Dating Actuarially

I'm having a bourbon and decided I'd throw a curve ball and write a post about dating.  As a single mid-20 something recently broken up from a long term relationship, I'm becoming increasingly aware of my own shelf life as a bachelor and how this is at odds with the lifestyle (exams) I've chosen for the next 5 or so years.

At the end of April I broke up with my girlfriend of about a year.  She was a childhood friend/flame with whom I had reconnected last summer.  At the time, I was in school and we lived 3 hours apart.  The fact that we saw each other about every 3 weeks or so along with the fact that I was an impoverished, returned-college student while she was 5 years into a very successful career in finance made the relationship difficult (moreso for me than for her, of course).  As I approached graduation with only one job offer in hand (from my current employer) and that location being equally as far away from her, it became clear things were not going to work out between us.

So with that background, I re-entered the 20-something dating scene.  By "scene" I largely mean online dating...I've been around long enough to have noticed the trend, which is that if you go up and talk to a girl in person out in public these days you are automatically a creep (which was not the case 5 years ago).  I think this coincides with other increasingly anti-social trends among youth - probably due to the influence of technology and weakened bonds within communities with each passing generation.  Or maybe I'm just growing uglier as I get older, I don't know...

That said, I've had a *couple* dates since graduating in May with girls I've met in person, and in fact 0 dates from online dating sites.  But I've spent more time trying to meet girls through the sites.  I think this is a second observation - if you message a girl on an online dating site, you are automatically a creep and must be ignored.  I know - girls are inundated with messages from every slob out there once they log on.  It is also possible I am in fact coming off more and more as a creep (desperation?) as time passes, leading to greater rejection.  I would think I'd have better success as a reasonably good looking, intelligent, and charismatic guy *with a decent job*.  Anyway, just venting a bit...

Well, I know it hasn't been long and I'm meditating to cease looking and to instead allow opportunities to come to me (and to recognize them).  I'm extremely picky with looks and personality to start, so I can't help but think about how the eligible female pool is dwindling with a constant force as t --> ∞.  I wonder if my x is thinking the same as I am but about men.  Maybe we will revisit each other at 30.

Keeping up

Hey,

Been neglecting this blog.  This will likely get worse as I come up on my exam date mid-August.  I just ended my run through the last of the material (I went through options pretty quickly, hopefully I can brute force that material through 28 or so days of ADAPT).  I am pretty solid on most of the annuities/loans/bonds/TVM material.  I am getting a bit nervous and had my first nightmare the other night about being at the office post-failed attempt.  I know I will not jeopardize my position by failing on the first attempt, but it would be nice to pass it first attempt right before my 90 day review.

I am getting a bit more comfortable in my position since the last post.  I'm just shy of 2 months on the job now.  I go into the office and either have a project to resume work on, or else I know what I can read and learn about.  I'm starting to learn and use TW Emblem, for example.

My excel skills are progressing pretty nicely.  I definitely see myself either taking a VBA class or getting a book to teach myself from in the near future.  I've been finding macros online and editing them a bit to make my workbooks more user-friendsly (i.e. I was tired of having to change filters on multiple tables to update my charts to display a different band, so I found one which updates all the pivot tables on the worksheet to match the one you change).  I wish that my coworkers/bosses were a little more into advanced Excel usage and I could learn from or with them.

I've also been interacting more with our vendors lately.  ISO and some others... for purposes of requesting data, discussing our data and whatnot.  I'm happy to start building some relationships because 1. I like branching out of my cubicle and 2. I may want to go to work for one of these companies one day.

I'll leave it there, work in the morning!  If you have any excel tips/tricks, leave them in comments.