Alright, I realize I've gotten away from the original purpose of this blog, which was to share my hard won dating experience. (Sweet Potato showed me an article from Good Housekeeping about internet dating, and this is my more specific, and hopefully more helpful, version.)

Things which should cause you to run away:
-If the last book a guy read was The DaVinci Code, run away.
-If a guy mispells "intelligence" on his profile (twice), run away.
-If a guy says "life is short" or any other kind of Carpe Diem-esque sentiment, run away. (Life is not short. It is very, very long. Some woman in California had time to make hundreds of thousands of pipe cleaner dolls dressed in unique outfits [See exhibit at The American Visionary Art Museum] and you know she had kids and a job and probably an interest or two. Think of how much T.V. you've watched. Life is very, very long.)
-If a guy sends you a picture in which he is taking a picture of himself in a mirror with his shirt off, run away. It is too confusing.
-If a guy says he is looking for symbiosis in a relationship, run away.
-If a guy says he liked War and Peace because it had a lot of life lessons in it that still apply today, run away.
-If a guy says something like "how wild it must be to race on top of this strong powerful animal" when you say you went horseback riding, run away.
-If a guy rapsodizes about your beautiful smile and he's never seen it in real life, run away.
-If a guy comments on one of your interests with a line that was cut and pasted from Wikipedia, run away.

Now, for the upside. Cause I believe in an upside.
-If a guy says that after he read your email, he consulted Wikipedia or Dictionary.com, that's cool.
-If a guy says he reads only technical manuals for work, that's cool. Just no Da Vinci Code or Angels and Demons.
-If a guy sends you a picture from his work badge, that's cool. Goofy, but cool.
-If a guy asks you a question about yourself, that's extremely cool.
-If a guy is able to list his top five [movies, bands, books, historical eras, whatever] and does not complain about the impossibility of picking/ranking, that's cool.
-If a guy sends you a picture of the elk he shot and mounted in his basement, that's cool. You might not want to go out with him, but it's a cool picture to have.
-If a guy sends you links to neat stuff, that's cool.
-If a guy narrates his emails in real time (Just got back from work and...well, I've got to go meet the guys at Tully's), that's cool.
-If a guy apologizes for something he thinks in retrospect might not have sounded kosher, that's cool.

Feel free to add in the comment box.