Messing with an online fake profiler

Hi peeps!
Well, there's so, sooo much to share, a lot has happened since the last time I blogged. I'm working on that post, but I wanted to cut in and share the craziest thing that just happened to me!

So, as you may or may not know, there's lots of fake online profiles out there. I'm not sure what exactly they are after, (identity theft? money??) but it's a big enough deal, and prevalent enough that online dating sites have a pop up or a disclaimer somewhere on their site stating to be safe, never give out personal information, don't send money, etc.

I googled how to spot fake online profiles, and a couple articles popped up. They are saying 1 in 10 profiles are fake!! What?! That's a crazy amount! And it makes me feel better, a bit, too.  It's not just me being super picky and thinking everyone is a creep or a wacko.  There are some key words they found that tend to pop up in fake profiles, Widowed (Yep. I see this A LOT), Engineer, PhD, etc.  Here's this article. It's a short read. take a look Here.

I can spot these scammers pretty easily now. Their spelling is off, since English is not their first language, they say weird things. They talk a good game, all romantical and stuff, like it's straight out of a romance novel, call you sweetie right from the start, things don't add up ( like getting a engineering degree at a 2 yr votech school. Yeah, some guy said that to me.) I'm sure you have your own stories to tell.

I ran across a scammer today. And just for fun, I decided to say wacky things to him. This dude was still talking to me! Here, see for yourself. Yes, I know I shouldn't waste my time on scammers, but it was only for a few minutes lol, and it was personally entertaining. I considered it worth my time so they won't be preying on someone else.

Enjoy!

well, I'm not fond of the "what brings you here" bit. So lame. Like don't you haven something better to ask me? There'a million more questions to ask, but you go with that.  So that kinda set the tone for me. 

I don't work in retail at all at the moment, but I did work at 7-11 back in my college days, so i'm not completely lying.  I just thought it was interesting that he jumped straight to if I have a job or not, without asking anything else. And I didn't want to tell him my real job. 

HUGE red flags here. One big weird run on sentence. He's currently out of the country.  Then asking to take the conversation off site.  Big NO.

And another thing, he said in his profile he's from BLUE DIAMOND, NV, which is a street in the south part of Las Vegas, not it's own town. Looks like someone is good at Google maps, but not that good.  

Here's another thought... If he lived near Blue Diamond, why live over an hour away from Nellis Air Force Base? And how many Army men are stationed at Nellis, a Air Force base? Wouldn't they be stationed and sent out from a different base?

But let's go back to the crazy...

ok.. So now i'm completely making stuff up. I'm just saying crap to see what he would do. And to suggest I'd date him for the insurance benefits... Any sane man would run!

Hahahaha!!! Wow! This guy is trying Hard to get my personal info!! Ummm, No thanks. 

He's a wierdo, and is agreeing to anything I say to get me to give him any identifying info.  I stopped here. Clearly this isn't going anywhere, but it sure was fun! :)

(For the record, I have zero kids, I don't need bail money, and my phone hasn't been cut off. Oh, and I don't work at a strip club.)

So.. moral of the story? It's rough out there in the dating world. Be safe, don't give out personal information online, meet your date in a public area, and lastly, have fun! laugh at the stupid stuff. don't let it get you down. There are great guys out there! 

Hugs to you from me! 

C.

Come tell me all the dirt with your dating/love life. I'd love to hear it! :)

Week Two of Online Dating

Sunday 5/7/201 to Saturday 513/17 my second week of online dating.

Okay, so the goal is send out 10-15 messages a day, I was really good and did 15 on Sunday and 10 on Monday.. then my numbers fell off a bit, Like I didn't even log on.  This is harder than I thought! It's mostly taking the time to sit and scroll through profiles.

Speaking of profiles, I found this great -and short- article about what makes a great profile. Check out the link here . They say the #2 thing to do is Avoid Negativity. Amen.

Did you know, there's lots of good looking guys out there! I've been chatting/messaging back and forth with a bunch. It was slow at first, but now it's picking up. I've been going with the thought that I'll say Yes or message them if I can stand to talk to them for 30 min.

Check out the message from this guy. I took a screen shot for proof, that Yes, I'm officially a cougar!!! hahaha!!  

This guy is 23. Thanks, but no thanks..

And occasionally someone has a great sense of humor in their pictures like this cowboy. I Love it! 

I laughed so hard!!  And of course I sent him a message --after I stopped laughing! That's a conversation starter picture if there ever was one. 

Speaking of cowboys... I found this on my cousin's Facebook page. 

And then the next day I saw this. Good Grief! It's true!! 

Towards the end of the week  I did better and did my 10 messages a day. I've messaged back and forth with a bunch of guys. I gave me phone number out to 2 guys  but that went nowhere. 

A 67 yr old asked me to go hot tubbing with him on a first date. Well, that's more of a hook up, not a date. I gotta give him props for being bold asking me out though. 

I don't know about anyone else, but I tend to run into scammers. Or else I'm on high alert to them? For instance, this person sent me a message. I took a screen shot cause it's so obviously fake. The profile says they're a 51 yr old male looking for women. Clearly lifted and copy and pasted from someone else's profile. 

Another No Thank you. (Is it wrong that I messaged them back a couple times just to entertain myself? I wonder why they didn't message me back? heehee)

But these are just the weirdos.n  

Sometimes trudging through all this gets ya down. 

Then on Friday after work I stopped at the store to pick up some things. And got chatted up by the store assistant manager, Jeff. How fun! He was good looking and very flirty. Now that's the way to do customer service! lol. I'll be going back to that store for sure. 

In person flirting is still the best :)

Here's to next week being even better! 

Online Dating 101, and What I've Learned Week 1

Hi friends! Here's what I've been up to this week. I've talked to lots of friends and coworkers and have gotten lots of advice. I'm planning on sharing it all with you. Here's some of it put into action, and what I've done so far and why:

Signed up on 3 different dating websites. 
I signed up on Match, Plenty of Fish, and LDSPlanet. I picked three for a variety of people and to better my odds.

A coworker (who is serious with a man she met on Plenty of Fish) told me this week, she sees the same people over and over again on all the sites. I've noticed that too with a handful of people. But I think there's enough of a selection to make signing up on different sites worthwhile.  

I've heard people who are serious about dating and finding a relationship - not just a hookup - will pay the membership fee. As my friend Polly and How to Find a Husband teacher said, "If they can afford to pay the $14 a month fee, they can afford to take you to dinner." Valid point.

So a little about each site and why I picked it.

Match.com has men who are serious about finding a relationship. They can afford the monthly fee. One opinion is it's mostly doctors and lawyers/professionals. I've had good experiences in the past with two men I dated from this site. One owned his own travel company, the other was a biochemical engineer. Okay. I can see how the doctor/lawyer vibe can be justified.

LDSPlanet.com is one the of the sites that caters to LDS/Mormons. My opinion of this site, it's okay, but not great. I joined since I'm looking for someone that's LDS like myself. I might look around for another LDS dating site when my membership expires.
I've been on this site for a while. (Yeah. I don't know why either. Eternal hope or something) It seems to me that on this site the men are a bit passive. They look at your profile but don't ever send messages or winks. This time around I'm going to take a more active role. I'll keep you posted.

PlentyofFish.com (or POF for short). This is a free site, with an option to pay for the upgrade. The coworker suggests the upgrade, that it's worth it to get more information on who your talking to; to see if they read your messages, etc. Per my sister who's been on this site, it's more regular men, more blue collar. So far, that's spot on. I've seen lots of motorcycles, construction jobs, hunters. etc, if that tells you anything.
I've been on another free site in the past, OkCupid. I recently deactivated my profile on that site. As my sister  and coworker said, and I see it's true, OkCupid is more of the hookup site. Going from bottom of the barrel up, it's Craigslist, then OkCupid, with Match and EHarmony at the top. I thought for the longest Plenty of Fish was the hookup site. I'm seeing I was wrong about that. Of course we all know Tinder is down there on the bottom somewhere. I'm not looking for a one night stand, so that site isn't even a contender.

Uploaded current pictures on all 3 sites.  
I did a photo shoot with a kid from church who's trying to start a photography business, and I had my sister take my pictures. And of course took some selfies.

Here's one of my Glamour shots. Not a good profile pic cause you can't see my face, but I don't care lol 

One school of thought is there's only three pictures needed, a head shot, full body shot, and a interest picture.  And by interest picture I mean a picture showing something you interested in doing, be it hiking, skydiving, pottery, whatever.  Per this OkCupid article, a picture showing you 'Doing something interesting" gets a 40% more change of  a message leading into an actual conversation verses a random picture. So okay, I need more interesting pictures. Something that will spark a conversation, besides a "you're hot." That doesn't lead to a conversation.

And further reading in this same article, those cheesy weird angle selfies garners the most contacts. Who knew?

You know, the selfies taken from high above so everything looks good? Apparently it's the way to go. I'm okay with this angle. I think everyone looks better at this angle. (Note to self, date someone tall). Cause who likes shots from the ground up? Not to mention there's no need to advertise that double chin. Or make it bigger when it's not even there. No one likes looking up your nose. (Guys, this means you. Please stop with the up the nose pics)

I just randonly found and watched this Youtube video about posing/modeling for the camera. Here's the Link . It's long but well worth your time. I learned more from her in one hour than all the Pinterest post I've searched. lol  Maybe it's the British accent, but I'll for sure use these tips for my next pictures. Note: Faux waist is the way to go.

Updated my profile on all 3 sites.  
I updated my profile, said a little bit about myself and what I'm interested in, and what I'm looking for.  I have notes about this from my How to meet a Husband class (I'll get to this, promise) I need to look at, and then go back and tweek my profile description. Right now it's good enough.

Whew! jut those three things is a lot, right!? Lots to learn and know about.

Now for the fun part! 

Send out tons of messages. 
According to an OkCupid data mined article, (check out link here ) it's to my advantage to send out messages.  OkCupid might allegedly be a hookup site, but they have a million users, and they mine their data and publish the results. All of it very interesting.

I talked to a girl who has a dating coach. She shared with me some of the "assignments" she's gotten. 1. Contact/message 10-15 men a day. It's all about the numbers game.
2. You only get one "Ew No Way" per day. As in saying No to someone who contacts me. (I'm not sure about this one. If someone looks like serial killer/creeper, they probably are. I might need more than one per day)
3. If you can stand to talk to them for 30 minutes, say Yes.
4. Don't judge by profile or picture. Some people look fantastic in real life and horrible in pictures. Give everyone a chance.
I'm sure there's more, but that's a great start for now.

Following this advice, I've sent out 10 messages a day. I've divided it up between the 3 sites.
So far, POF has been  the only site blowing up my email. Match and LDSPlanet have been strangely quiet. They sure where emailing me every day before I signed up though....   I've had 20 emails just today from POF with notices of messages.

Well,  that's been my first week. To recap, I'm doing the online thing on three separate sites, and going to as many church singles activities as I can. For instance, there's a cool singles warehouse party tonight. Should be tons of fun!

I'm off to get ready. Have a great weekend everyone and wish me luck!
Hugs to you all!
Caroline

Mayday Mayday my love life needs reviving!

Mayday Mayday My love life needs reviving!

Since it's May Day (May 1st),  I figured today is a great day to jump back in the dating game with both feet.

I haven't been in the mood or right frame of mind to date for a while lately.  I had more pressing issues; my health, not feeling well, stress, you know, Life.  The "Struggle is Real" is for reals. If any of you are going through it, I feel ya. I was there and it wasn't pretty.

Now for the good news; I've made it past Life's current crappy challenge (Yay!) I'm feeling great and ready to get out there and meet some new people and make some new friends!

I've read lots of dating advice, what to do and not to do. I went to a wonderful class by a friend of mine called, How to meet your Husband and she had great tips and pointers. Another acquaintance of mine shared tips she learned from her dating coach (I love free advice). This will be my journey of putting all their advice to work. Feel free to chime in with your thoughts and advice. I'll take all the dating advice you got

which right now feels like everything

I've gone this long doing my own thing, dating-wise, and apparently it's not working. I might as well try something new.

So.. sit back, give thanks if you have a Significant Other, and enjoy my real life bachelorette show!

If it's like anything from my past, there will be lots of horrifically funny first date stories. Hopefully some second dates, and if we're lucky, some real contenders.

Happy 2016! and New Years Resolutions

Well, Hello there friends! It's been a while since I've posted anything. Life in 2015 was crazy busy. Hopefully I'll fill you in, tell you all about it, as we go along :)
For starters, I hope you've had a wonderful New Years!
Did you make any new years resolutions or goals? I've been slow making mine. I of course have the ones that seem to roll over from last year (and the year before that): Lose weight, Save money, Get organized. Sound familiar? lol

Are we gonna do some if it for real this year? YES WE ARE!

 Here's a couple things that I do every January:

1. Get a year supply of birthday cards.

random pile of cards

Ok, I know this sounds silly, but in the years I do do it, it totally helps out and I feel organized, like I can do it all! What a great feeling to have. And sometimes, when things are hectic, just getting one thing accomplished really is a big deal!

So here's what I do:  I count up all the immediate family and friends, or whoever I think I'll send cards to, and go to my local dollar store and buy Birthday cards for everyone. I threw in 10 extra Birthday cards, along with a few Wedding, Sympathy, Get Well, and Anniversary cards just for fun.(Just in case I miss someone throughout the year)  My local Dollar Tree has their cards priced at 2 for $1!** Really cute cards too, if you ask me!

I put them into a cute little organizer book, similar to this one. It has pockets for each month and room to write in everyone's birthday.

When I used my old book (it was technically a re-purposed bill organizer), it already had everyone's birthdays written in it from the year before. This old thing finally died/ tore thru the tape holding it together one to many times, so I decided to splurge and get a new one. (YAY! I'm getting the exact one in the picture. Isn't it cute!?)

In this new book, I'll take a moment and write in the birthdays on each month. I put the corresponding cards in the pocket of that month. For example, I put an Anniversary card for my sister in December, and her birthday card in September's pocket. On the 1st Sunday of the month, I take this little organizer book out, which is stuffed silly with cards, and sit down and fill out and address all my cards for that particular month. I'll also stash some stamps in this organizer, along with some address labels, then everything's right there.

And there you have it! Just a little bit of time at the beginning of the year, followed by a few minutes at the beginning of each month, and you're on top of your game all year long on sending out cards on time!  Just think, no more running to the store for a $4 or more card at the last  minute.
Hopefully this idea will help you.

**Yeah, I know my friend Susan S, who works at Hallmark will give me the stink-eye for not "sending the very best" Sorry. My thought on this is; 1. They're lucky I"m even sending these out, and 2. Its mostly a vehicle to hold cash anyway.
and it's not just at the dollar store. Walmart has a .99 cent card section too, if not cheaper. Let me know if you find cute cheap cards somewhere. I'm always on the lookout!

2. Get 6 months supply of soap

Yeah, another weird thing, huh. My family used to laugh at me 'cause for a while there, I seemed to be saying I was going to the store for soap way to many times. Enough that they noticed that I kept going to the store for soap. Now, in my defense, it was different types of soap. Laundry detergent, dish washing detergent, liquid hand soap, shower gel, etc, Since it obviously bugs me that I'm out of any type of soap, I decided to make things easier and stock up on the stuff. I mostly get worried about running out of hand soap. random, I don't know why.  I make sure I have at least 6 bottles of the stuff under the sink/nearby. I'm thinking 6 bottles is 6 months worth. It's a reasonable number. 12 is just silly :)

Guess what?! I just got a email that there's a sale on all the cute smelly stuff at Bath and Body Works ! You might see me there, loading up on soap :)

I'm working on my other soap stashes. Not quite there yet. I'm also working on other goals for the year. Haven't really sat down to think about them. Soon..

So here's to a fabulous 2016! And may we set and achieve some easy goals and other goals that'll stretch us.
(Yay me! I finished a blog post. one goal to cross off! I'm totally counting this!)

Hugs!
Caroline

Oscar Night Party Ideas

Hi!
It's that time of year again, when I entertain the idea of throwing a big fancy Oscar watching party complete with sparkly drinks, fancy dresses, lots of pictures, bingo, and fun prizes for those who picked the most winners. Doesn't that sound like fun? 

Here's my top five favorite ideas I've found so far:

The cute food at Party Pinching 

Oscar Night Bingo Cards at hgtv.

An official Oscar 2015 Ballot from  Fandango. I love how this one is all on one page.

I can't wait to make my own gold statues, from Twig and Thistle.

Check out Kara's Domestic Life she has the cutest party ideas perfect for the Oscars. Look at the photo background! I'm in love!

How will you watch the Oscars? 
February 22nd is 5 days away.... I'm pretty sure we'll wind up just laying around in our pajamas with the family, dining on nachos and root beer, playing Oscar bingo, and taking bets with m&m's on who wins. I had you at pajamas, didn't I?  :)
However you go, fancy or plain, may you have a wonderful night at the movies!
Hugs!
Caroline

Zion National Park, you gotta go!

Hi! The other Saturday we went on a spontaneous trip to Zion National Park. We had originally driven out to Mesquite NV for a Hot Air Balloon Festival, but it was cancelled at the last minute due to high, unsafe winds. So we thought, it's 7:30am, we don't have anything planned for the rest of the day and we're half way there. Plus, we've never been, So why not?
Zion National Park is beautiful. Check out the official website and photos here National Park Service, Zion National Park 

We took lots of pictures. Here's a couple so you can get a feel of the place.

Virgin River

my sister on the trail. It's still January, so nothing's green

view of the trickle of a waterfall at Emerald Pool Trail

walking under the waterfall at Emerald Pool

stairs to the middle level of Emerald Pools.

Then I was messing around on the internet, and found a fantastic website,   Joe's Guide to Zion National Park. He has some amazing photographs! Check it out! Just from looking at his pictures, I totally want to go again. It would be a completely different experience from the trip we just went on. I think going a couple months later in the year makes a huge difference. January is still beautiful, but look how green and lush it is in the spring!

Look at that waterfall! Doesn't that make you want to go right now? :) Joe has some amazing photos. If you get a chance, check out his site. He has all sorts of info about the park and hiking. It's really informative.
So.. to sum up, we had a great time on our last minute trip to Zion National Park. It's beautiful no matter what time of year.

Here's to many more road trips this year!
Hugs!
Caroline