Author Archives: Steve Mays

1.5 billion active Gmail users

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In May of 2004 I received an invitation to beta test Google’s new email service, Gmail. Google had acquired Blogger in early 2003 and sent invites to users. We were allowed to invite two friends. As I recall, people were selling such invitations. It was early enough that I was able to get “stevemays@gmail.com”

For reasons unimportant, yesterday I created a second Gmail account, my first ever. I decided to use the name of a character from one of my favorite novels. I searched for more than half an hour, picking the most minor and obscure characters I could think of, and never found one that wasn’t taken. I finally gave up and went for nonsense: poontangmeringue@gmail.com. And decided I didn’t really need a second account after all.

Google says they have 1.5 billion active Gmail users. I’m a little surprised poontangmeringue was still available.

Good to be alive!

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Don’t recall where I found this or who said/wrote it, but it goes something like this:

You died ten years ago and –somehow, miraculously– were brought back to life ten minutes ago. You’re fully aware of having missed the last ten years but have all of your memories and sense of who you are (or were).

Before digging into what you missed in the last decade, you begin getting a sense of what’s going on now. A deadly virus killing millions; a climate crises that might be too big and too late to fix; fascism on the rise; the flame of American democracy flickering.

And your response to this horrible state of affairs?

“Man, it’s good to be alive!”

“You gotta live your life, dude”

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On the COVID Caution Spectrum I’m probably an 11 out of 10. And fortunate in my circumstances so I can avoid unnecessary exposure. For the last two years I’ve listened as friends and family lectured me on the importance of not letting “some virus” control your life. “You gotta live your life, dude.”

A philosophy I have yet to hear in any of the countless interviews with people with severe and/or protracted cases. These are mostly of the I’ve-never-been-so-sick-get-vaccinated variety. Where are the folks on oxygen saying, “I almost died but, hey, you gotta live your life, right?”

Carnivore

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On May 20, 2013 I began an experiment with plant-based eating. Was never hard-core and always thought of myself as a half-assed vegetarian. I ate eggs and cheese and such. And several years ago I started eating fish.

I never found the plant-based path difficult but in the last couple of months I have strayed. I started dreaming about ham sandwiches. And as I’ve aged (74 next month) I’ve lost muscle mass. Not really anything I can do about that. But part of my original motivation was “I want to be perfectly healthy and live forever!” Silly but true. Neither of those things are going to happen so give me one of those pepperoni pizzas to go.

Knowledge

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“Knowledge will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no knowledge.”

“Knowledge is inherently precious even if you can’t sell it,” Greta said. “Even if you can’t use it. Knowledge is an absolute good. The search for truth is vital. It’s central to civilization. You need knowledge even when your economy and government are absolutely shot to hell.”

— Bruce Sterling’s Distraction (1998)

Analysis by Perplexity »