When I posted my initial review of Unfriended, it was just a couple of hours after seeing the movie. Being late at night and not giving time for the movie to really sink in, I mainly shared my initial thoughts of the movie. This was from seeing the movie the night before opening night. Now that the weekend is wrapping up, I can conclude that almost everyone who wanted to see this movie and then some has seen it. The feedback I'm seeing has been mostly negative, many admitting they went as far as walking out right in the middle of the movie. Now that the movie has sunk in, I still stand in actually enjoying the movie. It's innovative with the use of the computer screen, the dead background silence makes it much more eerie, and Laura is a badass. Plus I think Blaire is pretty hot but that's beside the point.
With all that said, I don't deny that this movie has its flaws, and they are major flaws at that. First of all, the characters - They suck. Blaire is OK. She gets props for being cute and only mildly annoying. She did turn out to be the one who brought all this upon everyone, but we don't find that out until the end. At least there was some substance to her. The other characters were extremely disposable and weren't killed off fast enough. When you're rooting for the villain to win, mainly because the characters suck so bad, that's a huge problem. In fact, the real crazy thing is I feel way way WAY worse for Laura dying than the other characters in the movie. It's like with her I was really hoping she wasn't dead, but with the others it was like "Yeah!".
Which brings me to my next point - I speculated whether Laura was really dead or not in the movie and it looks like that pretty much is the consensus - she really is dead but has come back as an evil ghost. Wha?? That is so STUPID. I guess that was the best way to do things in order to avoid explaining too much of what was happening. It's such a stereotypical move. I mean, I guess it makes more sense how the people die in the movie; she goes to all their houses and kills them. That's just SO CHEAP though. I thought my theory of what happened would have been much more original, much more creative, and while still far-fetched much more realistic. Plus, the use of computers to terrorize people would have been MUCH more plausible! I mean, being an evil ghost, she didn't even need to use the computer. Plus, how do ghosts use computers anyway?
To sum up my theory of what happened and what should have happened:
Laura didn't really die. The only evidence of her dying was the video, which she conned some people into filming and staging the whole thing with a blank. She disappears from home (which was abusive as evidenced by the movie) and the guys who helped film the video sneak her on a boat to India where she learns her 1337 hacking skills after already being a super genius to begin with. On top of being an elite hacker, she also discovers a way to hack into parts of a person's brain via satellite and other signals floating around in the air, which leads to the killings.
But of course I guess it would have been more like a comic book action flick rather than a horror flick, and the filmmakers were going for horror so they had to go the paranormal route instead. Hence the original name of the film: Cybernatural.
But here begs the question: will I see this movie again let alone buy it on DVD? You bet. Despite its flaws, Unfriended was a clever movie that is still enjoyable to watch. Sometimes it's so bad it's good and I think the villain ironically is the one that saves the movie from being a total bomb. So if you haven't seen it already, go check it out!
Sunday, April 19, 2015
Thursday, April 16, 2015
UNFRIENDED - The Review (Contains Spoilers)
UNFRIENDED
Not going to lie, this is one of the first times I've been really excited to see a movie in the theater, let alone a rare and obscure movie. Usually I will count down to when movies like Star Wars or The Hobbit come out. In fact, I only knew about this movie about a month before it came out - when I saw the preview for The Kingsman. I'm not into horror films, especially ones about paranormal activity, but this just looked very intriguing. Everyone knows what happens because the previews have been playing everywhere - a popular girl in high school named Laura Barns has a dirty video of her posted online, which causes people to post nasty things about her on the Internet. Three days later, she kills herself by turning a gun on herself in broad daylight out at her high school. One year after the suicide, she appears anonymously on a Skype group chat, and starts killing off the people on the chat until one tells her who posted the dirty video. This baffled me in so many ways. A computer that could kill people...like HAL 9000? No no no. Who was it pulling the strings? I had to know. As a computer geek, there were a lot of questions I had that needed answering! I couldn't wait to see the movie...
Luckly for me, the theater I live near had an advanced screening the night before the movie would premier in theaters everywhere. I drove to the near empty theater (Thursday night), grabbed my beer at the bar, and headed in where the movie was going to play, only seeing a few people in the audience. Later, more and more people showed - mainly college-aged kids including some hipsters. The previews reminded that I was about to watch a horror movie and hence they needed to show previews for upcoming horror movies.
AND NOW TO THE MOVIE
We see the Universal logo opening, which has a glitching twist to it, obviously referencing the movie we're about to watch.
The entire movie is viewed from the computer screen of the main character named Blaire, played by Shelley Hennig, who you might remember as the girl from Teen Wolf (a show I've never watched). In fact, one of the pages she has open on her browser is the MTV home page for Teen Wolf, which I guess is supposed to be some sort of promo or easter egg? I dunno. So anyways, the movie begins with Blaire viewing the suicide video everyone has seen in the previews, but this time unfiltered. Her fellow classmates are shouting from the background yelling at her to stop but she doesn't listen as we see her pull the trigger and fall over dead, with one person running over to her. Why they just video taped it and didn't, I don't know, interfere somehow, is beyond me. Would Laura have shot them if they interfered? Very possible considering what happens in this movie...
We then cut to Blaire talking to her boyfriend named Mitch on Skype webcam, which almost partook in webcam sex until, SURPRISE SURPRISE, their three other friends Adam, Jess and Ken log on and they partake in a group chat of sorts. However, there seems to be something slightly wrong as they see an anonymous user without video that's on and everyone is confused as to who it is. They all hang up to try to get rid of whoever it is but he won't go away. What's interesting is throughout the movie you'll see Blaire talking on Skype, sending texts on Skype chat and on Facebook, listening to music, searching websites, watching YouTube videos, etc. This entire movie seemed like one big product plug for popular Internet websites. Anyways, Mitch tells Blaire that he received a message from Laura Barns, which Blaire took as a bad joke at first until she received a message from Laura on Facebook. Thinking it's just some creep that somehow hacked into Laura's account, they start suspecting one another of a really tasteless prank. Blaire attempts to unfriend Laura only to find that the Unfriend option is greyed out. She refreshes the page and it shows that Laura has been unfriended, only for Laura to message her back saying "You shouldn't have done that".
They invite on another friend of theirs named Val, who apparently is their friend but not really their friend but some girl who has a bitch reputation...I don't know. Teen drama. They think that she's the one pulling the strings and ask her to quit her shenanigans, but we learn that it isn't her. Shit really starts hitting the fan as we see some dirty videos of Val posted on her Facebook wall, which was made to look like they were posted by Jess. Chaos starts to ensue as they accuse each other of making each other look bad online with dirty photos and the like. Val gets fed up and decides to call the cops. She logs off during this time only to later log on with just her standing very still by a bottle of open bleach, indicating that she swallowed some. She falls over when the cops arrive and they give codes, which Blaire looks up online and determines Val killed herself.
The problem was the whole time I was rooting for the villain Laura, and I guess that's because everyone on the Skype chat was so annoying that I couldn't wait for them to be killed off. Blaire was the only somewhat decent character. but that's not saying much. Things got serious when Laura said they were all going to die if they logged off and started making idle threats that became real. Ken (aka Chunky) was the next one to go. He was the computer geek of the group and had everyone install a trojan program that would rid all their computers of the Laura Virus, which seemed to work at first but only caused a more angry Laura to come back showing a screen, which turned out to be on the floor at Ken's house. We all know from the preview that Ken is a goner when he experiences death by blending machine, which was probably the most graphic scene in the movie. Things were really serious now that they know Laura was on to them and wasn't fooling around.
Laura had the remaining four on the chat play a game called "I never had", which got them to admit dirty little betrayal secrets such as stealing money from one another, ratting someone out, cheating on boyfriends, being a slut, etc., all which caused everyone to want to kill each other before Laura had the chance to. Adam was the next to go, by reading a piece of paper saying not to show it to the screen, which somehow gets him to put a bullet to his head. How...?
Well, now we're down to three. Blaire gets on some random chat site looking for someone random to talk to and finally gets to some guy-girl in Nevada and asks her to call the cops and send them to Jess's address to try to be "undercover" somehow. Well unfortunately that didn't work out all too well because Laura knew what was happening all along and Jess ended up frying herself with...a vibrator? Who knows? She's dead. Two left...
Apparently they're still playing the game from earlier, and the suspense is in the air when Laura starts the countdown for someone to give her an answer. Laura wants Blaire to come clean and tell her who posted the video. Blaire insisted that it wasn't any of them and that they were good people and made a mistake posting the mean comments to the video. Blaire gives in however and admits that Mitch was the one who posted the video, which leads to Mitch stabbing himself in the eye with his big knife and falling over dead, leaving only Blaire.
With only Blaire left, Laura revealed footage from the video that it really was Blaire who videotaped Laura passed out behind the shed and leaked out her nether-regions. It was complete betrayal since they were both best friends, and so Laura turned the tables on her and posted that video linked to Blaire's Facebook account, which led to people slamming her online. Laura logs out of the chat and closes the laptop, and we see Laura jump into the screen roaring before it cuts to black...and that was the end.
SO WHAT DID I THINK?
Well, I thought the movie was very creative, which most independent films usually are. It was a very innovative approach to film, having the whole film being viewed from Blaire's computer screen and showing all the texting she was doing, all the YouTube videos she was watching, all the sites she was looking up, etc. You could tell she was very proficient at using the computer because she moved through sites. The movie did very well by having mostly dead silence and no background music (other than some tunes that play on her computer from some Pandora-like online music player). Was the movie scary? Not really. In fact, like I said before, you're going to find yourself rooting for the villain because the characters in this movie are so douchey that you can't wait for them to get killed off.
The biggest problem I had with the movie is I went in with questions that I was looking forward to getting answered only for them to NOT get answered at all...for the most part. The movie did establish this: Laura really isn't dead, and that really was her causing all the chaos behind a computer. Still, this leaves a lot to be asked. Did Laura stage her whole death, or is she a poltergeist of some sort? Her roaring into the screen made no sense, but I guess the movie was trying to be subtle? Also, how did the people on the chat end up killing themselves? All were acts of suicide it looked like, but what caused them to do it. There are theories floating around that the human brain can be hacked into through a computer, but that possibility was NEVER even addressed in the movie. So I'm guessing the movie makers are indicating that there will be a sequel of some sort? Will we ever learn the answers to these questions, or will we go on forever and ever not knowing?
Maybe that's just the way it was meant to be and how the filmmakers intended for things to be. I definitely would like to see a sequel of some sort, preferably in the form of a TV series where things get more complicated like in the show Lost.
Not going to lie, this is one of the first times I've been really excited to see a movie in the theater, let alone a rare and obscure movie. Usually I will count down to when movies like Star Wars or The Hobbit come out. In fact, I only knew about this movie about a month before it came out - when I saw the preview for The Kingsman. I'm not into horror films, especially ones about paranormal activity, but this just looked very intriguing. Everyone knows what happens because the previews have been playing everywhere - a popular girl in high school named Laura Barns has a dirty video of her posted online, which causes people to post nasty things about her on the Internet. Three days later, she kills herself by turning a gun on herself in broad daylight out at her high school. One year after the suicide, she appears anonymously on a Skype group chat, and starts killing off the people on the chat until one tells her who posted the dirty video. This baffled me in so many ways. A computer that could kill people...like HAL 9000? No no no. Who was it pulling the strings? I had to know. As a computer geek, there were a lot of questions I had that needed answering! I couldn't wait to see the movie...
Luckly for me, the theater I live near had an advanced screening the night before the movie would premier in theaters everywhere. I drove to the near empty theater (Thursday night), grabbed my beer at the bar, and headed in where the movie was going to play, only seeing a few people in the audience. Later, more and more people showed - mainly college-aged kids including some hipsters. The previews reminded that I was about to watch a horror movie and hence they needed to show previews for upcoming horror movies.
AND NOW TO THE MOVIE
We see the Universal logo opening, which has a glitching twist to it, obviously referencing the movie we're about to watch.
The entire movie is viewed from the computer screen of the main character named Blaire, played by Shelley Hennig, who you might remember as the girl from Teen Wolf (a show I've never watched). In fact, one of the pages she has open on her browser is the MTV home page for Teen Wolf, which I guess is supposed to be some sort of promo or easter egg? I dunno. So anyways, the movie begins with Blaire viewing the suicide video everyone has seen in the previews, but this time unfiltered. Her fellow classmates are shouting from the background yelling at her to stop but she doesn't listen as we see her pull the trigger and fall over dead, with one person running over to her. Why they just video taped it and didn't, I don't know, interfere somehow, is beyond me. Would Laura have shot them if they interfered? Very possible considering what happens in this movie...
We then cut to Blaire talking to her boyfriend named Mitch on Skype webcam, which almost partook in webcam sex until, SURPRISE SURPRISE, their three other friends Adam, Jess and Ken log on and they partake in a group chat of sorts. However, there seems to be something slightly wrong as they see an anonymous user without video that's on and everyone is confused as to who it is. They all hang up to try to get rid of whoever it is but he won't go away. What's interesting is throughout the movie you'll see Blaire talking on Skype, sending texts on Skype chat and on Facebook, listening to music, searching websites, watching YouTube videos, etc. This entire movie seemed like one big product plug for popular Internet websites. Anyways, Mitch tells Blaire that he received a message from Laura Barns, which Blaire took as a bad joke at first until she received a message from Laura on Facebook. Thinking it's just some creep that somehow hacked into Laura's account, they start suspecting one another of a really tasteless prank. Blaire attempts to unfriend Laura only to find that the Unfriend option is greyed out. She refreshes the page and it shows that Laura has been unfriended, only for Laura to message her back saying "You shouldn't have done that".
They invite on another friend of theirs named Val, who apparently is their friend but not really their friend but some girl who has a bitch reputation...I don't know. Teen drama. They think that she's the one pulling the strings and ask her to quit her shenanigans, but we learn that it isn't her. Shit really starts hitting the fan as we see some dirty videos of Val posted on her Facebook wall, which was made to look like they were posted by Jess. Chaos starts to ensue as they accuse each other of making each other look bad online with dirty photos and the like. Val gets fed up and decides to call the cops. She logs off during this time only to later log on with just her standing very still by a bottle of open bleach, indicating that she swallowed some. She falls over when the cops arrive and they give codes, which Blaire looks up online and determines Val killed herself.
The problem was the whole time I was rooting for the villain Laura, and I guess that's because everyone on the Skype chat was so annoying that I couldn't wait for them to be killed off. Blaire was the only somewhat decent character. but that's not saying much. Things got serious when Laura said they were all going to die if they logged off and started making idle threats that became real. Ken (aka Chunky) was the next one to go. He was the computer geek of the group and had everyone install a trojan program that would rid all their computers of the Laura Virus, which seemed to work at first but only caused a more angry Laura to come back showing a screen, which turned out to be on the floor at Ken's house. We all know from the preview that Ken is a goner when he experiences death by blending machine, which was probably the most graphic scene in the movie. Things were really serious now that they know Laura was on to them and wasn't fooling around.
Laura had the remaining four on the chat play a game called "I never had", which got them to admit dirty little betrayal secrets such as stealing money from one another, ratting someone out, cheating on boyfriends, being a slut, etc., all which caused everyone to want to kill each other before Laura had the chance to. Adam was the next to go, by reading a piece of paper saying not to show it to the screen, which somehow gets him to put a bullet to his head. How...?
Well, now we're down to three. Blaire gets on some random chat site looking for someone random to talk to and finally gets to some guy-girl in Nevada and asks her to call the cops and send them to Jess's address to try to be "undercover" somehow. Well unfortunately that didn't work out all too well because Laura knew what was happening all along and Jess ended up frying herself with...a vibrator? Who knows? She's dead. Two left...
Apparently they're still playing the game from earlier, and the suspense is in the air when Laura starts the countdown for someone to give her an answer. Laura wants Blaire to come clean and tell her who posted the video. Blaire insisted that it wasn't any of them and that they were good people and made a mistake posting the mean comments to the video. Blaire gives in however and admits that Mitch was the one who posted the video, which leads to Mitch stabbing himself in the eye with his big knife and falling over dead, leaving only Blaire.
With only Blaire left, Laura revealed footage from the video that it really was Blaire who videotaped Laura passed out behind the shed and leaked out her nether-regions. It was complete betrayal since they were both best friends, and so Laura turned the tables on her and posted that video linked to Blaire's Facebook account, which led to people slamming her online. Laura logs out of the chat and closes the laptop, and we see Laura jump into the screen roaring before it cuts to black...and that was the end.
SO WHAT DID I THINK?
Well, I thought the movie was very creative, which most independent films usually are. It was a very innovative approach to film, having the whole film being viewed from Blaire's computer screen and showing all the texting she was doing, all the YouTube videos she was watching, all the sites she was looking up, etc. You could tell she was very proficient at using the computer because she moved through sites. The movie did very well by having mostly dead silence and no background music (other than some tunes that play on her computer from some Pandora-like online music player). Was the movie scary? Not really. In fact, like I said before, you're going to find yourself rooting for the villain because the characters in this movie are so douchey that you can't wait for them to get killed off.
The biggest problem I had with the movie is I went in with questions that I was looking forward to getting answered only for them to NOT get answered at all...for the most part. The movie did establish this: Laura really isn't dead, and that really was her causing all the chaos behind a computer. Still, this leaves a lot to be asked. Did Laura stage her whole death, or is she a poltergeist of some sort? Her roaring into the screen made no sense, but I guess the movie was trying to be subtle? Also, how did the people on the chat end up killing themselves? All were acts of suicide it looked like, but what caused them to do it. There are theories floating around that the human brain can be hacked into through a computer, but that possibility was NEVER even addressed in the movie. So I'm guessing the movie makers are indicating that there will be a sequel of some sort? Will we ever learn the answers to these questions, or will we go on forever and ever not knowing?
Maybe that's just the way it was meant to be and how the filmmakers intended for things to be. I definitely would like to see a sequel of some sort, preferably in the form of a TV series where things get more complicated like in the show Lost.
Monday, January 19, 2015
Banned From Stylelife
This past week, I was banned from Stylelife's elite forum and essentially blacklisted from attending any future bootcamps or conferences. While I still have access to the material I was given upon registering (even though I have no plans to use it), I have burnt bridges with everyone there after being a member for 1.5 years.
How did this happen? How did this go down? Well let me start from the beginning:
I read the book The Game by Neil Strauss as well as Rules of the Game back in April 2013. I heard about both books a couple years prior but never got to reading either. When some friends of mine finally convinced me to check them out, I did so. I had already been deep into learning about mens dating advice for the past two years, but I had never been a part of the PUA community per say. I thought both books were very interesting, with The Game being the story of how Neil got into the community and became "the master seduction guru of the world" and Rules of the Game being a practical guide and the first instance of the Stylelife 30-Day Challenge, a set of exercises given to you each day for 30 days including crazy exercises like randomly cold calling people and getting three movie recommendations. I don't exactly remember how I came across the Stylelife community, but I think it involved doing an assignment or checking out a link provided by Rules of the Game, and then I started getting emails about how I should join Stylelife and that the game is always changing and they have this great training system in place. I never seen anything like it before and I enjoyed what I've read so far, so I decided to join with the basic membership, and that's how I got introduced to the Stylelife elite forums.
I never really intended to be much of a regular on the forums. I've had bad experiences with messageboards in the past dealing with issues like rogue/fascist moderators and flame wars, and it turned out the Stylelife messageboard was no exception, which I will get to in a minute. I started out doing the basic courses. I did have to pay about $89/month, but I thought it was unique to be doing daily assignments that got me out and about getting out of my comfort zone, and the assignments did help me do just that as ridiculous as some of them were. What I thought was really interesting however was there was a monthly coaching call that Neil Strauss himself holds, and students can buzz in and ask whatever questions they like. Being fresh off of reading The Game, I was ecstatic about this. I didn't know what my chances of getting on live were, but I was able to the first time.
Over the months, I continued to do the assignments and get on the calls as well as participate in the messageboard. I actually became the most active member there. Eventually, I signed up for the In-Field training. It cost about $2,000 (paid in four installments), but it seemed like a real bargain because it included a bunch of course material, a bootcamp, coaching calls, and free access to the conference in LA where you get to meet Neil Strauss in person. Again, all was well and I felt that I was on the right course.
The demise began however when I decided to meet up with one of the other guys on the forum who lived locally. At the time, he wasn't a big active member but he did write very thoroughly so I thought it would be great to meet up with him. That turned out to be a big mistake. Unfortunately for me, the guy turned out to be the world's biggest douche-assmonkey. Sure, he knew a lot and was very knowledgable, but he didn't want to get to know me and would never shut up. He also posed as an expert and said a bunch of shit that really pissed me off. Nevertheless, I gave him the benefit of the doubt. He interacted with women very well. I gave him two more chances, even let him stay over night at my place, but within that short time period (within two months), I could tell he was out to do damage and I had to get rid of him immediately, so I blocked him from contact and stopped hanging out/interacting with him. I started to really hate the whole pickup routine/jargon language like "sarging", "DHVs", "IOIs", "kino escalation", "peacocking", etc. Nevertheless, I still decided to stick around. Maybe he was just a wannabe guru and would get schooled by the real experts. Not the case.
Here is the defining quote from The Game that Neil Strauss originally posted on a messageboard back before he wrote the book:
Have you ever noticed that there's something strange about a lot of guys in the Community?
It's as if just by looking at them, you can tell that something is missing. They don't seem entirely human.
Some of these guys even do well in the field. They get great reactions- sometimes even numbers and lays- but they never seem to have a girlfriend.
Are you one of these guys?
To find out, ask yourself the following questions:
Most of the sargers I know are social robots. This is especially true among those who found the community in their teens or early twenties. Because they haven't had much real world experience, they have learned to socialize almost entirely through the rules and theories they've read online and learned in workshops. They may never be normal again. After a great twenty minute set with many of these social robots, a woman begins to realize that they don't have anything more going for them. And then they post online complaining that women are flakes.
The Internet newsgroups and the pickup lifestyle can give you so much- I know it's given me so much- but it can take away a lot too. You can end up becoming a one dimensional person. You start to think that everyone else around you is a social robot too and begin to read too much into his or her actions.
The solution is to remember that the best way to pick up women is to have something better to do than to pick up women. Some guys give up everything- school, work, even girlfriends- to learn the game. But all these things are what make one complete and enhances one's attractiveness to the opposite sex. So put your life back in balance. If you can make something of yourself, women will flock to you, and what you've learned here will prepare you to deal with them.-Style.
I couldn't agree more. This was the absolute best quote out of the entire damn book. But what happened? It's hard to believe that after reading The Game and seeing Neil as just a curious guy who never really wanted to be a major part of the PUA community has become the very thing he hated in my opinion. He stated originally he was against the commercialization and industrialization of the seduction community only for him to become the biggest advocate for it. Even Mystery, the guy who invented all of the crazy gimmicks, routines and jargon that became popular and was Neil's personal mentor, has evolved and has moved past all that (for the most part). Not Neil Strauss. Neil Strauss may be focusing more on stuff that actually makes sense, but he and his company Stylelife are still deadset on teaching guys things like canned openers, "DHVs", etc. essentially turning guys into social robots, and the field reports written on the Stylelife forum proves just this. I'll post an abridged version of a typical field report written on the site:
Hi everyone. I went out with my wingman to this bar in town. We saw a 3-set, which included an HB9 and two HB7s. I went up and used my cashmere sweater opener. After that, I bridged and executed the best friends test. I then threw in some DQ's and ran the ring finger routine and 5- questions game. I got a few IOI's but got stuck as to what to do next so I had to eject from that set...
I lose braincells reading these field reports, but I give my own advice, which states to not be a social robot, only to get countered by the coaches and the senior members.
Other than what goes on in the forums, I realized a lot of major problems with Stylelife itself that anyone who pays money to be a member (which I stopped shortly after I 'graduated') has the right to question. Here are just some of the things I was questioning:
1) How come Stylelife keeps recycling the same videos and printed material from 2008 and claiming that it's 'new material' in their monthly editions of Wingman Magazine and the monthly DVD's? Anyone who's new to Stylelife and watches the material would think that the coach named Bravo is a current and highly active Stylelife coach but would have to dig through the forums to find out he left the company years ago.
2) What's with all the bait and switch?
3) On the regular self-paced course, how come you can only do one assignment at a time and only be enrolled in a few courses at a time instead of having access to it all?
4) Why are many of the links to material, particularly on the In-Field training course, broken or unavailable?
5) What happened to all the coaches that used to be with the company? From my understanding, the only ones that are still there are Evolve and The Sneak. I think JGatz and Mojofist might be there, but they seem to only be involved with the company every now and then.
6) Why is Stylelife so adamant about students learning canned material when there are far better tried and tested alternatives out there?
7) Why is it that on bootcamps, the coaches just stand around and don't really approach the entire weekend?
8) Why are there less bootcamps this year than last year?
All this and more. I was already on bad terms with the coaches by standing up for Julian Blanc from RSD and by condemning canned material and the rigid and obsolete philosophies that Stylelife practices (e.g. instead of using the skills you already have to your advantage like dancing, you should memorize a whole bunch of bar cons). What got me banned however was taking a huge risk by pointing out all the flaws in the business and how these flaws are going to lead to the demise of Stylelife unless drastic changes are made. This lead to the coach The Sneak threatening to ban me for stepping out of line instead of doing what any responsible person who co-operates a business and take these things into consideration. Another long-time member agreed with me about the problems with Stylelife and eventually that got him banned as well. It really cements the fact that the ship that is Stylelife is sinking and I did the right thing by jumping overboard.
It really is a shame that things went down the way they did. I was able to attend both the bootcamp and conference last year and enjoyed both overall. I thought the coaches were pretty cool guys and I thought it was great to get to meet Neil Strauss in person. The company had a good thing going for it and had a unique training system, and I give Stylelife credit for pushing me to get out there in the field. I even gave a positive video testimonial at one point. I would say there's just very poor execution in place, and the people running the company now are running it into the ground. You don't need to be an insider or a business analyst to suspect that there's a lot of chaos going on behind closed doors and that's why we're seeing less bootcamps scheduled and why many of the former coaches are MIA. Maybe this year Neil Strauss and his coaches will realize what they need to do to save their business and make the necessary changes to be a successful and reputable company for improving the dating skills of men. If not, then chances are we won't be seeing Stylelife anymore in the next five years.
How did this happen? How did this go down? Well let me start from the beginning:
I read the book The Game by Neil Strauss as well as Rules of the Game back in April 2013. I heard about both books a couple years prior but never got to reading either. When some friends of mine finally convinced me to check them out, I did so. I had already been deep into learning about mens dating advice for the past two years, but I had never been a part of the PUA community per say. I thought both books were very interesting, with The Game being the story of how Neil got into the community and became "the master seduction guru of the world" and Rules of the Game being a practical guide and the first instance of the Stylelife 30-Day Challenge, a set of exercises given to you each day for 30 days including crazy exercises like randomly cold calling people and getting three movie recommendations. I don't exactly remember how I came across the Stylelife community, but I think it involved doing an assignment or checking out a link provided by Rules of the Game, and then I started getting emails about how I should join Stylelife and that the game is always changing and they have this great training system in place. I never seen anything like it before and I enjoyed what I've read so far, so I decided to join with the basic membership, and that's how I got introduced to the Stylelife elite forums.
I never really intended to be much of a regular on the forums. I've had bad experiences with messageboards in the past dealing with issues like rogue/fascist moderators and flame wars, and it turned out the Stylelife messageboard was no exception, which I will get to in a minute. I started out doing the basic courses. I did have to pay about $89/month, but I thought it was unique to be doing daily assignments that got me out and about getting out of my comfort zone, and the assignments did help me do just that as ridiculous as some of them were. What I thought was really interesting however was there was a monthly coaching call that Neil Strauss himself holds, and students can buzz in and ask whatever questions they like. Being fresh off of reading The Game, I was ecstatic about this. I didn't know what my chances of getting on live were, but I was able to the first time.
Over the months, I continued to do the assignments and get on the calls as well as participate in the messageboard. I actually became the most active member there. Eventually, I signed up for the In-Field training. It cost about $2,000 (paid in four installments), but it seemed like a real bargain because it included a bunch of course material, a bootcamp, coaching calls, and free access to the conference in LA where you get to meet Neil Strauss in person. Again, all was well and I felt that I was on the right course.
The demise began however when I decided to meet up with one of the other guys on the forum who lived locally. At the time, he wasn't a big active member but he did write very thoroughly so I thought it would be great to meet up with him. That turned out to be a big mistake. Unfortunately for me, the guy turned out to be the world's biggest douche-assmonkey. Sure, he knew a lot and was very knowledgable, but he didn't want to get to know me and would never shut up. He also posed as an expert and said a bunch of shit that really pissed me off. Nevertheless, I gave him the benefit of the doubt. He interacted with women very well. I gave him two more chances, even let him stay over night at my place, but within that short time period (within two months), I could tell he was out to do damage and I had to get rid of him immediately, so I blocked him from contact and stopped hanging out/interacting with him. I started to really hate the whole pickup routine/jargon language like "sarging", "DHVs", "IOIs", "kino escalation", "peacocking", etc. Nevertheless, I still decided to stick around. Maybe he was just a wannabe guru and would get schooled by the real experts. Not the case.
Here is the defining quote from The Game that Neil Strauss originally posted on a messageboard back before he wrote the book:
Have you ever noticed that there's something strange about a lot of guys in the Community?
It's as if just by looking at them, you can tell that something is missing. They don't seem entirely human.
Some of these guys even do well in the field. They get great reactions- sometimes even numbers and lays- but they never seem to have a girlfriend.
Are you one of these guys?
To find out, ask yourself the following questions:
- Do you panic if you run out of "material" during a conversation with a woman?
- Do you think that everything a woman says to that isn't 100 percent positive is a "shit test?"
- Do you see every other male who is interacting with a woman as an alpha male who must be destroyed?
- Are you unable to discuss a woman without first asking, "What's her rating?"
- Do you call women in your life who you are not sleeping with a "pivot" instead of friend, girl or woman?
- If you are around a woman in a non-social setting such as a business meeting or a nursing home, do you get a strange shot of adrenaline and feel obligated to sarge her?
- Have you stopped seeing value in things that are not pickup related, such as books, movies, friends, work, school, food and water?
- Is your self esteem constantly at the mercy of the reactions of women?
Most of the sargers I know are social robots. This is especially true among those who found the community in their teens or early twenties. Because they haven't had much real world experience, they have learned to socialize almost entirely through the rules and theories they've read online and learned in workshops. They may never be normal again. After a great twenty minute set with many of these social robots, a woman begins to realize that they don't have anything more going for them. And then they post online complaining that women are flakes.
The Internet newsgroups and the pickup lifestyle can give you so much- I know it's given me so much- but it can take away a lot too. You can end up becoming a one dimensional person. You start to think that everyone else around you is a social robot too and begin to read too much into his or her actions.
The solution is to remember that the best way to pick up women is to have something better to do than to pick up women. Some guys give up everything- school, work, even girlfriends- to learn the game. But all these things are what make one complete and enhances one's attractiveness to the opposite sex. So put your life back in balance. If you can make something of yourself, women will flock to you, and what you've learned here will prepare you to deal with them.-Style.
I couldn't agree more. This was the absolute best quote out of the entire damn book. But what happened? It's hard to believe that after reading The Game and seeing Neil as just a curious guy who never really wanted to be a major part of the PUA community has become the very thing he hated in my opinion. He stated originally he was against the commercialization and industrialization of the seduction community only for him to become the biggest advocate for it. Even Mystery, the guy who invented all of the crazy gimmicks, routines and jargon that became popular and was Neil's personal mentor, has evolved and has moved past all that (for the most part). Not Neil Strauss. Neil Strauss may be focusing more on stuff that actually makes sense, but he and his company Stylelife are still deadset on teaching guys things like canned openers, "DHVs", etc. essentially turning guys into social robots, and the field reports written on the Stylelife forum proves just this. I'll post an abridged version of a typical field report written on the site:
Hi everyone. I went out with my wingman to this bar in town. We saw a 3-set, which included an HB9 and two HB7s. I went up and used my cashmere sweater opener. After that, I bridged and executed the best friends test. I then threw in some DQ's and ran the ring finger routine and 5- questions game. I got a few IOI's but got stuck as to what to do next so I had to eject from that set...
I lose braincells reading these field reports, but I give my own advice, which states to not be a social robot, only to get countered by the coaches and the senior members.
Other than what goes on in the forums, I realized a lot of major problems with Stylelife itself that anyone who pays money to be a member (which I stopped shortly after I 'graduated') has the right to question. Here are just some of the things I was questioning:
1) How come Stylelife keeps recycling the same videos and printed material from 2008 and claiming that it's 'new material' in their monthly editions of Wingman Magazine and the monthly DVD's? Anyone who's new to Stylelife and watches the material would think that the coach named Bravo is a current and highly active Stylelife coach but would have to dig through the forums to find out he left the company years ago.
2) What's with all the bait and switch?
3) On the regular self-paced course, how come you can only do one assignment at a time and only be enrolled in a few courses at a time instead of having access to it all?
4) Why are many of the links to material, particularly on the In-Field training course, broken or unavailable?
5) What happened to all the coaches that used to be with the company? From my understanding, the only ones that are still there are Evolve and The Sneak. I think JGatz and Mojofist might be there, but they seem to only be involved with the company every now and then.
6) Why is Stylelife so adamant about students learning canned material when there are far better tried and tested alternatives out there?
7) Why is it that on bootcamps, the coaches just stand around and don't really approach the entire weekend?
8) Why are there less bootcamps this year than last year?
All this and more. I was already on bad terms with the coaches by standing up for Julian Blanc from RSD and by condemning canned material and the rigid and obsolete philosophies that Stylelife practices (e.g. instead of using the skills you already have to your advantage like dancing, you should memorize a whole bunch of bar cons). What got me banned however was taking a huge risk by pointing out all the flaws in the business and how these flaws are going to lead to the demise of Stylelife unless drastic changes are made. This lead to the coach The Sneak threatening to ban me for stepping out of line instead of doing what any responsible person who co-operates a business and take these things into consideration. Another long-time member agreed with me about the problems with Stylelife and eventually that got him banned as well. It really cements the fact that the ship that is Stylelife is sinking and I did the right thing by jumping overboard.
It really is a shame that things went down the way they did. I was able to attend both the bootcamp and conference last year and enjoyed both overall. I thought the coaches were pretty cool guys and I thought it was great to get to meet Neil Strauss in person. The company had a good thing going for it and had a unique training system, and I give Stylelife credit for pushing me to get out there in the field. I even gave a positive video testimonial at one point. I would say there's just very poor execution in place, and the people running the company now are running it into the ground. You don't need to be an insider or a business analyst to suspect that there's a lot of chaos going on behind closed doors and that's why we're seeing less bootcamps scheduled and why many of the former coaches are MIA. Maybe this year Neil Strauss and his coaches will realize what they need to do to save their business and make the necessary changes to be a successful and reputable company for improving the dating skills of men. If not, then chances are we won't be seeing Stylelife anymore in the next five years.
Sunday, January 4, 2015
The Beginning of a Great New Year - Time To Focus!
The year has just begun, and there are two major things I need to focus on: building the business and seduction. I will devote blog entries to both, but for right now I want to focus on seduction. What would I like to happen? Be able to seduce a superchick by July 1st. A superchick is what I call my perfect 10, and is typically very tall, fit, has long hair and thick lips. It's the type of girl you would see modeling in magazines like Cosmo or Maxim. I need to keep in mind however that the process is more important than the outcome, and I will need to do some things to keep me focused:
1) I need to start going out to key places by myself. The problem I'm having with going out with friends, at least the ones I have, is they become very distracting. I need to listen to my own intuition and remember the advice from the mentors I've watched videos of and read books from. I'm really starting to flush out the StyleLife routine crap, and now I need to flush out any distractions friends are giving me. I find I do best when I go out and am forced to approach on my own.
2) I need to be outcome independent. Gone are the days of routines that are meant to elicit great reactions from women if executed flawlessly. Gone are the days of vanity and having to impress someone and thus getting into double jeopardy when I get blown off. I realize there will be more OK to disappointing, sometimes brutal nights, much more, than very successful nights just like there are when running a business.
3) Talk to three groups a night. The focus should be just to talk and not expect anything out of it. Easier said than done, I know. Things will get chaotic. Momentum is key, and I find it's much easier to approach when momentum is high. However, this means I would need to be reliant on good reactions and I'm working to get away from that.
4) Keep it going for the next 90 days. I know there will be days I will need to miss, especially for business, but I need to stay focused. 1-3 hours per night should suffice. After 90 days, I can assess my progress. I can also update on a weekly basis any highlights or mistakes.
5) Incorporate online dating. While I shouldn't be spending too much time on this, I believe I need to pick up online dating once again. It has been a while and I have been successful with it in the past. I just need to keep doing it.
Let's make it happen!
1) I need to start going out to key places by myself. The problem I'm having with going out with friends, at least the ones I have, is they become very distracting. I need to listen to my own intuition and remember the advice from the mentors I've watched videos of and read books from. I'm really starting to flush out the StyleLife routine crap, and now I need to flush out any distractions friends are giving me. I find I do best when I go out and am forced to approach on my own.
2) I need to be outcome independent. Gone are the days of routines that are meant to elicit great reactions from women if executed flawlessly. Gone are the days of vanity and having to impress someone and thus getting into double jeopardy when I get blown off. I realize there will be more OK to disappointing, sometimes brutal nights, much more, than very successful nights just like there are when running a business.
3) Talk to three groups a night. The focus should be just to talk and not expect anything out of it. Easier said than done, I know. Things will get chaotic. Momentum is key, and I find it's much easier to approach when momentum is high. However, this means I would need to be reliant on good reactions and I'm working to get away from that.
4) Keep it going for the next 90 days. I know there will be days I will need to miss, especially for business, but I need to stay focused. 1-3 hours per night should suffice. After 90 days, I can assess my progress. I can also update on a weekly basis any highlights or mistakes.
5) Incorporate online dating. While I shouldn't be spending too much time on this, I believe I need to pick up online dating once again. It has been a while and I have been successful with it in the past. I just need to keep doing it.
Let's make it happen!
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