What is a gay man to do?

in a circular obsessive pointless funk leading me nowhere. How do I get into these? I get obsessed with wanting to find a hot guy, a hot date, just SOMEBODY to give me some HOPE that I'm going to end up SOLO through this crazy gay life. i don't know HOW to try to make it work, I don't know if i should STOP trying, where I should turn, how to give up, IF to give up. I am just fed up with ALL of it. What does a guy need to DO in this town to find a date? It's ridiculous that even HOOKING up doesn't work, so even if the latter outlet is totally FUCKED UP, it's not working anyhow.

So, in trying to look at this RATIONALLY, before just assuming that the gay dating scene in my town is DEAD to IMPOSSIBLE, I want to take a look at whether I truly have covered all my bases yet. First, Match.com profile searching. CHECK.  Sending regular casual, genuine emails CHECK.  Involving myself in gay-related activities around town, (SEMI-CHECK)... This venue I tried, but got frustrated and busy with work. Legitimate reasons to give it the ax.  Going to bars. (SEMI-CHECK). I tried frequenting a gay bar focused on western two-step gay dancing, and met some fun people, but felt UNCOMFORTABLE, even after going a few times. just NOT my scene.  Going to other random gay gars on my own (UNCHECK)... Haven't done this yet. Should I? This begs the question of whether I am sabatoging myself by not pushing my own boundaries.  Going to STR8 venues and just living my life. CHECK. Am doing this too, because I just enjoy being around different people, but it is not getting me very far with respect to finding intimacy.

I have no place to go and nothing else I can do at this point to CONTROL my destiny, which is extremely frustrating..... to know guys are out there, that have a LOT to offer,  but my means of putting myself out there are either LIMITED, or they are NOT working, which creates frustration, etc.. and not knowing where to turn AT ALL.

What other things could I do? Ask friends to set me up? Does that look desperate? Showing up at gay bars? Introducing myself to random people at gay-related events? Fuck, I don't know... Gay-related travel? Shit, I have no ideas.  Maybe I just have to focus on my other stuff while I think more about this. Maybe my next thing would be to show up to some of my Catholic events (where I noticed some gay people were around); maybe introduce myself to the theater folks who know Tina, and just explain that I'm trying to network and break into new scenes.  Maybe I should try being BOLD and BRAVE and just showing up to GAY bars.

Again, just looking at myself writing this, I appear desperate, which is another bad thing... because it ends up showing in my interactions, and is obviously a turn off.

What is a gay man to do in a town of perceivable deadends?