For 9 months now we live in an apartment building that has ~30 apartments. So last weekend some mandatory "getting to knew each other" BBQ in the back yard was forced upon us. Not only did it cost a lot of spare time to be there and show presence now I know more of my neighbors as I ever wanted to know. I liked being "that guy" but now we know each other by name and guess I have to be more social and friendly and whatnot because of this. I even learned that few apartments aren't rented but rather owned directly and these owners started to brag about how they will "change" the building. When looking for a new place I really took care to not live somewhere near my land lord and suddenly it feels like i have a whole bunch of land lords just sitting right there inventing new rules we will have to follow...

It's nice we don't have any of that shit here, we are born antisocial. :) I only know a bit better a couple of neighbours from this same floor, especially the new one (some single lady in her 60s probably) who complained that we make too much noise in our apartment. The old lady on the other side is quite nice though, we chit-chat a bit whenever we see.

Sure I say "hi" to anyone I see outside, but I don't really recognize any of them. It doesn't help that there are many students in this same building, which seem to move in and move out constantly. Fine by me.

We have two occasions though where we could learn each others a bit better:

- The housing company meeting annually (but only the apartment owners participate in that meeting, not the tenants). I've missed all of them so far, though.

- Every spring we have a cleaning party outside, raking the old leaves etc., trying to make everything look tidy after the winter. I've been in a couple of those, but the problem is that most seem to be too lazy to participate. So whenever I've been there + a couple of old ladies, I've had to do most of the work.

I ordered a 3DS XL for cheap last week, and woke up this morning to two messages: first, the package I had ordered was ready to be picked up. Second, the 3DS could not be delivered. You'd think they could tell me that a bit earlier, considering I paid for it beforehand. Now I've got a charger and a game I can't play.

It's not that big a deal - the website was glitching out when I ordered, and I assume that there weren't enough units to go around. It's also not the first time I buy something I can't use before getting the complement needed, but I was sort of looking forward to playing some Paper Mario.

I hope they can send me a 3DS XL of another colour for the same discounted price. If not, I'll ask for a refund and look elsewhere.

Its not really bad, it all depends on what you are looking for in the world. If you are looking for a relationship/what not-you will eventually find one-it just takes time. If you aren't looking for one in general (like me), you don't have to have one. Not as many people are getting married nowadays as its not required of the person.

Be confident and ask them questions about them. Put the main interest to them and they will like you for it. If they don't then they are a bitch and your better off with a stripper.

Don't ever think their is something wrong with you the person. The problems nowadays is that people automatically assume there is something wrong with them in general. Generally most of the rest of the world is fake so that disproves that.

Most likely not; I, for one, am quite happy with myself by myself. I just can't and won't pretend being something that I'm not, and if that means never being in another relationship as long as I live, it's a good enough deal for me.

If it helps any of you, and no this wasn't me, I knew a guy in college who admitted to upchucking on a girl when he went in for his first kiss.

It helps, thanks.

Going against the spirit of the thread, update on my 3DS XL woes: got a reply from customer support telling me they'll let me have a blue one for the same price as the red. I consider this a net draw; I prefer the blue to the red, but I'd rather have the 3DS today than next week.

That is all.

Heh, pretty funny. One of my best friends knew this kid that he really tried to hook the kid up with girls. The kid had his first date with a girl who was very sexually open and she was talking about her past relationships in 'detail'. In the middle of the date, the kid told everyone at the table that he had an accident due to her stories.

I can understand opening the floodgates but I still cannot for the life of me see how you can get that excited over something like that. When the floodgates need to be breached, you gotta do what you gotta do. But if its that simple, why not just take off all your clothes in front of a stripper, open the microwave and be done with it.

My favorite line (well one of them, there are several) from "There's Something About Mary",
- Still, better clean the pipes, just in case.

I sound like an oldman-Back in my day, comedies were epic and hilarious. Now there is grown ups 1 and 2 which are kind of meh. Something about Mary was a classic and one of the few comedies I can watch over again and again. Its too bad Sandler hasn't been too good lately. Still Ben Stiller is awesome always. Guess the thrones been passed on to a new ruler, heh.

I guess it's off to Finland then for me... What's the average yearly income for a senior software engineer over there?

The strange thing is we have a lot of students in the building too. This was part of the complaints of the apartment owners although it quickly went into direction that "these young people don't have any values at all"...

You were forced to? Man, I avoid those get-togethers like the plague. I've worked with my current company for almost 15 years now, and they usually hold three or four parties a year. I haven't been to one, yet. As I told them, if they held it during working hours, I would be there, but I am not wasting my weekend. I have better things to do, games to play.
I know a little different than in your backyard, but I still would refuse to go if my neighbors threw a community BBQ.

Apparently the average wage here floats somewhere above the 3000 euro mark. Income tax is pretty high, though, as are prices for pretty much everything. Also, don't think that a specialist job like yours would mean higher than average income, because Finns are pretty highly educated on average.

How was it mandatory? I don't understand how an apartment building can force any resident to participate in a group activity. Unless you meant that all your neighbors would hate you if you didn't show up and thus were forced by peer pressure.

I probably wouldn't show up to an event like that. I once lived in a triplex (house where each of the 3 floors was an apartment) for 9 months. I never once saw or met the other two tenants which I think is quite the feat. :)

I'm polite to neighbors, I'll greet them if I see them, but I don't want to stop and have a conversation with them.