Dear Not Tom Cruise,
Be glad you're not Tom Cruise. Looks can only do so much, and most girls would take an average-looking Joe over a gorgeous egomaniac with phantom offspring and ties to a cult. A pretty smile is not enough — a guy's got to have the whole kit and caboodle. Personality is part of that, but it sounds like you've got that covered. Girls are responding to your emails in a timely fashion and are interested in setting up dates. So where are you going wrong? Obviously, it's your photos. Some steps to take before you attach your next attachment:
1. Look as Good as You Can. Get a better haircut (hint: it should cost more than ten dollars), shave that mess on your chin and spend a few bucks on fashion rags. You don't need to run right out and buy that $300 tie you saw on page seventy-six, but you do need to get a feel for colors, fabrics and cuts. Even simpler: pick a man-crush and copy whatever he's wearing.
2. Take the Best Picture You Can. A successful personals picture is all about balance. You want candid, but not candid where you've got one hand on a girl and the other is holding a bottle of tequila. Clear and in-focus are a given, but you don't want it to be so close that the viewer can see every broken capillary. Send her more than one photo if you like, but not an entire collection. You're not auditioning to be a Barbizon model.
3. Find Someone to Tear it Apart. We've already established that you're not the best judge of your photos. That's why you need to do what celebs do: recruit some outside help. Get several of your best shots, and ask your friends and family to rank them. Use only the top ones. You can also post photos anonymously on a forum and ask strangers for their opinion. The upside is more privacy, the downside is the majority of feedback will be from thirteen-year-old trolls. If you're lucky (and have a strong ego), you may get some useful advice.

Dear Smash-Up,
Sorry, but you don't. You leave him alone. When someone adopts a formal tone, it's because they think you're a psycho. Now, I know you're not a psycho, but you know what's psychotic behavior? Repeatedly contacting someone when they want you to stop.
I understand your desire to make amends. It's humiliating to know that a sloppy pickup attempt is the last impression he has of you. You might also believe that if you and he become palsy-walsy, you'll have another shot at winning his love. Wrong. If a guy's really into you, he's going to say yes no matter how you asked him out. I found myself in a similar scenario in college. I drunkenly hit on a bartender I had a crush on and woke up thinking I had blown it (the date, not the bartender). The next day he came by my work to ask me out. I still remember the exact moment — I was in my fast-food uniform, loading half-eaten cheeseburgers into a dumpster.
An active contempt for another individual requires quite a bit of effort to maintain. If you leave this fellow totally alone (for, say, six months), it's likely he'll be more friendly the next time you see him. If not, fuck it. The only person who got along with everyone was Mister Rogers, and half of his friends were puppets. Some relationships were never meant to be.  n°