Did you know that it had even begun? That is right National Singles Week or as it is now known National Unmarried and Single Americans Week is almost over. Are you one of the 89 million singles in the U.S.? I still am. Have you received a greeting card from a concerned friend to commemorate this week? Neither Have I.

So what is this week all about? Well how about some history of this week from UnmarriedAmerica.org the organization behind the promotion of this week. They say on their site that it started out:

A commemorative week known as “National Singles Week” was started by the Buckeye Singles Council in Ohio about 20 years ago. When that organization folded, the promotion of National Singles Week was taken over by Janet Jacobsen, coordinator of the National Singles Press Association.

What is with the name change? Well according to their site:

Many of the millions of unmarried Americans do not identify with the word “single” because they are parents, have partners, or are recently widowed. And yet many other unmarried Americans proudly describe themselves as “single.”

In order to accommodate the interest and identities of as many unmarried people as possible, since 2002 we have been commemorating the third week of September as Unmarried and Single Americans Week. Other individuals and groups continue call it National Singles Week.

Whatever you call it, it is supposed to acknowledge the contributions to society of single people. I have to admit that this is the first year I had ever even heard of National Singles Week, let alone this organization. They used to be an advocacy organization for singles and the unmarried. Unmarried America is now an information service, which states that singles:

… deserve equal rights and fairness as workers, consumers, and taxpayers. We also want politicians and political parties to pay more attention to us as voters.

While politicians should pay some attention to the concerns of singles, as an information service their site is light on details of exactly which rights and fairness’s need to be equaled. They do provide some interesting census stats on their site:

89 million
Number of unmarried adults in the United States as of March 2004. 53 million had never been married. 22 million were currently divorced. 14 million were widowed.

13.3 million
The number of people, ages 25 to 34 in 2000, who had never been married; this number represents 35 percent of all people in this age group. The total of never-been-marrieds among the 35-to-44 age bracket was 6.9 million or 15 percent.

12 million
The number of single parents in 2000. The number of single mothers increased between 1970 and 2000, from 3 million to 10 million; over the same time frame, the number of single fathers increased also, from 393,000 to 2 million. (Single mothers and fathers include all those who are not currently living with a spouse.)

35%
The percent of voters in the 2000 presidential election who were unmarried. Nearly 37 million voters were divorced, widowed, or never married. Married individuals (67 percent) are more likely to vote than widowed (59 percent), divorced (54 percent), separated (46 percent), and never married individuals (44 percent). Separated and never-married individuals are generally younger, which also influences their voting patterns.

About 40 million single Americans are using online dating services. Looks like a lot of these single and unmarried Americans don’t want to stay that way. If you are one of them and have not yet ventured into online dating yet, why don’t you click on over to Match.com or Yahoo! Personals which right now are offering a 3-day and a 7-day free trial respectively. Or, try eHarmony or PerfectMatch and get a free personality profile. I am presently using eHarmony and have not done more than poke around the others but if you are thinking of going this route, these are the big four online dating services.

I had seen it before on their website while strolling around the old Internet but last night after seeing their ad multiple times on TV, I decided to go download it. What am I talking about? I am referring to the free guide from Match.com, How to Find the Right Person in 90 Days. I have only glanced at it so far. It is looks like a 12-week guide to finding out about you, so you can find out what it is you want and go get it. There will be more to come on this, as I take some time to read it more thoroughly.

Also, in the looking ahead category, I am getting some new pictures taken to use here on this site and in profile on online dating sites. Including eHarmony, which I am presently using. With this in mind I thought I would post some in-depth articles on pictures for dating online. An expansion on the basics I posted in, How to Get Better Online Dating Photos, last week. Some of the ideas for a series of articles, I have been thinking about are:

• What makes a good picture for online dating?
• What types of photos should I post?
• How many photos should I post in my profile?
• How do I get some good pictures?

Any other topics you wish to know about regarding pictures and there use for online dating? Let me know and I will see what I can find out.

This is just a couple of the subjects and ideas floating around here at eWooing. So comeback and we’ll see if we can improve are chances together of finding someone via our online dating journeys?

Have you ever Googled a potential date? Yourself? Anyone? You might be amazed at what you find. I was reading this article: Pre-date ritual: Googling potential mate. According to this article a lot of people are doing this before they meet someone for a date.

About 43 percent of people who answered a dating-service survey said they type their date’s name into the Google search engine before they go out. And 88 percent of those people said they wouldn’t be bothered if their dates did the same thing.

I mentioned the idea of doing a Google search in a post, More Truth in Online Dating, a couple of days ago, but didn’t try it out. Today I did. Just to see what I would find as the articles author suggested her readers should. So I went to Google and I typed jason griffin into the search box and clicked the search button.

There were about 959,000 results for jason griffin. So I went through the first few pages of results. They were quite fascinating. So if you have met a Jason Griffin, that lives in the Seattle area, online or elsewhere and has Googled me, I hope you find this page. Because this is what I found:

• These pictures of Jason Griffin taken by Craig Hamrick are NOT ME.
• The Assistant Professor, Ornamentals and Woody Plants at Kansas State, Dr. Jason J Griffin is not me.
• I am not the Jason Griffin working in radio in California.
• Not the Certified Instructor for the International TaeKwonDo Alliance, Jason Griffin either.
• The Jason Griffin that works in the Maintenance Dept. at Shelton State Community College, still not me.
• The Jason Griffin who wrote the article, Beginners Guide to Buying a Set of Golf Clubs, that actually IS ME.
• The Sgt. Jason Griffin, who became the 500th Guard for the Tomb of the Unknowns, once again was not me.
• Jason Griffin, the host of The Eagle 93.9 FM show, Griffin & Company, not me.
• I am also not the Jason Griffin that came in 7th at a No Limit Hold’em tournament back in March.
• And no matter how much my Mom wishes for the event to take place, the Jason Griffin in these wedding photos, is not me.

At least something of mine actually showed up on the first couple pages of results. Not that you would know that I wrote that. Unless you went from Google to the article posted at SearchWarp. Then clicked on the link there to my golf site, Guide to Golf Equipment. Then found the about me page on that site and clicked the link to this site. And then went to the About Jason page here and saw my picture and went: Yah, that’s the Jason Griffin I met. I doubt that would actually happen.

So, should a potential date in the Seattle area in the future Google jason griffin to find out about me, hopefully they will find this page amongst the results and actually find something by me and not all the other Jason Griffin’s out there.

Also, you might note, there is more than one Jason Griffin in the Seattle area. There are at least three others in the vicinity. With that in mind check the About Jason page on this site and view the photo. Is that the Jason Griffin that you met? If so, you have come to the right place. After reading around here, hope you still want to go out.

I spent the last few days sprucing up the old eHarmony introductory info page. I decided that I needed to change things up a bit. Keep it fresh. Give it a little more personality. So I went through each of the questions and tried to liven my answers up a bit. When I came to the question:

What is the most important quality that you are looking for in another person?

I spent some time thinking about it. After careful consideration and reflection I opened up my word processor and began to write. The following is what I ended up with:

Even though we’ll start out as Perfect Strangers we’ll become Friends first, not Bosom Buddies, and then see what will Blossom. We’ll take it Step by Step and One Day at a Time. Initially being The Odd Couple falling in Love, American Style but then The Honeymooners and ultimately Married… with Children.

The woman at the Head of the Class would have strong Family Ties because I’m a Family Guy. The Facts of Life are that Family Matters. Also, she would have a strong Will & Grace Under Fire to handle life’s little Growing Pains no matter What’s Happening!! Someone who won’t Curb Your Enthusiasm by being The Critic but will keep me inline when I try to Get Smart because we both know Who’s the Boss? Although she’ll know when she’s Too Close for Comfort and will Gimme a Break. A woman who dreams of having a Full House of Cheers, Good Times and Happy Days to live out The Wonder Years would be the right girl for me.

If you’re That Girl then I could be Mad About You.

I went back later and reread it and something struck me. Maybe I should not just be writing about my online dating thoughts and experiences. I should also be writing about TV. So I created my new weblog: TVaholic.com.

Two down and probably more to come, if you’ve read the About Jason page then you know I also like golf. Could the GolfReviewer weblog be far behind? Well for now I think I will stick with the eWooing online dating site and the TVaholic site. Stay tuned as new ideas come to fruition.

At any rate I think my online dating profile info at eHarmony is better. I guess that I could have just answered: I am looking for someone with a sense of humor who likes TV. But, what fun would that have been? Anyways, we’ll see?

If you have been dating online for a while now. Make sure you mix things up. Keep it real, but keep it new and exciting.