Swim with Condoms?

Okay... So I was screwing around on MySpace today during an I B M All Hands conference call. It was something about organization restructuring or something else. Funny, as I have been with I B M three weeks shy of a year, and we had undergone a couple reorganizations during my still-short tenure. Naturally, I was bored during the call because I kind of got the gist of it by skimming ahead on the PowerPoint presentation. So what did I do while some vice president was talking? I logged into MySpace.

Whoa! One of the dynamic advertisement banners on the top of my MySpace page was for an event benefiting the Manhattan Island Foundation. The actual event itself? Open water swimming in the waters of New York City. This, of course, caused some curiosity on my part on a couple points.


First point. MySpace has always been a huge assault on localized advertisement for a long time now. When I traveled to Los Angeles on business, it seemed like MySpace knew I was in LA, because all the adverts were related to the greater Los Angeles area. Find Singles in L.A.! Live Chat with Singles in L.A.! And likewise, when I’m back in Chicago, different adverts would pop up, all relating to the Chicagoland. Given that, why the hell am I being shown a New York advert?

Second point. I got to thinking more in depth about this particular advertised event. When my friend Katie was kayaking the Chicago River, she expressed fears of turning over and falling into the river not because she couldn’t swim, but because of the filth she had to paddle through: a used condom floating here and a dead rat floating there. And add to the misfortune I had of growing up along with popular culture as portrayed on television shows, like The Soprano’s and CSI: NY. And what kind of imagination do you get of swimming in the open waters of New York City? Trash, used condoms and dead mafia mobsters all floating around! Not to mention Godzilla lurking unsuspectingly underneath!

Those thoughts simply gave me the chills! I’d like to see what kind of turnout that event will have. I for one will be hesitant to go swim in the open waters of New York City!