how to avoid an online creep

It’s no secret that I am an Apple aficionado and that I love my iPhone; it’s not legal (even in Massachusetts) but it’s true.  I love besting my Droid slinging friends with cooler applications and out-of-the-box-ready-to-go-ness of my products. 

My favorite applications are the ones where I can play games or keep up with my friends.  I’m very excited about Words with Friends where I can play a Scrabble-like game with people, phone-to-phone.  I have seven games going right now: five with friends, one with a co-worker I sit next to (never talk to and wouldn’t spit on if they were on fire) and one game with a complete stranger. 

I started a game with my friend Candace, one time Empress of Ethiopia, and we chatted and I thought it was strange that she didn’t know half of what I was talking about.  It’s been a while since I’ve seen Candace, we’ve known each other since the Bronze Age, so I can see forgetting some stuff.  I don’t think much of it until – on a dare from my sister – I use a word that is in no universe an appropriate one to use in mixed company but Candace has a sense of humor that would appreciate that word being used in Words with Friends.  I didn’t think it would take the word but it did. 

 Do you know that many people have the name Candace?  Did you also know that it’s possible that I know more than one Candace?  You’ve already jumped to the conclusion that despite me thinking the computer would over-ride me using the word, “boner” and it did not whilst I was playing a Candace who isn’t exactly my RA from University but another young lady – who is perhaps a bit more demure than the other Candace – that I did time with in Leavenworth.  

  I went into the chat and she said something that made me realize, “Hey, this isn’t the kind of girl who giggles when she sees the word boner.  Perhaps we shouldn’t have chosen this moment in time to succumb to peer pressures.”  I was really, truly embarrassed and it’s incredibly difficult for me to feel embarrassment or shame.  I sell cars now; I traded in my soul for a plaid jacket. 

The moral of the story kids is that we need to watch who we’re playing with when we’re on the Internet.  You never know what foul-mouthed creep you’ll run into.