Daily Archives: June 2, 2004

internship, health and sanity

So, i officially took an internship for the summer yesterday. I will be working for Blogger (Google). I’m still figuring out what i will be doing, but it’s a great way to build on the new blogging ethnography that i’ve been doing. And i’m *SUPER* psyched.

Over the last two months, i did a lot of thinking about my life, reflecting on the last semester. I was running on speed mode and i paid a price for it. By the time i hit Tokyo, i was having blackouts every day from the lack of muscles in my back causing my fractured neck to spasm and crush those little discs. I was taking more Aleve than vitamins. Not good. My body was a wreck.

I looked around at the people who were also on the speed-track with me. They too were a physical wreck. It was a scary scary thing to realize that i was going to kill myself if i kept this up. Furthermore, i realized that i wasn’t being nearly as productive as i used to be because i was always exhausted and caffeine/sugar-cracked-out in order to keep going. I had no focus, no sanity, etc.

When i thought about what i needed to do, i realized that the most important thing to do would be to focus on one thing, do it well, but calm the fuck down and focus on getting healthy again. I decided that i needed to stay home in San Francisco for the summer. Nothing was more appealing than a 9-5 (a.k.a. 10-8) schedule.

When Google approached me, i felt as though somewhere in the universe, someone was prepared to help me get my shit together. A research project directly in line with what i love with a team full of the coolest, kindest folks at a company with massage therapists, a fully-functional physical therapy-style gym, physical therapists, pilates, organic food, etc. and a pay that will let me survive grad school. My biggest concern was having to drive, but Google even solved that, offering a shuttle from Glen Park.

I am so beyond thankful.

did United sell their mailing list?

I’m pretty used to spam, but i also track it pretty vigilantly. I have a unique email address given to each company on the web and most of them i never send anything from. Some have ended up on spam lists for different reasons. Cheap Tickets sold my address within a month. Some get distributed because of invitation policies. I stoppped reading email to my LinkedIn address because someone with a virus problem managed to send that into spamming hell.

But today, a new entry into my spamming world emerged. United.

Email addresses that are used by companies that will then send my address to others (i.e. YASNS) are human readable. They have the company name in them so that the recipient will get a clue and realize that this is a site-specific address. Not all do. But the ones given to companies like United (receipt-only) have coded numbers in them to track them over time and place. My coded United email started getting spam today. As a Unix email reader, i have never experienced a virus. I can’t conceptualize any other way in which that email address was acquired by anyone. Fascinating. Absolutely fascinating. I guess they really are going bankrupt.