Life of the Lintee Bean

I’ve heard of MySpace. I knew it existed for some time. Heck, I watch TV and I see the crime shows where an integral part of the plot is some website (which you KNOW is MySpace, but under a different name to avoid a lawsuit) – where some young person is taken advantage of, or hires a killer through, or finds a killer through, this “friends” website.

Never had any desire to have my own MySpace account. I’m a bit too old for that, I think. I know the “cool” cat people have them – the younger ones that work or volunteer at the shelter – but also sing/play in bands or go to college or other hip, cool, young things. But hey, that’s not me. I have my feline diabetes online forums and groups on gastro-intestinal disorders in cats and now I even have a blog with an impressive mature name like “wordpress”.

Then it began with an innocent comment. A shelter staff member commented on a cat bite – and how I could see how the bite looked when it was new and nasty on MySpace. Well, I had to see. I mean, who can resist looking at a picture of a hand swollen up like a nasty pink balloon with puncture marks from a cat’s canines?

So, I go online and find the MySpace page with the swollen hand. I see Ms. Swollen Hand has friends. Hey – I know that friend… and I click. Interesting – look at the musical interests, the videos, the pictures, the comments… more friends. Click… click… click.

Eventually I stumble on someone I know that’s private. I can’t look without an account. Well, no harm to creating an account, right? It’s free, after all. So, I’ll just set up a quick account.

Now I have an account with one friend – some guy named Tom. Tom’s very happy in his picture, and rather cute, I must say (though much too young for a crazy cat lady). He’s not really my FRIEND, though – he apparently created myspace. I delete Tom from my friends. (Sorry, Tom! Really, it’s NOTHING personal. You are an amazing guy. It’s not you, it’s me!)

Well, now it says – in very big letters. THIS MEMBER HAS 0 FRIENDS.

I have no friends. Wow, that looks pretty bad. Well, my friend that had the private page – I’ll add her as a friend. Then I can view her page. So, I do that (with her help).

Now it says in big letters. “YOU HAVE 1 FRIEND”

Still, that’s pretty sad. One friend. One sole friend. One person that took pity on me and is my friend. Maybe I pay her, for all others know.

So, I convince another person to join myspace, so I can have them as a friend. I have two friends now! My friend also has two friends because she kept Tom. Maybe I should have kept Tom. Darn. I don’t suppose Tom would forgive me and take me back now, after I dumped him.

It’s addictive. I need more friends. More friends.

Maybe it’d be easier to find friends for my cats. I’ll check out catster.