Field Report: Back On The Wagon

After far too much boozing recently the time has finally come to knock it on the head, it doesn't do anything for my Game other than being a state inducer, but that comes at too much of a steep price in terms of lower awareness and calibration, and thus less can be learned from the experience.... Not to mention those really bad decisions that can only be made under the influence of alcohol. So, with the main objective of the weekend to be to sarge 100% sober, off we went... well, some of us.

Friday
After a serious pub burger at The Renovation, me, Wolf and Cannon headed to The Vault to meet up with Hank and a social group he was out with. they were all on the piss and quite settled, we hung around for a bit then headed straight to Rotation, and I was just not feeling it. I'd had a mother fucker of a week at work, actually, a mother fucker of a fortnight to be honest, and my head was not in the game. I normally struggle a bit on a Friday night to get myself back into it, but this was harder than usual, there were loads of sets and I just locked up. After a while Wolf opened a 2 set and a couple of minutes later Cannon convinced me to go in to wing. Utter doddle, within seconds I was sat down occupying the obstacle, which was fine because she was more my type than Wolf's target... assuming she was Wolf's target, I didn't bother to check, just figured it was as he was sat next to her, must remember to go back to the old codes for checking that shit out.
I jumped straight in with comfort building stuff, cold read, qualification (minus the sexual framing statement, fail), 'Wake Up Anywhere', then threw out a time bridge, 'Fish Foot Spa', first time I'd used it, didn't hook, so I should have totally threw out my other default TB but didn't. I did however mention that we were going to Dizon later and hyped it up pretty hard. We should have number closed there and then while both had our targets in rapport, but sadly did the usual fail and ejected from set. downstairs we met back up with Cannon who was now with Todd and his new student.
We all headed over to Dizon where we met back up with Hank and co. I started getting into the swing of things and did some daft over the top dancing and bouncing around, which got some giggles from a 4 set in the corner next to the table that some of our group had occupied. This of course made my life easy as I sat down and just swung round to open, ran 'Fun & Friendly' but it didn't hook like usual, however the target was the one I was next to and the social pressure was too much for her so she engaged me and I just ran with that. Didn't tease or FTC, so slap on the wrist for that, but went into cold reading and ran with a few threads from there, but not much else.
Hit the dance floor with everyone else and it wasn't long before the 4Set I'd just opened hovered near by, totally should have re-engaged, but didn't and they wandered off. Not too much longer after that the 2Set from rotation turned up, Wolf's target headed over to him and I used the moment to re-engage my target at the bar, just said hey and then went back to the dance floor as the other one reappeared so isolation was out the window. this all eventually fell apart as they had a miss match with each other, the one I was interested in got tired and wanted to go home, the other wanted to carry on partying, tension raised and for some reason this is when I decided to try a close, right when she was pissed off with her friend, got facebook details but it wasn't solid and I knew it.

Saturday
Me and Wolf headed to the Toad & Chello to meet Hank, who it turned out had been on the piss all afternoon with a chick he's playing long game with. We had a look around, there was a few sets dotted aroubnd, one 2set in particular should have been opened but wasn't. The girl Hank was with headed home when her boyfrind came to pick her up, who Hank shamelessley waved at through the window and with a sadistic self assured grin uttered 'yeah, bye, I'm going to fuck your girlfriend', which I could not help but laugh at. And with that, we went to our venue of choice; Rotation.
Me and Wolf had already agreed that we were going to take turns in opening tonight and there was no getting out of it, he went first and opened a 2set upstairs, I don't know what went on with that set. We headed downstairs and I opened a 3 set in the corner with an opener about guys using hair removal cream (it was relevant but I'm not going into that). Ejected again fairly soon and rejoined Wolf and Hank a few feet away, Wolf opened a 2set over his shoulder and while that was going on I caught a 2 set who had just walked in the door (a couple of feet from where we were) simply by saying 'Hello' with enough energy to capture their attention, we ran with that for a bit and then turned to wing Wolf, but I was the fifth wheel so headed back to the 3 int he corner, sat with them and went cocky funny, this time they hooked very well, I had them giggling and throwing around all kinds of threads, no real structure though, just totally free styling in social and comfort stages, the target was furthest from me and hardest to hear (while Rotation is usually very set rich, the music is too fucking loud). I should have still gone for the close on all 3 for social circle or long game purposes, it would have been easy as once one agreed the others would have, but didn't and went to find the guys.
Wolf went to the gents while me and Hank headed to the bar where Hank opened a girl dressed as Where's Wally (Waldo for anyone in the States), chatted briefly then turned back, Wold reappaeared and immediately opened the same girl, which was a bit of an amusing moment, but it was totally fine, just one of those things you think you can't do but in fact you can and should.
We headed back downstairs again where Wolf was approached by a chick from a hen part who put a sticker on him, he enaged her and then another cam eover and started labelling me and Hank with stickers too. I then opened a blonde 2set nearby witht he hair removal thread again, Wold also engaged them ont he same topic, in my mind neither were targets, bad form as practice is still practice.
Wolf then opened a hot Brunette2Set, the obstacle leaned over and called Hank over, and I had a quick look around for another set, saw a blonde girl walking past, caught her eye and must have looked like I was about to open as she turned her body towards me while still heading the same direction and looked like she was waiting to hear what I said, but it didn't happen. I went over to the guys, Wolf was still in set but Hank had moved away and said that the obstacle was boring, so I went into set and introduced myself. Hank was right in some regards, she certainly didn't have any chat of her own, and Wolf ended the set before I could really get stuck in, but my opinion was that she just didn't have any game and was waiting to be lead through the interaction. Shame really as I thought she was pretty damn cute.
We shifted venue to Single Exception and I opened a 2 set with the hair removal cream opener again, should have stacked into tease and so on but didn't. Wolf opened a 2Set in the corner and me and Hank went outside so he could have a cigar. There was a seated 2Set that he opened by asking for a lighter, we should have properly engaged them in hindsight.
Next we headed down to Dizon (after a quick shit stop at the Wolf Lair) and Hank met back up witht he girl he'd been drinking with earlier. I did a quick scout around, saw a good 2 set in the smoking area I should have opened but didn't, same with a seated mixed 3Set as I figured the dude was with the cute one, but we'll talk more about these guys in a bit. We also saw the blonde 2set that me and Wolf saw after leaving Under Beat last week and they threw some pretty big AI's at us, why we didn't engage them was beyond me as I realised that the one Wolf hadn't hooked up with before was cute as hell (yet again with the blondes, my taste is definately shifting). We ended up int he smoking area where we ran into HippyNinja, a PUA we don't see much of these days as he's more or less out of the game, coincidentally I was forcing IOI's out of a girl who turned out to be his girlfrined, could have been an amusing situation if I'd opened. While chatting with these guys the mixed 3 set appeared and the dude tripped over and I quickly used that to open them, running 'Fun & Friendly' to preload, sat down and started chatting. It was immediately apparent that the guy was not with the cute girl, she wasn't his type at all... because she was a girl! So I ran 'Always Shy', finally running one of my default openers and teases in a set, something that I now need to make a habit of. Chatted to them for quite a bit, the cute one had a boyfriend and was lashed to the point where she couldn't maintain conversation, so I chatted with other two who were quite a lot fo fun, I should have closed them to build my social circle but again didn't, totally ignoring the ABC rule.
We ended the night by heading to Under Beat, in one of the bar areas I saw a seated 2Set that I should have opened, and I'm not even sure why I didn't as by now I was in state and wasn't feeling any kind of AA what so ever. What was very cool was that when I hit the dancefloor I was suddenly outside of my own head, and felt awesome, and that's when I started seeing AI's all over the place, too many! I didn't take any of them, but I was just enjoyin the moment, soberly feeling like that for the first time since I've been back in the game, possibly for the first time in a year and a half, if not longer!
Only other thing that went on was that we saw the chubster set from last week and possibly should have reopened them, but we just didn't have the energy by this point... maybe there is one other advantage to boozing, you don't feel the fatigue creeping up on you bercause you're too busy being drunk.

Right, main sticking points:
1. State control issues, manifesting in taking ages to open my first set of the weekend.
2. Sticking to my early stages game plan, I seem fine once I've hit cold read, probably because the gap between running my next routine is naturally longer due to being in the conversational comfort stage giving me time to think ahead, compared to the initial blasting out of open, chick crack, tease and FTC in quick succession.
3. ABC! A fucking B fucking C!

Solutions:
1. Open on entry to venues and practicing presence of mind techniques to shut off internal chatter (which has worked very well in the past)
2. Open purely with the intent of running Open > Tease > FTC
3. No more ejections from set with 'nice chatting with you guys, might see you later', now it's all purpose 'You guys seem cool, we should hang out some time, what's the best way to keep in touch?' OR don't leave the fucking set!

Step 1: Collect Underpants, Step 2: ?, Step 3: Profit

I have just demonstrated to myself exactly how to NOT organise a week of sarging. Here is how it went down; I found out when freshers week was, I booked the time off work.... and that really is all I did. So it transpires that I should have firmed up some exact plans for what to do with this time and how exactly I was going to sarge some freshers. Just because you buy the land, it doesn't mean a house is going to magically build itself on it.
So, despite the epic failure that the week has been, I'm taking my own advice and finding something positive in it. to do that, I'm going to pick apart where I went wrong and what I should have done.
I relied on very few un-firm plans to transpire into the first field tests of Project Skywalker, I also had one very vague plan to hang with a girl I know one night, not one of these things had any one say 'yes we will do it at a specific time and place'. So the first thing I should have done was firm up everything with everyone, and at least some of it would have transpired, serious lesson to be learned there, and one that translates into actual sets that flake as well, must set up those solid day 2 time bridges people!
Secondly, when things started falling through, I just sat back and waited for something to happen... WTF! this is why I got into pick-up in the first place, I was sick of waiting for things to 'just happen'. Now I'm competent in social situations and understand the process of creating attraction with a woman, I should have translated the learning of finding ways to make stuff happen into other areas, especially in the arena of putting myself into situations where I can practice my social and seduction skills. Ultimately this comes down to one sticking point that's been nagging at me for a while now; solo game. Unless I feel I have a wing with me, I don't feel I want to go out and practice game, this is straight up wrong, and in fact, some of my greatest moments in pick up have been when I suddenly and spontaneously busted something out on my own. I need to start gaming solo as a matter of urgency really, if I had gone out to do this at any point this week it wouldn't have taken me very long at all to make some new friends to hang with. This is something that I feel so passionately about that I've built it into Project Skywalker, and as anyone who I've discussed Project Skywalker with knows, the lessons are as much for me as any student, and I'm committing to running through the practical exercises with every student, and all the homework exercises as long as they still apply to me (some are one time only exercises that do not take place in the field), but I'm now thinking that I can't wait around to find a student to go through all the lessons with up to that point just so I can start doing it. this is probably the biggest wall I've hit with game since I started doing it, and by the nature of the sticking point, there isn't anything anyone else can do to help me out, this one is all on me. But by writing it here for the whole world to see, I've now put myself in a situation where I have to do it.

What I'm really quite happy about with all of this is that I've hit a real dip in my progress, which believe it or not is good thing, as these are commonly followed by a massive peaks. I've observed this a number of times, and it seems universal to everyone and in all areas of life when you try to learn and improve at something, just when you start to get really frustrated, your ability seems to drop a bit, but then by sticking with it you suddenly end up better than you were before.