Alia's Adventures in Illumination
Friday, November 23, 2007
Post-Thanksgiving, 07
So I did not do a damn thing for Thanksgiving. Okay, I cooked food for myself. Lamb chops and zucchini, if you must know. But I went nowhere, saw no one. I meant to read papers, but i didn't even do that. Just read, and screwed around with my profiles on all these various communities I've joined (and today I screwed around with this blog, changing the colors and whatnot; and now that I've procrastinated for over an hour refining the settings, I thought I better actually write something - which is what you are currently reading).
And by gosh, I noticed something about MySpace!
It started simply enough. I put up a new picture (actually this was Wednesday, but who's counting?). It's just my face, and it's a nice picture. I cropped it out of a performance shot Carl Sermon took at Rakkasah. I thought it looked friendly and cheerful. Apparently it does.
Within hours, the friend invitations started arriving. I think I got 10 in less than 24 hours. All from men (except one spammy one advertising a business). All professed either undying love or at least momentary lust - including those from a 70-something who identified himself as "horny" and some kid who asked if I spit or swallowed. I guess romance is not dead.
Now, I had already been on MySpace for over a month, and no one had noticed me except for a belly dancer buddy or two and my own kids. So the question is, What the hell? Is there someplace you can view newly uploaded pics? Is this a popular pastime of which I was previously unaware? Where do these people come from? Yeesh!
The worst of it is, it was such an unappetizing plague that it meant I really couldn't in good conscience reply to the couple of genuinely intriguing ones, like the hot guy from the Netherlands with the private profile. Okay, not really - the sum total of his message was "sexy, love." Or the guy who identifies himself with only a pic of his remarkably muscled torso, all of whose "friends" seem to be women in bondage lingerie. Again, just kidding; I wouldn't have written him back, but I'll probably lurk on some of his tribes, just out of abject curiosity.
It died down after that. It must be just the new day's pics. My son confirmed that it is a nice, flirty pic ("You do look like you'd like to get laid," is what he actually said).
My daughter said, "What exactly is it that you want out of MySpace? Because that picture really looks like the kind of picture all the party girls post. Think of your target market." Then she showed me how the Browse function works and how recently updated sites can be targeted.
What's really funny is, one of the reasons I changed the pic was so I could be friends with some young people I know and they wouldn't have to have this sexy pic for all their teenage frinds to look at and misapprehend. How incredibly ironic that the pic I thought was so innocent and sweet is the party-girl pic!
"That other pic is really professional, Mom. Put it back," she said.
So I did.
And by gosh, I noticed something about MySpace!
It started simply enough. I put up a new picture (actually this was Wednesday, but who's counting?). It's just my face, and it's a nice picture. I cropped it out of a performance shot Carl Sermon took at Rakkasah. I thought it looked friendly and cheerful. Apparently it does.
Within hours, the friend invitations started arriving. I think I got 10 in less than 24 hours. All from men (except one spammy one advertising a business). All professed either undying love or at least momentary lust - including those from a 70-something who identified himself as "horny" and some kid who asked if I spit or swallowed. I guess romance is not dead.
Now, I had already been on MySpace for over a month, and no one had noticed me except for a belly dancer buddy or two and my own kids. So the question is, What the hell? Is there someplace you can view newly uploaded pics? Is this a popular pastime of which I was previously unaware? Where do these people come from? Yeesh!
The worst of it is, it was such an unappetizing plague that it meant I really couldn't in good conscience reply to the couple of genuinely intriguing ones, like the hot guy from the Netherlands with the private profile. Okay, not really - the sum total of his message was "sexy, love." Or the guy who identifies himself with only a pic of his remarkably muscled torso, all of whose "friends" seem to be women in bondage lingerie. Again, just kidding; I wouldn't have written him back, but I'll probably lurk on some of his tribes, just out of abject curiosity.
It died down after that. It must be just the new day's pics. My son confirmed that it is a nice, flirty pic ("You do look like you'd like to get laid," is what he actually said).
My daughter said, "What exactly is it that you want out of MySpace? Because that picture really looks like the kind of picture all the party girls post. Think of your target market." Then she showed me how the Browse function works and how recently updated sites can be targeted.
What's really funny is, one of the reasons I changed the pic was so I could be friends with some young people I know and they wouldn't have to have this sexy pic for all their teenage frinds to look at and misapprehend. How incredibly ironic that the pic I thought was so innocent and sweet is the party-girl pic!
"That other pic is really professional, Mom. Put it back," she said.
So I did.
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