Frustration.

Women.  We can't live with them, and we can't live without them, for obvious reasons.  I've been recently having some confidence problems with regards to getting back into the dating game.

Let me give some background - I started dating L during my senior year of high school.  We were actually a good match.  I had met her a few years prior, due to my friend Max.  Max went to a rival high school, so we met during our time in the Boy Scouts.  I took an immediate liking to the boy, and started hanging out with his group of friends.  L was a part of this group, along with two other girls, K, and S.  L and I did not get along at first.  We did not really like each other, she thought I was some spoiled rich kid, and I thought she was pretty much a stone cold bitch.  Boy, that relationship changed really fast.  We wound up dating for 6 years, spending almost our entire time together on the weekends, and some days during the week.

With regards to our relationship, L was definitely an alpha style female.  She liked to dictate what we did, and frankly, I did not care.  However, at the same time she wanted me to start taking charge, saying what we were going to do that day, that sort of thing.  It frustrated the hell out of me, because when I did start to "wear the pants", make the decisions that I should, she would get frustrated.  Needless to say, we broke up 6 months ago.

I have some problems talking to women, as stated previously.  It seems to me that the girls I tend to go after are not really on my intelligence level, which is probably the main problem.  Coming from a background of history and politics with a love for british humor, I can see how this is the case.  The jokes I make tend to either go over their head, or they just do not find them funny.  I also tend to do one or more of the following list -

• Over think the approach
• Friend zone them myself
• No idea how to continue the conversation
• Worry I am not saying the correct things: be it text, or verbal
• Honestly, if I a girl I like texts me, I tend to read WAY too far into the text

Heres the frustrating part - women like to be wined and dined, and coming out straight up, saying something forward like "I like you" seems to come off creepy.  I was raised on the thought that a man should always be chivalrous, treat women with respect, so on and so forth.  I am also the type of guy who is direct.  Many of you who read this initially know that about me.  If I dont like you, I wont pussyfoot around.  I think the same way when I am at work.  If one of my interns has a dumb idea, I will not let them get away with it.  I tell them that its dumb, and that they need to rethink the process. 

I am not writing this as a tell all.  It is a way for me to communicate my varied thoughts on the matter of meeting, talking to, and succeeding in the game of dating.  Its rough out there for men of higher intelligence who, lets be honest, are not exactly Adonis body types.  For example, a girl who I honestly would not mind dating literally just sent me a text.  Thinking back to the exact moment, my thought process went from "Who just sent me a text? --> Oh, its her! --> She's probably thinking about me".  Obviously, the third part is not the case.  She is just replying to something I sent her earlier, and moving on with her day.  Maybe its time I simply move on as well.  Focus on myself, my career, and what Im doing with my life. 

The World Cup - USA vs. Slovenia - My impressions

Soccer. The worlds game. Apparently everyones except the United States. Granted, we have other sports to be involved in in the US, i.e. baseball, football (yes the American version), and of course basketball. However, from my point of view growing up in the last 21 years, soccer, or futbol, has been on the rise. The growth of the US league, Major League Soccer, has been consistent over the last couple of years. Players now come from around the world to play in our league, and we have players abroad in some of the best leagues in the world like the Premier League in England, Italian Serie A, as well as the German Bundesliga. But the focus has shifted this summer. It is not on anyone one league, but on the world. If you havent heard of, or have seen any commercials or advertisement for the world cup, then you live under a rock, or are completely retarded. The World comes together every six years for the World Cup finals. 32 teams representing 32 countries around the world have descended on South Africa and are now competing in a do or die battle for supremacy.

The US's most recent battle on the pitch put them against a Slovenian side of equal strength and play style. Both teams play extremely well in a 4-4-2 formation, and are strong on the wings. The first half was disastrous for the US, seeing the Slovenians go up by two goals by halftime. However, the team that came out in the second half was the polar opposite of the first. Suddenly the US decided to challenge on the wings, with Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey attacking relentlessly. Landon Donovan scored on a long ball down the right side. A defender dove to clear a ball, missed and Donovan pounced. He ran down to the endline, twisted towards goal, and pounded a shot over the hapless keepers head. DOMINATED. The next goal involved several players, including central midfielder Michael Bradley. Donovan crossed the ball into the middle 18, Altidore put it up with his head, and Michael Bradley pounced, scoring a goal with the sole of his foot. Enter Malian referee Koman Coulibaly. This man singlehandedly screwed the entire game, and he has screwed them before! During the African qualifying stage of the 2006 World Cup, he awarded a bogus penalty to the Ghanan side that would have sent them through to the World Cup. They failed to convert, but went through anyway. Could someone please tell me why a referee, which a record such as his, could be allowed to ref a game at the worlds largest international competition? ... Im still waiting... Honestly, I did not watch the game. However, as soon as i woke up, I started watching highlights. One word - Amazed. I looked at the replays over and over, from every different angle I could find. I watched each US player, and attempted to decide if what they did could be construed as a foul. I came up with nothing. Not only did this referee ruin the US's comeback, but he ruined quite possibly one of the biggest comebacks in World Cup history. I do not know if someone paid this guy off, if he is just a retard, but honestly, he singlehandedly ruined the world cup. What a fuck up.

Well...

My first blog post. I told myself in high school that I would NEVER do something like this, yet due to circumstances to be explained, as well as a yearning for attention *wink wink* I must. I grew up on Maui, as the blog name suggests, and graduated from Seabury Hall in 2007. I grew up with a loving family, of course, and as the years passed by, between going to school, and over the summer working at Ruby's Diner, also spending the majority of my time working at boyscout camp, i never really had or understood the time I had to myself, whether it was time to think, or just staring at the wall with my brain not working. Just when no one was around and i could just sit and contemplate.

Im sure the people who will eventually read this, if any, will understand the feeling I am talking about. Its like being at the office at the end of the day, finishing your last phone call, with everyone in the office either gone or leaving, and you sit back in your chair and think "wow, I can finally think by myself." It really is amazing. Since an early age, i was taught to not only think for myself, but to do so for others. If, for example, I am on a scuba dive with someone, and his regulator (the piece that goes in his mouth) breaks, I am the one who thinks of what to do first. You could say my mind is a balanced blade. Anyway, taking this to college in the fall of 07 really helped me. Although I did come from a college prep background, the one thing that helped overcome the stresses of being away from home for the first extended period of time. I relish, and hate this ability now. The positives of my sharp mind are being able to extenuate circumstances of things before they happen, or even just giving good reasons why I should or should not buy something at the grocery store (which I am at quite often). The negatives, in my opinion, are forcing myself to sometimes take care of people ( which is not necessarily bad, but can happen often) or my brain doing something my body doesnt wanna do, like hitting the gym *lmao*. I leave you with a quote from Albert Einstein - "A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?"