I'm really uncertain what to do here, fellas. The obvious solution is "get more female friends brosef!", but that's actually much more difficult than it sounds (or maybe I'm just making it more difficult, who knows). I'm definitely a fairly unusual character, and while it would be horribly ignorant and purely incorrect to say there are no women who share my interests, it would also be incorrect to say that there is a large number of such women. When I do meet such a woman that I can build some sort of commonality with, if they're even remotely attractive, I'm going to start getting feelings for them. At which point my aforementioned shortcomings come frothing to the surface and the woman in question goes "oh shit, this guy has issues..." And bails. Thus the cycle begins anew.

Obviously this complete lack of a female presence in my life is entirely non-conducive to developing fulfilling relationships, platonic or otherwise, with the opposite sex. What I'm struggling with is how to break out of this vicious cycle.

For further reference, I'm 23, I'm a classically trained musician, a competitive Magic: the Gathering player (a small number of PTQ top 8's nothing special), frequent solo hiker and occasional AutoX participant, and a huge fan of progressive rock/metal (think Rush, Tool, Porcupine Tree, that sort of thing).