Why should you help? Well, I'm a creative writing grad, and let's face it - I'm never going to cure cancer. Building a dating site is really a soul-killing venture of its own: this is a billion-dollar industry everyone wants a piece of without (as a far as I can tell) any genuine interest in helping the daters themselves. And yet, the irony is that the system can actually work. I mean - anyone who meets online successfully now is running just ridiculous odds. A fluke. Have I mentioned that Mr. Rogers is still around? Hmm...only took signing up on 26 sites, ditching Canada and driving three hours to another city - but who's counting? Online dating doesn't have to be this random or well, long-distance. The whole point should be about making your life less stressful - more streamlined. Ease of use. Back to the never curing cancer thing - maybe I can't make a difference in the nobel-peace-prize realm, but I can develop OPD as a platform that sets out to change the industry standards for online dating.

So how about helping us with a little market research - which could eventually help your single friends be as happy as you are? This will involve a bit of badgering on your part. As in tracking down said single friends ("single friends" meaning "male," "employed/professional,"  and hope upon hope somewhere within the 30-40-ish age range) and telling them what fun our teeny 16-question survey is to fill out! By multiple choice! Five minutes tops. I will personally call to thank each one by skype! And sing Oh Canada! Okay, maybe not. Oh, what the hell, sure. Actually - I'll sing it in French! ha ha.

Seriously - I know women. You know, being one. But more than that, women are much more forthcoming when it comes to feelings and relationships. Men are the great mystery. What do you want? We want to know. If you share, we might actually try to do something about it. Just saying.

OPD Survey Link for the magical unicorns known as single men with careers:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/OPDm

...but damn I wish I was!

I refuse to admit that OkCupid deserves praise for introducing us though. If I had been using the site for non-research purposes I would have dismissed Mr. Rogers based on his checking off of the religious beliefs box as "Christianity and somewhat serious about it".  Not that there's anything wrong with having religious beliefs! But if you make a point of noting it on your profile, usually it's because you're a crackpot zealot. But being that Mr. Rogers had everything else going in his favor - and good god, the pickings were slim - I thought I'd go with it and hope he wasn't, you know, a nut.

As it happens, after hanging out with Mr. Rogers for the better part of the afternoon yesterday, I'm pretty sure he's not a nut. And I'd also tell him to get new pictures except then everyone else would figure out how adorable he really is and well, even though I live way up here on the other side of the border I'd just as soon not help other women to date him. Um, yet.  (You know how on POF women on a guy's favorites list can leave a note about how great he is, telling you to totally give him a chance? Right. There's a reason he's being thrown back into the sea. If they actually cared they'd shut up. Or blog about him under a different name.)

Anyways, Mr. Rogers is also very frustrated with online dating. While I've found OkCupid to be at least less freaky than other sites, Mr. Rogers says he finds that women tend to put up only one pic - usually a headshot - as a trick to avoid showing what they really look like. And then either avoid ever meeting in person - or when they do, look nothing like he expected. And not in a good way. He also tried out Match and said he came away after three months without a single date. (I've also found Match to be a wasteland for trying to connect with people - but then, now that I think about it I only had one pic up...) He countered my stories of creepy guy pics in basements and laundry rooms with emails from women who clearly looked like crack addicts. Fun times all this profile and pic dating!

I did say you'd get an loV-blog but as it turns out, it's a neighborly day in this beautywood and I'm signing off until the New Year!

Happy 2010!

What - did you think I'd given up? Never! Haven't you heard that the
ratio of (eligible awesome) men to women in Vancouver is 1/8? May not
be a proven ratio, but I'm starting to believe it - although I don't
think it's just Vancouver. I think it's men 30-40. Anyways - I have a
date with a seemingly eligible friendly elementary school teacher from
OkCupid  - from a suburb of Seattle - and I'll be damned if he's the
first teacher I've come across on a dating site. So across the border
I go to meet MR. ROGERS! (Tomorrow at noon - you'll have to hang on a
day for the re-cap, but yes, a new lov-blog you'll get!)