The name game
posted 2007/07/19 at 14:52

Back when I got my first e-mail account at Antioch in the fall of 1994, I didn't have a choice in what address I got; I got the first initial of my first name, followed by my last name, at the university's e-mail server (which wasn't antioch-college.edu at the time). I gather that this is still how most colleges still dole out e-mail addresses to their students, albeit sometimes with a number appended at the end of the address so that John Doe and Jane Doe don't get the same address. Back in 1994 this wasn't such a big deal to me, and to this day I still generally try to pick something simple having to do with my name for an e-mail account or an account name for a Website if I can. I generally prefer to use "sean," "sshannon," or "seanshannon" for a username if I can, although these days that can be quite difficult. (For example, none of those options were available to me when I finally signed up for a Gmail account.) I realize that as more and more younger people began to use the Internet, it became trendy to create an account name based on your favourite singer or sports team or something like that appended with your year of birth or some other number of significance to yourself, but I still prefer the elegance and simplicity of a username based on my real name.

Back when Yahoo! started offering services that required logging in, I was lucky enough to secure "sshannon" as an account name there, which is pretty remarkable considering the sheer amount of traffic Yahoo! was getting even back then. However, in the years that have followed, I've gotten more and more e-mail at my Yahoo! Mail account that's addressed to people like "Sarah Shannon" and even "Shantasia Shannon." Whether by accident or on purpose, there seem to be a lot of people who are either giving my Yahoo! Mail account out as their own, or people are misreading the account (perhaps someone with an e-mail account of "sshannon@someotherdomain.com" are writing down their e-mail account to someone and that other person is just assuming it's a Yahoo! account), or maybe people are just entering that e-mail address into online forms as a way of avoiding spam. Some of the wrong-address e-mails I've gotten have been amusing, but sometimes they can get to be a nuisance. (For example, someone recently created a match.com profile using that e-mail address, and that was a huge pain to straighten out.) I've changed the password on that account to know that there's no chance that someone else is accessing it, either.

Anyway, I mention this because I recently started getting e-mails from the Bavarian Inn Lodge up in Frankenmuth, Michigan, even though I've never been up there in my life and never visited their Website. The e-mails clearly state that I've stayed there previously, which isn't even possible. Normally this would just be another inconvenience for me, but in this case it's actually proving to be kind of beneficial. See, the Bavarian Inn is quite possibly the best location for playing dance video games within day-trip distance for me. They've got pretty much all of the latest games, and they're kept working well because one of the employees there just happens to be one of the best dance game players in the world. I haven't taken a trip up there because of time and money considerations, but I've kind of been meaning to, and now all of a sudden I'm getting e-mails about all these great deals there without even signing up for them. It's still kind of amazing to me that, among the family photos and news of politicians running for office in New Jersey that I mistakenly get, I would just happen to start getting these e-mails because someone, accidentally or purposefully, gave my Yahoo! Mail address out as their own.

Comment by Blogger joepet at 19/7/07 17:28:
Frankenmuth is famous for their chicken dinners, which probably doesn't interest you. But the Zenders across the street from the Barvarian Inn has a shop that sells excellent fruit bread, and some of the best jam on the planet. I highly recommend the Bing Cherry, but watch out for the occasional cherry pit.

 
Comment by Blogger Sean at 19/7/07 17:35:
Actually, thanks to this e-mail goof I've got a coupon for a free chicken dinner there coming to me in the mail. What I may do is go up there with Jeff and let him have the dinner in exchange for gas money. (This is assuming he and I can work out a day when we're both free, though, which is a rarity these days.)

 
Comment by Blogger joepet at 19/7/07 21:16:
It's approximately 130 miles from Toledo to Frankenmuth...you'll probably drive about 275 miles total. At 25 miles to the gallon at $3 a gallon, that's $33 in gas fare. If you can pay for your share with a chicken dinner, it sounds like you're getting a pretty good deal.

 
Comment by Blogger Sean at 19/7/07 21:59:
It's a family dinner and he, by necessity, would get all the leftovers. That should be fair for at least half the gas money, I think. We may even take my sister and brother-in-law along with us, especially since his car's more suited to long-distance driving than mine.

 
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