You've Got Mail, 3rd edition
by Pacman of Chat Manila inspired from the movie You've Got Mail

     As I continue in my adventure searching for love in The Net I came across an area where the Love Connection is.

     In the Love Connection a net surfer is asked to fill out a questionnaire and the computer will find a match from its humongous database. Regretfully, the computer didn’t find me a match from its 23,000 user list. The highest is only 47%. I was bit worried. I can’t find my match for Valentine’s Day. (Sighs) Naah...I’ll just keep my search open.

     The Net is an ocean full of opportunities. Trekking upon uncharted waters of cyberspace looking for love is an adventure.

     I bumped into a chat area in the Internet called Chat Manila. I telnetted and entered telnet://chat.mozcom.com 8787 Wow! I got in. The system can handle 250 users concurrently and I was there chatting in real time. The best time to go in is between 9:00 in the evening and 4:00 in the morning. Remember this is Hawaii Time. Before you log in to the chat area, finish your assignments and important tasks first because Boy, you’ll be hooked into it. One of my objectives is just to exchange tsismis (gossip) to the chatters down there. Most of the users are from De La Salle University all taking up computer related majors. Discussion groups are not really following the topic so I really didn’t like my experience there. I just watched the ongoing conversation. When I said "Hi," I get a "Hello” and there it ended.

     I started entering poetic lines and then I started a fire in the chat area. One was touched by those lines and then that was Ivory, a 26-year old computer engineer. She’s been mesmerized with what Pacman (that’s me) said in the chat area. We started whispering to each other expressing our .emote(ional) aspects. Courtship was taking place and later on she said the sweetest three words I LOVE YOU. Virtually, she is my girlfriend. Every week, I got an e-mail from her telling me how she really wants to see me in reality and be able to express her love and emotional desires.

     It’s really fascinating about this technology that we have. One should be careful on what to say and disclosing information about you on The Net because you really don’t know whom you’re talking to. You may really fallen in love with that person and ended up knowing that the person is of the same sex. Yikes!!!

     When chatting, exercise proper netiquette and avoid typing in capital letters as it signifies you are shouting.

     Surfing in The Net is an excellent outlet to meeting new friends and possibly your soul mate if that’s your destiny.

     I met some of my friends here and when I went to Manila, I was able to interact with them in the real world. They are the person whom I talked to in The Net. They were indeed real. In my next visit to Manila this year, we’ll see each other again.

     About Ivory, I really don’t know if she is for real according to the statements she made. My cybernetic instincts says that she could be a genuine person but we’ll soon see. Right now, I’m strapped on Lakambini my gorgeous computer. She’s mine all along. We always get in harmony and get in sync but what I’m longing for is a real woman with emotions and persistence of vision. She is faithful and trustworthy, and loves kids.

    As a rule of thumb, don’t fall for the LOVE TRAP in The Net. Trust but verify.

©1996, 1998, 1999. JQ Gonzales