So I've been sitting on my laurels on this stuff for a long, long time. However, I found myself at a house party thing the other night where I was attempting to meet other people in the local industry and figured, "What the hell? Let's try some of this stuff."

All I ended up doing was working on my basics; good eye contact, good conversation, getting over AA and become more aware of signals and the like. There were two girls I interacted with primarily.

The first we'll name Ruby. Ruby came in with Jace (who seemed to be giving off an AFC vibe so strong that even I could pick up on it!) I figured I'd go the easy route and opened on Jace. Jace, my buddy and I were talking shop and it became apparent that my buddy and Jace were going to get the more productive conversation business wise. Music and recording and stuff that I enjoy but can't really do. So I opened up with Ruby by asking her how she knew the hosts. Apparently she and Jace were as new to the group as my buddy and I. Overall the conversation seemed to go fairly well. We both had interest in trying lots of new things, a few philosophical things and the like. I maintained good eye contact and did pretty good at letting her do most of the talking, while dropping the occasional story that DHV. Overall, I was pretty successful in what I set out to do but I definitely need to brush up on how to escalate things and figure out this whole Kino thing.

The second girl I had met before and our conversation was mostly business. I guess because of that, in retrospect, I ended up doing and saying things that didn't really project the kind of image I'd like. Stuff like her suggesting I come out to a couple of shows that she was promoting. I burned on it by mentioning I had a day job and that partying at midnight probably wasn't smart. What would a better way of handling this be? Just saying, "That sounds pretty fun. I'll see when I can get out there with you?" Yeah, that'd've probably been a lot better.

Unfortunately the night was cut short when I had to leave early to make a friend's house warming party.

So, take away: Did well in conversing and not being awkward or just failing socially. Did well maintaining eye contact when I was thinking about it but probably not as great when I wasn't. Some minor things about my posture and presence could use some work. Need to learn more about escalation, kino and humor.