Occasional Jots and Tittles

I hate being snarky. OK, I obviously don’t completely hate it, since I do it often enough, but I don’t really like myself as much when I am. Still, every once in a while I have to vent and I guess it’s better to do it here than at the object of my, well, snarkiness.

One of the good things about the Internet and all the profusion of socializing (a broadly applicable term) sites is that it enables people who can be shy in public to open up a bit and talk with strangers, something they might never do in person. Still, online or off, I think certain customs should be observed. Most sites allow a user to bookmark certain profiles of people you find hot interesting, which is fine. Many sites also allow you to tag “friends”, which is a reciprocal action; if I tag you as a friend, and you accept that tag, then each of us is listed as the other’s friend. If it’s not accepted, then… it doesn’t show on either profile.

So I keep the lists separately. The people on my “friends” list are people I’m friends with – usually offline, though for long-term online friendships I’ve certainly made exceptions. My bookmark/hot list, on sites that allow such, are separate. As they should be. And I make it clear in my profiles, on sites with “friend” type lists, that if you don’t know me already, and you’ve never even said hello online, and I get a “friend” request from you… it’s likely to be ignored or returned with a “Who the hell are you?” note. And yet I get them, over and over. Obviously, it’s people who’ve looked at part of my profile (my pictures? surely not) and didn’t bother to read most of it.

I swear, the next one that does that, I’m going to go off on.

Still, it pales in comparison to the cheekiness I had yesterday. One such “social” site allows you to sign a member’s “guestbook” with one of several pre-selected comments (I like you, you’re hot, you’re handsome, etc.). It’s a nice way to halfway introduce yourself to someone, and if the person you tag wishes, he can either sign your guestbook in return, or initiate a real conversation (or just say thank you). This one said (first words, I swear): “I’m a competitive bodybuilder, looking for sponsors. Interested?”

Leaving aside the vaguely whore-like aspects of asking people who think you’re hot to pay you money, since when did the expense of his hobbies become my concern? I know taking all those steriods supplements gets expensive, but then, whose hobbies don’t? I’m a birder; a good pair of Swarovski binoculars would set me back about $1,700. A nice Leica Televid spotting scope is another $4,000. A decent, lightweight but solid tripod and head? Add in $600 or so. And like Mr. Muscleboy, birding involves travel, so add in all those travel expenses too.

I don’t go around asking for contributions to the optics fund, and honestly I’m appalled at the gall he had in asking… but then, I guess, there are people with gall out there and some of them get what they’re looking for. I guess that’s what separates the whores from the rest of us.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 at 6:53 pm and is filed under Being Me, Random Bitching, Snarky. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.