epistemologue

Reminds me of this article I saw:
 
http://www.glennbeck.com/2014/09/17/why-does-glenn-think-he-could-be-out-of-business-in-two-years/
 

I don't use any terms related to determinism. It is a word that creates many problems of connotation. There's causality, that's as far as I go. Things are "determined" in that what happens is necessarily going to happen. By the information I've taken in perceptually and that there is a method - abstractly speaking - always used to make a choice as I did, I will end up making a decision. Things are "nondetermined" in that a decision is not a domino-effect of events. As an active process, decision making needs to be abstracted away from the physical mechanisms. 
 
There is no special causality, or special identity, or special existence. Binswanger is inventing a new metaphysical principle to suggest that some things don't operate along normal causal laws, and that as an irreducible primary, it can act on matter as non-matter, and itself does things matter cannot. So he's a substance dualist just like Descartes, where we're left wondering how this unique non-physical mind interacts with the physical body.
 
I haven't read the book, to be clear, but so far I see no value in doing so.

That's called magic. You have said here that consciousness is a SPECIAL SUBSTANCE with an identity of SPECIAL CAUSALITY to ALL of existence. This isn't just saying consciousness is a complex phenomena that cannot be analyzed via physics alone, it's saying consciousness exists in its own SPECIAL realm. I am using caps to emphasize that Binswanger is a dualist that is just as bad as any other dualist. Binswanger seems to think there is a correct version of dualism. Nothing initiates actions on its own accord, as causality happening isn't up to anyone. I don't decide to initiate the causal events happening. 

"who they are" is not metaphysically given - it's man made. It could be anything else. A person's philosophy, their premises, and their beliefs can change, and with it their volitional choice of actions, and eventually changes to their emotions and sense of life will follow, too. Do not accept this psychological determinism that "who you are" is metaphysically given - this is the furthest thing from the truth in Objectivism and in reality.

The number of people out there who hold your values and are compatible with you is not a fixed piece of pie to be divided like the socialists' view of the economy. This is not a zero-sum game. Just like you have an unlimited capacity to create values in reality and to grow the economy, so too is there an unlimited capacity to convert people to a rational value system and healthy psychology. 
 
Seek the best you can find and help them to reach their potential. You can create all the values you want in life, including romantic values.
 
As an aside I would point out that submissiveness in women, as a feature of femininity, should be attractive. Masculinity in men and femininity in women is fundamental to human esthetic beauty and physical attraction.

So much this!
 
There is no need to sacrifice your pickiness OP, it sounds like your head is in the right place in that sense. 
 
If you are seriously "rejecting dozens of offers" it sounds like you are doing something wrong - introduce them to Objectivism! Talk about the things you value, convince them that you are right and that they should have the same standards and values that you do. Start the right conversations - and stick with them! You can have *everything* you want. Just believe it and stick to it. You will get there!

Harry Potter and The Methods of Rationality

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_Methods_of_Rationality

I can't overstate how awesome and useful it is.

Not depressing. We americans love our guns

I found the first movie to be extremely awful to the point of being offensive and insulting. They took what I consider to be one of the greatest works of art ever created, if not the greatest, and turned it to some mean little ripped off political piece, and a very poorly done one at that. This kind of book deserves the very best, but this was just a cheap little rip off done with complete disrespect to the book.