So you've been sitting next to this interesting looking person, and have been wracking your brain for a way to get the conversation-ball rolling. Perhaps you've thought up a few ideas but you're too nervous to give it a try, or you're sure your pitch will lay flat as a dead, rotting fish between the two of you. Read on for some excellent conversation starters!

There's always the straight-forward approach. "Hi there! My name is Stelmyra." This works well for some people, others not so much. The key to this is to have something in mind to begin with after the introduction. Something like "where are you from?" or "I noticed you reading such and such book and I just had to know how you like it so far".

A more common approach would be to point out the weather or the local news. The latter usually keeps a conversation going longer than the former. Both are very easy to talk about but generally, neither will last long.

My favorite conversation-starter would be whatever gets the other person talking about themselves. For instance, something like "oh wow I love your earrings" and "where did you get them" may yield a very interesting story about the individual. This is the best strategy due to the fact that a person knows the subject of themselves better than anyone else. Whereas if you were to mention something that happened on the local news, they might not have heard of it and may not be at all interested, and thus the conversation would fall flat on its face. Also, a straight out compliment like that works to soften the person up for further conversation.

Another good way to get the ball rolling would be to ask a question. "What are you reading?" or "why aren't you bowling?"

For men, refrain from complimenting a (strange) girl's clothing if it's revealing. I know it may seem like a double standard, but it may sound a little sleevy if you pointed to a girls low cut shirt and said "nice shirt".