Jon Levine :: Actor, Writer, Director
Cobra Kai, The Gifted, The Food That Built America
The very funny and talented Fasil Malik, who also runs the site I Need Fasil, interviewed me over the weekend. He asked some very interesting and probing questions, but ones I was happy to answer.
You can read the full interview here: Interview with Jon Levine
I was discussing online dating (shocker) with someone the other day and I mentioned the fact that I’d setup several ‘boilerplate’ emails that I used on various sites to contact women. These cut-and-paste emails are written in a way that’s just generic enough so that I can use them again and again for an initial engagement. I’ve been doing this for years. However, I don’t do it every time. When I find someone that truly strikes me, I write a personal, well-thought out email.
The person I was talking to asked why I didn’t write a personal email to each prospective date and my response was simple: unread, deleted.
Unread deleted is the status indicator for when a woman does exactly that with a message I write. She doesn’t read it, she just deletes it after viewing my profile. Basically, either my pictures or description is not up to her standards, so what I wrote in the message doesn’t matter to her. This infuriates me to no end.
Many times I’ll come up with a clever email or something that really digs into what she wrote in her profile. I put honest-to-goodness thought into it and try to craft something that will catch her eye. Only, it’s wasted. It’s not even looked at. It’s discarded with nary a thought. I hate that. To me, it says that your personality is worthless, it’s all about your looks. I don’t like what I see, so who you are is irrelevant.
This wouldn’t goad me so much if it wasn’t for the fact that women constantly complain that men are shallow creatures. That they don’t look inside and only care about the outside. It seems that there’s a bit of pot-calling-the-kettle-black going on here.
This is the reason why hundreds of women throughout the years have all gotten the exact same message from me and hundreds more will receive it in the future.
While perusing one of the many dating sites that I am a member of, it occurred to me that I’m a big fan of looking at a person’s username. I believe that it gives a clue as to their personality type and some are just really clever.
However, your username can also work against you. Include a little too much information and there’s a good chance that you’ll have a real hard time getting dates I’ve posted a list of some usernames below that I believe will, um, hinder you from successfully finding a mate online (but what do I know, I’m still single).
Usernames guaranteed to keep you from meeting someone on internet dating sites (part 1):
For the guys
BigKnockerLuvr
DoinUrMom
14InchesofPain (that one might work, there’s some weird people out there)
ToeJam
Anything with 696969 following it
UMustBTite
NextStopBald
Last1sDead
ImBrokeRU
LivinWithMom
TaxCheat
ImOnParole
WhatJob
For the girls
BigSweetEater
NitPicker
TheNagger
PtheBed
TheAmazon
NeedaHorse
4thTimesACharm
ExactlyLikeMyMother
SocialLifeKiller
TheyllHateMe
NoUrWrong
OnceADude
PleasePleasePleaseDateMe
I was supposed have a date tonight. We were to meet up at a local lounge for a drink at 7:30. At 6, she called and told me that she had to go to her sister’s house because her nephew jumped off the bed and landed on his head. The sister, fearing the worst, was taking the boy to the hospital and she (my date) was going to go with her.
Now, that’s a perfectly plausible story. Kids jump off things. Hell, some even launch themselves in balloons, sort of. I truly hope that this kid is OK and he didn’t damage his noodle too badly… that is, if it really happened.
And that’s the problem with a last minute cancellation of a first date, it’s never believed. No matter what the situation, no matter how dire, if you call to cancel a first date within 2 hours of the date beginning, you’re a liar. Sad, but true.
So, that being said, I find myself at home which, as a Dodger fan, is a good deal. I’ve got a cold beer, a big TV, the Dodgers and the Phillies, and I don’t have to make small talk with a fibber.
I went out on a date last night. I had a fantastic time. The date lasted from 7:30pm until 2am. On top of that, the girl lives two-hours north and we met in the middle, West Palm Beach, so it was an hour drive for me. I normally don’t date girls outside of my local area, but I had a feeling about this one. That feeling was right.
Today, we spent the day text messaging back and forth, even setting up plans for next weekend. There was a lull in the messaging during the afternoon and around 7:30p, I received a text from her telling me that she just sent me an email on MySpace. I thought that was a little weird and kind of felt like she was going to tell me that she wasn’t that interested. So, I got home and fired up my Mac. Here’s what the email said:
“I know I mentioned my psycho roomate and my black lab but I failed to tell you about my two tropical fish and my son. I thought you knew but you never asked last night so I am guessing that this is news to you. I don’t hide things about myself so I wanted to be up front.”
She wants to be upfront? Really? I had always thought that upfront means that you tell people something at the beginning, not after the fact. Not only that, but I had ASKED her if she had kids in some earlier emails (that I’ve subsequently copied and pasted back to her in my reply) and she joked that she had multiple kids from multiple dads (she’s quite the jokester, hence why I liked her). However, she never mentioned that she had a son. Not once.
I’m seething right now. Understand, this is not a judgment on her having a child. This is a judgment on her not telling me about it until AFTER we went out. I liked her, I really did. But, she lied to me. What else is she hiding?
The old saying of ‘lucky in life, unlucky in love’ was invented for me. I love the life I lead, every part of it. I just can’t find anyone to share it with. And, as it turns out, when I do, they take a dump on my face.