The Victora and Albert Library is a living piece of history. A free piblic library where the resources themselves are artefacts of beauty.
The internet provides information, sometimes that information is beautifully packaged in ‘media experiences’. The internet has not yet managed to add to its experience the package offered by old libraries of:
book scent
aging parchment texture
atmosphere of being surrounded by ancient books
the sound of librarian moderated silences
5 ‘winks’ were waiting in my inbox, from the online dating service tonight. About 500% my normal daily dosage of ‘winks’. Has the impending US Mom’s day prompted the feeling of a need to find a mommy replacement?
Synopsis of their dating profiles:
- jb3318: 52yrs. Lives in Washington State. Lenghty profile fits my sterotype of an elderly retired ‘gentleman’.
- badknee: 46yrs. Lives in Washington State. Opening sentence is “well this is the hard part” the rest is evidence of quite how hard he found it.
- rik777rio: 48yrs. Lives in Montana. Describes himself as a ‘real man’. Lenghty profile. No evidence of humour.
- Greatlover424: 43. Lives in Indiana. 4 sentence profile. Every sentence starts with a lower-case “i”
- Farel931: 45yrs. Lives in New York, start’s with the ever popular opener “It’s hard to describe oneself…” , then demonstrates how hard it was.
I need to update my profile to reduce unsuitable and increase suitable approaches. What would you suggest I include and exclude from it?
Across the 24hr period of ’singleness’ I’d posted a ‘profile’ on an international dating service. I received emails from
- 55yr very polite fellow. Looks and writes like he could be older than even my dad….
- 51yr Seattle East-sider self-described ‘techy’ with big income, requires his girlfriend to have a PhD, wrote 2x making ‘overgenerous’ suggestions. No evidence of a sense of humour.
- 48yr handsome artsy gentle natured buddist with silver hair and a painful, giving, low-paid job (technical support helpdesk).
- 45yr Seattle local who recognised my boat, can cook, has firm abs, a witty email technique and humorous profile.
- 44yr rotund, big income (self-reported) business man based in NY (?!).
2/5 almost matched my ‘requirements’ list. The Seattle guy with humour and the Buddist smelt of potential….
I didn’t pay to let them know of my unexpected lack of single-ness. Their messages go cruelly unanswered. This internet dating thing involves a lot of uncertainty and requires robustness.
Feel bad about not paying to reply.
3 other guys ‘winked’ (for free) at me. This seems like a good way of working-out whether writing will be well received…. ….I don’t feel bad about not returning the winks.
The service sent me links to 12 profiles that were ‘mutual matches’, they fit the explicit requirements I’m looking for and I fit the explicit requirements they are looking for. Judging by the 12 photographs, self-assessments of body-type vary dramatically. Either these people have lost a lot of weight, or seriously toned-up, since they posted their photographs!
