Feb 14 2001

During the last couple of days, I emailed copies of the spam that I received to various abuse@domainname.com addresses. The addresses in the 'From' headers are all fake ones though, but at least the legit owners of the domain names can ID the ISP's and be incensed enough to do something about the spam. Read up on how to avoid spam and what to do with the spam here. Never give out your private email account to anyone other than friends and family. Make your private email account name something long and with numbers too, instead of something generic like your first initial_last name@domainname.com. That way, computer programs will have more difficulty generating the email addresses for the spammers (my theory). Set up at least one other public email account so potential spam can be directed there. Never post your private email to newsgroups or anywhere else on the web. I will never sign up for so-called 'freebies' on the web.

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Hey, someone from NASA came upon my journal. I wonder if it's Paul, whose journal I've in turn read.

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A few days ago, a client of my dad's told him that his son, who didn't get into university, started spending a lot of time at home on the Internet. Eventually, he met someone online and left Vancouver for Calgary to be with that person. That got my dad terrified and he started lecturing me to not use the Internet so much. Oh please. In all these years on the 'net, I've never even entered a real chat room. Not about to either.

Jen Wade's forum on same-sex friends inspired me to explore my own friendships in today's entry.

I've always had more intense and close friendships with females. I have more things in common with them, more shared interests and points of view. Not those girly girls who obsess over makeup, designer clothes, jewelry, hair, uncomfortable shoes, etc. though. But those nice, smart, authentic types who are too busy to bother with hair styling products in the morning.

However, my friendships with females can be sometimes volatile. I try not to have verbal arguments with them. But I can get into huffs and close them off, and they can do the same thing to me. This occurs when one person thinks, "well, if she was my really good friend, she would've done this or wouldn't have said that instead. I guess I was wrong to have thought she was my close friend." Of course, we wouldn't confront each other to ask why one person did this or didn't do that. Someone would just think, "Well, if she didn't know that what she did was wrong, then she wasn't a good enough friend to begin with."

I just have higher expectations of my friendships with females. I expect our friendships to be more intimate, intense, and open. With male friendships, I don't really expect much of anything. I don't expect them to think the same way, to have the same interests, to understand me as much, etc. Why should I, considering I don't think most guys are that interesting anyway. I mean cars, hockey, video games, science fiction, the stock market...spell BORING. (yes, this is a vast generalization - I know there are exceptions out there.) And even if they're not boring, many are jerks anyway.

And I don't know how to go about developing friendships with most males anyway, because I just don't think those friendships can be as strong and last as long. You wonder whether they're nice to you because they're actually interested in more than friendship or what. You question their intentions. Even if they're not interested in more, you believe that once they're involved in a relationship, their girlfriends will restrict their hanging around with you as much anyway.

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Ok, I lied. Here's something about Valentine's on this inauspicious day (for me).

Happy V-day to all you single souls out there. Have a virtual bouquet of flowers and box of chocolates on me.

I wonder whether enough people will show up for volleyball tonight...If I show up, I guess it'll be painstakingly obvious that I didn't have anything better to do on V-day. Well, not true, I could've gone to that World Ceilidh gig at the Commodore. Now, I'm having second thoughts on turning that invite down. Why did I turn it down for volleyball? I'm a nut.

I have no idea whether I've already written about some V-day party I had attended a few years ago. (I keep recycling my stories b/c frankly, I don't have that many stories to begin with.) My friend Jessie had invited me to go to her friend's party in South Surrey (near Delta? I don't know the area well). Not having anything else to do that evening, I bravely agreed. The people there were generally friendly, and all except one were single, so I didn't have to witness much nauseatingly mushy stuff. But they were ALL Christians, and at least two people worked as youth group leaders for a living. That was great on the one hand. There was no alcohol around, and they just had civilized conversations, and played games. Unfortunately, everyone seemed to just assume that I too was a Christian. I just felt that vibe that they were so nice to me because they thought I was one of them. One guy even asked me what church I attended. Then, they decided to play charades. One of the categories was Biblical characters. I didn't have the courage to declare in front of everyone that I wasn't a Christian and therefore I wouldn't know how to act out any of the characters except for probably Mary and Jesus. I was such a nervous wreck waiting for my turn. I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of everyone and be revealed as a 'fraud'. Luckily, things turned out well in the end when I drew the book title The Art and Zen of Motorcycle Repair, or something like that instead. Never again.

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Running shoe sponsor of the Day: New Balance. My dance instructor even inquired about my knees yesterday. She said she had been thinking about them and suggested that when I run that I consciously turn my feet outward more in order to off-set my pronation. And to always have my knees face the same direction as my toes. And that I use a door handle or chair when I do my demi-plies. How thoughtful. And certainly more knowledgeable than my half-marathon running friend, who couldn't come up with any new pointers on improving my running form, dealing with my knees, etc. while we jogged together.