Random Find of the Day
When I’m stuck at work, or home, or need to crawl outside my head, I use the internet. Or a newspaper. Or a book. But lately, the internet.
Nothing helps off-set a nice hearty bout of depression like people being oh so human. Take, for example, this ad in the Barter section of my local craigslist:
“Slightly modified xbox comes with one controller. I’m looking for a rifle, hand gun, shotty, and am also open to offers. Let me know what you have. If you have a picture of your offer please include.” (it had a pic of an xbox, highly modded, next to it).
I can imagine the stories that could come with that. Maybe the guy has a really annoying wife. Maybe I’m assuming it is a guy, and really it is a woman who desperately wants to trade in the xbox for a gun to protect herself from raving zombies. Or, some teenager has decided to live up to the media stereotypes and graduate from videogames to the real thing and can’t get a gun. Two things lead me to suspect the poster is male. The first is the request. Who would think to trade an xbox for a gun but a guy? I have a lot of male friends, this is exactly the kind of thing they might joke about. Of course, it is the kind of thing I might joke about as well. So much for stereotyping.
The second thing is the word “shotty”. I don’t think any woman on the planet (or at least my side of it) would use that word. It reminds me of an ex boyfriend who called my clitoris a ‘clitty’. This was not a turn on. It was, however, a very male sort of thing to do in my pigeonholing mindset.
The tone of the ad is very brusque and business-like. I lean away from the teenager theory and more towards the man fed up with someone version. It has been modified, which means some education or at least ability to use the internet to learn things. Only one controller means single and likely not a social gamer. So I put it as a male, most likely caucasian, age 20-40, single and lives alone, who is intelligent or at least technologically capable. We have here the recipe for a serial killer.
Perhaps he’ll save and trade the games for a good shovel.
The other barters are mainly what one might expect. Also, a crazy number of people trying to trade things like housework, yard work, childcare etc… for tattoos. And one lone tattoo guy trying to get his truck painted. Someone should hook that guy up.