Ever Notice How....
 

....Stupid a Screen Name Really Can Be?

And here I was thinking that the customized license plate topped the list for "I really can't believe this shit".  There are a couple of issues here, the most significant of which would be understandability by the average reader.  Just because you made it up does not mean that the person at the other end has the code card needed to decipher it hence I find my self staring sideways at the computer asking myself "what the f**k does that say?" alot.  Which brings us directly to the next problem which is sociability, have you seen some of the names people are using, sure you have, if your kid brought home a note from his kindergarten teacher signed "freakylatexchik69" what would you do, thought so!!! resulting in even more time spent staring at the screen thinking just exactly what could I want to talk to "nipplechain666" about anyway?  And alas there is the identity thing do you really want to be known to the world as "flashing4fungurl", go ahead put that on your drivers license application next time you are at the DMV, didn't think so.  As for our screen names, what you see is what you get, sorry, like it or not those names are on our birth certificates, we have to live with them and so do you!

....How Gender Imbalanced The Net Really Is?  (Corollary:  Guys really get screwed over in the way of chat)

kinda like a bad singles bar on a Saturday night actually, there's about 100 perverted wacko guys to each girl on the net, and here's the end result in a nutshell:
 

1 -- Much like in real life the lady has the say in whether an introduction will be successful or not.  Every time a man approaches a woman he is faced with the very real possibility of immediate rejection because as we all know he is acting in desperation seeking any form of female contact however if she says "no" she already has ten more guys in line wanting to talk to her. This is evidenced by the fact that on my chat lists you will find the ten or fifteen ladies that I have managed to develop a friendship with over the past few years (otherwise know as the one's who actually stuck around past that first "hello" message I sent) and on my wife's lists you will find the hundred or so guys that messaged her in the past week.

2 -- As a guy you see some of the rudest behavior known to the human race (this is directed mainly at about 95% of the users on ICUII...and a few others in the general population of the net).  We have several chat profiles that identify both of us together, ICUII (a video chat program) being one of them, and again the only incoming messages we get are from guys -- all wanting to chat with her, this is even true of the few couples that message us. as soon as they receive a return message or see video that shows only me (because she's at work, or even in the other room) the conversation gets cut of without so much as "sorry, good bye" .  We, that is one or both of us , will gladly talk to anyone who is of legal age about any topic in the universe  but if all you stopped in for is a glimpse of her naked or cybersex with her and you are incapable of carrying out a conversation with me  then I sincerely hope that you and your one track mind quickly terminate your existence on this planet because you are consuming oxygen that someone with a fully functional brain may actually need someday, good riddance, oh and by the way, some food for thought, she does see the list of all the people who act asinine toward me when I am here by myself so when she is here and in the mood to play around you've already wasted your opportunity.

3 -- Virtually as far back as I can remember the women's' movement has been crying and complaining about how men have stereotyped women as sexual objects and how all men see them as only capable of being mothers and housewives, well the internet has provided them and every other woman on planet earth with the ideal opportunity for retaliation.  The reason I say this is because I am now an involuntary member of a group classified as lecherous, perverted guys on the internet who do nothing but seek out women on the internet for cybersex and swapping dirty pictures, and despite every attempt I have ever made to disassociate myself from that group I still get treated that way every time I log my computer onto the internet. For the record here I am a staunch supporter of equality in the workplace and society in general, I do not now nor have I ever felt that women are meant to be only housewives and mothers or sexual objects, and when I try to initiate a conversation with a lady on the net, it is simply for that conversation, I will never send you an unsolicited dirty picture nor will I ask for one. That's not to say though that I don't enjoy some fun and games every once in awhile too.

Most of us have spent years studying our language to learn proper diction and grammar, punctuation and spelling, conjugation of verbs and proper formation of thought, etc., only to completely ignore our learning in favor of the "instant message"  full of abbreviations, no capitalization or punctuation and thoughts that nobody including yourself can actually understand the true meaning of. Just a observation, we're just as guilty as anyone of this.
 

We have always put a great deal of thought into the information that others have access to on the web, from our chat profiles, to personal ads, and we've even gone so far as to put together this web site so that we seem more sociable and easy to get along with and to save others from wasting their time and ours by letting them make informed decisions whether they would like to message or email us. Despite that we always get that one, you know him/her, that asks "how old are you?" because they really don't know how to pull up a user profile, or the one that no matter how many times you tell them "we don't give out that information" thinks that they are that one individual on on planet earth worthy of an exception to that. Read on, this is a self expounding problem.

....Anonymity Breeds Stupidity?

People have taken great comfort in the fact that because they feel a sense of anonymity sitting at a computer terminal looking at the world through a chat window they are excused from the simple rules of etiquette and decency that one would expect from another human being, such as the lost art of starting a conversation with "Hello" and a simple introduction rather than an asinine comment or X-rated photograph.  This goes hand-in-hand with being to cowardly to at least cough up some basic biographical data in a user profile, you know, the little things that make holding a conversation a little easier such as how old you are and what interests you in the way of hobbies...don't sweat it nobody will  ever be able to pick you out of a crowded restaurant because you are  a 31 year old divorced mother who likes to ride horses but it sure does make talking to you alot easier.
 

....How Many People Really Believe that "the Internet" and "AOL" are synonymous (Corollary: AOL is the only chat server on the net)

One word:  Horsesh*t!!!  there is so much on the net that you can't even experience if you are using AOL as an ISP (that's Internet Service Provider for the illiterates among us). The internet actually existed in the days prior to AOL and there was even a time when you could get on the net using DOS instead of Windows.  In fact back in the day we had these things known as BBS's (Bulletin Board Servers) that were around when the Commodore 64 was the hottest selling computer.  AOL is simply a proprietary  corporation that has oversimplified the internet to a point where anyone ... and I do mean anyone ... can use it.  Therefore you find some really technologically challenged individuals on the net via AOL.  One day these folks will actually realize what they are missing and that you can actually expect SERVICE from you internet SERVICE provider.  Here's why this is a problem, despite what they believe AOL users don't quite fit correctly on the internet, since everything they interface on the net with is proprietary mundane little tasks such as email and exchanging files through FTP (File Transfer Protocol) become exasperating chores for two reasons, first you have to circumvent their proprietary software to get it done and second you have to try talking the AOL user at the other end through the mechanics of what they need to do to circumvent their software.  Basically it can all be summed up as ARGH!, take the hint, when you have to plan getting on the net around peak server times and it takes 15 dialing attempts to get through you probably have sh*tty internet service, time to change even if it means learning how to use a computer first.