I took a break from the gym before Christmas, and getting out of the routine seemed to free up my thoughts, even if it has taken me three weeks to get back to the weights I was hefting before the break.
I'm feeling the need to ease back on the blogging for a while. There will be a review of January coming up, but that may be it until I shake loose whatever it is that's making me feel as if I'm stuck. Maybe some photographs and odd stuff, but nothing considered. I'm considering in circles at the moment.
In the meantime, check this out...
Monday, 27 January 2014
Thursday, 23 January 2014
Getting Laid For Free, Ain't Free
The Rule is: if it flies, floats or fucks, rent, don't buy. The reason is that buying planes, boats and wives (weddings) is expensive, all three have high maintenance and running costs, and unless you're very lucky, you can lose a lot of money on disposal.
What counts as "renting"? Any arrangement where the man is not responsible for the expenses and debts of the woman. Co-signed the mortgage? You've bought. Had a child together? You've bought. Married? Guess what? Sharing a flat and bed together? Grey area: if she's working and expects to pay her share of rent, you're still renting her. Given her a key to your place, let her move in some clothes and receive official mail there? Dodgy. Try not to do that.
Renting runs from one-night stands to paying escorts to living-together-without-contracts. In London, good-quality escorts go out for £250+ an hour. That's the benchmark. Pay more than that per lay and you need to re-examine your choices - unless you're very rich and are paying for very high quality, as you can in this town.
In London or a big city, Night Game costs drinks, nightclub entry and taxi fare, just to play. That's pretty much at least £60 - £100 a shot. The Notch / Night rate may be better, but even at 20% that's still around £400 a notch.
Day Game is a whole other thing. If you do it systematically, it's financially horrible. The hidden cost here is that Krauser's spare time is not free: he's an IT contractor in Financial Services and those guys make upwards of £400 a day. He could be earning six figures annually, but chooses not to. It's a rare contractor who works all twelve months a year: let's assume he could work six months a year. If I've followed his year right, he's done a three month earning stint in 2013. In nine months he gets thirty lays, so in six he gets twenty. The extra ten notches are the benefit of his chosen lifestyle. The extra ten notches cost around £25,000 in lost post-tax income. That's £2,500 a notch. Yikes! And those notches are almost all one-time: all those girls who are "on their last night in London"?
So one-night stands make no economic sense in a Big City, unless you are doing a job that exposes you to a large number of women whose social control is lowered and to whom you have tempting status or looks.
Relationships spread that Notch acquisition cost over a number of Lays, but add maintenance and running costs. As long as that running cost stays below £250 / week, you're ahead. The hidden cost comes from the fact that very few people go straight from one MTR to another. There might be six sexless months between each one. While an MTR is running, it's an economically-sound source of sex, but when it's not, we're back with escorts, Night Game or chastity. So to the acquisition and running costs of an MTR, you have to add the cost of sex between the one that's just finished and the next one. Cheaper, but no Aldi.
Looking at the cost of sex isn't considered polite. Men don't really want to admit that sex costs them money, and women don't want to admit that the sex they provide has an identifiable cost to the man. It's all too close to prostitution.
So here's the trick everyone pulls on themselves. They tell themselves they are not going to the club or the bar to get laid: they are going for the booze, the music and the event, and if they get laid, that's a bonus. Same with any other method or venue for pick-up. I'm going to go for a walk in St James' Park - if I happen across a pleasing young lady there, that's a bonus. If I don't, I've still had a nice walk. Go out looking to get laid and anyone will come back disappointed: so let's pretend we're not. That way, one night stands are always free, just like they were back in university.
What counts as "renting"? Any arrangement where the man is not responsible for the expenses and debts of the woman. Co-signed the mortgage? You've bought. Had a child together? You've bought. Married? Guess what? Sharing a flat and bed together? Grey area: if she's working and expects to pay her share of rent, you're still renting her. Given her a key to your place, let her move in some clothes and receive official mail there? Dodgy. Try not to do that.
Renting runs from one-night stands to paying escorts to living-together-without-contracts. In London, good-quality escorts go out for £250+ an hour. That's the benchmark. Pay more than that per lay and you need to re-examine your choices - unless you're very rich and are paying for very high quality, as you can in this town.
In London or a big city, Night Game costs drinks, nightclub entry and taxi fare, just to play. That's pretty much at least £60 - £100 a shot. The Notch / Night rate may be better, but even at 20% that's still around £400 a notch.
Day Game is a whole other thing. If you do it systematically, it's financially horrible. The hidden cost here is that Krauser's spare time is not free: he's an IT contractor in Financial Services and those guys make upwards of £400 a day. He could be earning six figures annually, but chooses not to. It's a rare contractor who works all twelve months a year: let's assume he could work six months a year. If I've followed his year right, he's done a three month earning stint in 2013. In nine months he gets thirty lays, so in six he gets twenty. The extra ten notches are the benefit of his chosen lifestyle. The extra ten notches cost around £25,000 in lost post-tax income. That's £2,500 a notch. Yikes! And those notches are almost all one-time: all those girls who are "on their last night in London"?
So one-night stands make no economic sense in a Big City, unless you are doing a job that exposes you to a large number of women whose social control is lowered and to whom you have tempting status or looks.
Relationships spread that Notch acquisition cost over a number of Lays, but add maintenance and running costs. As long as that running cost stays below £250 / week, you're ahead. The hidden cost comes from the fact that very few people go straight from one MTR to another. There might be six sexless months between each one. While an MTR is running, it's an economically-sound source of sex, but when it's not, we're back with escorts, Night Game or chastity. So to the acquisition and running costs of an MTR, you have to add the cost of sex between the one that's just finished and the next one. Cheaper, but no Aldi.
Looking at the cost of sex isn't considered polite. Men don't really want to admit that sex costs them money, and women don't want to admit that the sex they provide has an identifiable cost to the man. It's all too close to prostitution.
So here's the trick everyone pulls on themselves. They tell themselves they are not going to the club or the bar to get laid: they are going for the booze, the music and the event, and if they get laid, that's a bonus. Same with any other method or venue for pick-up. I'm going to go for a walk in St James' Park - if I happen across a pleasing young lady there, that's a bonus. If I don't, I've still had a nice walk. Go out looking to get laid and anyone will come back disappointed: so let's pretend we're not. That way, one night stands are always free, just like they were back in university.
Monday, 20 January 2014
Blue Skies In January, Trafalgar Square
Blue skies make everything look better. This is how I know God hates London, because it's grey, grey, grey all the time. This January He's been taking some time off. Note the colour of the sky in these pictures.
Flags outside the Canadian Embassy; city towers from Liverpool Street; pollarded trees behind the National Gallery; St Martin's across Trafalgar Square; this month's sculpture on the fourth plinth, what seems to be a blue Rooster. It's not, however, International Klein Blue, though it is close.
Monday, 13 January 2014
Approaching: A Food Chain Analysis
Acknowledged daygame maestro Krauser published his stats for 2013. His food chain - as it's called in the sales business - looks like this:
Numbers / Approaches: 25%
Dates / Numbers: 24%
iDates / Approaches: 1.5%
Lays / iDate: 53%
Lays / Dates: 32%
The least informative ratio to get from the numbers is Lays/Approaches (2.7%). Gross success ratios like that look as if they should be the ultimate bottom line, but are no use for understanding what's happening. Performance ratios are meaningful if they are tied to a discrete section of the process: there's way too much going on between between an Approach and a Lay for the Lays/Approaches ratio to mean anything.
(If you think 2.7% is bad, Direct Mail routinely yields sub-1% response rates, and full-page articles in national daily newspapers for esoteric piano recitals or fringe plays have response rates below 0.05%.)
Now let's have some fun and assume this will do as a representative sample of 20-30 year old 6+ female, mostly foreign, short-term, visitors to London - which is his chosen target group. Let's start by spinning that Numbers / Approaches around. Krauser is a self-confessed half-bald medium-height guy with a Geordie accent - not a Nine. However, he's got high-grade Game, determination and experience: a handful of hot PUAs and the thirteen Naturals in the UK might do better, but that's neither you nor me. Let's assume that Krauser's getting as good as it gets.
Then it's reasonable to assume that the reason he gets 25% Numbers/Approaches is because 75% of girls are hard-line unavailable-at-the-time, and a further 18% (76% of the 25% who did give a number) are unavailable-after-second-thoughts. This gives us 93% (75%+18%) unavailable for any of the 513 reasons girls are unavailable. This leaves 7% who are Up For It If... And only 35% (weighted average) of those will convert to Lays.
(7% doesn't sound bad, but there aren't that many 20-30 y/o 6+ foreign girls on their last day / night in London (it just seems like it), so their needs might be being met entirely by a handful of PUAs and a couple of Naturals. None left for you and me.)
How transferrable is this to girls who work in and around London? Some of it is and some isn't. Lays / Date (or iDate) is a function of your game and her interest. Sure, there are serial daters, freeloaders, husband-hunters, and girls who can't tell the difference between a job interview and a date, but not all girls are like that all the time. Let's say that with K-level game, even London-based girls can be converted 35% of the time.
What takes a huge hit is the number of approachable girls, and the Numbers / Approach and Dates / Number ratios. Most of the girls who come to London do so to get away from the pressure of having relationships, though there are some who still think it's a young person's playground, and are horribly disappointed when they find out it isn't. If London was full of approachable, attractive working girls here for the party, that's who Krauser would be writing about. And he's not. So that in mind, let's say that about 2.5% of London-based 6+ girls are Up For It If...
Applying that pro-rata, we get iDates / Approaches of 0.5% and Numbers / Approaches and Dates / Numbers of about 13% each. And that's on a small population.
In the words of Pete Townsend in Who Are You: "there's got to be a better way". There is, but it's time limited, and we'll talk about it later.
Numbers / Approaches: 25%
Dates / Numbers: 24%
iDates / Approaches: 1.5%
Lays / iDate: 53%
Lays / Dates: 32%
The least informative ratio to get from the numbers is Lays/Approaches (2.7%). Gross success ratios like that look as if they should be the ultimate bottom line, but are no use for understanding what's happening. Performance ratios are meaningful if they are tied to a discrete section of the process: there's way too much going on between between an Approach and a Lay for the Lays/Approaches ratio to mean anything.
(If you think 2.7% is bad, Direct Mail routinely yields sub-1% response rates, and full-page articles in national daily newspapers for esoteric piano recitals or fringe plays have response rates below 0.05%.)
Now let's have some fun and assume this will do as a representative sample of 20-30 year old 6+ female, mostly foreign, short-term, visitors to London - which is his chosen target group. Let's start by spinning that Numbers / Approaches around. Krauser is a self-confessed half-bald medium-height guy with a Geordie accent - not a Nine. However, he's got high-grade Game, determination and experience: a handful of hot PUAs and the thirteen Naturals in the UK might do better, but that's neither you nor me. Let's assume that Krauser's getting as good as it gets.
Then it's reasonable to assume that the reason he gets 25% Numbers/Approaches is because 75% of girls are hard-line unavailable-at-the-time, and a further 18% (76% of the 25% who did give a number) are unavailable-after-second-thoughts. This gives us 93% (75%+18%) unavailable for any of the 513 reasons girls are unavailable. This leaves 7% who are Up For It If... And only 35% (weighted average) of those will convert to Lays.
(7% doesn't sound bad, but there aren't that many 20-30 y/o 6+ foreign girls on their last day / night in London (it just seems like it), so their needs might be being met entirely by a handful of PUAs and a couple of Naturals. None left for you and me.)
How transferrable is this to girls who work in and around London? Some of it is and some isn't. Lays / Date (or iDate) is a function of your game and her interest. Sure, there are serial daters, freeloaders, husband-hunters, and girls who can't tell the difference between a job interview and a date, but not all girls are like that all the time. Let's say that with K-level game, even London-based girls can be converted 35% of the time.
What takes a huge hit is the number of approachable girls, and the Numbers / Approach and Dates / Number ratios. Most of the girls who come to London do so to get away from the pressure of having relationships, though there are some who still think it's a young person's playground, and are horribly disappointed when they find out it isn't. If London was full of approachable, attractive working girls here for the party, that's who Krauser would be writing about. And he's not. So that in mind, let's say that about 2.5% of London-based 6+ girls are Up For It If...
Applying that pro-rata, we get iDates / Approaches of 0.5% and Numbers / Approaches and Dates / Numbers of about 13% each. And that's on a small population.
In the words of Pete Townsend in Who Are You: "there's got to be a better way". There is, but it's time limited, and we'll talk about it later.
Thursday, 9 January 2014
Those Bill's Afternoon Tea Pictures In Full
A while ago I had the Afternoon Tea at Bill's on Brewer Street. Well, you've got to at least once. I couldn't do it now, as I'm on the January not-even-bread low-carb weight loss diet. So here are the pictures. This is what you get...
I know. Where are the lengthy three-part essays? On hold for a while. When it's time, I'll explain.
I know. Where are the lengthy three-part essays? On hold for a while. When it's time, I'll explain.
Monday, 6 January 2014
'Twas the Week After Christmas...
The time between Christmas and the first full week of the New Year: no crowds, deathly quiet offices, half the Italian cafes closed, seats on the train, and the Waterloo & City line didn't open until 08:00. My main task was to get back into training trim after taking a couple of weeks out. Since when was a 20kg plate heavy?
A full moon over Bishopsgate; Old Iselworth from the Richmond towpath, and logged trees by the towpath; the very healthy M&M's chocolate sauce and vanilla ice-cream at Brgr.co on Noel St; Waterloo station at 20:30 Friday night 3/1/14.
A full moon over Bishopsgate; Old Iselworth from the Richmond towpath, and logged trees by the towpath; the very healthy M&M's chocolate sauce and vanilla ice-cream at Brgr.co on Noel St; Waterloo station at 20:30 Friday night 3/1/14.
Thursday, 2 January 2014
2014 New Year's Resolutions
I'm giving the resolutions a rest for this year, though I do like the GS Elevator list.
My resolutions for 2013 were:
1. One unsupported pull-up by the year end
2. Read Robert Musil's The Man Without Qualities
3. Experiment with changes to the daily/weekly routine, diet, entertainment and whatever else until the zip, twinkle and sparkle comes back
4. Do stuff that just occurs to me
And.... 1. Let's not talk about that. I really don't want to talk about my pull-ups. I'm trying. I really am.
2. The Man Without Qualities is much more of a domestic drama than I remembered. Proust has a masculine sensibility for all its setting screams out "domestic drama". Musil's masterwork is a triple-decker for women.
3 / 4. I did do some experiments and some zip and sparkle did come into my life - see the Lisbon and Rome posts. But there's still something wrong. I'm still collapsing on Saturdays.
In the previous post I listed what worked and didn't work for me in 2013. To do something about the things that didn't work...
I'm going back to swimming on the days I don't train, and will try taking some yoga and spin classes like I used to. Maybe even TRX on Friday now and again. Weights on other days or at the weekend.
Which will force me to re-jig my late afternoons and spend more time sitting in Soho cafes (yea!).
I have already purchased (via the Staff Offers) a Cineworld Unlimited card valid everywhere outside the West End. So I will be going to see more movies.
Thai Massage every three / four weeks. The strong version, which is where they dig in and/or walk on your back! Massage is a consequence of training - accept this.
I will have a week's holiday in March, May, June before the start of school holidays and September after the school holidays. I will pass on what I'm going to do at this stage.
The 09:30 thing is an attempt to get at least seven hour's sleep (allow for falling-asleep time). I'm better if I do, but I can get by on six. I need to stop worrying about it.
I don't know what I do about the whole "ugh, it's grey and cold, let's not go out" thing. Except maybe kick myself in the ass.
And I may have to not allow myself to turn on the modem Saturdays and Sundays until it's time for a Curzon Online movie. I have other ideas, but these will do for now.
1. One unsupported pull-up by the year end
2. Read Robert Musil's The Man Without Qualities
3. Experiment with changes to the daily/weekly routine, diet, entertainment and whatever else until the zip, twinkle and sparkle comes back
4. Do stuff that just occurs to me
And.... 1. Let's not talk about that. I really don't want to talk about my pull-ups. I'm trying. I really am.
2. The Man Without Qualities is much more of a domestic drama than I remembered. Proust has a masculine sensibility for all its setting screams out "domestic drama". Musil's masterwork is a triple-decker for women.
3 / 4. I did do some experiments and some zip and sparkle did come into my life - see the Lisbon and Rome posts. But there's still something wrong. I'm still collapsing on Saturdays.
In the previous post I listed what worked and didn't work for me in 2013. To do something about the things that didn't work...
I'm going back to swimming on the days I don't train, and will try taking some yoga and spin classes like I used to. Maybe even TRX on Friday now and again. Weights on other days or at the weekend.
Which will force me to re-jig my late afternoons and spend more time sitting in Soho cafes (yea!).
I have already purchased (via the Staff Offers) a Cineworld Unlimited card valid everywhere outside the West End. So I will be going to see more movies.
Thai Massage every three / four weeks. The strong version, which is where they dig in and/or walk on your back! Massage is a consequence of training - accept this.
I will have a week's holiday in March, May, June before the start of school holidays and September after the school holidays. I will pass on what I'm going to do at this stage.
The 09:30 thing is an attempt to get at least seven hour's sleep (allow for falling-asleep time). I'm better if I do, but I can get by on six. I need to stop worrying about it.
I don't know what I do about the whole "ugh, it's grey and cold, let's not go out" thing. Except maybe kick myself in the ass.
And I may have to not allow myself to turn on the modem Saturdays and Sundays until it's time for a Curzon Online movie. I have other ideas, but these will do for now.
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