Electronic Mail

I've had dozens of email accounts over the years. Mostly different ones through work as the company I worked for was sold several times and our name kept changing. And I've tried maybe a dozen different personal email services. I still have 5-6, I think. But as of right now I only use two on a regular basis.

My first personal email account is the one I still use for my semi-anonymous internet presence. And it was one of the only ways most of us could get an email account back in the early 90's. America Online. Yup...I still have and use my original AOL account. It's referenced in the profile of this here blog, in fact. It's such a stupid address too. BabyBurke at AOL dot com. Why BabyBurke? Well, I was reading a book by Andrew Vachss at the time I was signing up for AOL, and the main character was named Burke. Just Burke. No first name. But AOL wouldn't let me just use Burke since it was in use already, so I had to expand it a bit.

I didn't know about alpha-numeric naming conventions back then, so I went back to the book and the only other name he was ever given was back at the orphanage when he was born. Baby Boy Burke. Too long for AOL back then. So it was shortened to BabyBurke. Even though my name is neither Burke nor Baby. Whatever. It suits it's purpose. It keeps me semi-anonymous (except for those lucky few I let into the inner circle) on Twitter, Blogger, fantasy baseball sites, etc..., and it lets others on the internet make fun of me for still having an AOL account. Fuck it. It was my first personal email address, and it ain't going anywhere soon.

The other "personal" email account I use is Yahoo! Another site/address that most people think is as outdated as AOL. But I've been using this as my daily email account for about 16 years now. And, since I work for myself now, I also use it for work. Mostly because it is my name and it houses my extensive contact list which was created and maintained there. I know it's incredibly easy to import those contacts elsewhere, but honestly I've never had an issue with Yahoo! Mail in the past, so why mess with a good thing.

Until today, that is. I guess Microsoft purchased Yahoo! a while back (I'm guessing here...I don't really follow tech news like that). And today was supposed to be the rollout of the new design. But it hasn't worked out very well for them yet. First I starting receiving messages on my phone that my Yahoo! Mail couldn't be accessed. Then I checked on my laptop and there was a new T&S agreement for the new site. Except that T&S agreement was stuck in an infinite loop or something. Just kept asking for you to agree over and over and over. When they finally "fixed" it, they basically had scrapped the new design and went back to the previous one. I'm sure they will fix it for real at some point later today. Maybe overnight, eh kids?

The outage only lasted about 45 minutes, and I was having lunch at the time so it was no big loss. And I'm not really considering switching platforms unless the new design really sucks...always a possibility. I do have a Gmail account, but I don't really use it. Except...hehehe...on my business cards. It just seems more professional than a Yahoo! address, I guess. But functionality-wise? I don't see any real difference.

So here I remain, stubbornly. With a ridiculous AOL account and a slighly-less ridiculous Yahoo! account. They both serve their purpose. Even if it means that some of you might look down your nose at them. So go ahead and form you opinions of me when you receive an email from me with either an AOL or Yahoo extension. Maybe I'm a tech-tard. Maybe I'm rockin' my Members Only jacket and parachute pants and listening to my Walkman. Or maybe it's just a habit that I never bothered changing because it's not that important to me. I really don't care.