Deep_Blue

I showed up at TGIF in good spirits after a two hour Shink ride from Nagoya. I had been pondering a Boot Camp for over a year, and was stoked to be finally putting one foot in front of the other. It's a cool feeling to look back at your life in distant hindsight and identify specific moments that changed who you are. It's an even cooler feeling to indentify such a moment as it's actually happening. I was the first to arrive so I made my way upstairs and set up shop at a vacant window table. I thought I might be waiting a while so I ordered a stiff drink to keep me company as I gazed down at the sleazy hustle of the Roppongi night scene. Redpole strolled in ten minute later and flashed me a toothy grin. "Does that have booze in it?" he asked sitting down. He grabbed the drink upon confirmation and slid it to the far end of the table. "No drinking at boot camp" he said in a fatherly tone. I slumped back into my chair, half amused, studying his features for clues as to his sincerity. "This fucker can’t possibly be serious" I thought to myself as I stood up and lunged for the drink. Redpole put both his paws on the frosty glass and wrestled it from me. "I'm serious. It’s a boot camp rule. No drinking". The drink was irrelevant to both of us, but the symbolic power struggle behind the drink carried some importance. On the one hand, I'm not the type of guy who lets other guys fuck with him like that. On the other hand, 5 minutes into a 3-day boot camp was the wrong time to get on the instructor's bad side. I did a quick cost/benefit analysis and watched helplessly as the waitress carried off my Long Island. "You’re gonna hate me by the end of the weekend" Redpole said. I already did. As the only member of this particular boot camp, we got to blast through the initial small talk and game theory. Shine, Phoenix, Deppth and Don, who I had met previously with aVVesome in Nagoya in '08, made their way upstairs and took a seat at our table. Everyone seemed relaxed and friendly, which made me feel great about getting into the field. We paid the tab and set off for Muse. Muse was a nice soft pillow to land on for night #1: Lots of wide open spaces, lots of places to lock in, lots of move locations, lots of chodes and lots of dirty girls. I started to move around and get a feel for how RPQ wanted things done. The club was barely rolling at this point so quality sets were few and far between. I opened a few low quality sets just to keep myself in a good frame. They all hooked, but it was hard for me to progress those early sarges well. I felt flustered trying to run my new material in a sequential order that was unfamiliar to me. I was focusing way too much on words and not enough on intangibles. I remember calling in RPQ to run obstacle game for me, "whose the bad girl here?"... a few times I wanted to say "neither". As the night wore on it became less weird to be hearing KEENO! screamed into my ear . I started opening better sets and pushing the keeno further than what I was comfortable with. Things went smoothly for the rest of the night. I let a few lame sets drag on too long, costing me valuable time and experience with other sets. That was about the only disappointment for the evening. We met up with Tenacity and walked over to a Chinese restaurant for some late dinner/early breakfast and a quick debriefing. The big lesson for the night: this shit works BETTER with hotter sets. Mediocre girls are less fun, and don't find it all that funny to be told that they come from the Burbs. The best 2-set of the night for both of us just so happened to be the hottest 2-set. If I ever want to sleep with a 5 again it looks like I'll have to change up my game. I woke up the next morning with mixed feelings. I was stoked about how the previous night's sets opened up for me, but also felt a pang of anxiousness about gaming girls in the day time. For me, my anxiety doesn't really come from talking to hot girls. For me, anxiousness comes from thinking "what will other people/customers/store clerks etc. think about me gaming this girl in front of everyone?" Shitty belief to have, and something I really have to work on. Opening a HB10 ice queen as she sips coffee in a busy Starbucks is a terrifying thought for me. Same girl in a club, not so much. Day game, to my relief, was really enjoyable. Shine came out to hang out as we ate bagels and talked theory. I got my 3 warm up sets out of the way and, despite the less-than stellar results, felt empowered and energized. RPQ noticed two youngn's at a table down below. I flopped down into a vacant seat and stuck my keitai in their faces. "What in the world does this kanji mean?". They looked up with big smiles and begun to translate the whole damn mail. I was in. I waved in RedpoleQ and slithered into another chair, right next to the cuter of the two. He flexed that charisma muscle of his and they were extra-enamored from there on out. I eventually got a time bridge so we bounced them up to Cold Stone for some tasty treats. We left them all giddy and went back to Shine's table to open up some more sets. My favorite set of the day didn't have such a happy ending. I pussied out of opening a tight little HB8 in Starbucks so RPQ made me open her as she left. I walked past her as she was exiting the building and tapped her hard in the shoulder. "I really want to eat some takoyaki. Where's the takoyaki around here?". She stopped and gave me a smile, then said there wasn't any. I took her arm and tried to direct her away from the walkway. She complied and took a step forward. I lost my kino nerve and she sensed the hesitation. My stacking was choppy and she used the tiny intermission to start walking forward again. She grinned at me one last time as she left, as if to say: "you stupid fuck, you could have F-closed me later tonight if you weren't such a chump". Damn. One of those sets you wish you could go back in time and try again. That night a bunch of us hit up Alife. A long line greeted outside and I could see instantly that it was going to be a lot tougher venue than Muse. Girls were hot with very few exceptions. We did a walk through of the club and got things rolling. Upstairs was a lot easier than the insanity of the dance floor below. Girls upstairs were more open to being approached and opened up pretty well for the most part. It was really tough for me to adjust my tonality and energy levels high enough to hook into sets down in the pit. Tough crowd. Even RPQ was having troubles opening. A few 2 sets ran away from him as if he were an East African titty bar tout in front of Roppongi station. Hilarious. RedpoleQ thought it was pretty funny too, and that's what sets him apart from a lot of guys- it didn't alter his frame at all. By the time I met up with him upstairs he was locked into a single, a perfect 10. He was kino'ing the fuck out of her at the bar and having her love every minute of it. She was a busy Japanese model but he still managed to quadruple time bridge her ass. It was great to see the game played with such competence and fluency. Awesome. A couple lessons from Alife: 1) Anything is possible. I saw RPQ set up shop between two hotties as they were being gamed by guys on either side. He sucked the girls into his little world and ignored the dudes, who eventually lost so much value that they had no choice but to piss off. He called me into the set and let me work the hotter of the two. She was a gorgeous little flight attendant and happily time bridged for a shopping date 3 days later. Point is, 99% of guys would have written that set off, RPQ made it happen. 2) Frame matters. All too often in the past I'd be in a club with a less-than fun vibe. Then when I wanted to open a set I would put my happy face on- that's not how things should work. RPQ and the others exuded good vibes at all times. Very important. Remember those satellite images of North America as Katrina was about to slam into Louisiana? The eye of the storm was RPQ, the nebulous clouds surrounding the storm were FUN TIMES, and the Gulf of Mexico was A-life. It was cool to watch him weave around the room adding value and good times where ever he went. OK, last day we ran day game in Shinjuku. I think RPQ was a bit frustrated that I wasn't letting him push me out of my comfort zone easily. The day went well, I opened several sets in shopping locations which is something I would almost never do in day to day life without ridiculously strong IOIs from the girl first. Again, I had a lot of fun and now feel much better about ignoring my surroundings and focusing on what I want. There was a cute single sitting next to us in Starbucks. I decided to pass and went looking for sets in the book store. Shine opened her and by the time I got back to the table she was ready to follow him to the wedding chapel. If I had known she would be that keen I would have opened her myself. From Shinjuku we all bounced back to Roppongi for a final debriefing and some ribs. The Touch graced us with his presence. It was a good feeling to be done with Boot Camp, but on the other hand I really wanted it to continue. The cool thing is that it can continue, the choice is now mine. RPQ asked me about a name. It was hard to peg me down. I think my skill set is a little different from most guys. So is my vibe. I didn't want to do anything too spontaneous so I left the boot camp nameless. Deep Blue came to mind the next day. For those of you who don't know, it was the first IBM chess software to beat a world champion. Deep blue was systematic, emotionally unaffected by success and failure, and could defeat any human opponent regardless of how much resistance was put up. Sounded good to me. Yoroshiku. Big thanks to all Boot Camp alumni I had the pleasure of meeting. Biggest thanks to Redpole- you're fantastic at what you do. Pickup was awesome, but pickup aside it was awesome rolling with you for 3 days. Good luck to all, keep in touch. DB [/b]