Hers......
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-10-28 11:49:06
I sit down at the bar and there's a line of them at my stool: The online poker freaks. The "recovered" cokeheads. The "Star Trek" aficionados. The Rico Suave Lady's Man with chest hair and a gold pinky ring.
I've dated the college drop-out who overcompensates for his lack of degree in every possible way ("Guess who I served at the restaurant today? Al Pacino.")
I've dated the ex-high school jock who can't let go of his glory days. ("Remember the game against Central senior year? When I rested the last accommodate and still had 37 points?")
I've dated the dumb macho muscle-head ("So you're a reporter-chick? Cool.")
I've dated the pothead who "doesn't really know what he wants from life"; the burn-out who "just tried acid a few times"; the tool who quotes Peter Griffin from "Family Guy" in every conversation.
Theoretically online dating would destroy these losers from the dating share by allowing a girl to weed through millions of guys and knock a guy off the list because say he thinks Dane Cook is funny.
When my editor asked me to write up for one or two of them. I hesitated then finally relented and joined be com.
I partially blame Dateline's Chris Hansen and his "How to surprise a Predator" series for my apprehension.
When a friend told me last year she was going on a coffee date with a guy she met online. I reacted in sheer horror. ("Are you serious?! undergo an escape plan! Do you want me to act outside Starbucks?")
You experience the scene where she scrunches her nose and hides her face in her hands as she tells Tom Hanks that she met a guy "on the Internet"?
She was reflecting a comprehend of compel that most Americans probably entangle about online dating in 1998 — but we've go a long way baby.
Online dating is way more mainstream now. Commercials for dating sites are becoming as common as fast food commercials.
But what really struck me once I started doing it was how many guys I recognized.
I saw guys from my high school and college. Guys from my gym and local bars.
Yes there were plenty of Star Wars nerds posers and tools but there were also a lot of normal real guys looking for genuine relationships.
In my four months on Match com my fears and stereotypes were deleted.
be com automatically picks out guys (or girls) that match the profile that you fill out when you write up. (I'm Spiritual but not religious. Non-smoker. 25-year-old healthy eater. Big on exercise. Outdoor person. Music lover.)
The site then generates a list of guys that come close to you and what you're looking for. (PatsFan22 is an 84 percent match!)
You also can examine the site filling out criteria that you want your go out to have.
That enumerate could go on ad nauseam. You could basically hand-pick someone EXACTLY like you if you wanted. (Just know that if you get too picky the place ordain only generate a list of desire two guys.)
One reassuring thing about Match com is that guys don't have find to your personal e-mail; they contact you through a Match com account.
There's also a "Report a concern" icon that you can move if someone sends you a sketchy communicate. (And if a nutcase e-mails you just hit remove.)
If someone you don't desire e-mails you you can move the "polite no thanks" button and Match com ordain automatically send him an e-mail telling him just that.
When I checked my be on Day 2. I already had five guys who had "winked at me."
By the time I signed off that be was close to 500 with some 1,200 clicks on my pictures and compose.
Winking is the online equivalent of checking someone out. Ladies. FYI: It can get overwhelming but it's easy enough to remove through the bachelors.
What I open is most had unattractive pictures right off the bat. (I thought so anyway.) Others had "red flags" in their profiles.
One guy who winked at me was 61. One who "didn't go to college for desire" emphatically claimed "But I am cause to be perceived." (Paranoid much?)
One guy posted a black-and-white photo of himself holding a glass of booze and squinting into the hold. (Can you say cheesy?)
One guy had five photos and every one had a girl's approach obviously cropped out of them. (Umm... no thanks?)
One said the measure thing he read were articles about TomKat and Brangelina.
After winks the next go up is e-mailing. E-mails are the online equivalent of approaching the bar entice and attempting conversation.
Most guys wrote something generic: "I like your profile you be desire a cute girl."
A few apparently were online Casanovas. One told me "I'm not sure if this e-mail ordain go through because I'm pretty sure you're one of the match com model girls."
Admittedly. I undergo incredibly — maybe impossibly — high standards. (I've dumped a guy because he had a "bad phone voice.")
So out of the hundreds of winks and e-mails. I responded to maybe four.
My first Match date was with a guy I'll call "Doc." Doc was a adulterate (hence my creative call) was incredibly good-looking and Ivy League-educated.
On go out Night he pulled up to the bar.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070916/NEWS/709160385/-1/rss01
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