t-shirt is all day every day, you need help. There is a time and a place, and even when I opt to wear a t-shirt it is clean, as am I and the rest of my attire.
When should you dress up? We will get into when and where you can expect to meet women (although honestly, the only place you can count on not meeting a girl is on your own couch) but honestly, anytime you cannot be sure you will NOT meet a girl you should do what you can to dress up. Standard apparel for me is a collared shirt, good jeans or slacks (usually chinos), and leather shoes.
I am not recommending you change your entire attire (in fact, remain true to yourself) but like putting a coat of paint on the outside of a house to increase it’s resale value, putting on some better clothing can add a lot of value to yourself.
I would like to also add that every time I get dressed up (especially in a suit) I feel sharper and most importantly, more confident.
Anyway, like I did with grooming I will address each attire section in a different blog post.
Next post: the basics
A Guide to Nerd Guys Meeting and Dating Women: Grooming Part 5 The Mouth
Here is a funny story to introduce this topic. Years ago I had a job driving across the country doing promotional events. My friend and I ended up in New Orleans a few weeks after Mardi Gras and naturally had to hand out on Bourbon Street. We parked our van and not five minutes later while walking towards Bourbon Street three cute girls, two of them giggling their asses off, came up and asked us if either of us had our tongues pierced. By coincidence at the time I did (this was my post-punk body piercing phase). The two giggling girls explained that their friend (who was turning red from embarrassment) was visiting from Alaska and had never kissed a guy with a pierced tongue and asked if I would. I did (she was really cute) and enjoyed it. Of course years later as a more mature adult I get weirded by the thought of that kind of casual contact, but back then I knew no fear.
Incidentally, my friend decided that night he wanted to sit down with one of the street fortune tellers and ended up talking to her for two hours. Kind of weird. Fortunately I had my yo-yo with me. No joke.
Anyway, the point of this story is, casual contact aside, you never know when you will need your mouth for things other than eating and talking. It is therefore very important that you keep it clean and orderly.
First of all, there is never an excuse for bad breath. Make extensive use of breath mints, Binaca (one day I’ll tell you the story about my friend who shot Binaca up his nose…twice), breath strips, or even gum. If you are fortunate enough to be having dinner with a girl hold the onions. Honestly, just be aware of your breath and take steps to keep it minty fresh.
At the risk of sounding like a public service announcement (anyone else remember Yuck Mouth?) you should most definitely brush and floss your teeth multiple times a day, preferably after every meal. See your dentist 
often. If you have crooked teeth or a gap (or look like Jaws from this movie t shirt) look into getting them straitened. I went out with a girl who was in all ways gorgeous and smart, but she had a massive gap in her front teeth and that’s all I could ever see.
Also, be aware that if you drink a lot of brown liquids (coffee is the number one culprit, but I had a real bad Diet Coke habit that hit me hard) it will tend to turn your teeth brownish. Use a whitening toothpaste. Also when you visit your dentist there are a number of different tooth whitening procedures that can help with this.
Anyway, that’s it. Like hair and bathing, mouth care takes a little work, but you will reap the benefit. Girls dig guys who smile a lot.
Next Post: Grooming Odds and Ends
Buzz Aldrin on the Howard Stern show this morning
So I was listening to Stern this morning and he had a great hero, not just for America, but the human race, Buzz Aldrin on for a candid interview. The guys who made it to the moon were the first step towards mine and every thinking nerd’s dream of getting off this rock we call home.
Unfortunately, our current administration has opted to no longer pursue the space program, the one decision I most strongly disagree with. In order to keep the morons of this country happy in the short term they are selling out the human race’s long term benefit. I know I have bitched about this before, but if you could get a letter or email sent to the president (www.whitehouse.gov) in support of NASA that would be very cool. I just sent another one.
Anyway, in the spirit of space exploration I have shown a picture for Forbidden Planet from the movie t shirt section. Great movie, if you haven’t seen it.
We hit 300!
T shirts, that is. I was saying at DundraCon that my goal was 300 different shirts on our site, and as of last night we are at 301. I am very excited.
Played a great game of Warhammer last night against a guy from Belgium. I am playing a list I call “the Brown Submarine.” Basically it is purposely weak in order to get some really soft games round one and two of any tournament and win through soft points. Of course that requires that I upgrade the paint considerably, but I am working on it in whatever free time I have (almost none). I also enjoy playing it in that I have to work really hard to win. It is a thinking man’s army.
Anyway, back to the t shirt grind. I am happy to say my women’s t shirt section has grown fivefold, from one to five including this gem from my movie t shirt section. I will be expanding my selection as my budget allows. That being said, I have another six new men’s shirts to work on today.
Anyway, looking forward to a good weekend. I have a few things going on for a change. I’ll talk about terrain day next post.
Torchiere Torture and Special movie
So I love Torchiere lamps. You know, the ones that stand up and shoot their light at the ceiling. The light reflected off the ceiling is really nice and cuts down on shadows. My problem is I keep breaking them. I must go through two a year at least. I don’t know if they are particularly fragile (frag-ile’! It must be French!), if I treat them badly, or if I generate some kind of anti-torchiere lamp field, but they have a bad lifespan in my possession. Obviously I broke another one last night. Don’t know what I did. It just stopped working. I traded out the bulb and that didn’t make a difference. I grabbed the one I have in my bedroom, so now I am stumbling around in the dark in my bedroom. Also, it is softer than I like, so my office is now really dim.
I have a friend who uses the ones that you just have to touch to turn off and on. Those kind of creep me out, as I have to imagine you are getting some kind of electric charge when you do that. Given my luck with these demonic lamps it would not take a lot for that charge to develop into a fatal shock (the freak accident that gives the recipient the power to shoot lighting out of their hands never seems to happen to me, damn the luck) so I will stick with my standard, crappy lamps.
Speaking of getting super powers, a friend of mine sent me a copy of the movie Special and I watched it last night. It’s about a guy (comic book fan) who gets on a test program for a new drug that causes him to imagine he has developed super powers. There is a great scene where he is trying to convince his friends (who own a comic book shop) that he has powers by running through a wall. In reality he hits the wall and bounces off, but is so delusional that he is convinced he actually did it. I can’t decide if I liked it or hated it. It felt a little like a nerdier version of Fight Club. I wish it had been more popular (so good it went straight to DvD) because the Special t shirt the guy is given would fit in perfectly in my fantasy logo or movie t shirts section.
Anyway, thanks to Dave for the movie. He gave me a music CD I am going to listen to today. I’ll talk about it on my next blog.
Star Wars: World’s Most Successful Franchise
While numerous science fiction and fantasy films leave a cult following in their wake, the ride is soon over when the films deteriorate or stop being produced. However, unlike most other media cults, Star Wars persevered for almost three decades before the series saw a revamp on the big screen. However, the first two new films were met with contempt from hardcore fans of the series. While characters like Jar Jar Binks appealed to children, adults who loved the original Star Wars movies found him pointless and darn near irritating.
When the second movie was released it was clear that director/producer George Lucas had lost some of his skill. The third movie, Revenge of the Sith, served as a suitable end to the series, but it still failed to instill the same magic that the originals had. Despite mediocre reviews, the movies grossed significant revenue. The most successful part of Star Wars however comes from the merchandising—from Star Wars t shirts to books and video games inspired by Lucas’ vision. Every year the revenue generated from movie-inspired merchandise keeps Lucas cranking out more.
