 |
Net Gains (Feb 10, 98) |
Last year, this time, I was busy creating a full blown website
for my valentine instead of going the normal route of getting
her a ready-made off-the-shelf card. When completed, it ate up
a couple of Mb on my hard disk, with pages of mushy stuff, sound
files, animated gifs of beating hearts, cupids and what have you.
Not to forget the numerous animated electronic cards that could
be executed from the browser with just one click. With no valentine
to speak of this Valentine's Day (VD), I discovered that there
is another side to VD too - the not-so-happy side, and there are
hundreds of thousands of people around the world who are in the
same boat! What better way to survive this VD than spending it
with like-minded people? This year, Net Gains shows you how to
do just that - manao anti-Valentine's day on the Net.
Kick off your journey with The Anti-Valentine's Day Page
(www.netreach.net/~trishy/vday.html) that begins by reminding
you that Cupid rhymes with Stupid, and validly pointing the fact
that V-Day just serves to make lonely hearts feel worse !
The Valentine's Day AK47! (http://erau.db.erau.edu/~verdej/val.html)
- if viewed through a TCP/IP account has a kewl graphic image
of an AK47 pumping holes into a heart …
Sour Grapes: An Anti-Valentine's Day Forum (http://homearts.com/discussion/ha/main/hacnvyuk.htm)
makes you click through a maze of links to finally end up on a
general VD bulletin board. Avoidable.
One must-visit page has some links to lyrics of some great heart-break
songs (by one Andy Lau) along with the background to the songs:
http://enuxsa.eas.asu.edu/~mingbao/song.html. Pay special
attention to Anti Love Portion ("Give me a glass of anti
love potion / so I will never hurt again in this life"),
Youthful Dreams ("Let me forget the hurt and the bitterness
/ Let me forget the torment and the sweetness / Let me forget
love…") and Somewhere In Time ("…in a lifetime,
how many chances can a person miss? / we meet, get to know each
other, but can't be together...")
The only personal page that scores full marks as far as expressing
heart-felt feelings goes, is Sad Experience (www.bell.k12.ca.us/BellHS/Departments/English/Mr.Stone/per6/ingrid.html).
It's a web page by a school kid - an English essay; not the greatest
piece of writing; but it takes you through what Ingrid (who penned
the piece) felt around VD, driving home the fact that no matter
how much you decide to ignore it, VD will make its presence felt.
And if you've not yet had your fill of Anti-V-Day pages, here
are a few more people waxing eloquent :
The Official "?" Memorial/Anti-Valentine's Day Page
(www.westworld.com/~elson/me/columns/index.html) - also
has a sob story about how, due to parental opposition the author's
first valentine's day was also his last.
The True Meaning of Valentine's Day (www.u.arizona.edu/~aholub/evil.htm)
The Alt.Suicide.Holiday Valentine's Day Survival Kit (www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~norm/love.html)
Finally, some tips for surviving Valentine's Day offline too :
- Listen to Ugly Kid Joe's "Hate everything about you" throughout the day - people who visit or call up will get the hint.
- Call up different radio stations and ask for metal, grunge, or acid music requests. Do the same with the satellite music channels too.
- Don't buy those special V-Day chocolate gift packs that will be on shelves soon - besides being silly, they taste horrible !
- Wear a frown all day and make "I don't care anymore" your personal mantra.
- If you see someone with a V card, or V roses or a V whatever, sneer and condescendingly shake your head. Then smirk.
- The best suggestion however - sleep the day away - it'll be well spent (and you would have saved big moolah too !)
And for you soppy lovesick creatures looking for propah valentine
links though, go to the Net Gains archives and follow your heart
- cards, screensavers, you name it … Get real guys - Valentine's
Day is a great marketing stunt, something budding marketing managers
strive to emulate !