Meh.

[ABBAKiss]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
Cat-loving spinsters who want to fuck married men with children.

This is among the most depressing sentence fragments ever written.

[ABBAKiss]

Originally posted by Sparklehorse
insulting a la GWNC's experience.

I missed this -- Cliff's notes?

[Not Bob]

Originally posted by ABBAKiss
This is among the most depressing sentence fragments ever written.

Not if you're Gatti.

[bold_n_brazen]

Originally posted by Sparklehorse
I definitely cut things off at the email or phone stage with guys who looked attractive to me but I could tell were not personality matches for me. It's very not-fun for me to waste time out on a date with someone I find utterly boring, or cheap and insulting a la GWNC's experience.

I also had trouble with guys with punctuation or spelling issues.

My mother declared me "impossible".

[ltl/fb]

Originally posted by Not Bob
Not if you're Gatti.

I should have said "Cat-loving spinsters who want to fuck married men who have children." The way it was phrased originally, the spinster might be using a child as a dildo, or something.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by ABBAKiss
This is among the most depressing sentence fragments ever written.

Gattigap was hoping it was a well-stocked special interest group.

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by bold_n_brazen
But the truth is, you only really look at the pictures, and make all your decisions that way. Or at least, that's what I used to do.

I know a lot of gay guys who use these services for casual hookups, though I think now that craigslist has spread across the land, there's no need for match.com anymore for that particular purpose. I know a lot of people who use Friendster and MySpace for similar purposes.

I once got into a conversation with my brother about how weird I found it that people would go out with someone that they never met before from the internet. He sort of arched his eyebrow at me (but didn't ultimately end up shooting water or nerf footballs at me), and pointed out my internet-dating history.

I still think it's a bit different to go out with someone from an internet community than an internet match service. There's a community vetting process, the opportunity to sort of get to know that person a little, and theoretically people act more like themselves places like here and my old Buffy Board than they do when they're trying to sell themselves. I've probably met a good hundred or so people in real life from various internet communities, and no one has really surprised or shocked me or turned out different than how they represented themselves. The same was not the case for a lot of internet dating stories that I've heard.

BUT, the couple that I performed the wedding ceremony for on New Year's met on match.com. They're very happy and perfect for one another.

Totally unrelated: A test call using this service (warning: sound) has been ordered. I'll report the results as soon as we hear back from the field.

[Sparklehorse]

Originally posted by bold_n_brazen
I also had trouble with guys with punctuation or spelling issues.

My mother declared me "impossible".

Here's a good example of a not-fun date experience -- a guy who went by "Boe." When I asked him about his name, he told me that when he was in high school, a girl he liked called her his "Beauregard" because she found him so handsome. (He was decidedly average, in my opinion.) So he'd used the nickname ever since. This all made me cringe and yet I still foolishly accepted a date with him. We had a mildly painful dinner and parted amicably. He called me no less than 5 times that same night, to make sure I got home okay, and to ask if I wanted to get together the next day since I'd stupidly made small talk and asked him what he was doing over the weekend when we said parted company. I did not answer the phone since I was actually busy. Fortunately, he decided from that that we weren't meant to be.

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by bold_n_brazen
I also had trouble with guys with punctuation or spelling issues.

My mother declared me "impossible".

Heh. I used to cut and paste e-mails from the guys and put them on my blog for dissection by my friends. You'd think that more people would pay attention to basic grammar on a first e-mail.

Now that I think about it, that was the best part of the whole thing.

[Sparklehorse]

Originally posted by ABBAKiss
I missed this -- Cliff's notes?

GWNC mentioned earlier in the day so you should be able to find if you scroll back a few pages.

[Flinty_McFlint]

Originally posted by Sparklehorse
Here's a good example of a not-fun date experience -- a guy who went by "Boe." When I asked him about his name, he told me that when he was in high school, a girl he liked called her his "Beauregard" because she found him so handsome. (He was decidedly average, in my opinion.) So he'd used the nickname ever since. This all made me cringe and yet I still foolishly accepted a date with him. We had a mildly painful dinner and parted amicably. He called me no less than 5 times that same night, to make sure I got home okay, and to ask if I wanted to get together the next day since I'd stupidly made small talk and asked him what he was doing over the weekend when we said parted company. I did not answer the phone since I was actually busy. Fortunately, he decided from that that we weren't meant to be.

All I have to say is that it was pretty rude for you to order the lobster if you didn't want to put out. And I only called twice.

[Jack Manfred]

What does everyone want for Christmas?

I want an ipod.

[baltassoc]

Originally posted by Not Bob
A quick google search revealed the following: http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/...tm?POE=LIFISVA

• Matches on eHarmony are based on "29 areas of compatibility" developed by founder Neil Clark Warren.
  
  A marriage will likely thrive if couples share at least 10 of these key personality traits and habits, from curiosity and industriousness to ambition, traditionalism and feelings about children, Warren says.
  
  His favorite dimension is adaptability, which he says is crucial for the survival of a long-term relationship. For instance, Warren says his wife, Marylyn, became much more liberal late in life, and he became an Internet entrepreneur. But he says they're adaptable, so he's rethinking some of his positions and she came to work for eHarmony.
  
  The test is designed to reveal traits in ways users may not always recognize, Warren says. The system is proprietary; he will not reveal exactly how the 29 dimensions are used to match people.

Before finding someone through an alternate Internet dating service, I filled out the eHarmony questionaire to see what it was like, as well as the Yahoo! one.

The Yahoo one has all sorts of questions about age, height, weight, religion, kids, location, interests, both for you and your prospective mate.

eHarmony has a lot of that too, plus a lot of questions that really resemble the Myers-Briggs tests, with a lot of concentration on how you resolve conflicts, what kind of social interaction you like, and what one is looking for (in generic terms) sexually - i.e., someone who is agressive, or less interested overall.

Yahoo took about 10 minutes to fill out, eHarmony more like an hour. I never got around to responding to any "matches" on eHarmony, but several sounded not completely off the wall.

I think Match is more like Yahoo.

Originally posted by greatwhitenorthchick
Yes I do. I don't care about spoilers.

Ok. Here goes:

Lucius Vorinus, having become a popular hero after rescuing Pullo from the arena, is made a Senator by Caesar (as a part of Caesar's plan to stack the Senate with Kelts, Gauls and Plebs loyal to him). Caesar also thinks having such a legendary fighter around will discourage Cicero and the little band of plotters he knows are out to get him. Pullo wakes up in a hospital outside Rome, finds out he's famous and goes back to the city in search of poon. He collapses halfway there and ends up a Vorinus's house, where Irenie (the freed slavegirl whose boyfriend Pullo killed) nearly slits his throat -- but can't bring herself to do it (which struck me as slightly bullshit). Pullo sets out trying to win Irenie back over.

Brutus, Cicero and the other plotters are now ready to strike, but don't want to kill Vorinus due to his popularity. Then Brutus's maw (Servilia) remembers that her lesbian girl toy told her Vorinus's wife is a hobag slut and her dastardly plan is hatched. Servilia invites Attia to her house on the day that Caesar assembles the new Senate for the first time and has the pleasure of explaining what is happening while it's still going on. She tells Attia she will make her suffer, etc., and it's a bitch-off we haven't seen since the glory days of Dynasty.

Meanwhile, as Caesar, Vorinus and the entourage are making their way through the forum to the Senate, Servilia's slave calls out to Vorinus and whispers in his ear. His brown darkens (he's got a very good brow for darkening) and he strides off home before Caesar realizes he's gone. Caesar enters the Senate and is set upon by the plotters, with Brutus the last, reluctant stabber. Sic semper etc. Caesar does a bit of twitching and that's that.

Back at Vorinus's house, he confronts his wife in a rage and she admits the dirty deed. Vorinus slumps at the table, toying with a breadknife. Kill her? Kill himself? Kill the kids, too? His wife, seeing the state he's in, backs slowly to the balcony rail and tells him not to blame the boy before pitching herself over backwards and breaking her neck in the courtyard below. Vorinus runs to her and clutches her lifeless body, sobbing as the boy looks on. And that's that for the Vorinus family.

Last scene is Pullo and Irenie walking through the countryside hand in hand, which struck me as utter and complete bullshit. The finale was a bit of letdown all told, except for the suicide bit, which I did not see coming. But then I'm slow.

[bold_n_brazen]

Originally posted by Sparklehorse
Here's a good example of a not-fun date experience -- a guy who went by "Boe." When I asked him about his name, he told me that when he was in high school, a girl he liked called her his "Beauregard" because she found him so handsome. (He was decidedly average, in my opinion.) So he'd used the nickname ever since. This all made me cringe and yet I still foolishly accepted a date with him. We had a mildly painful dinner and parted amicably. He called me no less than 5 times that same night, to make sure I got home okay, and to ask if I wanted to get together the next day since I'd stupidly made small talk and asked him what he was doing over the weekend when we said parted company. I did not answer the phone since I was actually busy. Fortunately, he decided from that that we weren't meant to be.

I once went on a blind date with a man who sent me an email the next morning that read "I just can't stop thinking about your beautiful breasts." I declined to take his phone calls after that.