who am us, anyway?
12:14 p.m.
googles slowly getting more interesting...
peener
hello stranger
madonna cone days
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ah, yes, how i MISS the good old cone days...
note to self: leaving the oatmeal cooking on the stove while one goes to the bathroom to do one's business is NOT a "good thing"...oh, the little toasted bits are yummy, don't get me wrong here, it's just not what i was planning on.
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oh, i added a new little toy over there to the right...it tells you how many people are looking at your diary RIGHT NOW! if you want one for yourself, click on it.
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i've been thinking about the concept of "identity" and how it pertains to all this online stuff...i was talking to a friend about that last night...
mkstyle57: i'm planning an entry about how you feel you know someone online...
mkstyle57: about how i could actually be a 400 lb bed-ridden woman or a 12 year old.
mkstyle57: like that little girl that wrote you...
goose: lol
mkstyle57: that could be so fake
goose: I was like...what the heck...an 8-year old!
mkstyle57: f.b.i. looking for child molesters
mkstyle57: do you like my dog?
goose: your dog?
mkstyle57: she said...
goose: oh yeah
goose: lol
mkstyle57: heres a pic of my bog...i'm going to a b-day party
mkstyle57: dog!
mkstyle57: or my bog, whatever...
goose: It seemed so weird!!
mkstyle57: sting operation!
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yeah, so...the goose got a note from this new d-lander. all it said was "hi, how old are you?" the diary was by an 8-year old girl. she had a picture on every page...of her dog, her sister, friends...it was all happy and silly...but the first thing that came to my mind was...PEDOPHILES! she was just a little too friendly and inviting..."please write to me", etc. oh, i'm sure it's legit...probably...but i pictured some adult male finding it and writing her back and saying something like "hi, i'm 10, i'm older than you, haha! i like swimming! do you? my favorite bathing suit is pink! send me a picture of you in your favorite bathing suit! we can be friends! your dog looks cute!"
*shudder*
i've seen plenty of stories where people actually arrange to meet kids, say, at the mall or something, and there's been some pretty sad endings to some of these stories.
i just hope her parents are keeping an eye on what she's getting up to online.
but who's to say who's really behind that diary? i saw a diary one night where this girl was trying to talk to this boy, give him some advice or something, but he wouldn't really listen to her. so she made up this persona, this boy, who started to talk to this guy. she created this whole character with a personality, even his own AIM account, just so she could talk to this boy who wasn't about to take any advice from some dumb girl.
it's interesting.
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i just sent a letter to andrew...
hi, i know this really isn't a tech issue, but it sounded like this was the place to go for a faster response. i just clicked on a banner for *****.diaryland.com and this really isn't a diary at all, it looks like an online store! is this cool with you guys? i mean, on my site i have a link to one of those little cafepress sites where i created a few t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc. but i do have a regular diary. this ***** site looks like they're taking advantage of your free services. i've never come across a site like this before at d-land...it just doesn't seem right. i don't know if you look at diaries when you approve banners, maybe this got under the radar... just thought you should be made aware of this...thanks, michael
and here's andrew's swift reply...
Hi Michael,
Wow, that is so weird yeah, I hadn't noticed that.. I'll see what's up and deal accordingly.. they are a gold member for one thing at least (which is how they ran the banners), so hmm.. haha, weird! I'll look into this, thanks a ton for the heads-up!
thanks,
andrew
ever vigilant, that's me...