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Net Gains (Feb 14, 96)
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This year though, when we went to Crosswords, and Satyams, she kept taunting me - "Naah, I don't like that one.", and ".. nor this one". That's when the Internet came to my rescue. I used Webcrawler - a popular search engine - and looked for the word "valentine". The electronic search returned 778 documents, out of which about 50 were "authentic" valentine sites. Among these were online gifting services, which offered gifts ranging from flowers, perfume, & jewellery to lingerie, and chocolates. But after a little scanning, I found what I was looking for : plenty of Valentine's day card sites.
One cool site is the Greet St. CardCollection . The Valentine collection has cards categorised into the hot/light "Romance & Passion", the fun/sentimental "Friends & Love, a "Kids" section, and to make sure they cater to everyone, they have a special Gay & Lesbian section too ! These cards will cost you : at the end of your shopping session, you can pay for them via credit card. One very interesting feature at this site was the quick search : The fast search tool has 4 categories listed : Emotions, events, Image and Publishers. After you make the appropriate choices, all you have to do is click on the "Perform Fast Search" button, and within a minute you have a list of custom put - together cards which are a combination of your choice of emotions, images (to be shown on the card), and the event (like Valentines Day) !!
For the coy and the unimaginative, there's help on the Net. The Cyrano Server comes to their aid. This is a automatic letter - writer. You have the option of making your letter steamy, desperate, intellectual, poetic,or regretful. After giving a few details like : your name, her name, adjectives that describe her, & your relationship, her favourite food, her most attractive feature, and the outfit you like best on her, you send the form. Within a minute, you get a ready letter for her ! Try it ! The results are sometimes hilarious : "My love, I can imagine myself kissing your beautiful body and slathering you with various oils and tandoori chicken...."
Another must-visit site is Build A Card . At this site you actually build a card of your choice for your sweetheart. This site takes you step by step through the process of choosing the background, adding visuals and text - all of your choice. You could keep changing the card till you're fully satisfied with the result. You can then send an e-mail to her, telling her where the card is on the Net.
If your dearly beloved doesn't have an E-mail connection, all's not lost. Take a trip (like I did ) to The Valentine Home Page. This is one site where you get Audio - Visual cards. The only catch is that your sweetheart has to have a PC with Windows, and 256 colours to be able to view & hear these cards. These cards are self-executing, and run full screen. What this means is that your cutie pie need only run the executable file that you give her on a floppy, and hey presto ! She gets a card that, in a manner of speaking, moves & speaks ! One of the cards that I downloaded has a rich red background, called the "I Love You" card. It runs for about 17 seconds. First, the capital letter "I" appears to the sound of a cymbal clash. This is followed by the word "LOVE" appearing to the sound of kissing. Finally, the word "YOU" appears to the sound/visual of fireworks and crowd cheering. There are smaller, simpler cards which are just pictures that can be downloaded and given to your love. This same site has links for you to download sounds of French kisses, and Valentine wishes in different voices - the range is fascinating ! OOPS ! I've gotta rush - I can't afford to miss my sweetheart's reaction when she sees all the electronic cards I got her !!
HAVE A GREAT VALENTINE'S DAY ! I know I will !!