I dislike many of the internets short forms. I hate seeing "How r u?" "lol, brb". I don't mind emoticons. In fact I have a slight fancy for them but I detest the internet slang. If someone random messages me "Hi, how are you?" usually I'll write back but if someone messages me "Hi, how r u?" I'll say something along the lines of "*Click*", indicating that, if this was a conversation on the phone, I would have hung up. Another pet peeve, while I'm on the random chat thing, is when people ask for a "pic" after about four lines of chat. First, it's a short form and I have already explained that I do not enjoy that. Second, whether I'm a good conversationalist or not should not be dependent on how I look. I'm an Ani Difranco fan and she put it best when she said, "I am not a pretty girl, that is not what I do." I am not the sort of girl who is looked upon as pretty by strangers. So, I'm not willing to be judge by some stranger who I know is going to stop talking to me when he finds out how I look. Third, I question the motives of one so eager for a visual. I love not knowing what someone looks like. There is so much mystery. Mystery is such an exciting thing that I can't understand why you would want to get rid of that excitement. Anyway, some would say that my aversion from people who use the "Do u have a pic?" (argh) line is due to the fact that I am "ugly". (First guy who ever asked for my "pic" over the net and got denied very firmly in my usual confrontational style said I must be ugly. I probably would have given it to him if I had a scanner, knew how to do it and if the guy's name wasn't "Ladies love Mike Awk.") Maybe that's true but I would like to believe that it is principles (and I still don't have a scanner.)Anyway, this vent was necessary since I got a lot more random chats since I stopped saying I was from Papua New Guinea. Apparently there is more interest in women in Waterloo than women in Papua New Guinea.