u/TotalRandomCrap

TLDR: those "employee referral" codes might get accepted by the order system, and they'll process your card, but then cancel the order.

Used a referral code posted here. Checkout went through fine, card got charged. A couple hours later, Google cancelled it. No email or notification. I went to the order system a bit later, and found it said "cancelled." Contacted support, and they said the code had already been redeemed by someone else.

These codes are single-use, but checkout apparently doesn't check that in real time. It'll happily take your order and your money, and only sort out that it was already claimed after the fact. "It worked at checkout" doesn't mean it actually worked.

I was on the fence about upgrading to another Pixel anyway, so I suppose this was the universe's way of getting me off the fence

I’ve been doing online dating for 3+ years now, with a lot of first dates and a few real relationships along the way. Figured I’d try something different, so I signed up for a speed dating event at a local café for the 55-and-over crowd. It was run by pre-dating.com, which does events for various age groups in my area. I’d seen them on Eventbrite. Why not? Worst case I meet some people on a pleasant Saturday afternoon, and you never know.

The venue was out of the way, in an office building café. You check in with the host, she hands you a name tag and your first table number. There were eight men and eight women, which surprised me. I’d always heard women outnumber men at these things. Not at mine.

It was mid-afternoon. Some women wore dresses, others pants, most had clearly put in some effort. Same with the men for the most part. One guy showed up in a white suit, full Saturday Night Fever. It’s 2 PM Travolta! Another wore shorts. I went with a button-down and Dockers.

The setup was four to a table, men and women paired up. That’s not ideal. You’ve got two completely separate conversations going at one table. The room was loud with hard floors, so it was often hard to hear the person across from you. My hearing isn’t the greatest, but I wasn’t the only one griping about it.

Before starting, the host explains everything and takes questions, then rings a bell to begin. After six minutes, she rings it again. That’s the cue for men to get up and go to the next table. As you rotate tables, you carry a sheet with the table numbers and space for notes. Both men and women jot something down about each person they meet. At the end you mark who you’d want to see again, snap a photo of the sheet, and hand it back to the host. The host collates everything afterward, and if you and someone both marked each other, they put you in touch. Kinda like swiping, but with paper.

The women were interesting. Some had done this before, some hadn’t. Most were friendly and easy to talk to. A couple talked nonstop and didn’t leave room for a question, so I just smiled and let them go on.

Out of the eight, I marked one I’d want to see again. Not fireworks or love at first sight, but she seemed fun, we both had good questions, and she actually seemed interested. Haven’t gotten the results back yet, so we’ll see.

Would I do it again? Not sure. Seems like it would be awkward to meet some of the same women again, and several that I met were not first timers. On the other hand, I do think meeting someone face-to-face definitely makes some women much more attractive then I expected, and some much less attractive. There’s something about hearing a woman talk, the way she smiles, her eyes, her interest level. It’s completely different in person versus a text chat on an app. The format itself is fine: low pressure, and with six minutes to talk, you usually run out of time before you run out of things to say.

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Here’s an update, since I just got the results.

The one person I said “yes” to also said yes. So it’s a match 😁.

Four other women also said “yes” to me, and the organizer gave me their contact info, which I think is a little odd. I suppose it gives me a chance to reconsider and reach out to them, should I want to.

So the thing to know is that if you say “yes” to someone, they will get your contact info, regardless of whether they said yes, or no.