the story of how I wasted an hour dressing myself in cartoon clothing because I was trying to help a teenage girl with her period

The other day, I was looking up some grammar information, and typing my search query as a question led me to a related page on Yahoo Answers, a service in which a person can pose any question, various Yahoo members will post replies, other users can rate the replies, and the original poster can mark the question "closed" when a satisfactory answer has been received.

Currently, top questions on Yahoo Answers include:

• Is it true that the color of the tie on bread bags determines what day they were delivered to the store?
  
• I way 124 pounds im 12 is this normal?
  
• What will hapen to harry in HP AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS?
  
• What is the best website on the legal positivism perspective of jurisprudence?
  
• Will nintendo bring out another gameboy - after the micro?
  
• How coconut so strong?

While reading the grammar answer I so desired, I saw a link somewhere on the page to "unanswered questions," and one of them was from a girl (I do mean "girl") who had her period, wanted to go on a school swim trip, and was wondering if she would still be a virgin if she started using tampons.

She had received only a couple of replies: one that told her "no," and one calling her a slut.

Normally, I do not go around the internet performing acts of puberty-related do-gooding, but I felt this was a special case. Feeling big-sisterly, I clicked to post a reply, and discovered I would need to register with Yahoo. Fine.

A few steps into the registration process, I became aware that I was actually signing up for yahoo.ph -- as in, "Yahoo! Phillipines." I gathered that this must have been because the asker of the question was a member of Yahoo! Phillipines, and somehow I had entered Yahoo's Filipino district.

Then Yahoo offered me the opportunity to create an avatar. Aren't I a little old for this sort of thing? I thought, but I just couldn't help myself.

Being in Yahoo! Phillipines, the default skin color was a little dark, so I started tweaking:

I thought this one looked kind of like me.

Look, a little tutor avatar! Maybe I could somehow use this professionally.

Many of the backgrounds in Yahoo! Phillipines represent, unsurprisingly, scenes in Asia. Here's me in front of an Asian city street.

In the foreground of some rice terraces?

How about some "Philipine Nipa Huts"?

I thought the "Indian Wedding Pavilion" was nice...

...but that maybe I should dress more appropriately.

And then an hour of my life was gone, and I never got back to the girl with the period question. I really hope the swim trip turned out okay.