2016 - A Year in Review

This year, instead of spending a lot of time going over events that happened this past year in chronological order, I will sum up things.  I will list the top 10 worst things of 2016, the top 10 best things, and the top 10 things I hope to happen in 2017.  Here we go

TOP TEN WORST THINGS OF 2016

1) The fall out of Pickup - after five years of following pickup and with RSD especially, it all ended shortly after the World Conference and Miami 5-Day bootcamp in February.  Shortly after, my pursuit of pickup ended.

2) Didn't make many friends in 2016 - I felt like I completely regressed in that department.

3) The demise of the SoHo nightlife - After falling out of pickup, the SoHo nightlife became almost impossible for me.  While there were some interesting nights especially around Halloween, SoHo was never the same for me and vowed to never return until things change for the better.

4) Dating/Sex life didn't improve one bit, despite efforts at the beginning of the year and sporadic efforts throughout the year.

5) Uncle passes away.  I saw this one coming and it was only a matter of time.

6) Lot of celebrities, some famous icons some lesser known, passed away this year, and it seemed like many passed away this year alone.

7) Fallout with friends.  I lost way more friends this year than I've gained, including people I was friends with back 10-20 years ago.  Most of it was due to the election, one was due to outright betrayal, and another was because I told her to get out of my business.

8) The temporary fallout with the Tampa salsa community.  Glad that was saved.

9) No more network marketing, after completely quitting cold on Nikken and a failed attempt at a Beachbody business.

10) Obama just went insane this past year despite there being more terrorist attacks and conflicts in the streets and he got even crazier after he lost the election.

and now onto the TOP TEN BEST THINGS OF 2016

1) Moved to SoHo after wanting to do so for the last few years.

2) Didn't struggle financially as much as I did the last 8 years.

3) Got into Historical European Martial Arts, basically reviving my interest and practice in fencing

4) Trump won the election against all odds and showed that proud, hard working Americans still make up a great majority in this country.

5) Ran my first marathon

6) The year started really well, with an awesome makeout session and there were a few more to follow

7) Got to visit the mountains of North Carolina after wanting to do so for so long

8) Visited New York again, this time for my first out of state Salsa Congress

9) Visited St. Augustine after having to keep postponing that trip for many years

10) Got promoted to supervisor at work

and now TOP TEN THINGS I HOPE WILL HAPPEN IN 2017

1) This nation gets back on track and things become stable again in our government and America becomes great again.

2) I go to Disney a lot, something I haven't done once in over a decade

3) My dating/sex life improves DRASTICALLY

4) I become more social and outgoing

5) I travel to some awesome places

6) I work in New York, whether it be a week, a month, 10 months, whatever

7) Things in SoHo become great again, like they start having a legit Latin night over at HPC

8) I stay in shape and don't fall off the wayside

9) I read more books on my favorite subjects

10) I continue to move up in my career

Happy 2017 everyone!

It's Official - SoHo No More

Well that settles it - When an anti-anxiety drug everyone raves about can't help, there's not much more I can do in my current situation.  In 2017, I will no longer be partaking in the nightlife in SoHo.  I am tired of trying to fit in.  I've tried, many times, to hang out at venues, meet people, and even hook up.  The problem is it just comes down to me not fitting in.

I first started hanging out in SoHo some months after moving to Tampa five years ago when I wanted to just check out a nightclub in general.  I was starting to get into the whole pickup thing at the time, and before I was never a big fan of going to nightclubs but I wanted to give one a shot, so I chose to go to one in an area called Hyde Park/SoHo that offered salsa lessons at the beginning of the night.  From there, I became hooked and this opened so many new possibilities for me.  But alas, those days are over.  That venue no longer does the salsa classes or even has a true latin night anymore.  There was a time in SoHo when you didn't have to be a frat boy type or bro-dawg to have a good time.  There were definitely venues that catered to that, but there were also venues that catered to other interests - ones that were much more classy and attracted different types of people.  Now every venue tries to cater to the frat boys, the moron douchebags, the sorority snobs, the grinders, etc. and there's no escaping it.  It really sucks too because I moved down here this past year just to be closer to the venues and the Starbucks/Panera I always hang out at.  Now the venues are obsolete and there are better venues for me to hang out at elsewhere.

With that said, I will still live here.  After all, it's still relatively affordable with a roommate and all and it's one of the only walkable places in Tampa next to downtown and within a close distance to everything.  And who knows, maybe someone or some great force out there in the universe will make SoHo great again.  Until then, I will avoid the nightlife.  In fact, I may even skip town on Gasparilla weekend this coming year.  What sucks is no matter what my friend I'm living about it won't shut up about how I'm missing out on hot women or something like that, even though they're incompatible hot women usually and there are better hot women at dance socials or other venues.  Also I may still go to whatever pool socials they have at the apartment once the spring/summer rolls around.

Who knows though?  Maybe things will work in my favor and I may find motivation and reason to go out there again without having to struggle.  For now though, it's time to put it to rest.

One More Chance In SoHo

2016 is coming to a close, and I have decided to create an ultimatum.  I have decided to give SoHo in Tampa just one more chance before the year ends.  Just one more.  That will be this Thursday, the 29th.  If things don't go well, if I don't genuinely feel like I'm having fun or having a good time, if I feel like shit when I'm there or when I come home, then that will be the end of it - I will not be present in the SoHo nightlife in 2017.  Hell, this could mean that during Gasparilla I could just go out of town for that weekend, even considering going to Miami - a place I vowed never to go back to - for their salsa congress.

Ever since I moved to Tampa, SoHo was the place I primarily hung out at.  It's the place where PUA bootcamp instructors would take their students if there ever was a PUA bootcamp in Tampa.  I've gone out, I had fun, but I struggled way more than I felt I should have.  Still, I wanted to move to the SoHo area since I started hanging out there, and this past year I finally got to - only to no longer want to hang out in SoHo and go elsewhere.  This mainly happened after falling out of the Good Looking Loser program, having an overall bad experience on the Miami 5-day bootcamp that I had a lot of hope for, and just dropping pickup altogether.  I keep thinking maybe dropping pickup was a mistake and I should have stuck with it, but the truth is I wasn't doing myself good when I was in it; I wasn't being authentic with myself and at the end of the day I wasn't doing much better.  Lot had changed as well in SoHo with the removal of authentic Latin nights at the clubs and changes to karaoke nights this past year.

The truth is I no longer have to go out to SoHo; there are better venues elsewhere in Tampa and even in Orlando.  I still justify going to SoHo however because now I'm within walking distance, but it's like this past year especially I never liked going out and dealing with moron douchebags and stuckup bitchy women.

Thursday I'm going all out.  I have that day off from work, I have the next day off from work.  I have no excuse not to go all out.  This will be a day when I really will use a full dosage of Phenibut, which I have not used yet save one small dose a couple weeks ago.  This time I'll use the full benefit of the Phenibut, to help me get through the pain periods, the anxiety, and things that make me feel awful whenever I go out to these venues.  All I gotta say is if Phenibut does little to nothing to help me out, help me make the night as awesome as I'd like it to be, then nothing will.  Absolutely nothing will.  Not in my current state, nothing.  I would have to undergo a DRASTIC change in order for things to change.  That means developing a beneficial social circle among other things.

So will Thursday night be the last night in SoHo?  I will write all about it, what happened, whether the phenibut helped or not, etc.

Using Phenibut

Aaron Sleazy posted a recent blog entry about Nootropics, and one of the most common that kept getting mentioned was phenibut.  You can read the article here:

http://blog.aaronsleazy.com/index.php/2016/12/04/open-discussion-nootropics/

Ever since I started going out, I never took any anti-anxiety supplements or drugs or whatever.  All I did was drink, and I usually only drink beer when I go out; never hard liquor except on occasion.  When I do drink, I usually cut it off at 2-4 because it gets too expensive and I feel groggy when I drink too much alcohol.  Plus I have a high tolerance for alcohol.  In other words, it does little to nothing to help with whatever anxiety I have in place.  

So this is where a drug like phenibut comes in.  I ordered 200 g of it from LiftMode and am looking forward to trying it out and see how it effects me.  I don't know how much I need to take in order for it to have any effect on me, but hopefully it will suppress at least most of the anxiety I feel when I go out to a venue where there's a lot of hot women or when I'm dancing with a hot girl I could potentially make out with.  Right now, it's so out of control that it's just crippling, and nothing I can do on my own right now is really helping.  Hopefully something like this helps.  I even had friends tell me about their experiences with it and it sounds like a big secret of many guys when they go out.  

I'll update everyone when I get it and try it out the first time.  Hopefully it will push me to a successful night.