Learned a few things sitting on a bench in the park in the sunshine yesterday.

First a very pretty gal, possibly an au pare or possibly a mother with bright red hair comes by pushing a stroller slowly, gives me a smile as I open with "you are looking very nice today!". She responds positively with an unusual "you do too!" but continues moving, then a bit over the shoulder starts to say something to me right as I stack with "I saw your red hair and it got me wonder, are you a good witch...or a bad witch?". Oops. She closed her mouth back up slowly, turned away and keep on pushing along. Too much!! Lesson: if the START to respond to the compliment opener, hear them out, and possibly immediately calibrate your stack based on what you hear. I got a little engagement but then came on too strong and blew her out.

A pair of very sexy hotties walks by, one in what could almost be called fetish ware. I tell them they are looking very nice today. One says thanks with a small smile but a kind of "not interested" look and they keep rolling. Now the reality: the only remotely possible way to game one of these is to get them to stop and engage, and throwing out a compliment opener to two women in passing who I am not jumping in front of and stopping just isn't going to work. That's a time to go indirect I think, to keep their bitch shields at bay and get them to stop and engage in a "friendly" way. And go from there.

Dynamically calibrating in real time, second to second, is critically important. That's what 1000 opens is all about I think, learning finesse.