Conner's Blog

What was the dumbest prank you did as a kid?

I’ll admit, I wasn’t much of a prankster, and I’m still not. I’d say the dumbest thing I did was move a school mates car to another part of town without telling them where. Sadly this was a fairly common occurrence in my hometown, aided by the fact that everyone left their keys in their car.

How’s the dating front going?

Oh the dating front, what joy. Let’s just say I’ve been on a few dates in the last month or so, but nothing has come from them. As of the writing of this post, I currently have no dates lined up, but that could all change in the next 25 minutes.

Seriously though, if you know of any cute single girls who would enjoy hanging out with a crazy person from the Internet, I’m still available.

I totally want to ask you more questions, but can’t think of anything specific right now! Sooo… what kind of questions do you like answering? by briannepitt

This is a tough one, I don’t really have any specific questions I like answering. I also don’t have much I dislike, though there are a few questions I’m still trying to decide if I’m going to answer sitting in my inbox. Food related questions are always good. Questions about my past could be interesting, though I can’t guarantee I’ll answer them or even be able to answer them.

The nice thing about Formspring is that you can pepper me with questions and I can choose the ones I think I can answer in an interesting way. So hit me up with a bunch, the worst that will happen is it never gets answered.

P.S. I will try to answer anything you send me, even if it takes awhile for me to come up with a response.

Ask me anything

As part of my birthday goals, I stated that I was going to try to date more.  As of right now this has been a complete and utter failure, which honestly is not surprising.  I’ve never been good at asking women out. I’m getting better at striking up conversations but I still usually end up not asking or end up discovering the girl is in a relationship or living in another state.

Therefore, I’m turning to the Internet for help*.  I’ve tried online dating sites in the past and have never had any luck, so I’m going to use my blog to appeal to the single females of Minneapolis.  Let’s get lunch, dinner, coffee, breakfast, or drinks. Of course, I’m willing to do other things as well, if you ask me to come up with something more original for a date I will accommodate that.

I’m mainly looking for a fun time; a great conversation or an adventure with someone new.  I’m not expecting fireworks or sex on the first date.  That said, I am serious about finding someone to form a meaningful relationship with.  I’m by no means ready to be done dating, but if I happen to find the one, I’m not going to freak out and run away because my single life is over.

If you are wondering why you should go a date with me, or introduce me to your friend, well I can give you a few reasons.

1. I can cook.  Evidence can be found here, here, and here
2. I love adventure, whether in Minneapolis or elsewhere, exploring new places is sort of my hobby
3. I’m a board member of an exceptional non-profit orchestra that gives their performances for free
4. I love going out, but I’m also fond of just sitting at home, as long as I have someone to sit at home with
5. I’m a touch crazy but in a good way
6. I’m a giant geek who has learned to embrace his geekiness
7. I’m not an asshole, and am pretty sure I never will be
8. I’m almost always on time and I keep my promises
9. I love to debate/argue, even if I agree with you, because it’s my favorite way to learn.  It’s also ingrained in my father’s family, all of my cousins are the same way.
10. That being said, I hate conflict and drama
11. I’m a terrible writer who loves to write
12. I love to laugh
13. I rarely get irritated or mad
14. I’m kind of awkward and have been known to kill a conversation with the ease of an experienced creeper
15. Yet I’m fairly certain that I’m not that creepy
16. Did I mention I love food, of all kinds
17. I have a degree that I’m currently putting to very poor use, but this is something I intend to remedy soon
18. I’ll drop everything to come to a friend’s rescue
19. I love taking pictures of pretty much everything
20. I love music and am becoming a live music addict
21. I have a terrible sense of style
22. I’m an introvert who happens to be stuck in an extroverts skin

It’s probably time to stop talking about me and talk about you, or your friend, or your friend’s friend.

What I’m looking for

1. Someone in their twenties would be preferred
2. I must find her attractive, sadly I’m not that great of a guy
   1. I prefer thin girls, though not stick figuresque
   2. I have no preference when it comes to hair color
   3. Nice eyes, I have a thing for eyes
3. Nerdiness/Geekiness is a plus; a love of Firefly, Monty Python, computers and the Internet, blogging, and/or the Discovery channel are encouraged
4. You must love to eat; I cannot date a bird
5. A love of adventure is key, if you find Minneapolis boring we probably won’t get very far
6. I’d prefer a woman who would rather watch the news than TMZ
7. Pet owners are welcome as I love animals yet am currently sans pet

Okay, I’m going to stop there.

So here is the deal, I’d love to be introduced to someone great.  I’m willing to go on a blind date, meet in a social setting, or develop a crazy ten part plan where we both wear orange and meet at the Sculpture Garden at sunset.  Whatever you want I’m probably willing to accommodate. And maybe that’s the last reason I’ll give for why someone should take a chance with me.  I’m extremely easy going and like to go with the flow, as long as it’s a semi-planned flow.  So send me an email or leave a comment and let’s make things happen.

* This post is in many ways inspired by Art, who met and is currently dating the wonderful Emily due to writing a similar post a while ago.

A little over a month ago, I turned 27 and I established a set of goals for myself.  If you want to read the full posts, here are links to goals one, two, three, four, and five.

For those who do not want to read my mindless jabbering in more than one post today, my goals were as follows.  Volunteer more, date more, financial management, maintain my relationships, and eat right.  Here is a quick update on my progress.  I’m going to try and do these monthly so I can shame myself into working harder at accomplishing them.

Volunteering

So far, this goal hasn’t picked up more steam.  I did pick up my involvement in the Orchestra and put in quite a bit of work over the past few weeks for that organization, but I haven’t done anything besides that.  I hope that this month, maybe over Thanksgiving, I will find an organization and work a few hours for them.

Date More

Ummm, we will leave this as unaccomplished and very little progression.

Financial Management

This is a mixed bag.  I haven’t made any big purchases this month, even though B&H sent me an email that the prime lens I’d been looking at was in stock.  I do need to stop eating out as much, though I didn’t go out for lunch all last week.  I think if I can limit myself to only eating dinner out and only doing that two times a week I’ll be happy with my progress.  This isn’t going to be easy though.

Maintaining Relationships

I ordered and received Moo cards with my contact information on them.  This was great and now I just need to work on making sure I have some with me all the time and also work on getting other’s information from them.  This is going to be a challenge but if I just remember to work on it, I know I can succeed.  On a positive note I ran into an old co-worker from college last night and remembered to get a card to him so hopefully I can reconnect with him and his wife(who I also worked with) sometime.

I haven’t made a conscious effort to send thank you cards, but I do have some sitting on my desk now, so I can’t use the excuse that going to the store and buying them is too much effort.

Eating Right

This was going great up until the last week or so.  Too much eating out, and not enough portion control.  On the plus side, I’ve been eating whole grain cereal almost every morning which not only helps with the calorie consumption but also is just overall good for you.  I’m only allowing myself to eat out on Tuesday this week, until Friday when I head to Grand Forks.  This weekend will be a challenge but I’m going to work hard at not gorging at every meal.

I am giving myself a C grade for this month.  Though I’ve made progress in some of these goals I’ve also not made much more than a mildly conscious effort to push them forward.  So, for those of you who know me, yell at me if you see me slacking.  For those of you that don’t, please also join in the yelling.

I turned 27 Monday, and though I know it’s not really old, for some reason it kind of freaks me out. I think it’s the realization that I’m so close to 30, again these things are not important and it’s all in my head, but still.

In honor of my irrationality, I’ve decided to post one goal a day for the next five days.  These goals are things I want to accomplish by my 28th birthday. I hope that by putting these out into the public eye, I’ll be able to accomplish them. The first post in the series can be found here, second here, third.

I’ve been single for quite a while now and though I’m not desperate for a relationship, I need to get myself more opportunities to actually be in one.  To this end I’m proposing a goal of going on at least one date a month over the course of the next year.*  Now this might seem like a lot to some people, or not even trying to other.  But for me it will be a challenge.  It’s not that I don’t have chance to meet girls, or even that I lack the ability to talk to them, it’s that I fail to ever actually get a phone number, ask if I can buy them coffee, etc.

This is one goal I’m honestly terrified of because, well it’s not like I don’t want to date, it’s that I don’t know how to go about getting many.  I’ve tried the online dating thing and I didn’t have much luck.  I’ve gone on two blind dates this year, both of which were fun.

My hope is that by putting this out there I actually force myself to take a chance and actually get a date instead of just saying nice to talk to you.  If any one aspect of my life shows my fear of failure it’s this, and if I can turn it around by the time I turn 28 I’ll be happy.

Of course if you know any available smart, geeky, funny, cute, and independent girls who might want to go on a date with a self professed geek who happens to love photography, biking, music, reading, blogging, and also happens to be a half-decent cook, and want to send them my way, I won’t complain.

* Of course this is moot if I happen to have a girlfriend during the next 12 months.

I hate the term New Years resolution.  I  don’t know why, maybe because the term has become almost meaningless.  It seems that 90% of people make the same ones: lose weight, save money, eat out less.  I used to do it to, until one year I just decided to say screw it.  It’s not that resolutions are bad, but deciding to set a date for a lifestyle change (which all of these things require) is not a good idea.  Last year I decided in March that I wanted to get healthy, on December 1st I had lost 20lbs, overhauled my diet, and was routinely exercising.  The holiday season hasn’t helped those things, but I’m already getting back on track this week. This taught me that  “big” life changes need to come when your ready and that the New Year is generally not the right time, for me at least.

Of course as I say this, I have a list of things I want to do this year.  I’m calling them goals, not resolutions, and sticking with things that can be done in a short amount of time.  Here is my list, we’ll see how many I can check of by next December.

• Go on a blind date – I’m not sure why I want to do this, but over the last few months I’ve come to the conclusion that I think this would be fun.  I’m confident that even if we obviously were not right for each other, I could still show the girl a great time.
• Look up my relatives – My great-great-grandfather came through Saint Paul on his way to Montana.  I want to see if I can find any news clipping about him.
• Win something – I’m the master of losing games of chance.  I want to win $5 from a scratch ticket just so I can say I did it once.
• Learn to ice skate – I’m living in Minnesota and feel it’s time to learn the essential part of the state sport.  This way if I end up raising a family here I can teach my kids how to skate instead of them teaching me.
• Go on a solo vacation – I want to travel somewhere for a long weekend  completely by myself.
• Bike a century – I’ve been biking regularly for the last three summers.  Last year I biked 40 miles in a single ride.  This year I want to try and push it to 100.
• Finish my 2009 MN to do list – You’ll have to wait until Thursday to see it.

How about you, do you have any New Year Goals?