What's the Hardest Part of Socializing?

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Having to initiate a conversation with someone I don't know/know very well. I'm okay going along with small talk, but I can't approach people very well at all, especially in groups.
I also can act strange if caught off guard. I can't always collect myself when surprised.

Meh, if anything, probably not saying anything stupid. Stopping and thinking. I don't tend to have as much trouble meeting people as I used to.

Grasping what the given person or group hates to hear before I blunder. It's always the other way round: I first blunder, then start noticing what they hate the most, and what they hate is invariably precisely what I said.

Trying to decide on a decent topic.

Socializing is so tiring.

My problem is that I, many times, do not understand what the other person is saying from the first time. I just have a hard time understanding without asking the other person to repeat himself.

My only interests are mainly 'kids stuff' like video/board gaming and anime/animation/tv.

I don't like any 'jock' stuff like sports, current popular music, drinking...

I feel like a kid who will never be accepted.

For me, it's a few things ... starting a conversation and keeping it going without one of those "uhh, yeah ... *awkward pause*..." moments are two big ones. Also I have the tendency to just not think properly and say something that sounds completely out of place. Then I realise I've said something stupid, and quickly loose self-confidence which makes it difficult to keep the conversation alive...

Then there's the Giggle Loop of course ... go to YouTube and search for "The Giggle Loop" to see what I'm talking about (I'd link to it, but I can't since I haven't made enough posts to be able to post links)

Initiating a conversation where I ask about themselves. Works for a while until the questions come back to me......akward silence....

The worst part of socializing for me is a large percentage of the time I have absolutely nothing to say to the person rather I'm initiating or participating in a conversation.

Then after it is done with I just want to spend time with myself, to regain energy.

Trying to avoid the awkward part where my mind just goes blank and neither of us have anything to say.

Keeping the conversation going

Visualizing people's faces - Unless I know a person for a while, I cannot visualize them in my head so I would recognize them the next time they said "Hi" to me in a hall.

What did you give up on?

The hardest part for me and i am still working on it was sarcasm and jokes especially with male friends like when guys would call me GAY or DOUCHE BAG ... i never realized it was a joking thing.

as for things to talk about ... read things like yahoo news, espn.com, and pop culture e.g. tv shows.

I have found more and more as these DC MARVEL movies comes out all i have to do is strike up a convo and suddenly i become the center of attention because of my insaine amound of geek dome in the dpt ... also a lot of people watch moves and tv ... that really is great.

as for convo starters ... observe what they are doing and then talk about it ... or in the case of women just give a compliment or make a joke about something ... like "How do you stand up? that necklace is HUGE" ... "only kidding, jeeze, you always this uptight?" ... girls love to be teased ... it is called playful bater. took me forever to realize that ...