See ya later spammers and wealthy foreign diplomats

I feel like I've been on the run from spam for years. First it was my AOL account, Chell42467, which I had forwarded to my Colorado.edu address so that I wouldn't lose any precious connections I might have made on AOL (ha!). In addition to school emails, during college we had a theta email group that allowed you to send important emails to the whole house (ex: girls, if you make a mess in the tv landing clean it up. your mom doesn't live here.)   I was happy to leave those emails and all the forward garbage from my AOL account behind when I graduated. Although I was sad to leave my college email address, I was excited to enter the real world of email and signed up for a free yahoo account.

I've rocked my yahoo email since college. It's crazy to think of all the emails that have been sent and received from that email address. Photos, recipes, juicy emails, online statements, airline confirmations, random forwards and the everyday correspondents with family and friends. I have a lot of them saved in folders appropriately titled. One of my favorite folders "brian" contains all of the emails from the first few months we knew each other and only communicated via email.

At the recommendation of several friends and B, I signed up for a gmail account. I've used my gmail account for over a year (maybe even two), mainly for blogger and twitter, but couldn't seem to make the switch. As I checked my yahoo email this morning, deleting spam and junk mail (again) I was inspired. Today's the day...I'm ripping off the bandaid and going to gmail full time.

When I mentioned to B I was finally going to make the switch today he reminded me of when he made the switch two years ago. Here is the email he sent out to his contacts:

Friends,

It goes without saying that this is truly a sad day for me and the entire email community. After years of relentless emails for Viagra, Cialis and wealthy foreign diplomats from Madagascar offering a 10% cut of $13,358,169.25 for my bank account information, it is with the deepest regret that I must say, the spammers (and terrorist) have won! It is this 26^th day of January 2009 that I will officially be retiring the hotmail* email address.

I will be hoping for greener pastures and less erectile dysfunction Spam with a new gmail account. I have chosen the ultra original email address of firsrname{dot}lastname{at}gmail* I know this must be tough for some of you that have come to love the hotmail, but this is much tougher on me. I think of the countless hours I have spent\wasted reading and sending worthless forwards, that time I will never get back.

As I push the send button on the hotmail email address for the last time, I listen to Europe’s “The Final Countdown”, and one single solitary tear rolls down my face.  

Brian 

*actual email addresses have been removed for obvious reasons!  


He cracks me up! With that, I'm also saying SEE YA LATER spammers! And wealthy foreign diplomats...you can take your requests up with my gmail spam filter. As I make the switch, tips and hints for gmail are welcomed!