Last week I wrote down some thoughts on migrating email. It was precipitated by an incident that caused a number of folks to move away from Fastmail (tl;dr - they fired a bunch of their union folks in the US).
This all (waves hands wildly) got me thinking about email, a lot. For many email is just another tool. They sign up for a ==hotmail== or ==yahoo== or maybe even ==gmail== account and never really think about it anymore (as their inboxes fill with the ads and spam and other junk that comes from all the tracking and data collection those services do).
For others it’s something that might be held a bit more closely, like a natural extension of their identity. We (yes - I’m outing myself with that) find a perfect domain and get it setup on the perfect service and are off to the races with our identity.
I left gmail behind (as much as possible) around the time of the prism leaks back in 2013. It’s a distinct memory because myself, my wife and our 1 year old were traveling back to the US to visit friends and family. After a long series of flights, we got pulled aside at immigration in DC and after another 2 1/2 hour wait I got quized about some emails in my work google account (communication with locals in Eastern Africa). We eventually got waved through with 2 lasting effects: 1) I realized just how much data security matters (a lot) and 2) I’d have to plan on some extra time entering the US for the next 5+ years (thankfully never as much as that time).
For the first lasting effect I know it was time to cut the big tech freebie email cord and develop my own email identity. I spent a lot of time searching up a domain and eventually found one that was perfect for that era of life. After registering it, I got it setup (first on Runbox which wasn’t that great of an experience) and then on Fastmail which stuck for quite sometime (I eventually migrated it to iCloud+).
That email still is doing the job, even though that era has mostly passed. While there are definitely aspects of that time and identity that will carry forward with me, I find that by and large it just doesn’t fit like it used to. In fact it had been causing a bit of stress if I’m honest: am I this? does it represent me? do I represent it? Those are tough questions (if only relevant to a geek like me) but ones I needed to process.
And so, over the past week, I made the decision that it was time for a change. I needed something that represented this era. I spent a lot of time thinking about it. I ran through a ton of ideas. I quasi landed on one and then figured out (thanks to the omg.lol discord) that the domain would have been bad news. I then landed on the one. And when I did, it felt like a weight lifted in a lot of ways. It feels more like me. I know that’s ridiculous but then I’m a big geek/nerd.
Anyways - if you are curious - I can now be found (for email) on ==krrd.ing==. It has roots that run throughout my life; I often use the tag kardee or karrde in games or forums (based off of the Star Wars EU character Talon Karrde (I told you - I’m a nerd). Without the vowels in the domain, and with the dot I N G, it rolls off the tongue nicely as “carding” as well (which isn’t as much meaningful as it is easy to say and doesn’t beg lots of questions that would have me diving into the nuances of Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy that should have been made canon). I’m me@ and brandon@ and mbjones@; they all funnel to the same inbox. I haven’t really decided which will be primary. I do know it all feels lighter and fun and much more indicative of the current era and whatever it brings.
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