jump to navigation

Somewhere in Africa, there is a child without a domain name July 31, 2006

Posted by Niels in : Life, the universe, and everything , 2 comments

A company I work for is in the process of changing its name.  There was a fair amount of debate over what to change it to, but everyone was in agreement that we had to pick a name whose domain was still available.  So metamorphosis.com and becooler.com are out, but say, IHeartSteak.com is all good. 

Which made me think - it’s pretty fortunate for me that nielshoven.com was still available as recently as a few months ago.  I’m not the only Niels Hoven in the world.  There’s this guy, for example. (I talked to him a while ago.  It turns out he’s younger than me - his dad made the page as a joke when he was six.)  There was actually a time when Niels Hoven #2 was competing with me for the top Google spot.  I think that door’s just about closed now.  Ha!

And we’re not the only Niels Hovens either.  Someone else snapped up nielshoven at hotmail, the bastard.  I was so bummed when I discovered that.  I asked Niels Hoven #2 about it, and it wasn’t him, so there are at least three Niels Hovens in the world.

Anyway, my point is just that it won’t be too much longer before people start checking domain name registrations before naming their kids.  In fact, you might want to start now.  Get ralphsmith.com or louiejones.com before you get stuck naming your poor kid R4lph or L0u13.  Your poor, poor kids.

Your thoughts?

How not to pick up a girl July 29, 2006

Posted by Niels in : Dating coach , add a comment

I went out to dinner last night with two attractive female friends. One of them just got out of a relationship and is on the prowl, so when she saw an attractive guy across the restaurant, she did the “bathroom walk”. This is where a girl goes to the bathroom, and on the way back attempts to make eye contact with the object of her affection. My friend happens to be particularly cute, so she succeeded and smiles were exchanged.

Unfortunately, her guy, despite being 6 feet tall and full of muscle with strikingly chiseled male model good looks, lacked the confidence to approach. Instead, a few minutes later, one of his female friends came over to ask my friend if she was single. My friend confirmed that she was, and his friend invited us out with them and left with the good news.

The interesting thing was that sending his friend over almost worked. Just doing that was so much more than most guys would do that my friend was still impressed. (Imagine if he had the balls to come over himself!)
The truly bad pickup didn’t start until he came over as he was leaving the restaurant.

Did really well:

Needs work:

Yeah, he was hot. Yeah, he looked like a model. But attraction is fleeting. The classic analogy is seeing a Ferrari driving down the street. You look at it and think, “Wow, what a beautiful car!” But you’re not going to wake up the next morning thinking about it. If you test drive a Ferrari, on the other hand, you’ve made an emotional connection. That’s a car you’ll remember tomorrow. Unless you can connect with a girl on an emotional level, she’s not going to remember you at the end of the night. My friend didn’t.

Your thoughts?

Getting nailed July 28, 2006

Posted by Niels in : Personal , 2 comments

I got a manicure today.  It was only $10, and they come highly recommended by Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, so I figured it was worth a shot.

I can’t say I’m that impressed.  My nails are unusually shiny, and the hand massage at the end was very nice, but I think I’d rather have a milkshake.

Your thoughts?

Wherever will I go? Whatever will I do? July 27, 2006

Posted by Niels in : Dating coach, Graduate school, Magazine, Work , 2 comments

I won’t finish my current internship until a month into the fall semester, which means I can’t take any classes at Berkeley.  So why go back?  I’m left with a lot of options for this fall.

Things I want to do:

As far as I know, I can decide how long I want to stay at my current internship.  The work is about the same as what I’d be doing at Berkeley, and I’m getting paid well for it.  Doing my research at Berkeley, however, would give me more flexibility in my hours and the chance to contribute more to the startup with Craig.  I’ve also been interning for a different startup in San Francisco that teaches social skills and relationship skills.  They’ve given me a lot of help and I’d like to become more involved with them.  My support network for self-improvement is much more developed in the bay area, in comparison to Ossining where I just sit in my room four nights a week.

Hmm.  Just writing this up has made my own biases pretty clear.  Gotta get myself back to California.  How soon?  That will have to wait for another post.

Your thoughts?

Why thin is in July 26, 2006

Posted by Niels in : Life, the universe, and everything , 5 comments

It has become quite popular to blame the media for foisting unrealistic ideals of thinness on today’s girls. But the blame may not lie with the media (at least, not entirely) but rather in our genes. Judith Anderson examined the ideal female body type across fifty-four cultures and found an interesting correlation. The more stable a culture’s food supply is, the thinner the ideal of feminine beauty becomes.

Let’s hold off on hypothesizing about why this occurs and see if we can bolster the findings with some anecdotal evidence. There has never been a society with such unfettered access to food as the United States today. And there has never been a society where the quest for thinness has become so grotesquely distorted. Anorexia and bulemia receive constant media attention, while “pro-ana” and “pro-mia” sites are just a google search away. The kings and queens of old Europe, on the other hand, were… fat. The Rubenesque subjects of Ruben’s paintings were beautiful in their time, though pudgy by today’s standards.

We’re wired to search for the best mate we can find. Most people spend a few decades looking for a partner who meets their standards. And one important qualification in a mate is their ability to provide for your offspring. It’s not that money is the most important quality in a partner, but in general, people would rather have a million dollars than not have it.

When most people in your country don’t know where their next meal is coming from, the wherewithall to make yourself fat is a lavish display of opulence. Having some meat on your bones is a status symbol. But in the U.S., the tables have turned. The caloric needs of a family of four can be met for just a few dollars a day. Some wing dings, some porkrinds, a twinkie or two, and you’re there. Health has become the luxury item that only the wealthy can afford.

Staying fit and healthy comes from healthy eating and exercise, neither of which are cheap. Buying fresh fruit and vegetables instead of junk food increases your grocery bill by an order of magnitude. Every hour spent exercising is an hour that could have been spent earning money to put food on the table. In our society, it’s expensive to be skinny.

Your thoughts?