Life in the Land of Dreamy Dreams

Okay, so no one should be terribly surprised that I’m looking around at local bird breeders. There’s this one chick (har har) who was highly recommended by my vet but… frankly, I just don’t get the warm and fuzzies from her.

So I googled her to see if I could find more info and came across her mySpace page. It is horrendous. I’m not sure if I should paste the link, but it resulted in an exchange with my darling daughter and his subsequent email, sent to about a dozen friends & family:

Had a brief disagreement with Alison this morning (surprise!), and I think it’s largely an age gap issue…but she just thinks I’m being an old fart.

Here’s the question- Can you hold what someone puts on their mySpace page against them? I was doing some research on a woman I was considering doing business with, and didn’t find much…but I did find her myspace page (here I included link).

Thoughts? Am I being a curmudgeon with this new fangled interwebthingy?

My arguments:
1) If she is 26, I’m Kate Moss.
2) Regardless…even if we give her the benefit of the doubt, how mature is she to have this page, which is unreadable, migraine-inducing and has a UNICORN cursor?
3) If she has chosen to put her business name in her profile so that it gets picked up by google, than I get to use it to determine whether I wish to use her (very expensive) services.
4) Teaching moment for Alison: what you put out on the web matters to actual grownups- like potential bosses and suchlike.

Alison’s arguments:
1) Everybody lies about their age on myspace, I’m making too big a deal of it.
2) Okay, so her page is awful. So what?
3) It’s not fair to judge her business services on this, since this is her personal page.
4) It’s not like her boobs are hanging out all over the page or anything, therefore it’s not so bad.

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The responses I’ve gotten back pretty much side with me. Some of my favs:

From my brother:

If that picture is the woman you are referring to there is no way she is even in her early 30s. Obviously what she does has to do with birds; maybe that is the sort of industry where that sort of thing is accepted (you know how people expect artists and musicians to be strange??!?!) Just a thought. After seeing that site I wouldn’t use here service unless I had testimonials from a LOT of people that she was good, but thats just me.

From my Godmother:

I’m not much help. I AM an old fart and don’t use my space at all. I tend to agree with you.

From wonderful French Christine:

26, right !

First time on Myspace ever. My conclusion : I’ll never go and visit anything of this time ever again. My eyes hurt. I’m about to throw up.

My personal message to your daughter : “Ali, I’m afraid I’ll have to follow your mom on that one… Being an old fart myself, the foundator of the Old Fart Universal Club, I totally understand why your wonderful and shrewed and experienced mother is reluctant to have any kind of a contact with that lady. First of all, because the fact that everybody lies about something on doesn’t make it right. Why would a real grown up lie on his or her age ? Why would we do that? Our age shows. Everybody can tell. Because we are old and proud of it. We earned it the hard way, girl ! Second, if you make something public, why should people act as if they didn’t know it ? If you want to keep something secret, don’t put it online !

From Carolyn, good friend & one of the most sarcastic people I know that I am not related to by actual blood:

You know what I am going to say. Not a snowballs chance in hell. Just for her web page alone I would refuse to give her my hard earned money. The fact that she is allowed to procreate should be enough for her.

From Ellen, the kindest person I know(so it goes without saying we’re not related):

Thank you for the headache. Between the music and sparkliness of it all, I need a migraine pill! I must be an old fart, too. What you put on the Internet is fair game and, it seems to me, is put there for people to judge you by. Why else would you advertise yourself? There is no line between them when your boss/potential business partner AND HIS/HER CLIENTS can Google you and find unicorn cursors and/or boobs. Or no boobs. Just male friends with no shirts on. I’m considering becoming a Quaker and dragging my kids along with me.

A couple of people were so offended they had to call me up and not just send an email. To paraphrase Michelle, “It was over when I saw the unicorn.”

So far I’d have to say it’s a lesson to the young ‘uns to watch what they put up, because us old farts are going to hold it against them. Let me know how you feel and I’ll take it into account. I’ve got a month or two before I have to make a final decision, and I’m open to suggestions. If you want to email I’ll send you the actual links so you, too, can be blinded in your own personal home!

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