RNDP 23: More on Online

The Globe and Mail says people's financial troubles make online dating more appealing. Interestingly, back before the financial troubles, online dating was more appealing because hardworking people didn't have time for real life dating. What does this mean? It means that every time a journalist puts a profile on a dating site we can expect to get a story about how these services are growing.

SomeCards.com has line of e-cards tailored to online dating and ready for you to send to people you can't be bothered to buy a postage stamp for.

Two researchers from Indiana University have concluded that "eligible women express themselves better" than eligible men by studying text messages on Italy's real-time interactive music television channel Allmusic. The say, "it is the women who push their messages closest to the character-count limit, who use more abbreviations and insertions, and who implement more emoticons".

Their findings must be legitimate because they were expecting to find the opposite result.

Emergency Meeting Minutes: Next stop, Bulk Barn

Present: Aggie, The Chair, Conch Shell, Coyote, Fourth Dwarf, The Independent Observer, Woodsy.

Special Guests: Dishevelled Man, Harmony, La Belle Chanteuse, Painted Stick

Venue: The Somewhat Unusual Spot.

Once food and beverages are lustily consumed, the meeting comes to order.

Conch Shell and Painted Stick depart. Conch Shell assures Fourth Dwarf she will "probably" blog soon.

Coyote moves to hang sewage-splattered 4D out to dry.

4D: I thought there was a standing order to that effect.

Aggie and Woodsy make a joint joy-spreading proposal as an homage to Mae Callen: knitting items and leaving them around town. For instance, statues could be outfitted with earmuffs.

4D: On the evening of Sept. 18 or early Sept. 19, all statues could be dressed as pirates.

Coyote: How about a new product, Eau de Joy Perfume?

Woodsy asks The Chair, "What are you going to make?"

The Chair: (awaking from nap) Make what? Er, a coffin for the mayor.

Aggie: A coffin is too negative. We must brainstorm. There are are no bad ideas, except yours. Besides, two negatives don't make a positive.

4D asks Aggie, "Is this about ideas, or you getting your bon mots in the minutes?" He then asks The Chair if he plans to blog any time soon.

The Chair: Maybe. I haven't been inspired.

Aggie, Dishevelled Man, The Chair, Harmony and La Belle Chanteuse depart.

Woodsy confesses she is concerned about missing Project Runway Canada. She corrects herself, saying that actually 4D (redacted). She also declares that the waitress is a cutie, to the general agreement of the others.

4D suggests (redacted) may be our new muse. He notes that she writes with candour about her revolving-door bedroom escapades. Further, he cites a recent incident in which she described texting a friend about Mr. VIP's hydraulic problems, all while he was sorting out his mechanics during a timeout in the bathroom.

Coyote wonders if she has any clue that people are actually reading her blog.

IO: She may be a virtual exhibitionist.

Coyote: She is.

The IO then expresses concern the ESIs have stooped to pandering, making a tawdry burlesque of the blog by writing about cats and real estate simply because these are the subjects that draw the most visitors.

4D: We are not pandering enough! There's been nothing about real estate lately.

4D and Coyote suggest metablogging cat sites.

IO: I think this screams creative bankruptcy. To go from the 5M to four paws is simply wrong.

4D recalls that even the 5M blogged about kittens. He adds, "You have forgotten the heritage the 5M has left us."

The IO, clearly struggling to come up with anything better, suggests a series of Overheard segments, such as Overheard on OCTranspo.

There is agreement the blog is best when we play off of each other's posts.

IO: What about liveblogging?

Discussion turns to the techniques of liveblogger Kady O'Malley, a former 4D Blog Crush.

4D: We could each cover an event in our own way.

Coyote suggests taking the OTrain to Bulk Barn as an ESI field trip, after which we would each blog the event in our own way.

Woodsy declares that she would like to use the proposed field trip to buy the mayor a jockstrap. Indeed, this gives a whole new meaning to supporting the mayor.

As the meeting begins to wind down, Woodsy invites the others to stroke her unusually textured notebook. Without hesitation, they do.

Woodsy: I'm a very tactile person.

The ESIs agree, it's all about the senses.

The meeting is adjourned.

A heartfelt Valentine to our readers...

Beware ye faint of heart

Yes, it is that time again. When the anxiety-ridden among us prepare to spend a difficult night fraught with troubling memories.

I speak, of course, about Friday the 13th (as Coyote alluded in his intuitive post of earlier today).

Fear of this day is known as paraskavedekatriaphobia. And we better get used to this poysyllabic syndrome because there are three -- count 'em -- three Friday the 13ths this year. The next one is just a month away, in March, and we're haunted by the spectre of yet another in November.

Apparently fear of this fateful date affects millions of people. The U.S. Navy will not launch a ship on a Friday the 13th. And there are suggestions that accidents actually increase.

A survey by Richard Wiseman, noted in National Geographic, led the British psychologist to conclude that people who have negative feelings about Friday the 13th are likely to be more freaked out and therefore more likely to have mishaps.

In other words, we have nothing to fear but fear of each and every waking minute until midnight tonight.

Heart shaped world

On the eve of St. Valentine's Day, I am pleased that our inimitable Audrey continues her endless honeymoon. Her Top Ten Romantic Things list now stands at thirty items, and counting. She floats on a pink chiffon cloud wherever she goes, stylishly pink-clad feet barely touching the ground. I rather picture her wearing heart-shaped pink sunglasses on her (yes...) romantic trip to Jamaica. It suits her.

However, we coyotes' glowing yellow eyes see things that are not quite so uniformly tickety-boo with others. XUP may be pro - hard to tell, because she ain't dishing much personal - but there's a twist of asperity. Jo's buy-in seemed at one point to be coming and going in (dishwasher) cycles. Megan is bucketing along between righteous sistah militancy and feeling a little more ummn, disheartened. J is flirting with what Jo labels as one of the oldest standard guy "Plan B" lines going.

Now, we coyotes draw our semimythical mojo from cultures considered by some to be based on superstition, or magical thinking. So, we are wont to wonder if it may not have something to do with Valentine's Day chasing hot on the heels of Friday the 13th. What with that, and the big event residing not unadjacent to the scientifically-calculated crappiest day of the year, ya gotta ask if the vibes ain't clashing.

If it weren't for the mountains of chocolate that would go begging, I'd wonder if the whole day was worth... huh.

Woodsy just emailed me a SweeTart. Awww...! I know she hands 'em out to everybody like candy, but suddenly I feel, like, all sweet and warm and smooshy. Maybe even like taking another pre-diabetic look at Zoom's nuzzling kitties and fawns. Must be the tiny perfect sugar hit. Anyway, when that wears off, there's good eatin' at Zoom's blog...