Homecoming

 Excerpted from a New Yorker article on Internet dating, by Nick Paumgarten:

"The cutting edge is in mobile and location-based technology, such as Grindr, a smart-phone app for gay men that tells subscribers when there are other willing subscribers in their vicinity. Many Internet dating companies are trying to make this kind of thing work for straight people, which means making it work for straight women, who may not need an app to know that they are surrounded by willing straight men."

"Men want someone who will take care of them, make them look good, and have sex with them— not necessarily in that order. It may be that this is all women really want, too, but they are better at disguising or obscuring it. They deal in calculus, while men, for the most part, traffic in simple sums."

"Most bad dates are just awkward or excruciating. One woman likened them to airplane crashes: the trouble usually occurs during the takeoff and landing— the minute you meet and the minute you leave. You can often tell right away if this person who's been so charming in his e-mails is a creep or a bore. If not, it becomes clear at the end of the evening, when he sticks his tongue down your throat. Or doesn't. One women told me that she maintains a chart, both to keep the men straight and to try to discern patterns— as though there might be a unified-field theory of why men are dogs."

"...the question 'Do you like the taste of beer?' is more predicative than any other of whether you're willing to have sex on the first date. (That is, ...people who have answered yes to one are likely to have answered yes to the other.)" 

"It is an axiom of Internet dating that everyone allegedly has a sense of humor, even if evidence of it is infrequently on display. ...if you say you are funny, then you should probably show it. Demonstrating funniness can be fraught. Irony isn't for everyone. But everyone isn't for everyone, either"

Colorado wildflowers are great, but check out the succulents growing in the yards of 

Berkeley residents. 

This is a series of time-lapse videos taken of Bay Area fog. I've never seen my gray home look so beautiful.

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