@newt People keep saying that, as if a girlfriend is something you can buy at the supermarket.

@thor technically, you can buy a girlfriend, but society generally doesn't approve this

@newt I'm aware.

@newt Girlfriends, and friends in general, require some hunting in order to get them. I don't really know how to make friends other than through chance encounters, and I have extremely few of those, because it's boring to go out.

@newt At the last party I went to, there were two girls. I had conversations with the both, but later on, they started talking about their bodily functions right in front of me. Not exactly a sign that they were into me. I get shit like that all the time, so again, it's no fun to go out.

@thor if you're grossed out that easily, girls probably aren't for you

@newt It's not about being grossed out. It's about the social signalling implied in talking about something like that in front of a guy.

@newt I have had a girlfriend twice but I had to go on the Internet for that, and both were from other countries, and there was travel involved, and also, crazy luck apparently, because it's been 8 years since anything has happened.

@newt Girls are a bit of a problem for me, so I prefer to solve life's problems without them...

@thor I'm probably in no position to give you advice, but something tells me you're doing it wrong

@newt I expect that I am. It's a problem in of itself that a technique is required at all, because it makes me feel cynical about the world. "Be yourself", my mother told me, and I thought it was wonderful that just being yourself was the key to a happy life. There's a cynical second part to that sentence, though. "Be yourself... or someone else, if you're not good enough." To me, that seems closer to the truth, but also quite depressing.

@newt I want people to like (or fall in love with) the true me, not a pretend me that I put on for the night.

@newt I'm willing to pretend that I'm a better conversationalist than I really am, in order to make strangers interested in me, because that just requires me to quickly think of things to talk about. It's a bit exhausting, but I'm willing to bend that much. That doesn't seem to be enough, though. There needs to be a strategy on top of that, it would seem, and that's a bit beyond me. It's already hard enough to just maintain a regular conversation.

@newt If I hadn't been bullied in school, I'm sure I would've developed these social skills as a teenager. That didn't happen, though.

@thor your school has ended decades ago

@newt Yes, but it shapes you.

@thor I have no idea what you mean. Girlfriends just happen to me. I don't think I even have control over this thing.

Getting friends is a bit harder, but not impossible either.

@newt That's because there's something about you that women find attractive. You may not know what it is, but it's there. No such luck for me.

@silkevicious Haha