Chatroulette, Tiger Woods & Lonely French Golf Instructors (part one)

I have to admit it, during this long Connecticut winter I've really enjoyed spending Friday nights at home... alone... with my MacBook. In fact, once I set myself up in front of the fireplace with a glass of wine, I find these Friday evenings pretty awesome.

My occasionally annoying sweet husband is down the street in a smokey cellar, with a bunch of middle aged men. They sit around a green felt table for hours on end, sipping their Chivas and shifting around their multi-colored plastic chips. It's his weekly poker game and that's where he is on Friday nights. Presumably.

So there I was last night, alone with my laptop and a glass of Château Pichon-Longueville in front of a blazing fire, catching up on my Google reader. And that's when I reluctantly decided that I needed to try Chatroulette.

Not that I really wanted to, but after reading four stories (1 - 2 - 3 - 4... count them) referencing the random-stranger site... I started thinking it might be time for me to give it a try in the interest of journalistic objectivity.

Described as sinister, salacious, creepy, fun, thrilling and profound... there had to be something in it worth writing about, and even if there wasn't; it was a full blown trending topic and already had its own obscenely funny John Stewart satire ...and apparently the 17-year-old Russian founder is being courted by venture capitalists.

The story that ultimately convinced me however, was the one lifestyle reporter Nicole Baute did for the Toronto Star. Of course it wasn't the web cam creeps of her title, that tempted me... it was the lonely French golf instructor she met as she clicked from one random stranger to the next. He just wanted to talk Baute wrote, and I convinced myself that if I could practice my French and talk about golf it would be pretty awesome. I also figured I could try to get some feedback and opinions on the controversial golf issues of the day like the return of Tiger Woods or the John Daly debacle or the square grooves controversy. Yeah, right. That's what I told myself anyway. And then I clicked to start the game.

(... to be continued) ~ Meanwhile for the uninitiated video above breaks it down really well. It's Chat Roulette from Casey Neistat on Vimeo.