Hello everyone,

I'm a big-time AFC. I've never really had a girlfriend, and I'm 25 :\. I only started developing my self-esteem in the last few years. Last summer I dated a girl for a few months until she made it clear that she wasn't interested anymore. Looking back, I recognize that I did a lot of things wrong, but I did a few things spot-on great.

I had of course heard of "pick-up artists", but I never imagined that a community like this existed, especially one with a lot of people like me. I was introduced to all this through the Mystery Method DVDs and the Venusian Arts Handbook, and I'm currently reading the Game. All of it is very inspirational. I've made so much progress with my avatar and confidence in the last year, it's pretty ridiculous to look at the person I once was.

Anyway, I decided it was time to go out and see if I could do anything. There are no clubs in my town, just a bunch of bars. I went to a bunch of different bars and finally got up the courage to try my opener. It's a cheesy opener I thought up one morning in the shower and I used it on a 4-set of HB7-8s. I just asked them whether or not they think a guy is gay if they see him walking around in a pink shirt. Two of them responded immediately, "real men wear pink!". I laughed, thanked them, and moved on. I don't have any other material to work off of yet. I'm happy that I was able to get the balls to actually approach a set. I don't think they were too interested, though.

I'm glad to be part of the community here. I hope to expand myself and share my experiences in the future. I also was hoping to get some advice on a situation I'm in recently.

Classes just started here, and there is a girl in two of my classes that I think is cute. We have the same major, so we've had several classes together in the past, but never talked to each other. She's kind of nerdy-looking, most guys would probably see her as a 5 or 6, but she is more of a 7-8 in my eyes. She's really shy, but on the first day in one of the classes she sat in the seat right behind me (and we're talking a big lecture class). I didn't think much of it for a while. I noticed one day that she was wearing perfume, thought it was a bit odd for class.

So, one day I say what the heck and I ask her if she minds if I sit by her. She says she doesn't. I tell her that the row I was in is boring and she laughs. Both responses seem really nervous. I ask her a question about the class textbooks and then we get split up into separate groups by the professor. And that was time I've seen her.

Basically, I'm trying to do this according to pick-up principles, but working it out over a long period of time. I feel like I have already opened and displayed value, in a sense, simply through introducing myself to the class on the first day.

So I don't know what the next steps should be. Should I neg her a bit, or give her some IOIs, or do some sort of kino, or try to get her to join me in someplace outside of the class? I'm kind of lost, and trying not to blow it again this time. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!