Match.com (briefly)

Good morning, all,

Don't worry: no "outing" is about to occur. I was just amused, looking again at some "profiles" and seeing the best-ever sentence (of many, *many* weird ones):

"I was born at an early age."

This line comes from a former veteran London Times correspondent!

I've been far more active (read: have actually met a few men) in match.com here than in Washington. Starting last December, I met one Scot here in Leiden, but shortly thereafter, all of the Dutch match.com candidates disappeared, so I figured that there had to have been a discount for the holiday season. Who knows? Ian, the Scot, has remained a friend. We check in every couple of months, having coffee and comparing life notes. His American friend is moving here, so that's a happy story. He agreed, though, that it's rough out there. He said that lots of women only want what women think that men want. I can report that we all want companionship and fun.

And match.com is good for one's telecommunication skills! I've had lengthy conversations on "Skype" (coupled with a web camera, no less), learned to "text message" on my mobile phone, and recently learned how to "MSN Messenger", including firing off photos (which is FUN). I do realize that most people under the age of 40 knew all of this some time ago, but it's been a lot of fun learning it myself. And aside from a mere 19 Euros paid for the web cam, it's all been free, too.

My search focus has changed, from photos to the profile content. Of course, photos are the first step, but I move quickly to spelling, content and humor. The vast majority, sad to say, lack all of these three essentials. I used to eliminate profiles with even minor spelling issues. However, that makes for a tiny pool (many people seem to be nearly illiterate), so am now far more tolerant. There do seem to be some near-universal truths, though. Many gentleman profess to be at least 5'11", when in fact the truth is considerably south of that (I've become much better at sleuthing the truth from photos). Most men do admit it if they're rabid football (soccer) fans. It's the "Formula 1" fans that affect my mouse fingers. There's a field for income, which many people actually provide! If the figures are true, many people are getting by on hardly any money.

Unfortunately, another near-universal aspect is that most men don't even bother to send a "No, thanks" in response to various levels of approach (electronic "winks", e-mail). I've learned a few key things:

Don't take it personally,

Keep at it,

Be nice,

Keep at it, and

He's out there, somewhere!