chelseaharlan@whataccountisthis.com

I've somehow accumulated four email accounts over the years.

I have two hotmail accounts. A few years ago they (hotmail) told me that my storage was at maximum capacity, and that I would have to purchase more to continue using my account. Which now, in retrospect, sounds like a bunch of crap. So I thought that instead of paying, I would outsmart them and open another account with them under a different name! Which I did, only to have my original account promptly have more storage than I could ever use in my lifetime. As an added insult, there was already another Chelsea Harlan out there, operating under my desired email address. I now tend to use my first hotmail account for personal messages from friends, and my newer account for school and other business.

I also have a PSU account, whose email address/password I've forgotten. They (PSU) don't have a "Forgot your password?" option on the site (ridiculous), so I would have to go to the tech lab or make some effort to call them and rearrange things (ridiculous).

And I just started a gmail account for this blog! I like it; I was still operating under the assumption that hotmail was the new, cool email provider. Little did I know, Google had not only got in on the action, but was doing it better than anyone else. And it's been ten years since hotmail was hot.

Which makes me wonder if I will keep on adding email accounts to my repertoire in the future as newer (and better?) services emerge. I also wonder if there is some sort of cache (I can't figure out how to make les accents aigus on here, sorry) attached to how your email address ends? Is it a subliminal message to others about how up-to-date you are, how tuned in to the modern world? Email snobbery and real estate snobbery: location, location, location. It reminds me of when I was recruited for grant writing for an organization, and my supervisor suggested, half jokingly, that I set the text of our submission in Times New Roman as proof that we didn't have any money: typeface snobbery (of which I am guilty. See first blog posting).