How hard it is to not be a stalker..

I just read a story about someone who noticed that they were being watched in a creepy way by a dude while they were hanging out on a swing set..

Firstly let me just point out a few things... The person who was on the swings was a girl, but she was also an adult. The person watching her was an older man.

That's fairly obviously a bit off.

But just literally as I typed this it occurred to me that an adult playing on a swing-set by herself (at 6 in the morning as it happened) could probably be seen as a bit creepy too. Maybe the adult that was watching the woman on the swings has a child that likes to play on those swings and he was wondering why a grown woman would be sitting there waiting for his kid..?

I don't believe that this is the case, but it's interesting to consider the other perspectives.

I bring this up because I do my own fair share of harmless stalking on social networking sites.. Not to name anything in particular but lets just call the one I'm talking about "Headscroll". I'm really after a bit of input here as to how stalkerish my behaviour is and if it's excusable. I don't plan on ever using my strange skills for any messed up purposes but depending on the way you look at me I could seem a little weird.

I met a girl at uni a few months back. Truthfully by accident. I went to sit next to another person and she was in the other seat next to me, I asked her if the seat was taken or reserved for a friend and she joked to me that she didn't have any friends. I told her I'd be her friend in a similarly joking way and we shared a bit of quiet conversation before the lecture started. Pretty normal so far.

Now I'll just mention that this girl was cute and that I like cute girls (wow that's crazy talk). So I tried to find her on 'Headscroll' a little while after because I didn't share any tutorial classes with her and wanted a chance to talk to her, but I only knew her first name so I didn't have any luck.

That'd be the first questionable stalkerish behaviour I'm displaying... In my opinion fairly ok, especially since I didn't even find her.

I didn't see her again for a while except for 2 mins outside another lecture and a wave through a window and never got any more info on her, until the other day when I had an exam which she too was in.

Now as a bit of background I don't know how other universities organise their exam rooms but at mine they have a huge hall full of about 2000 students and they just run 10 or so different tests at the same time. Students sit in their class groups in alphabetical order on numbered tables. The seating plan for each student is displayed on a list by subject outside the hall. You see where I'm going? Ok for the profoundly innocent of you reading this I found this girls last name on the list by seeing roughly where she was sitting in regards to the alphabet and because I already knew her first name...

So that's stalkerish behaviour number 2. I got her name off a list to use it to look her up on 'Headscroll'.

I have not added her because I don't want to seem weird but at the same time maybe she wouldn't think it was stalkerish at all, maybe she'd just be flattered...

I spoke to her after the aforementioned exam by the way, so I'm really not a stranger anymore. In fact I walked her back to her car (kind of by just talking to her till she got to it though, not by ant chivalrous offer).

Sorry if this is all a bit unorganised but it's late and I really want to wrap this up so I can get my sleep cause I have one more exam tomorrow which funnily enough this cute girl is going to be at too.

Before I finish I just want to outline my last stalkerish actions so that I am completely honest with you all now. After getting her name off the list right before talking to her I then went home and found her on 'Headscroll' and was disappointed to find a private profile. Don't get me wrong, I think private 'Headscroll' profiles are a good idea, in fact mine's private too. But as a guy in pursuit of a cute girl I wanted to know if she was single before I make my move and I couldn't get that information from her page... Please don't judge me too harshly here on this next bit, but I kind of outdid myself on the stalker scale next.

So looking at this enticingly locked profile I still had access to her friends list (a small mercy) and I took a quick look through the list (no mutual friends, damn) and found a friend who had a picture which included cute girl in her profile pic (bingo). Her account was not private and I ended up trawling quite painstakingly through a number of photos in a search for more information on the illusive cute girl.. In the end I found a lot of pictures of her hanging out with her friends, no pictures that suggested a boyfriend and generally felt pretty good about the whole exercise. Except for that niggling feeling that I became the worlds most dangerous stalker over the course of about half an hour.

What do you think?

I admit, it was a bit obsessive, but in my defense I was procrastinating studying for my exam and it was only trying to find out if it was worth pursuing this girl...

Tomorrow as I may have mentioned, I have another chance to see cute girl and I've decided that if I do get the opportunity, I'll try and get her number and organise a date or something via traditional means (talking) but if I don't see her (and it could easily happen if she finishes the exam and leaves before me) I plan on adding her on 'Headscroll'..

Am I a creepy stalker.. Or a non creepy one?