There was a story in the paper the other day, about the listing of your relationship status on things like Facebook.

I think it started off talking about a guy that was engaged. And when his status changed to "single" he sent a mass email alert thing out, explaining the story.

It got me thinking about computers, websites, and the whole dating thing.

I have an idiot friend (who really isn't a friend anymore), who was always dating online. Nothing wrong with that, if that's the only way you think you can meet women (and you realize that women are going to post photos from when they were 20, not their current age of 35...and that guys are always going to add $100,000 to what their yearly salary is).

Anyway, this idiot friend of mine actually met a lot of attractive women. I know, because he'd email me their photos. Or show me when I was at his place.

But he'd always mess it up. And one way was really hysterical. It was this cute, short Latina. Well, things were going great with them. She just asked him why he still had his listing up on the dating site. After all, they were both now dating "each other". He said, "Well, I paid for 3 months. And I have a month left. No sense taking it down." She apparently could also tell that he was going onto the site and checking to see if other women had commented. I understood her anger regarding that. I also thought it was odd the website would let others see this info.

But what caused her to finally leave him, is that he changed his profile. He put a different photo up there, and made other attempts to be funny. And I can see her point. If you aren't "looking" for someone else, there would be no reason to update your profile.

I had someone post on this website, under my Crasher column, about why I'm always talking about my girlfriend in my column. I don't think I do, but if my column is writing about parties, and I'm bringing her with me to parties, I sometimes mention it. I think that some people think, that she's insisting on this. When in fact, she doesn't like it.

When I started thinking about dating and the internet, it got me thinking about the woman that got charged for creating that fictional guy on Myspace, causing the neighbor girl to kill herself.

I thought about a few documentaries I've seen recently. One is called "Crazy/Love." Rent this movie. I won't tell you what happens, but I guarantee it will blow your mind. And you'll say it's one of the best documentaries you've ever seen (my girlfriend insists no documentary is better than "King of Kong" about dorky Donkey Kong players).

Last night on MSNBC, I saw a documentary called "Dear Zachary." It was about a pyscho that killed a doctor she was dating. She was also pregnant with his child, and his parents wanted custody of the kid.

Because our legal system is so messed up, she got to go back home to Canada without being brought back here. They flew up there, and became a part of the childs life, even though they had to be in the same room with the woman that murdered her son.

She was out on bail, and eventually killed the baby and herself.

It was the saddest thing in the world, to see this older couple (that lived in San Diego for a long time), have to deal with yet another murder by this pyscho.

Anyway, she showed signs that a lot of people show online. She would date a guy, and then leave 200 messages on his machine if she was angry about something. She had restraining orders against her.

And, I found out my idiot friend who would meet women online, had a restraining order against him.

The moral of the story...I guess...is that technology has given people a new way to meet one another. And, when writing emails, you can sure be a lot more clever than the "do you come here often?" days in a singles bar.

That also means, people can be more fooled by a pyscho. Simply because they like the way they write.

And the photos and things they put up on their website.