Post 143) from Xanga

143) On a lighter note...

I tried the Alanis Morissette lyrics generator on Brunching Shuttlecocks, and this is what I came up with:

"I Think" I Think ears are really a huge problem I Think cowboy hats are too much on my mind I Think ranches have got a lot to do with why the world sucks But what can you do? Like a black rain, beating down on me Like a Edgar Allen line, which won't let go of my brain Like Warren's ass, it is in my head Blame it on "W" Blame it on "W" Blame it on "W" I Think Cabinet members are gonna drive us all crazy And oil rigs make me feel like a child I Think Daddy's friends will eventually be the downfall of civilization But what can you do? I said what can you do? Like a black rain, beating down on me Like a Edgar Allen line, which won't let go of my brain Like Warren's ass, it is in my head Blame it on "W" Blame it on "W" Blame it on "W" Like a black rain, beating down on me Like Warren's smile, cruel and cold Like Edgar Allen's ass, it is in my head Blame it on "W" Blame it on "W" Blame it on "W"

--> Catchy, huh?

Post 142) from Xanga

142) Oh, do I feel stupid!!!

I never realized that Bianca Broussard wasn't a real person!

A bit of background. --When I got the e-mail from "Bianca Broussard," back in December, I was flattered that someone else had found and read my homepage. This is the message "she" sent me:

 

"I was surfing geocities and checked out your site at geocities/ckusske. I have a good friend with a really similar site, and I passed your url along to her. Have you ever seen a weblog? I was noticing your writing style, and I think the weblog format might really work well for you. I just started one recently, and I am actually thinking of dumping my homepage in favor of just having the weblog, since I'm enjoying it so much more than maintaining my homesite. Anyway, I really just wanted to say thanks for an interesting site! Bianca"

I sent a polite "thank-you" message and didn't think twice when I heard nothing back. In the meantime, I went to her page. After all, it was only fair, since she had looked at my homepage.

Her Xanga log (since discontinued!) was quite interesting to me. She was a teacher at an inner-city school, and her log was about her small triumphs and tragedies while teaching there. She had a lot of beautiful images of flowers and clean-looking light streaming through windows. I remember thinking "Gosh, this is really neat. Maybe I should start one of these so-called Xanga sites."

I didn't do anything about it until February, but I always remembered the names "Xanga" and "Bianca Broussard." I guess in that way, the plan worked perfectly.

When I created my Xanga site in February, I thought that perhaps Bianca would be happy that I had joined, and maybe get something from Xanga for having recruited me. However, in the registration process, there was no place to specify how you had heard of Xanga, so I forgot about it.

Sometime in June, I remembered Bianca and wondered what was going on with her students, and what she was doing over the summer. I searched for her site, and found that all content had been deleted. There was only a message, posted April 28, reading

 

"This page has been deactivated because we have received complaints that revealed a violation of our Terms of Use."

I was worried about Bianca. What had she possibly said that could get her kicked off of Xanga? Had she posted something inappropriate about one of her students? About a fellow teacher? Had she given in to a moment of inappropriate rage and said something abusive or insulting?

There was no place to e-mail her, and no information about what had happened.

So, I forgot about Bianca Broussard.

Until today.

Today, I finally found out that Bianca's entire existence was a FAKE. That the Xanga team created her and sent that fake e-mail message to all sorts of people with Geocities accounts.

There's more on this here.

Bianca Broussard... never existed. What's more, I never got the memo. I never realized that I had been scammed.

For over 8 months, I've thought that Bianca was real. I was even concerned about her well-being, after seeing that her site had been discontinued!

And it was all a sham to get people to subscribe to Xanga!

I'm so angry that I even thought about unsubscribing. Why do I need that level of duplicity in my life? Do I have to start assuming that people I interact with online are actually sophisticated marketing techniques? *angry frown*

On the other hand, I enjoy Xanga. It's a good way for my friends and family to keep abreast of what's going on in my life, without me having to clutter up their e-mail boxes with long and pointless screeds.

And if I quit over this, it's just letting "Bianca" affect my life even more.

I feel so used.

Should I just quit?