It's 50!

50 posts and still going strong. At least I think so. With my subprofile, I could always tell who had read it and how often they had read it, more or less. With this, I have no idea who/if anyone is reading. Blogger does keep track of how many people have viewed my profile, and it currently stands at 32. However, the last time I checked that number, it was at 16, and before that, it had stayed at 8 for a while. So maybe the number just multiplies itself by 2 randomly. I don't care really, and I apologize for wasting time discussing administrative shit; wouldn't you know it's the beginning of a new quarter here in SB.

Anyways, here's a funny encounter I had over this dastardly continuum we call the Internet. On Tuesday night, I received an instant message from what I could only assume was a woman, whose screen name I'll keep anonymous because it seems like the righteous thing to do. Our conversation was as follows...

******** (8:56:22 PM): hi
ariSTAcRat (8:56:33 PM): hi
ariSTAcRat (8:56:36 PM): who's this?
******** (8:56:39 PM): hi
******** (8:56:51 PM): this is linda i saw you on match.com
ariSTAcRat (8:57:04 PM): no you didn't, because i'm not on match.com
******** (8:57:25 PM): yahoo sorry
ariSTAcRat (8:57:38 PM): not on yahoo either
ariSTAcRat (8:57:46 PM): try again
******** (8:58:35 PM): brb
ariSTAcRat (9:00:14 PM): well, i won't be here when you come back, and i'm not signed up on any online personal ad thing, so if that's who you think i am, you've got the wrong person
******** (9:00:39 PM): i sent you an e mail is that not you
******** (9:00:43 PM): ok you do not live in madison
ariSTAcRat (9:00:51 PM): nope, i live in California
******** (9:01:14 PM): sorry to have bothered you.. wowww thats weird..... really weird... ok take care.. bye

I checked my e-mail, and sure enough found one from said screen name, and sure enough it was titled "linda". In the e-mail, I found three lines of text -- "aristacrat" "45-year old" "Madison, AL, US" -- accompanied by this picture...



Now, there are a lot of follow-up questions I have coming out of this situation. First of all, what kind of strange online dating service has you communicate with someone by sending them their own information? [Turns out it's match.com, by the way.] If I actually were on match.com posing as a 45-year old from Alabama trying to meet women (I'm not, for the record, I swear), what am I supposed to think when potential hopefuls send me e-mails with my own picture, age, and city of residence? Very odd.

Furthermore, why is this pictured douchebag giving women my e-mail address? Does he think it's his or something? And if you're 45 years old, isn't "aristacrat" kind of an immature screen name to have? I came up with the name when I was like 13-14 years old, when the Internet was fairly new to most of the nation's youth and the whole blatant-misspelling-in-screen-names angle was kind of the norm. I've kept it for this long because changing it, just like changing cell phone numbers, would require me to inform everyone I know about it... and trust me, that'd take days! [Just kidding... unfortunately.] But when I reach adulthood, have a professional job, and say, am trying to meet women, I doubt that telling people that my e-mail address is aristacrat@aol.com would get me much respect from them, and from myself for that matter.

Other questions I have are, "How nasty is this 'Linda' lady that she's lowering her standards so much?", "Is this some new sort of AIM spam/virus phenomenon?", "How the fuck did I get involved in this?", and "Look at that dude's hair!" [That last one isn't really a question... but seriously, look at it.] I'm sure there are logical answers to all these questions, but honestly, I don't want to know 'em. I'd just like to put this whole ordeal behind me, never talk about it beyond this post, and most importantly, never see this face again.



Except when I want to laugh...

... which is right now.