Cleveland rocks. But Chicago is Chicago, and so, I'm back.

So, I get this email from a company called 'eCityChat.' I knew I got it through D'land somehow, since it was kind of a mass mailing. But, at the same time, it wasn't. It simply had a whole bunch of diarists' email addresses that I recognized typed into the recipient window along with mine. That means that someone at their company simply typed in those email addresses by hand, rather than leave the task to a mass mailing program. Anyway, the best part is, here's this email (from a Hotmail account, no less) from this company that provides free hosting for online diaries. Marketed to people who already have diaries. Offering the exact same features that diaryland offers. I kept looking for the compelling reason to switch (wow! they offer FREE guestbooks!!!) and when I couldn't find it, I started to think it was a joke.

But, I guess it wasn't. What a brilliant marketing plan. It's like going up to people in a McDonalds and saying "Hey. Do you like that cheeseburger? You do? Well, you can have this cheeseburger exactly like it, for the same price! All you have to do is get up from your table and come sit at this table! Come on! All it will cost you is the time it takes to move all your shit over here!"

Regular readers know that I don't ramble about faux-mass emailings. I think this particlar one qualifies as colossal stupidity, though. Did anyone else get this email?

http://fadein.eCityChat.com

Damn, that just looks ugly.

So, TvZero was just riffing on the nature of D'land friendships vs. who we know in real life. Always interesting, him. I occasionally think about who you people would be to me if I knew you in real life.

So, letting my mind wander and free-associate, I imagine us sharing one big space. As if we were on a huge hotel or resort, maybe. Checking my buddy list is like coming down from my room to see who's hanging out in the hotel lobby bar. If no one has updated, I go sit by the pool and read a book. Maybe someone will come by, sit under my umbrella and have a nice chat.

Or, it's even easier to imagine D'land as a gigantic, virtual highschool. There's definitely enough drama, popularity games, rivalries, and angst to fuel several highschools. There are also definite classifications of people. There are the teeming masses of anonymous faces. There are those that like to think of themselves as the intellectual set. The popular chick that everyone wants to be noticed by. The quiet weirdo with the notebook. The loudmouth asshole jock. The more noticeable presences in drama club.

I think that the people I read and the people that read me are probably who I would have ended up being friends with in reality. I probably would have hung out with Zero, Genghis, and Matt. We would have been "the crew." Then, like any highschool clique, there would have been the hot chicks. Then, of course, there are the chicks who are your pals. Joe would have been that funny nice guy that everyone liked who had been with his girlfriend forever. Sez would be that unattainable lust object everyone would always talk about ("What do you think she does on the weekends?"). James, if he weren't in with my friends, would be that cool guy I sometimes hung out with from another circle. And, of course, what's any high school without a hot foreign exchange student?

Alright, now, don't feel bad if I didn't call you hot, completely ignored you, or classified you incorrectly. I swear it wasn't personal. This is highschool, after all. Just write something mean in my yearbook.