That is okay, it is my bedtime soon anyway.

Hmm, then I suppose in that sense it will be easier to get the shyer girl (in this case Katie) since next to someone like her I look more confident than usual.

One of my friends said that when I explain something, I say it with such confidence and authority that they always believe it. I can use this to my advantage.

Harder to do over e-mail though. Your grammar and vocabulary can convey authority but that's about it... and you are more likely to come across as boastful if text is the only mode of conversation.

Katie is asking what I do in my free time, but I've already told her the few things I do. Not sure if I should lie.

But I have told her most of what I do -- all I have left are playing with my sister (not really a hobby), and solving maths problems. I suppose I could tell her certain maths problems I found interesting.

I forgot to mention she is a strong maths type too so I can also use that. She is doing a project on Euclid's parallel postulate (geometry is not my favourite field to be honest) but it is nice to talk to someone at length about maths. In my mock Cambridge interview one question I got asked was to find prime factors of 612612503503, and she liked the trick used.

I also text Katie occasionally... but, meeting up will be a problem. She's two hours away on the train.

A little trick. One of the greatest minds of the twentieth century once said, "Anyone having a relationship should also have a live in psychiatrist present, to deal with her mood swings!"

Listen, they are strange beyond belief. You will never understand them nor they you! But as my signature says you do not need to understand to be successful with them. All of mine were headcases as you call them. It does not matter, we are all strange.

Forget math! It is a human invention at best. We are talking about emotions. I had lots of girls act like F and C. That is the norm. Here is a truism very popular in Vegas.

There are three kinds of people, those who want things to happen, those who make things happen and those who wonder what happened.

Where do you fit?

Hmmmm. Those two categories are not the right one. Get into the middle one!

What did I do? I acted like a jerk and suffered for years like a boob.

I was not detached. I was emotional about the result. Each negative answer was a blow to my ego. When you are concerned with results you are like on a rollercoaster.

Detachment, in the eastern sense is the key. When I incorporated some of that into my thinking I suffered less.

Kipling wrote:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Detachment, explained beautifully.

I think it is much easier to be less emotional about the result if you have a wide range of possibilities to choose from. When I asked F and C out, they were each my only option. Now, I have Katie, R, and two other girls. Less blows to my ego.

Well, as long as I have a sufficiently large 'pool', but the women are chosen such that they tend to be independent of each other (so nothing backfires on me). That almost turns it into a numbers game.

But some things will go right too...