Blogger extraordinaire Mindy, from whom I stole the idea to write a letter to my 13-year-old self, recently posted about how she’s all wrapped up in online dating at okcupid. I’ve mentioned okcupid before, as a source for the most accurate and insightful online personality tests that zero money can buy. The crazy-slash-retarded thing is, although I always thought okcupid was an odd name for a site that peddled good old-fashioned time-wastery, it never occurred to me that it was—first and foremost—a dating site. (I *try* to tell people that my sardonic persona is merely an exoskeleton to protect the naif within. They think it’s some kind of post-modern joke or something. Hehe.)

So, me being … ya know … ME, I had to drop what I was doing, go to okcupid and see how it all worked in order to accept that I had been so breathtakingly clueless for so long.

Now, you should know, my current level of dating enthusiasm could best be expressed as a negative integer. Still, okcupid’s narcissist-friendly approach is very seductive, I must say. Once I put a pic up, I started getting flashy IM notifications, “woos” and requests to take more tests about my most favorite topic of all time … ME.

At this point, I’m pretty well addicted to answering question after question and seeing my “personality badges” change. Ostensibly, the goal is to have my “100% Match / 100% Friend / 0% Enemy” revealed to me, but I’m just kind of fascinated by the idea that I can create a virtual representation of myself wherein my personality is conveyed in a series of four or five cartoon icons. (FYI, okcupid: “More kinky” isn’t exactly what I like to lead with when meeting men. *sigh*)