FROM SHINE.COM:

Ever wonder what happened when a fabulous guy you were beginning to date just stopped calling? “What broke the deal?” you ask yourself. You could go crazy with guessing, so we went to the guys themselves! And we got what we asked for regular guys who dished on what that “dealbreaker” was. Check out the top 5 —and the number-one thing a girl does that makes a guy never want to see her again.

5. Proper Hygiene: Ladies, ladies, we cannot emphasize enough the importance of proper hygiene. Several men told us that a gal’s not-so-fresh aroma drove them away. The men we interviewed said they got turned off by bad breath, dirty hair, ear wax, and ahem, a not-so-great smelling vagina. “On the second date, her breath just totally smelled. I tried to forget about it and took her out again, but on the third date – the same! I never called her again,” Paul, 31, from New York City, told us. So take that extra time to make sure you’re fresh and stock your handbag with a toothbrush, mints, baby wipes, and whatever you need to make sure your hygiene deserves an A+!

10 Things Women Forget To Do During Sex

4. Too Much Alcohol: Do not get drunk on a date! A glass of wine to relax the nerves, maybe, but getting totally sloshed on a date is a big no-no. The guys we interviewed did not find a drunk girl cute or funny, but actually used words like “messy” and “annoying” to describe gals who had one too many. A man we interviewed, Steve, from Los Angeles, said it was a girl’s drinking that made him walk away for good. “We dated for a few weeks and then one night we went out and had a great time, and I ended up sleeping over. I was very happy about the whole thing until I got up and she was making herself a cocktail at 8 a.m. I never spoke to her again.”

GET THE REST HERE

Have You Lost Yourself In Your Man?

Kareem,

Is it okay to make unannounced visits to my boyfriend’s house after not seeing or hearing from him for a certain period of time?

Kareem says,

I wonder how long you have not seen or heard from him? He’s not answering phone calls or emails? Have you heard from his friends or family? If not, I suggest going to his house. Maybe something is awry. But be mentally prepared to deal with whatever you may find. Good, Bad, or Ugly.

Dear Kareem: I’m A Divorced Mother Who Wants To Date

Dear Kareem: Why Won’t He Come Home?

Which made me think of another thing that is pointless: voicemail. Honestly, if I see your missed call, I will call you back. The only time it serves any purpose is if you are stating some sort of business, or if you are calling me for the very first time and I have no idea who you are. Voicemails are indeed becoming the equivalent to snail mail. But in all honesty, you might as well send me a letter before leaving me a voicemail.

The first thing I replied to were the BBMs, then the text messages, then I returned a couple of my missed calls, then checked my voicemails. But normally I do not check my voicemail unless it’s a business call. I have visual voicemail, so I can see via text message who left me a voicemail even when I have several missed calls.

Talking to my friends about voicemails, they all say the same thing. They do not check theirs. Sitting in my dorm, I turned around from my laptop and just asked: “Who checks their voicemails?”

Their response included lots of groans and rolled eyes.

“I hate when people leave a voicemail to just call them back, and they don’t leave any type of information,” said 19-year-old Delana. She went on about how much time is wasted logging into her voicemail just to hear such a simple message.

“It’s too much work to call the voicemail number, enter the passcode, and sit there and listen to people not saying anything but to call them back,” added 20-year-old Caprice.

Today, there are countless ways to get in touch with someone. Between e-mails, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, text messages, and BlackBerry Messenger, voicemails are last on my last of things to check. They do not seem urgent enough, and often do not give me any type of information except to call the person back. Plus, I have more than one email account.

There have been lots of articles about “my generation” and how we don’t check our voicemails, and for once, something I read about us is true. This article fro the NY Times cited a study that said that

“91 percent of people under 30 respond to text messages within an hour, and they are four times more likely to respond to texts than to voice messages within minutes, according to a 2008 study for Sprint conducted by the Opinion Research Corporation. Even adults 30 and older are twice as likely to respond within minutes to a text than to a voice message.”

My voicemail is the last thing I want to check, especially when it takes so long to log in and you cannot seem to fast forward that operator voice that goes through the entire introduction of your voicemails: “You have 3 new voice messages, you have 5 saved voice messages. First voice message since today at 3:15 pm….” Most of the time I am sitting there counting the precious seconds passing by. But if that person would have emailed me I would have already be in the process of replying.

It’s funny how, in this day and age, I use my cell phone for everything else except what it should be used for. But oh well, sometimes talk is cheap.

Can you connect the old-school way?

Texting vs. talking: why doesn’t he call?!?!?!