Unfortunately, not being an A-List member I can’t give one back. So, I’ll use my journal to give an award.

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The Great Date

Have you ever had a good day that turned into a fantastic day by the company of a new friend? Such a day can happen if your new friend is vrb1955. What you see on OKC is what you’ll find in person so it took only a few minutes till we were talking like we had know each other for years. She has a passion for life most people would envy, along with a sense of humor that can make you burst out laughing and find yourself blushing at the same time. Thank you for a wonderful day!

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Some of you reading this may be wondering what made this date a "Great Date." Well, it really wasn’t set up to be a date but a simple meet-n-greet for coffee/breakfast that should have taken all of 45 minutes. It tuned into a date that lasted for almost eight hours. After breakfast and with no plans, other than finding we both had extra time and felt like doing something, we took on Center City Philly. I’ve been to Philly many times but to vrb it’s like her back yard. She was a gracious host and what ever we felt like seeing/doing we saw and did. I even got to see one place I’d only seen in the movies. Taking an almost empty day and turning it into a "we did something fun today" day is what made it a Great Date.

Oh … just in case you care … will there be a second date?

Yes, there will be a second date in the near future. Only this time it’ll be in my back yard.

I’ve answered quite a few questions on OKC. The one, which seems to stay on my mind, is: "Should burning your country's flag be illegal?"

My answer was NO, it shouldn’t be illegal. Before you send me hate mail or ask me to join your cause, please finish reading my journal entry.

Does my answer mean that I believe it’s ok to burn the flag during a protest of something? Does it mean I have burned a flag while protesting something? My answer may appear I condone such activities or I could ever be anti-American. The answers to all are NO.

Simply put, the proper way to dispose of our worn and torn flags is to burn them. The U.S. Flag Code states, "The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning". So it should not be made illegal as the simplified question asks.

Personally, I don’t want to see worn or torn flags displayed or disposed of in garbage cans. Burning, as a form of protest seems to be a desperate cheap shot to make a point, which probably hurts the cause more than helps it. Burning the flag of another country, why purposely insult their average citizens who may be the only ones with level headed thinking when their leaders go off the deep end.

There’s also the issue of "Freedom of Speech". Let’s face it, nothing I can write here will resolve that issue.

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There are many other questions that I find are too simplified or just don’t give an accurate idea of how one really feels. This is especially true with the sexual ones. Often one has to choose the best of what doesn’t reflect how I think or believe. The "Have you ever" type ones … well, I did it 40 years ago when I was single and young … doesn’t really reflect what I do today.

I hope most of the people on OKC realize the questions answered can generate misleading match, friend and enemy percentages. The question system is very good, I actually like it but it's not perfect or to be the sole criteria in finding a person. I’ve found I have more in common with those whose match and friend percentages are not the highest.

Like many people on OKC I primarily wrote this to see what OKC will ask me to do after "write something in your journal" in the completion of my profile.