I'm new to all of this PUA stuff, but I've been slowly going out of my comfort zones, doing the "talk to everyone" thing and hitting on girls.

I'm at a point where I'm comfortable approaching some one I don't know and having a conversation with them, but I've been encountering three problems that have been holding back my progress.

First, outside of a club/bar/party situation I find it difficult to approach some one without some sort of excuse for conversation. It feels weird to approach some one on the bus and open with "Hi, I'm X". I feel like I need some plausible topic to open with, such as "Nice tattoo, what's it mean?"

Second, I feel like a loser if I go out to a club/bar by myself. I feel isolated and like an idiot for going there alone in the first place. This wouldn't be such a problem if I had more friend who were into clubbing and bar hopping, but most of them aren't. I get that this is a hurdle in my mind, not an actual problem, but I'd like any advice you have for getting over it.

Third (the big one) is that I'm a virgin. This is like a weight on me that makes me get nervous when a conversation with a girl begins escalating, because from that point I start getting uncertain of myself. This has caused me to disengage out of fear once already, and I felt really stupid about it for a week after.

So, please can you give me some advice for how to deal with these problems?