I just realized that I’ve been sending “notes 2 myself” via Gmail’s filter function since the beginning of 2006. The idea was, instead of writing something down on a piece of paper to be lost or filed away in one of my several near random places, I would e-mail myself the note and it would join the mass of other correspondences, spam, near spam, uncooked spam, forwarded spam, spam musubi, and volunteered spam (aka mailing lists). BUT, all would not be lost, because Gmail’s filter would auto tag them as a note from me to me, making them easy to find and just as searchable as all the other mostly stuff in my little e-mail universe.

First note to self? Here it is.
1. Subject: cool lit site?
Sent: Jan 18, 2006
E-mail: www.aldaily.com

Is it a cool lit site? Looks like it, sure, probably.. Maybe? Was it a place I even ever visited again? No. This is how, if anyone else acts like me, we consumers of information go about scouring the net to please our information buds. I apparently, just want little, tasty bits of information. But stringing together larger systems or works of information? Meh, not so much, apparently.

So, 4 years and nearly 592 notes-to-self later, I thought I would begin to engage in the reflexive process of looking over all these damned notes and seeing if any of it was worth noting in the first place. And if so, if it might still be relevant or worth my attention years later. At the very least I’ll be able to sum them up here in little note-to-self “digests” as I digest and..regurgitate?..them. Teehee. Okay.

The rest of this post here will summarize and list the remaining 7 notes to self sent in 2006. Since I can’t completely recall that far back what I was doing, I half think that I may have created the note-to-self filter in 2007 and backward applied it to any email originating from my email address to my email address. Not sure.

2. Subject: mark twain quote
Sent: May 2, 2006
Message: “In religion and politics, people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second hand, and without examination.” –Mark Twain
Comments: I’ve definitely been busted on this one, quite recently in fact, on yahoo! answers. lordie.

3. Subject: essay
Sent: May 19, 2006
Message: In your essay, you should trace the parallels, connections, but also differences, between worship and devotion on the various levels we have looked atover the past three weeks.
Comments: this class I remember.. It compared the oral Vedas of the Hindu religious tradition to the written Torah of the Jewish tradition.

4. Subject: billboard article (short) 2005
Sent: June 5, 2006
Message (excerpt): While overall music sales declined in 2005, all things en espanol continued to rise. Led by the success of Shakira and Daddy Yankee, Latin music was the only genre to register growth from 2004 into 2005, with figures from Nielsen SoundScan and the Recording Industry Assn. of America reflecting substantial sales jumps.
Comments: can’t remember what paper this was being researched for.. music in latin america? something.

5. duplicate of #4 (but included citation information)

6. Subject:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football#Use_of_the_word_.22football.22_in_English-speaking_countries
Sent: June 22, 2006
Message: (excerpt from wiki article linked): The word “football“, when used in reference to a specific game can mean any one of those described above. Because of this, much friendly controversy has occurred over the term football, primarily because it is used in different ways in different parts of the English-speaking world. Most often, the word “football” is used to refer to the code of football that is considered dominant within a particular region. So, effectively, what the word “football” means usually depends on where one says it.
Comments: kind of a weak note to self.

7. Subject: ACADEMIC DISQUALIFICATION
Sent: June 23, 2006
Message: http://www.advising.ltsc.ucsb.edu/aeqa/
Comments: oh snap. I think I was on a quarter-long “academic probation” which could have led to academic disqualification. All I know is at some point along the line a year later I ended up with a degree (which I have yet to request to be mailed, since the first mailing was to an old address and returned). Word.

8. Subject: You have an Action Cat postcard!
Sent: December 10, 2006
Subject: link to a postcard which is no longer valid
Comments: I found this on the site which linked to the now invalid postcard. Long live animated GIFs.

animated gifs rule

Well, that wraps it up for the 2006 notes to self. I can now close that little open drawer of random thoughts and goings on of my life in 2006. Oh wait, I still probably have to track down the random bits of paper and receipts that I put here and there. Track them down, burn them, and bury the ashes. Okay, late!