What I Did On My Summer Vacation

re: What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Alex — Tue, 13 Jul 2004 03:26:00 GMT

I think we need an artist's rendering of this "Great Canadian Beaver-Shark."
As an added bonus, you’ll have the perfect cover art if you ever decide to write an O’Reilly book.

re: What I Did On My Summer Vacation

KC Lemson — Tue, 13 Jul 2004 05:40:00 GMT

This was just precious reading =)

re: What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Sathyaish Chakravarthy — Tue, 13 Jul 2004 09:52:00 GMT

He..he.. Cute! I'm glad you're back, Eric. Hope you had a wonderful time. So, where's this ancestral home of yours? I followed the link to your previous post, titled "Riddle me this, Google" and that was just as cute as this one. Do you read Urdu, then? And you've really been asked ways of breaking one's own foot?

This one surely cracked me up.

[QUOTE]
Ques: I see things with my eyes.
Eric: No kidding? Me too!
[/QUOTE]

There are two things you can do if you have a mad crush on a boy

The Old New Thing — Tue, 13 Jul 2004 18:21:00 GMT

Eric Lippert finds out what they are.

re: What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Larry Osterman — Tue, 13 Jul 2004 15:41:00 GMT

Eric, this was just too cute (we ran into it last night). Thank you, you made Valorie's evening.

re: What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Richard Threlkeld — Tue, 13 Jul 2004 17:22:00 GMT

This is great. I actually did laugh out loud when I read "apparently I'm an internationally recognized expert on getting boys to like you".

re: What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Eric Lippert — Mon, 19 Jul 2004 17:30:00 GMT

I've been asking this question to my female friends. Some of the suggestions from them include:

* "beat him up" is a popular choice

* keep it a secret, then when he doesn't ask you to the big dance, get all mad and tell him that you're very disappointed and hurt. This will cause maximum confusion.

* spread a rumour that you hate him. Use "reverse psychology" to get him to like you.

* spread a rumour that he has a crush on you. Hope that he gets the hint.

* chase him around the playground at recess yelling "girl germs! girl germs!" Note that this technique can be effectively countered by either the boy failing to run away -- what do you do once you've caught him anyway? It can also be countered by being chased back. Therefore, only do this on boys who will run away.

* etc.

After analyzing these results, I've come to two conclusions. First, girls are weird. Second, I've got to tell all you ten year old girls reading this: girls, ten year old boys are insufficiently subtle to deduce from any of the above that you like him. They will just be confused.

Forget this subtle emotional nonsense. Boys like the direct approach. My advice: send a note that says

"I love you. Do you love me? Check one: [] YES [] NO"

Then you'll know.

re: What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Centaur — Tue, 20 Jul 2004 07:09:00 GMT

Shouldn’t those be radio buttons? :)

re: What I Did On My Summer Vacation

no one. — Tue, 20 Jul 2004 19:56:00 GMT

Well I was knee high to a grasshopper my note said something like this

"I love you. Do you love me?
[]Yes []Yes

But then I would get the note bad with []No written and checked in. oh well. =)

re: What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Robert Hahn — Fri, 23 Jul 2004 02:37:00 GMT

Um, Eric.

You dated the girl for six years, not seven.

Seeing that I married the same girl, I would know. ;)

re: What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Eric Lippert — Fri, 23 Jul 2004 06:52:00 GMT

Hmm, now that I count it off on my fingers, you're right.

Off by one errors are common amongst computer programmers.

re: What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Eric Lippert — Tue, 27 Jul 2004 00:58:00 GMT

More good advice from www.thatothergirl.com: stalk him, then pretend to hate him, then accuse him of stalking you.

Ye gods. It's hard to be a kid.

re: What I Did On My Summer Vacation

sitnmjfjg — Thu, 29 Jul 2004 07:56:00 GMT

hey eric -
i'm a 12 year old girl in 7th grade and I don't do any of that stuff. although I'm young, but I'm searching for love, I know that a boy my age is not looking for the same thing and I know an older boy wouldn't want to go out with me, so what the heck do I do?

re: What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Eric Lippert — Thu, 29 Jul 2004 17:52:00 GMT

(I knew this would turn into an agony column.)

Hey sitnmjfjg,

> I don't do any of that stuff

Good!

> I know that a boy my age is not looking for the same thing and I know an older boy wouldn't want to go out with me

First off, you know those things how exactly?

And second, hold on a minute, you're twelve years old fer crying out loud!

You've got LOADS of time to figure out what you want out of your life and how to achieve it.

Don't try so hard. If you're confident and secure in yourself and open and friendly, something will happen in its own good time. Be patient. There's no rush.

re: What I Did On My Summer Vacation

sitnmjfjg, — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 06:14:00 GMT

well I'm also looking for a long term relationship. sure I don't know those things exactly, but I do know that my school is huge and I hardly see older guys anyway.
so now what do you have to say?

re: What I Did On My Summer Vacation

sitnmjfjg — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 06:21:00 GMT

plus you don't know exactly what goes on in a girl's head, so how do you know what to say?

re: What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Eric Lippert — Fri, 30 Jul 2004 07:00:00 GMT

Two monks are walking through the woods. They see some ducks. The first monk says

"I like ducks. They are always happy."

The second monk says

"How the heck do you know whether a duck is happy or not?! You're not a duck! You have no idea whether a duck is happy or not!"

The first monk says

"How do _you_ know that _I_ don't know whether a duck is happy? You're not me!"

Discuss.

Great minds think alike

osb — Wed, 10 Aug 2005 04:07:36 GMT

Behold, an apparently independently evolved specimen:

http://mansionofe.comicgen.com/d/20031103.html

Type inference woes, part three

Fabulous Adventures In Coding — Tue, 30 May 2006 17:00:19 GMT

There were a lot of good comments and questions posted in the last two entries which deserve answers....

re: What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Upanishad Morning — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 08:58:47 GMT

I tried both the check-box note method and the chasing (both with plenty of help from a good friend - he had a side-kick too). The crush lasted about four years and there was flirting but we never dated. We chased them into the jungle gym and held them captive until they could sneak out, or the bell rang.

re: What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Newt — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 22:48:45 GMT

Hey,
I am a twelve year old girl and i have some good advice to get guys to like you, don't dress like you are a prostitute. The guy will just think you're looking for one thing, and i don't mean love. some other advice is, compliment him. guys have HUGE egos. no efense, Eric. i'm pretty sure that you shouldn't pretend to be someone you're not cuz that can just get too complicated, first you're just doing it to get a guy to like you, next thing he thinks you're a fireman. way to complicated. so, girls, take my advice and don't be a slut and don't lie to your crush.

re: What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Valkyrie — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 00:06:22 GMT

Hi Eric,

I am not a twelve year old girl, but I do have a mad crush on a boy. My tried-and-true "one week time limit" method seems doomed this time, since the week is nearly up and I won't be seeing the boy any time soon. Any advice for me?

thanks.

re: What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Eric Lippert — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 15:50:31 GMT

Hey Valkyrie,

Letting your crush know about it within a week is definitely a good idea. Letting it drag on can be uncomfortable and weird.

I think it is better to do these things in person when possible, but when people have busy schedules and complex lives sometimes you've got to send a note, email or blog comment explaining how you feel and what you want and hope for the best. Just remember to be honest, clear, frank, direct, respectful, affectionate and enthusiastic.

And patient. Yes, it's hard to be patient when you have a mad crush on a boy, but if it is going to turn into something great then its worth waiting for.

re: What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Felicia — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 23:08:11 GMT

0_o Okay, I'll take her advice. If it doesn't work, you're in trouble =) Joke.

The horror! The horror!

Fabulous Adventures In Coding — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 02:51:08 GMT

Jeff "Coding Horror" Atwood has many nice things to say about my blog and one not so nice thing. Thanks

re: What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Rayne — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 00:19:41 GMT

Flirt madly; they'll figure it out. But as it so happened for me, that didn't work. They knew about the crush, but felt it better to be "just friends" anyway. Of course, they didn't seem to mind the obvious flirting...guess it was good for their ego. This lasted almost all the way through grammer, middle and high school...same guy too. I guess we just weren't meant to be. LOL!

re: What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Tanveer Badar — Fri, 18 May 2007 07:41:06 GMT

Eric, how about trying this?

"I love you. Do you love me? Check one: [] YES [] YES"

This should work for both genders.

And for the reference, I am 23 year old and no girl! :-)

Amazon’s soon to be best seller… « These are a few of my favorite things…

Amazon’s soon to be best seller… « These are a few of my favorite things… — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 23:07:57 GMT

PingBack from http://fluvial.wordpress.com/2007/08/20/amazons-soon-to-be-best-seller/

Type inference woes, part three

Fabulous Adventures In Coding — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 01:39:22 GMT

There were a lot of good comments and questions posted in the last two entries which deserve answers.