The Trouble With Rating

After much discussion with Calvin I have decided to post this story... even though it is terrifyingly dangerous.

So, I drove down to Cedar City this weekend to hang with Sanders. We were talking in her room while she was getting ready (don't worry it was all appropriate, she has one of those fancy 3 panel room dividers). I was sitting on her bed looking through her high school yearbook, and she says, "What would you rate my looks on a scale from one to ten?" I joked, "Come out from behind the divider and I'll tell you." She said, "No, I'm serious, don't tell me you don't rate girls." I responded, "Of course I do, I just can't let you know how much I like you yet."

Sanders peeked her head around the bamboo divider and said, "I'm serious Jake." I replied, "Your looks? You're an 8, (This was a lie. She is really a 6) except for when you wear that blue shirt." She said, "Only an 8?" I said, "8 is great, I've never been with an 8 before... I mean, I'm like a 6 you know so, you're up there." I noticed specifically that she did not dispute my self prognosis.

Then she shocked me, "Have you ever heard of the Mormon Bachelor Pad?" I looked at the room divider, I imagined I could see through it, and she was standing there staring right at me, waiting for me to lie. I was frozen... I knew that at some point this would happen. I was so stunned it felt like it had been 20 minutes since she asked me and that my hesitation had blown my cover, but it had really only been a few seconds. Finally I simply replied, "No."

She said, "It's a blog, Patty showed it to me today because they are rating all these girls on Christmas." I said, "Huh? On a 1 - 10 scale?" Sanders then proceeded to explain to me the whole scale system actually using the terms "LOS" and "OS". She told me how there's this house of guys in Salt Lake who write this blog. I acted fascinated, but aloof. I said, "I didn't think you read blogs?" That was a question I now work into early conversations with girls I date to see how careful I need to be with what I post. She replied, "I don't. I just thought it was so crazy."

Sanders said she wanted to be rated a little. She said that she couldn't believe my rating of her because we were involved (smart girl) and that she would love to hear what an unbiased person would say. I asked her how she would feel if she was rated like a 5 or a 6 or something. She admitted she would pretend that it was okay, but that she would probably take it hard. I wanted to tell her that I really thought she was a 6 on the LOS, that 6 isn't bad, I adored her. On the OS I thought she was in the 9's and that number kept growing each time we hung out. I couldn't though. There is no amount of explanation I could use to say 'I think you're a 6, but it doesn't matter because I like you' without it making her a little or a lot self-conscious.

Sanders found it very troubling that this is going on because she fears for the self-esteem of girls who will be rated. Talk about ratings monopolized our evening conversation. She made a good point as we entertained the actual process that the MBP writers would be going through. Her point was that girls with more pictures would have a more accurate rating than girls who just emailed 5 pictures.

After discussing this with Calvin we have decided to add a "Percentage of Accuracy" clause to our rating system. For example, a girl who is our facebook friend that has 300 pictures and has been tagged in a video, and who has pictures of herself in a swimsuit is going to get a high percentage of accuracy, like 90%. If a girl only has 5 photos, that will lower the accuracy. Obviously those photos are ones she has hand picked for people to judge her on. If all or a lot of her photos are glamor shot, airbrushed, type photo's, that too would drop her accuracy. I could spend a whole post outlining accuracy ups and downs, but I'm pretty sure we all know how this sort of thing works. Suffice it to say that when we do hand out our ratings we will do something like LOS rating: 7, percentage of accuracy: 65%.

Anyway, back to Sanders discovery. She told me that she decided not to request a rating, and neither did her friend Patty. Apparently, Patty thinks that the writers of this blog are arrogant and in for a rude awakening someday, however she found them to be funny and entertaining.

How can I post this story without fear of getting caught? Because Sanders is right. I am arrogant and no doubt in need of a rude awakening. Sanders doesn't read blogs and admitted that she only read two posts. She doesn't even have facebook. She also doesn't use a computer except to check her email which as long as I have known her is less than once a week.

So... even though it's a bit dodgy... I posted it to point out that when we do this, we will be rating girls in the 5's and 6's and are going to get a lot of crap for it. We are going to be honest though, regardless. I was dating Becca, who on the LOS I would rate an 8. Sanders is only a 6. I picked Sanders because looks aren't everything. Just because we are rating girls on their looks only does not mean that that is all we care about. So, hopefully when we rate you and you don't like it, you too can recognize that looks aren't everything.

Jake

PS Sanders... if you do read this, call me first so I can attempt to bribe you to keep quiet. Also, you are awesome, sexy, and I would love to break the law of chastity with you, but will not due to my respect for God, God's Son and his atonement, and my respect for you.