The title is in reference to a comment my redneck boyfriend once made regarding my expressed intention to actually meet in person some of the people I 'knew' from the internet: "Anyone you meet on the internet is a pervert axe murderer!" He's wrong, I have several friends that I initially met online, and none of them is a pervert or a homicidal wielder of axes.
I have to explain that I came to computer geekdom late in life, as when I went to high school a mainframe occupied an entire floor. It wasn't until my employer put me in a temporary position that involved the use of a pc that I discovered the internet. Being older and cautious, I approached the whole thing carefully, first setting up a Hotmail account so I could post on a travel board without using my work email (the only email account I had at first). In early 2002 I took the plunge and got my own computer at home, and the world wide web beckoned.
It was in November of 2002 that I met my first internet acquaintances in the flesh. A meeting, called a "pissup", had been planned by some of the posters on a particular board who lived in our city. Sadly, the instigator of the event wasn't able to attend, but I did meet another who lived here, as well as a very kind, courteous, and fascinating gentleman from Wisconsin, and two delightful ladies, one from Illinois and the other from Saskatchewan. It certainly allayed any slight apprehensions I may have had when the Wisconsin visitor plied me with very delicious sharp cheese from his home state. We all met for a walk, then later that evening had drinks and sandwiches together. Not one axe in evidence, either!
August of 2003 was when I really took the plunge - in addition to being one of the planners of another pissup here, I had two of the visiting attendants stay at my place. Needless to say, I didn't let this fact out around my hyper-paranoid boyfriend. Surprise, surprise, no perversion or murders were committed the entire weekend. One of my old and dear friends joined us, and so enjoyed the company that he became a regular on the bulletin board we all frequented. That friend has just returned from a holiday in the Caribbean with a couple of our mutual internet buddies.
I'm not a wide-eyed naïf, nor am I gullible by any stretch of the imagination. I know that there are unscrupulous types out there who use the internet for criminal and nefarious means, and that sexual deviants roam the web, preying on the easy to con and the young. I do know, though, that if I am sensible and judicious in where I visit and with whom I communicate, I run a good chance of making more good friends in cyberspace. And there's not an axe murderer in sight.
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4 comments:
I am so disappointed. I thought for sure you would have looked at me and said "Aha! Finally! That one has GOT to be the axe murderer."
You never know, if you keep meeting enough of us, you may yet fulfill your boyfriend's prophecy.
:)
Axe murderer? You, Wendy? Never. You are too fond of shopping to be homocidal. No one who shops with fervor can be evil.
*sigh*
Like I told you, Aunt, I'm just lulling you into a false sense of security. The meat is WAY too tough when the victim err... meat donor is frightened beforehand.
Of course we aren't ALL pervert axe murderers! Some of us are bassoon players. :P (That's close enough, isn't it?) ;)
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