Recently, BeautifulPeople.com – an online dating service for, well, beautiful people – cleansed itself of its fatter members. After receiving customer complaints (from some ridiculously good looking people, I presume), the website went through and kicked out anyone with a little extra junk in their trunk.

While I’m happy I was never a member of such a shallow and douchey organization (mostly because I would have been one of the many kicked off, thanks to my love of anything frosted), this move to improve the service for members got me thinking about my own online dating experiences.

I’ve been a member of an online dating site for a year now. I have yet to find the love of my life, but I have had a few good dates… and way too many creepy interactions to count. Seriously, these sites will let anyone with a computer and $29.99 a month to join. And I mean anyone. I’d like to believe that there is someone out there for me and that taking my dating online will increase my chances of finding him, but it’s nearly impossible to stay optimistic when this guy is sending me messages daily.

So maybe BeautifulPeople.com took things a tad too far (What – only thin people can be considered beautiful??), but as long as we’re on the subject, I’ve got a few online daters of my own that should get the boot. You listening, JDate? Read More »

The hardest part of graduating from college for me personally was learning how to manage my money. I was always able to be frugal with my own savings account in college, because my parents were still footing the bill for most of my expenses. That meant that all the big and important stuff was being taken care of and I was only responsible to cover the things that I liked. Like bags. And shoes. And shots of vodka.

But when my dean handed me my diploma, my parents took away the checkbook and I was on my own. For everything.

I didn’t know much about saving, but I knew that I wanted to spend as little as possible on the big stuff so I could have more money for the things I wanted. Like shoes. And bags. And shots of vodka.

But I learned the hard way (by purchasing a broken TV from Craigslist) that while being frugal is a great idea (especially now when saving is even more important) there are a few things that are worth splurging on as you embark on your new life as an adult.  It may be hard to part with the big bucks, but I promise you these 5 items are worth every. last. penny. Read More »

When you think of internet dating, you probably think about your best friend’s 59 year-old father and his many (failed) attempts to meet “the one” on Match.com.  Even if we were dismally lonely, I highly doubt most of us would allow ourselves to get so far as to post our own profile for the viewing pleasure of a middle-aged audience.  But what if the dating site was geared towards college students?

Now don’t get me wrong, people can still do shady s**t even if they are a 22 year old Dartmouth student.  The first “dating site” I saw that was remotely geared towards college students was the Craigslist personal ad section.  No offense to any of the upstanding gentlemen on Craigslist, but I think it’s a little odd to post an ad for yourself on the same site that you advertise the cactus that your roommate peed on at your last house party.  Plus, as we all know, thanks to the “Craigslist Killer,” it’s not exactly the safest way to meet people.

So what’s a lustful but “sick-of-all-these-douche-bags” kinda girl supposed to do?  Well StudentLove.com has the answer.  (It may not be the right answer, but it’s an answer.)  In order to join their dating site, you have to have an .edu email address, so it does a pretty job of keeping out the Scary Larrys.  But just because it’s there doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a good way to pick up the hotties.  Here is my oh-so-technical analysis of StudentLove: Read More »

Britney’s going all out for Halloween.

Save money on mags; read this instead.

The perfect year-round nail color.

NBC is getting rid of the chimes? WTF?

Internet dating: even the old people are doin’ it.

31 things you should know about Halloween.

David Letterman totally calls LC out.

Everyone needs this bag. Puma got so chic!

The all-in-one glass: a college girl’s BFF.

Seriously – when did Shia get so hot?

It’s time to unload all that baggage.

Craigslist and Google come together to get you laid.

Have you seen those ads? You know, those Match.com ads? The ones where some HOT guy is “video chatting” right on your screen? If you frequent MySpace, I’m sure you’ve seen them.

Every time one of those redonkulous video ads pops up on my browser, I want to punch whoever made them in the face. Because those guys aren’t on Match.com. Those guys have never needed an online dating site to help them find a chick (or a dude, as the case may be). Those guys are hot. Those guys have fantastic smiles. Those guys are actors.

According to this little article, the success rate of the online dating industry is 22%. Of course, the ads for EHarmony and Match.com don’t want you to know that. They want you to think hot, happy people are all over their websites. They want you to pay money to find these hot, happy people with fantastic smiles.

But I gotta say, after doing my own (ahem) research, I have found the amount of hot guys on dating sites to be alarmingly low. There’s certainly no body building Brad Pitt lookalike hoping to video chat with me. There’s someone who wants to chat about how it’s cool to be a nerd or make vegan cupcakes, but sadly, this someone cannot hold a candle to those dudes in the video ads.

What do you think? Is internet dating really as easy / successful as people say? Or is it just false advertising?

We have a problem. I have fallen again for someone…by Internet.

No, no, not Match.com or anything like that. I didn’t surf eHarmony and develop some delusional love affair with someone’s profile picture. It’s a little more complicated than that.

I’ve always hated dating. The whole process stresses me out. The questions that make you feel like you’re at a job interview, (which technically you are, ‘pick me, hire me!‘) the awkward hand holding, the TIME. All of it, to me, is just a means to an end. An end where you’re finally comfortable and can stop wearing make-up around them, stay in for the night to watch bad reality television, or cuddle under your Disney blanket, knowing they don’t care — they just want to be with you. I love love, but I don’t love the process of getting there. I just want it to happen and what better way to get there, than by the Internet? Read More »

I have said before that I have no problem with my single status, but that doesn’t mean that I am ready to spend the rest of my life that way. I love the companionship and comfort that comes with a relationship, the warm fuzzy feelings, the knowledge that someone out there finds you completely perfect.

Recently, as I lay on my couch watching yet another What Not To Wear rerun, I realized that I am finally ready for something more than weeknights alone in my apartment and weekends spent catching up on my sleep. I don’t know if I necessarily want to find the man I am going to marry, but I have had enough time to figure out who I am as a single woman (boring) and want to get out and meet some new people.

So, I began hitting the dating scene (internet and all). I approached people, emailed people and began talking with some really great guys. I was all over it. And then, as things began to move forward and the guys showed interest back, I started to freak out. Read More »

My boyfriend dumped me.

Well, maybe it wasn’t so much that he “dumped me” as he “never responded to any of my Craigslist ads.” And maybe he wasn’t so much my “boyfriend” as he is the 4 million or so guys in the Tri-State area who never responded to my post. I mean, one of them could be *the one,* and if he weren’t such a pussy we could be married right now with five boys and five girls.

Hmmm. Maybe I should leave that last sentence out of my next ad.

I shouldn’t be so down on posting a Craigslist ad for a date. You can learn so much by doing so. For example, did you know that guys named Remington still exist and you ONLY meet them through Craigslist?

And then there’s Jared. Sweet, earnest Jared. Jared who started his response to my ad with the philosophical “I don’t know what I want to do with my life …. but I recently discovered who I am.” I sometimes wish I knew what that was, Jared. But I still don’t regret throwing your email in the virtual garbage. Read More »

Blind dates can be scary. They can also be fun. The scary / fun part depends on your idea of a good time and your date’s idea of normal.

Most of us go on blind dates pretty confident we’re not about to meet our soul mate, but always hope there’s enough of a connection to make putting on make-up and those tight jeans worth it. Blind dates are our way of doing something fun and spontaneous, something slightly nerve wracking but full of possibilities, a reason to get out of the house or apartment and have a drink made by somebody else.

The only thing is, if you’re not big into internet profiles and don’t have a lot of friends trying to go all Yenta on you, blind dates don’t actually happen that often.

That is, unless you sign up for Crazy Blind Date. Read More »

~CHecK oUT mY FRee WeBcaM!~

No thanks, Fembot.

Online-dating sites, while fun and successful for those in the know, can be very daunting to your average, not-so-computer-savvy individual. Getting lost in the sea of PC-murdering spam and creepy come-hithers when looking for a date online is quite simple when you don’t have a clue what to do.

What gives, internet?

Bridging the gap between the informal, formal and humorous is WooMe, an intuitive way to meet people online in a more interactive fashion. Read More »