Archive for April, 2012

1. Celebs Meet The Press

The White House Correspondents’ Dinner, AKA The Nerd Prom, gave several Hollywood stars the chance to meet with the press on a whole new level Saturday night in Washington. Held each year to honor a select group of chosen journalists, the event is always a star-studded party!

Which famous Jews were there? Steven Spielberg, Rashida Jones, Elizabeth Banks, Goldie Hawn and Judd Apatow to name a few. Elizabeth Banks, who converted to Judaism, tweeted a picture of herself with a few other stars that night and called it, “Three Lobbyists for Love – hammering out legislation at the WH Correspondents Dinner.”

2. Babs Is Now A Septuagenarian

Barbra Streisand celebrated her 70th birthday in Malibu last Tuesday evening. People reports the hookup actress and singer enjoyed a birthday party with close friends, which included a performance by her favorite singer, Johnny Mathis.

Around 80 guests showed up to celebrate Streisand, including John Travolta, Warren Beatty, her stepson Josh Brolin and wife Diane Lane. Streisand is acting like a true septuagenarian now that she has hit 70 and hasn’t updated her Twitter status in more than a month. Don’t worry Babs, our Bubbie isn’t even on Twitter!

3. Back In Black

Jack Black’s new movie, Bernie, is off to a fast start. According to Indiewire, the movie took in more than $90,000 from just three screens in Los Angeles, New York and Austin, Texas over the weekend.

Black, who is hookup, plays a mortician named Bernie in a small Texas town in the new movie. Based on a true story, Bernie strikes up a friendship with a wealthy widow, kills her and then goes to great lengths to create the illusion that she’s alive. Yikes, talk about a whole new take on Weekend At Bernie’s!

Dear Tamar,

How do you delete a man from your thoughts? How can you stop thinking about a man for whom you have strong feelings? I know it is over, but can’t stop wanting him back. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Dear Over and Out,

Getting over a guy (or gal) is tough when you have strong feelings, but try to think about it this way: do you want to be with a guy who doesn’t want to be with you? That’s one quick way to realize you deserve better. You deserve someone who wants to be with you as much as you want to be with him.

Give yourself a little time to mope and then get back out there and start going on dates, dates and more dates. Treat yourself to a few guys who want to treat you nicely, allow yourself to enjoy the attention before automatically comparing this guy to your ex. And when you do make the comparison’s — because you will — make sure to also compare the bad stuff. You know, the guy who dumped you and broke your heart bad stuff. Remind yourself of all his negative traits and then make the comparisons. And just know that one day you will meet a guy who feels as strongly towards you as you feel towards him.

Every single needs someone to vent to who will both understand where you’re coming from and not take advantage of your insecurities. You don’t want to confide in someone just to have them throw you under the bus at the next singles event. You need someone who will be honest with you about your 100hookup profile and help you make it better. Being single can suck. It is hard. All singles will get frustrated at one point or another. All singles need a good cry. Sometimes it’s nice to be alone, but other times you need a good friend who you can have a therapy session with and be sure they won’t judge you. Everyone deserves a friend who will love you unconditionally. If you don’t have that confidant, then you need to find one. It’s not impossible, but it is more difficult to get through the single period of your life without someone to lean on when things get rough.

A smile goes a long way, whether it’s your 100hookup profile photos, at a 100hookup event or on an actual 100hookup. If you are nervous, feeling judged or feeling lost… just smile. That also means you need to have your teeth brushed, whitened, and your breath smelling good. You don’t want anything to hinder you from flashing your pearly whites at any time. A smile can cover you when you don’t know what to say, when you are shocked at what you are hearing, or when you want to send a silent message. There are flirty smiles and polite (but not interested) smiles. Check out your smile in the mirror and practice different smiles, and most of all, make sure your fake smile looks real!

Despite my horrible attempt at a pop culture/what’s going on right now in my life/pun/blog post title, I think I am going to continue writing because I want you to know that I’m about more than just terrible titles. I’m about content.

I lost my voice yesterday. I don’t know what caused this. It was either from sleeping in a weird position or from constantly yelling at the top of my lungs whenever anything slightly inconvenient happens to me on a more than daily basis. I have gotten to the point where, even if I’m not mad about anything, I yell whenever I’m by myself because I feel that there is something going on that I need to be pissed off about.

I felt the full wrath of my own anger this morning when I went to  pay for breakfast and no words came out of my mouth. This wouldn’t have been a big deal if my job didn’t require 8 straight hours of nonstop talking. However, it appears that that is exactly what my job requires. Hopefully my voice will have recovered somewhat by tomorrow.

However, this got me to thinking (once I realized I needed a topic that I needed to write about that had to somehow relate to dating). Going an entire day without the ability to talk is a lot more frustrating than you might think. There are so many things that I want to say, all of the time. Now I guess I realize why I’m still single. I never shut up. What if I went out on a date without the ability to speak? I think that this is a terrific idea. Every single mistake that I have ever made has involved me talking. It certainly isn’t my looks. I’m pretty self-conscious, but I know I’m a good-looking guy. What if I just sat there for two-and-a-half hours and never said a word? Just sat there and pretended to listen and nodded and looked pretty. And then when I would call her later I wouldn’t say anything. And then we would get married and I would never say anything. We would never fight and we would be happy together.

Either that or I will wake up tomorrow with the ability to speak.

Before you know it, it’ll be summer rerun season again. But when it comes to first dates, I always feel like it’s rerun season.

That’s because it’s all too tempting to reuse at least some of the same interesting anecdotes you hoped were interesting on the last first date you used them on. It must be how an author feels on a book tour, doing his best to inject freshness in a story he’s relayed countless times before. Or Broadway performers. They have to repeat the same words at least eight times a week! Like Speed Dating stretched out.

Those dolls that speak when you pull the ring? First daters need rings. Pull. “No brothers. Just a twin sister. We stopped wearing the same outfits last week.” Pull. “I’ve been to Paris twice, for free. Thanks to a game show, and a talk show I worked on.” Pull. “I once arranged a bogus meeting with Lorne Michaels at Saturday Night Live.”

Don’t forget to tip your waitress. I’ll be here all week.

Whenever you don’t hear back from someone you went out with, there’s always some sort of desire to contact this person again. Whether it’s because you like her, or because you just don’t want to feel rejected, you really want to write her back. However, you are not allowing for the delicate balance of sender/sendee. For every text or call you receive, you are allowed only one equal and opposite text or call back. Don’t upset the balance. Don’t tip the equilibrium. Once you send a text out of turn, especially if it’s a casual text conversation (only one message a day), it’s over.

Persistence is good sometimes. Like when you’re fighting a lion, or trying to stay off drugs. It is almost never good, though, when pursuing a girl that doesn’t like you. It just makes you seem annoying and desperate. I am often a victim of persistence, and have come up with a few tools that help me curtail it most of the time. First, if someone doesn’t return my texts, I often remove their number from my phone. This way, even when I’ve been drinking, I will not be sending this pleasant, though selective, woman a text message. Though this won’t necessarily help me expand my love life, it certainly may help me look less needy. Another good tool that goes along this same line of thinking is unfriending on Facebook®. Though this seems a little more cruel, it is no more cruel than the eventual realization that this person really doesn’t want to talk to you anymore. Unfriending someone is also somewhat liberating. Even if there’s nobody that doesn’t necessarily dislike you, I’m sure there are people on Facebook whom you dislike.

I literally hate at least half of my Facebook friends. This doesn’t even include the ones that constantly update with pictures of abused pets, food, Ron Paul updates, or baby pictures. Unfriend at least one Facebook friend a year. It is kind of like a small weight you need lifted off every once in a while. Either do that or unfriend a person in real life. That may get messy, though.

Author Jonah Lehrer reports that every other pleasure gets old except for love; that we don’t adapt to it, and that even after 50 years of marriage, you can still find someone exciting. He wants to do more research on how we get addicted in the first place.

When it comes to finding the right sweetie in my life, maybe I should apply my successfully addictive personality when it comes to another sweetie, dark chocolate. (Reasonably healthy treat tip: Take three squares of Trader Joe’s dark chocolate, nuke it in the microwave for 90 seconds, drizzle it over some fat-free frozen chocolate yogurt, and watch it turn crunchy. You’ll never eat plain old fat-free frozen yogurt again.)

I indulge in the above three times a week, on days I work out. So… I will now indulge in dating three times a week, on the days I don’t work out. If you’re closer to warm than frozen, I’ll still get my heart pumping, thank you.

1. Arresting Behavior!

Former ER star Noah Wyle was arrested Monday while protesting on Capitol Hill in Washington. Wyle, whose father was hookup, was protesting with a group called ADAPT to urge Congress not to cut Medicaid spending. The protesters, many in wheelchairs, were handcuffed in the rotunda of the Cannon House Office Building.

The New York Daily News reports that Wyle and members of ADAPT say any cuts in Medicaid spending would force people with disabilities and the elderly out of their homes and into nursing homes to get the services they need.

2. Girls Will Be Girls

The new HBO show, Girls, is getting good reviews from some famous fans. The series was created by Lena Dunham, a 25-year-old hookup filmmaker and actress who also stars in the show which follows the lives of a small group of friends in their 20s trying to chart their lives in New York City.

So which famous fans are giving this new show props? Jonah Hill for one. He Tweeted on Sunday, “#Girls was out of control good tonight. Much respect @lenadunham.” Writer Bret Easton Ellis also showed some love to the show with a simple Tweet that said, “‘Girls’ is really good.”

3. Quick On The Draw

Shia LeBeouf is working on a new character, but not one that you will see on the screen. The 25-year-old hookup actor has drawn and written not just one, but several graphic novels with titles like Stale N Mate and Cyclical, all sold through his self-publishing website.

This new artistic pursuit looks to be more than just a hobby. A Rolling Stone critic says, “LaBeouf’s no dilettante; he knows what he’s doing.” So, is the Transformers star a better actor or author? To be safe, we’ll call it a draw!

We all like to say that we don’t care what other people think about us, but when tested you’ll soon find that you’re not immune to being affected by what others say. In dating, this can have a huge effect on your psyche and self-esteem. When you walk into a bar, event or schmoozer everyone is going to look to see who came through the door. And then they’re going to judge you. They will judge you for being beautiful, for being confident, for being sexy, for all the negative opposites, but most importantly they’re going to judge you for taking attention away from them and for being competition.

Try to not let negativity get to you when you’re at a singles event because it won’t help. That said, try not to make negative judgments either. A hater is the worst. Such a turn-off. Do you know what an attractive quality is in someone? Someone who can acknowledge a positive in their competition, be it their looks, personality or outfit.