Hi there, and welcome to my blog – or back to my blog as the case may be. This is only my second blog entry, so I am going to guess that there are probably a lot of you who missed my first posting a couple of weeks ago. As I said, I am a guy with a not-so-great American story which, when you boil it down, goes something like this: Boy meets girl, boy marries girl, boy and girl have a couple of kids and a dog; girl gets bored, girl dumps boy for ‘something else’, boy gets to visit his kids, dog, and money every other weekend. Yeah, I know – you can hear the violins from there. If you want any more details you can go back and read my first blog entry, but that’s pretty much all I am going to say about that.
A couple of weeks ago, I started checking out an online dating/marriage service called Dream-marriage.com. Hey, after a couple of years more or less alone, I was pretty much ready to try anything. Now Dream-marriage specializes in getting guys like me together with Russian women; and I’ll be up front with you, at the start I didn’t think too much of that idea. I mean, I’m from Philadelphia! What the hell am I going to have in common with a girl in Russia? Well, as it turns out, more than you might guess – but I am still new to the site, so I’ll let you know about the girls in a later blog. One thing I will say, however, is that they are friendly, they speak English ... and, man, they are HOT!
Anyway, Dream-marriage has a three day free-trial which, I’ll admit, is probably the real reason why I tried it out. Between mortgage, rent and alimony, I need to watch my money. Most other sites I’ve looked at want about two month’s pay and a year commitment before they’ll even start explaining what they’re all about. Not these folks – the free trial was FREE – as in gratis, no charge, leave your money at home. And it gave me access to the whole site: ladies’ profiles, FAQ’s, even a couple of hundred articles on everything from how to strike up a conversation with a Russian woman to how to guard against scams. I mean, there is a LOT of information (not to mention a LOT of hot girls) on this site, and in future blogs I’ll be telling you about some of it (unless you decide to go and check it out for yourself). But today, I wanted to talk about security, because that’s part of my business.
I’m an IT guy – you know, the one at work who moves you out of your office or cube when your computer “just crashes” (sorry, but they never just crash) and finds that the email you opened from LeggyLinda254 actually carried the KissOfDeath virus. I am real hyper about security, because every day I deal with some bonehead who crashed their system because they didn’t pay attention to basics. So, as you might imagine, before my three day free trial at Dream-marriage ended, I decided to do a little poking around on the site, to see just how safe I was going to be using their service.
From a computer standpoint, it is obvious that these folks take security VERY seriously. All financial transactions are secured via VeriSign, which is pretty standard for any legitimate online business, but the site itself is verified secure by both GoDaddy Secure, and McAfee Secure Daily Testing – both of which are a couple of the best services in the business, neither of which screws around and, as a side note, neither of which is inexpensive. Whether you are interested in Dream-marriage or not, if you check them out, you don’t need to worry about any worms or tracking programs planting themselves on your PC.
The next thing that impressed me – and this is a real rarity (at least in my experience) in the online dating world – is that there aren’t any downloads anywhere on the site. Everything they have to offer (and it’s a lot) is a click away, and comes to you via the site’s servers as opposed to you having to download any programs directly onto your computer. I can’t begin to tell you how many times in the last 20 years I’ve had to scrap a computer’s hard drive because somebody downloaded something from a site they “trusted” onto their computer. What a lot of people don’t realize is that it is cheaper for a company to make their customers download applications and functionality programs onto their PCs so that, in effect, it is the personal PC and not the company’s servers that have to do most of the work. Well, at Dream-marriage.com, everything happens through the site; nothing, including their email, live chat, video introductions or streaming video services requires a download. Speaking as a geek, I like that. A lot.
Of course, as any IT guy will tell you, while that kind of security is VERY important, most of the things that either destroy computers or lead to identity theft problems come from people not being careful. The more the internet works its way into all areas of life, the more scumbags there are going to be who try and take advantage of honest folks. I read an article in one of the IT journals I get at work which said that over $1 billion is lost by people every year due to internet fraud and scamming. It didn’t mention the online dating industry, but I have GOT to imagine that a lot of that money is lost there, and that most of it is stolen by people who pretend to be someone they aren’t. A lot of sites that I have been to either completely ignore the problem, or have little warnings that say something like “Never give your personal information to someone you don’t know”. Well, no kidding! The problem is, especially on sites where romance is involved, people think that they know someone who turns out to be someone else altogether, and then disappears after they have robbed them blind.
This is where I think Dream-Marriage really stands out. Not only do they have dozens of articles on how to identify scammers and avoid scams (all free, by the way, whether you are a member or not), but they also have a zero-tolerance policy for scammers on their site that allows users to report any suspicious behaviour. While that’s better than most of the sites out there, these guys take it all a step further – they actually have their representatives physically verify that the women on their site are not only who they claim to be, but also look like the pictures they post on their profile pages. When you go to a woman’s profile page, there is a red check-mark on the top right corner of the page which confirms that a representative of Dream-marriage has actually confirmed the woman is who she says she is. I haven’t looked at every profile (there are thousands of them!) but I haven’t seen one yet that hasn’t been confirmed. I have even heard that they are going to start confirming passport information, as an additional layer of security. Bottom line here, guys, is that while you still need to use your common sense, Dream-marriage is doing everything they can to make sure that when you are using their service, you are getting what you pay for, and not getting taken.
Okay, that’s it for today. Time for me to switch from IT guy to Single guy, and see how many of the ladies I emailed last night through Dream-marriage.com wrote back. Feel free to post any comments or give any feedback -- ‘til next time!
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Sunday, September 13, 2009
My Nightmare Divorce Led Me To Find Dream-Marriage
You know, it’s funny. I have worked in IT for almost twenty years now, and I spend a considerable amount of my life on the internet, but this is the first time that it has ever occurred to me to write a blog. I’m not certain why it has taken me so long to make my way into the blogosphere – maybe I just never had anything to say before. But now – well, I have just started using an online dating and marriage site called dream-marriage.com, and while it’s been a great experience so far, I could use a sounding board.
Okay, first things first. My name is Phil, and I live in Philadelphia – and no, you may NOT call me Phil from Philly! I’m 42 years old, and currently single. I say currently, because this has not always been the case. Once upon a time, and until just about a year and a half ago – I was married, with two kids and a dog, living in the suburbs and doing all those things that old married guys in the suburbs do. My life wasn’t the most exciting one you could imagine, but I was quite satisfied with it. The problem was that Linda, my wife, wasn’t. She wanted “something more”, and it wasn’t long before I found out that whatever that “something more” was, it did NOT include me. She got herself a lawyer, and then proceeded to get herself my house, custody of my two kids, my dog, and most of my money. I now live in a two-bedroom apartment in Center City Philadelphia, get the kids on alternate weekends, get to see the dog when I stop over to mow my old lawn, or do some minor repair on my old house, and haven’t seen my money in months. Linda is now involved with a dentist named Jason who is 10 years younger than she is, and shows a lot of gums when he smiles.
After my divorce became final, I decided that I’d had it with women; I was going to be a loner. The problem with that was that I like women. So the next decision was that I was going to date everybody who would go out with me, and keep it casual and fun. The problem there was two-fold: dating can be really, really expensive, and I work the 4 to midnight shift, which cuts my options way down. Finally, I decided, okay, maybe I should look for another long term relationship – but I bet you can guess the problem with that. Every time I even thought I might have met someone I could get serious about, I started thinking about how Linda had just imploded our relationship for no reason, and drew away from it. I wasn’t certain what the answer was, but I knew that I needed to do something.
One night at work a couple of weeks ago, I was talking with a buddy of mine about my situation while we were updating the servers, and he suggested that I check out Dream-marriage.com. I had thought about online dating sites in the past, and I had even looked at a few of the ones I’d seen advertised on television, or on the internet, but none of them had impressed me much. I always figured that I would pretty much meet the same kind of people online that I would meet at any singles bar in the city. But my buddy told me that Dream-marriage wasn’t like – they specialized in bringing men from all over the world together with Russian women. Well, when I heard that, I pretty much said thanks, but no thanks. If I couldn’t find what I wanted in the good old United States, what on earth made him think I was going to find someone in Russia!
I don’t know what it was exactly that changed my mind – maybe the fact that there was a three-day weekend coming up and not my turn with the kids – but I asked my buddy for the name of that Russian website again. I pretty much decided what the hell – it couldn’t hurt to look at it, and see what they had to offer.
I went to the address on the internet, and the first thing I noticed was how slick and easy to navigate the site was (IT guys notice things like that). Finding where I wanted to go wasn’t hard at all – the site is efficiently set up and user friendly. They have just about every security verification you can think of, which made me feel a whole lot better about being there. A lot of sites will tell you they’re secure, but if I don’t see McAfee Secure on a site, I get nervous. There was no lag moving from page to page, everything loaded fast, which meant that the site appeared to be well managed, and the links took me to where they said they would. For me, how well a website works tells me a lot about how well it is managed and what kind of care the owners take of it. This site is top of the line.
After I had satisfied my natural geek requirements checking out how the site performed, I checked out their three-day free trial membership page, assuming that it was going to be three free days IF you also signed up for six months or a year of their service afterwards, or that it would be three free days with no actual access to anything. I was wrong on both counts. It was three free days to test out the service, no strings attached. If I didn’t like it, that was that. If I did like it, I could get a membership for as little as one month at a time. After looking over the terms and conditions for ‘the catch’, and finding that it wasn’t there, I signed up. I immediately had access to the site’s basic services.
As I write this, I’m off work and without the kids -- again. Believe me, I will be spending some time back on Dream-marriage.com. Today is day two of my free trial, and I still haven’t managed to get through all the stuff this site has to offer (and I will admit that part of the reason for that is that I keep clicking on some of the incredibly hot women’s photo gallery and reading their profiles). I am pretty much all the way convinced that I will be signing up for this service once the trial runs out. To be honest, this is the most fun I’ve had online in a long time.
Anyway, that’s about it for now. I’ll let you know how it goes, and thanks for reading my blog. Comments and suggestions always welcomed (unless you happen to be my ex-wife), and I will keep you posted.
Okay, first things first. My name is Phil, and I live in Philadelphia – and no, you may NOT call me Phil from Philly! I’m 42 years old, and currently single. I say currently, because this has not always been the case. Once upon a time, and until just about a year and a half ago – I was married, with two kids and a dog, living in the suburbs and doing all those things that old married guys in the suburbs do. My life wasn’t the most exciting one you could imagine, but I was quite satisfied with it. The problem was that Linda, my wife, wasn’t. She wanted “something more”, and it wasn’t long before I found out that whatever that “something more” was, it did NOT include me. She got herself a lawyer, and then proceeded to get herself my house, custody of my two kids, my dog, and most of my money. I now live in a two-bedroom apartment in Center City Philadelphia, get the kids on alternate weekends, get to see the dog when I stop over to mow my old lawn, or do some minor repair on my old house, and haven’t seen my money in months. Linda is now involved with a dentist named Jason who is 10 years younger than she is, and shows a lot of gums when he smiles.
After my divorce became final, I decided that I’d had it with women; I was going to be a loner. The problem with that was that I like women. So the next decision was that I was going to date everybody who would go out with me, and keep it casual and fun. The problem there was two-fold: dating can be really, really expensive, and I work the 4 to midnight shift, which cuts my options way down. Finally, I decided, okay, maybe I should look for another long term relationship – but I bet you can guess the problem with that. Every time I even thought I might have met someone I could get serious about, I started thinking about how Linda had just imploded our relationship for no reason, and drew away from it. I wasn’t certain what the answer was, but I knew that I needed to do something.
One night at work a couple of weeks ago, I was talking with a buddy of mine about my situation while we were updating the servers, and he suggested that I check out Dream-marriage.com. I had thought about online dating sites in the past, and I had even looked at a few of the ones I’d seen advertised on television, or on the internet, but none of them had impressed me much. I always figured that I would pretty much meet the same kind of people online that I would meet at any singles bar in the city. But my buddy told me that Dream-marriage wasn’t like – they specialized in bringing men from all over the world together with Russian women. Well, when I heard that, I pretty much said thanks, but no thanks. If I couldn’t find what I wanted in the good old United States, what on earth made him think I was going to find someone in Russia!
I don’t know what it was exactly that changed my mind – maybe the fact that there was a three-day weekend coming up and not my turn with the kids – but I asked my buddy for the name of that Russian website again. I pretty much decided what the hell – it couldn’t hurt to look at it, and see what they had to offer.
I went to the address on the internet, and the first thing I noticed was how slick and easy to navigate the site was (IT guys notice things like that). Finding where I wanted to go wasn’t hard at all – the site is efficiently set up and user friendly. They have just about every security verification you can think of, which made me feel a whole lot better about being there. A lot of sites will tell you they’re secure, but if I don’t see McAfee Secure on a site, I get nervous. There was no lag moving from page to page, everything loaded fast, which meant that the site appeared to be well managed, and the links took me to where they said they would. For me, how well a website works tells me a lot about how well it is managed and what kind of care the owners take of it. This site is top of the line.
After I had satisfied my natural geek requirements checking out how the site performed, I checked out their three-day free trial membership page, assuming that it was going to be three free days IF you also signed up for six months or a year of their service afterwards, or that it would be three free days with no actual access to anything. I was wrong on both counts. It was three free days to test out the service, no strings attached. If I didn’t like it, that was that. If I did like it, I could get a membership for as little as one month at a time. After looking over the terms and conditions for ‘the catch’, and finding that it wasn’t there, I signed up. I immediately had access to the site’s basic services.
As I write this, I’m off work and without the kids -- again. Believe me, I will be spending some time back on Dream-marriage.com. Today is day two of my free trial, and I still haven’t managed to get through all the stuff this site has to offer (and I will admit that part of the reason for that is that I keep clicking on some of the incredibly hot women’s photo gallery and reading their profiles). I am pretty much all the way convinced that I will be signing up for this service once the trial runs out. To be honest, this is the most fun I’ve had online in a long time.
Anyway, that’s about it for now. I’ll let you know how it goes, and thanks for reading my blog. Comments and suggestions always welcomed (unless you happen to be my ex-wife), and I will keep you posted.
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