Randomness

So I get this email the other day for a single parent dating website. I've used online dating in the past and generally had pretty good results. I met my last fiancee on matchmaker. Granted she ripped my heart out after 3 years, stomped on it, then became a lesbian...but I did meet her online. Anyway I figured I'd check it out. Of course they want what I consider to be too much money for a membership, and looking through profiles lots of people in my match results hadn't logged into the site for over a month. Not a good sign, and definitely not sweetening the pot as far as convincing me to join up goes.

But as I was looking through some profiles I remembered back to the days when I had done this before and some things haven't changed at all. Most of the weird things I notice revolve around photographs uploaded onto profiles, but there's some other stuff too. Before I begin my observations, keep in mind that in no way do I consider myself to be Hollywood material. I'm pretty realistic about how I look and what I bring to the table. Remember that as I begin this list of observations so I don't come across as hypocritical. :)

1) A postive self image is terrific, but don't cross over into delusional please. I see a lot of women (and again I'm sure men do this too) that list their body types as either "average" or "athletic", when in reality they're a female version of me, physically, if their pictures are at all accurate. They also list themselves as "good looking" or "very attractive" when...well, not so much. And that last category really is subjective I realize, but even then there are some standards I think most people adhere to. The part of this that really annoys me is when women look down on guys who are bigger when in reality they're just as big, however they don't accept this about themselves and reject guys based on a few extra pounds. And yeah, there's a story there I'm not going into right now lol. And for the record I like "bigger"...not sure if you'd call it voluptous or whatever, but I've got an appreciation for a few extra pounds. :)

2) Unrelated pics. Most of these sites will allow you to post multiple pictures for your profiles. I usually just put up one, maybe 2 if I have a decent second pic. But some people use up as many of their photos that they're allowed as they can with random shots of places they've visited or cars they liked at a car show. I mean, really? Maybe its just me but I'd rather see pics of that person instead of 1 semi-focused head shot and 17 pics of a lake from 17 different angles.

3) Pet pics. I love my pet as much as anyone, but I'm not putting a pic of Kitty on a dating site. Well, maybe I would. But just one. I really would rather not sift through 8 pictures of dogs in between one out of focus head shot. Kind of related to the last observation, I guess

4) Other guys in the pics. I'm not talking about group shots, I'm talking about pictures of you draped all over some guy or vice versa. And I really don't care if the caption says "my best friend Bob" or even "my brother", cause you're just a little too physical there for comfort if that really is your brother (and in a bar no less!). Maybe its just insecurity on my part, but posting couple pics on a dating website just seems like a bit of a faux pas.

5) And speaking of bars, I am always fascinated by people who post a dozen pictures of themselves being lit up in a bar with their friends. Does that somehow look attractive to anyone? Thats most likely strictly a preference thing, but pouring through pictures of women acting up with giant beer cups in their hands doesn't really sweeten the deal for me.

6) This is probably the biggest one of them all, and its also picture related. Please, for the love of everything in the world, do NOT post pictures of your ultra-hot 20-something daughter who was just visiting from college. Do I even really need to explain why this is weird?

Anyway, those are just some thoughts I had while I was going through this website. I'm not going to bother spending money on it for the same reason I'm fundamentally opposed to picking up hookers. I refuse to spend money on something I could get for free with a bit of effort. :)