Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Email Eulogy

My email has six months to live.


The community network that hosts my personal email account is discontinuing their email service at the end of this year. This is a bummer for many reasons. First of all, because it was a small, non-profit organization, I was able to get a very simple email address: tim@domainname.org. I love having such a short and simple handle. It's my name and it's my address. There's no way I could join one of the big free web-based mail systems and snatch the same thing. It will have to be something like tim_statboy2571 or some other ridiculously long handle. (In fact, gmail requires at least six characters, so my three-letter name isn't even theoretically possible.)

I still have the first message I ever sent with this address. It was on October 14, 2002, and I sent it to my (then) girlfriend. I know it was the first message because the first line read: "This is my very first message from my new email address!"

Ever the anal, archiving librarian, I've saved most of my electronic correspondence in various folders over the past six years. It's an archive of my life, as presented to various people through letters, notes, invitations, flirtations, and arguments.

There are currently 30 folders in my email account. Whenever I start emailing with someone who I think is going to be a significant correspondent, I will create a new folder for that person. Some of these folders never really get going and the correspondence sputters out after only 4 or 5 messages. (That's the risk of premature foldering.) Some of them were very active for a time, but have died out for various reasons. I continue to build on the "active" folders, which range in size from 6 to 309 messages. The 309-message folder is for a friend of mine from library school, and we have been emailing each other since the beginning of this account. Most of my active "friends" folders range in size from 71 to 128 messages. Some are old friends who I just don't write very often, and some are ones I've made in the last year who I correspond with a lot.

I also have thematic folders that don't refer to a certain person, but an activity or event. For example, all my tennis correspondence has its own folder ("tennis", currently 271 messages), or messages from my family planning our annual reunion ("sfest", 107), or when I applied for jobs ("jobsearch," 40). I even have one for family arguments that have flared up over the years, titled "feud" (116.)

There's a generic "saved-messages" folder (201) that came with the account, and I put stuff in there that doesn't really warrant its own folder. Sometimes the things in there are in limbo-- waiting to see if there are enough messages on a certain topic to create a new folder.

But the granddaddy of all my folders, the one that dwarfs all the others and is larger than the next six largest folders combined, is the one titled "rebecca." It has 1,162 messages in it. We met online, and although we lived in the same city, she was traveling and doing research, off and on, for the first three months of our courtship. The first month alone we logged 128 messages to each other. In the second month we set a record of 11 messages exchanged in one day, and logged another 133 for the month. From there, our monthly message count declined, as we moved in together, got engaged, got married, and then broke-up. But all four and a half years of our relationship are chronicled through our emails.



All four of the women I've loved have their own folders, since I've been in contact with each of them over the past six years (two of them while we were together, and two of them during the post-breakup friendship.) My most recent ex-girlfriend, the one who received the very first message from this account (see above), got up to 99 messages, but we haven't had any contact in five years. My first girlfriend has exactly 100 in her folder, but that could increase since we're still in contact. Girlfriend #2's folder stopped at 59, ever since she abruptly cut off contact with me about four years ago.

Anyway, this thrilling discussion of the demographics of my email folders aside, the main point I wanted to make is that there is a lot of personal history in this email account. I can go back to almost any date over the past six years and get a slice of what was going on in my life, as presented to this or that person.

Ten years ago I had a transatlantic relationship with a German girl who was living in Poland for a year (girlfriend #2.) We emailed each other almost every day, and at the end of the year I printed out our email correspondence to keep for posterity. The stack of printouts is about three inches high, and every once in a while I will go back and read it. The sweet talk, the discussions, the reports of our everyday comings and goings, the fights, the drama, and the countdowns until we see each other again. It's all there, and it tells a great story.

A few years ago I started going through the "rebecca" folder and copying all the messages into a text program, so that I could save them for family history. This file tells a lot of the story of How Wet Met. I hadn't worked on this project for over a year, and now, with the news of my email account dying, I'll have to make a decision to either give it up or finish it. I don't plan to copy all 1162 messages, but probably the first few months of messages are worth keeping. They do tell a story, even if the story ultimately doesn't have a happy ending.

As for the other 29 folders in my email account, I will hate to see them go. But there's no way I can save all of them, or even if I should. I will need to find a new email address, probably through gmail, and will start the process of saving messages all over again. It's what I do.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Erony

In my inbox at work I received an email with the following subject line: Don't Pursue Happiness - Create It... With A Great New Career!

Well, someone really likes to punctuate. It's not often you see a dash, elipsis, and exclamation point in one subject line. So I opened it and read about this "great new career." It's a "Company" that seeks "Representatives." (No name for the company, just "Company.") There are exactly four qualifications for this job:

1. Good work ethic.
2. Basic computer skills
3. Excellent comunitaction skills
4. Be well-orginized and hard-working.

Excellent comunitaction skills?

I believe that is the very definition of irony.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Payoff

I just paid off my student loan. With a purring cat on my lap.

Actually, I scheduled the last payment. They won't take it out of my account until next Monday. I hadn't planned to pay it off this early, but I also hadn't planned on a lot of things that happened this year.

The nest egg that Rebecca and I had been saving for a house was just sitting there, split in half, but still enough to finish off my student loan. And since I'm in no position to buy a house right now, I figured I could at least kill my student debt in one fell swoop. I'm not sure what a "fell swoop" is, but I know a lot of people use them to accomplish something all at once.


I scheduled the payment online through my student loan website. Hermione, my secondary cat, was sitting on my lap as I did it, looking up and me and purring. She clearly approves of paying off one's debts.

Monday, July 7, 2008

Best Tennis Ever

On Sunday I spent 7.5 hours watching the most amazing tennis match of my young tennis career.

On Monday I imitated the "instant classic" with my own epic tennis battle-- on a much, much, much smaller scale.

I woke up Sunday morning excited about the Wimbledon final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. After two weeks of having to TiVo every big match at Wimbledon and then hearing who won from various people before I got a chance to watch them, I was determined to watch this match live.


There were so many different ways to dissect this exciting match-up that I couldn't decided who to root for. Should I go for the guy who's been ranked #1 in the world for four and half years (Federer), who has won this particular tournament five straight times and was going for a record six straight, who has made it to an amazing 17 consecutive grand slam semifinals, and who is chasing the record of 14 overall grand slam titles (he's currently at 12)? Or the younger Nadal, who has been ranked #2 to Federer for three years, despite having a winning record against the champ, who himself has won the French Open four straight times (at the expense of Federer), the last time a month ago when he shellacked his rival 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 in the finals?


And that's just the tip of the drama iceberg.

I didn't know who to root for, and I didn't really care. I was happy to be watching the match in real time. After the first of three rain delays and interruptions, the match started, and I found myself rooting for Federer. I'm not sure why this was, but the sports fan's heart wants what it wants, and I wanted Federer to win.

Over the next 7.5 hours I watched some great tennis, punctuated by rain delays that allowed me to do laundry, vacuum, eat lunch, and do other chores. Almost my whole day was taken up by the match, which I don't think has ever happened with a sporting event before. The match had everything that makes a great sports contest: two likable but competitive opponenets, amazingly hard-fought points, beautiful shots and displays of athleticism, a comeback, a choke or two, close scores, the tennis equivalent of overtime, and an outcome that was not determined until the very end. There were times when points would go three or four shots beyond amazing. I mean, one amazing "get" was followed by another two or three. It kept me on the edge of the couch, and I told my cat, who slept nearby, "Katya, you are missing an awesome match!" She shrugged and shifted her position.

In the end, Nadal unseated the five-time champ, 6-4, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-7(8), 9-7. As someone who loves scores and numbers, I'm impressed with the score alone. I didn't care who won, it was such a great match. Each of them was gracious in victory and defeat, respectively. Both cried, but for different reasons. John McEnroe, who was calling the match, thanked both of them for giving us (the fans) such a great display. McEnroe even hugged Federer, and both of them started to tear up. I almost did, too, when I saw Nadal run up into the stands after the match to hug his family.


I've seen some headlines that say things like Nadal "stunned" Federer. That's misleading. It implies that Federer was a heavy favorite who got upset. Not true. Nadal's been gaining on him recently, and since Federer is about five years older, it was inevitable that Nadal would surpass him at some point (if any of the other upstarts like Djokovic didn't do it first.) The question was only when and how. And the "how" was as awesome as a tennis fan could hope for. This rivalry win continue, no doubt, but it feels like this was a watershed moment for Nadal; a usurpation of the crown.

--------------------------------
Inspired by the Wimbledon final, Monday evening I met a new tennis opponent for a friendly match in the humid heat of Urbana. I wore my new sleeveless Rafa shirt so I could intimidate my opponent with my bulging muscles, just like Rafa's. I'd played this guy once before, in my tennis league, and beat him 6-2, 6-4, so I wasn't afraid of him. But this time it was much closer. We played the first set to a 6-6 tie, and then I won the tiebreaker, 7-3. Tough set.

It was easily my sweatiest match of the year, since it was so humid. Despite my headband and cap, the sweat was rolling into my eyes and flying onto my glasses. In the second set we traded games to 3-3, but then I finally took two in a row to go up 5-3. I served for the set, and was up 40-0 when I totally choked. I had four match points in that game, but lost them all. He came back to win the game and two more to go up 6-5. I felt like I didn't have any energy left, but then it was his time to choke. He had set point at 6-5, but I battled back to win the game and force a second tiebreaker.

I must have had a second wind, because I came out to a quick 4-0 lead. I stayed ahead and had match point at 6-4. It was my fifth match point of the evening. I hit a shot to his backhand and come up to the net. He tried a pretty good passing shot, but I got to it in time and was ready to hit a winning volley. The ball hit the cord and bounced over my racket onto the court. Dammit! Now I felt like maybe fate was against me. I was 0-for-5 on match points.

But I put away the next point to win it, 7-6(3), 7-6(5). I was happy that it was over, because I don't think I could have gone another set. The match lasted two hours.

Two sweaty, athletic, fun, victorious hours.

Sunday, July 6, 2008

ALA: The Haul

Just a quick update on my trip. This year's ALA brought 22,000 people (mostly librarians) to Anaheim, home of Disneyland. It was not my favorite ALA location. Our hotel room was crappy and Disney music was everywhere. Most of the food options were located in "Downtown Disney," which didn't have any bars. How can it be the "magic kingdom" if there's no alcohol? What makes Goofy goofy?

The ALA meetings themselves left me uninspired. One of the meetings I attended was in the Disneyland Hotel, so I have a pen and pad of paper with the mouse-ears logo on them. I spent a lot of time in the exhibit hall picking up free stuff. Here's the haul:


  • 29 pens
  • 9 bags
  • 4 pads of paper
  • 2 key chains
  • 2 packages of bookmarks
  • 1 stress ball. (I actually got two stress balls, but I gave the first one away to a cute girl on the street who was wearing an Atheist t-shirt in a parody of the Athletics, the Oakland baseball team. She was handing out literature for what appeared to be some kind of cult. I listened politely to her spiel, and then asked her if she'd like a stress ball. Not that I have anything against atheists, but it seems that if anyone needs a stress ball, it's someone wearing an Atheist t-shirt handing out propaganda.)
  • 1 small chip clip (I assume it's for chips, but I really have no idea. It was from the FDIC, so maybe it's supposed to be a huge money clip.)
  • 1 CD-Rom by the FDIC on teaching people how to be money smart. Ironic that this was right next to Disneyland.
  • 1 CD Repair kit that I had to leave in the hotel room because there wasn't space for it in my luggage
  • various pamphlets, handouts, and promotional materials

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Spooning Kitties


Cuddling: It's not just a human thing.