Features

Micah Henry

There are two types of parents, to keep it blunt: the type that encourages you to date and find a woman to call your own and the type that is one hundred percent against dating, absolutely not. However, the second type are usually ignored, because let’s be honest, us guys are curious. Most guys, who are attracted to woman, want a woman. So regardless of what parents say, most of the time we talk to woman, and we date woman. Now what we do when we talk or are on dates with woman is a completely different story. As you might have heard, there are certain things you never ask or tell a woman, and there a certain things you always ask or tell a woman. However, some people don’t know anything about dating and might want to know for the future. These quality points and examples should help anyone in that boat. Now let’s break it down:

The Do’s:

1. Always be on time for the first date. If you have a date at 6:00. Be ready at 5:30. Get your clothes ready at 5:00. If you can, be at her door by 6:00 to pick her up. Show her that you are about it, and that you are interested in her. Having punctuality and showing assertiveness on the first date will make a woman see you as someone who is interested. Investing time in a woman and making her feel special will lead to happier times. Don’t play around when it comes to being on time, show her that you like her. From experience, I was late for a date when I was in 10th grade and the overall energy was down and it was even kind of awkward. I was never told anything definite, the girl and I do not talk now, but I am pretty sure me being late, an hour to be exact, was a bad first impressions, and first impressions are everything, leading on to my next point.
2. Dress to impress, if you can. If I were to go on a date, a nice button down, some chinos and some deck shoes is a perfect outfit. Make sure to have the fresh haircut down, as well. A tie, dress down shirt, leather belt and leather shoes, matching the colors of course, also makes for a great outfit. Looking presentable will show your date you have taken this date into consideration and have taken it seriously, a great first impression. This was probably the only plus of my date aforementioned, I looked rather fresh.
3. Please, always compliment your date when you first see them and throughout the night. Recently, I went out with a girl, recently meaning during the summer, and I gave her more compliments than I usually do. I do not know why, I mean I liked her clearly, but I was not shy at all about it. Don’t be scared to let her know she looks pretty, or smells good, or you like her shoes or jacket, show her you are paying attention to her. Making her feel special is the key to getting the woman that you want.
4. Listen to her. On every date I have been on, I’ve listened to my date. One, its just rude not to. Also you should want to listen to her and get to know her better, having eye contact is very important. Hear what she has to say. As a relationship goes on, a woman is going to learn to trust you. She will only learn to trust you if you show you are willing to listen. If she’s talking about how her cat getting lost or what she had for dinner last night, pay attention. You should want to pay attention if you are into her. You should want to know everything about her, show her you want her, and she’ll want you too, guaranteed.

The Don’ts:

1. Don’t act like you do not care about your date or it is just another thing to do. Showing any signs that you are not as interested as a woman is leaves a horrible first impression. Be punctual. If you are late, and for good reason, make sure you let her know your reasoning. Do not play around and see how she’ll react if you just come an hour to the restaurant. Show the woman you are interested in her. Don’t do anything that might make her think otherwise.

2. Looks, no matter how much people say personality matters more, looks are very important. Wearing blue jeans, a t-shirt, a baseball cap and some G Fazos to a first date at an excellent restaurant isn’t dressing to impress. Show her that you aren’t just throwing clothes on last minute. Looking sloppy on a first date, smelling nasty as well, is one of the worst first impressions. For every woman deserves someone who is going to respect them enough to look good with them. So why would a woman want a relationship with someone who doesn’t care to look nice on the first date?      

3. Don’t talk about yourself. Or at least, not too much to the point where it’s obvious you are not listening to her. The more you listen, the more you’ll learn. The more you learn, the more you have to talk about there and in the future. If you just talk about yourself, and what you’re like, and what you do for fun, etc. She will grow uninterested because it becomes clear rather quickly that you are more interested about yourself then her. It leaves her thinking that you don’t care about her.

4.  Lastly, do not, do not, do not, do not, bring up any mentioning, recognition, or anything, anything at all, about your exes. This has to be engraved into every single restaurant table in the world, so you can never forget. But in all seriousness, don’t do it. Bringing up your ex shows almost instantaneously to your date that an ex would most likely be involved if she were to take it any further. It is the epitome of turn offs and it will mess you up.

During a first date, it is either the beginning of something that you will remember in your mind forever, negative or positive, or it will end before it begins. Make sure it doesn’t end before it begins. If you aren’t really feeling a woman, or you aren’t sure, be mature and call off the date. Don’t lead a woman on, it’s not fair to her and won’t benefit anyone. First dates and first impressions are very important to the start of any relationship, take the opportunity, and go for it.

Staff Writer Dylan McKeon

Many high school students are excited for the day they earn their driver’s licence and hit the road to drive far away from their parents. But might that rite of passage become a thing of the past?
Given the recent strides in self-driving cars, it is becoming likely that drivers licences and driving itself could become obsolete. But don’t throw away your driver’s manual just yet–there are many concerns over the lack of control the passengers will have over the vehicle.
The dream of the self-driving car can be traced back to the 1930s, where ideas were planned for freeways to have lanes that worked like train tracks. This would keep the cars moving on a set road until the exit where the driver would retake control of the car. However, this was never implemented due to safety concerns and costs.
Now several companies are beginning to finalise their plans for self driving cars. Google has been testing driverless cars since 2009, with the cars traveling almost two million miles. Meanwhile, Tesla plans to introduce an autopilot system for several of their electric cars, and Uber has began to work with Carnegie Mellon to develop their own autonomous cars. With many more companies planning some form of driverless car, it’s clear that this is likely to become the future of driving.
However, the biggest issue with many of the early concepts of a self driving car was that it could not react to all of the possible situations that would require a human reaction. The most common example is if a child runs out into the street and the car is unable to stop, should the car hit the child or swerve and hit the vehicle next to it.
So, how do SLA students feel about this future of cars that are in charge?
“I am a little afraid of them,” said senior Mitchell Betzen-Stotz. “I feel control is an important aspect of the car and drivers would be able to make better decisions when it comes to situations like this.”
Ethical questions such as this highlight the question that these cars might be controversial due to the lack of control or responsibility the driver has over them. After all, if against all odds a self-driving car hits a pedestrian because of it’s code, the driver can’t be held responsible.
“I understand the need for self driving cars,” says Senior Alex Wroblewski, “but at the same time, I feel that I would prefer to have some control over the car just in case.”
These concerns are natural, but they don’t measure up to the potential benefits. After all, more than 90% of all car accidents are caused by human error. Additionally, the cars are able to identify driver’s patterns that might cause a collision and inform it how to avoid such accidents. Through six years of Google’s test drives, their have been about a dozen minor accidents each of which came from human drivers rather than the autonomous system.
Some students are comfortable with this change. “I think that this new technology would be very helpful” said senior Jordan Meriweather, “It would improve safety a lot and make life a lot simpler.”
While it is yet be seen how these cars will end up being implemented in daily life, it will be interesting to see how people will react to a car that they have no control over other than the destination.

For more information:
https://www.google.com/selfdrivingcar/
http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/where-to-a-history-of-autonomous-vehicles/
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/06/every-single-time-a-google-self-driving-car-crashed-a-human-was-to-blame/395183/
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/539731/how-to-help-self-driving-cars-make-ethical-decisions/