A bit of an iPod cacophony. When I get in to work every morning, I hook my iPod up to my boom box, select a playlist, and we're off. This morning, I selected my "4 stars or more" playlist (a "smart" playlist that includes any song on my iPod that I've given a rating 4 or 5 stars, regardless of genre). The 5th song that came up was "Come on Out Tonight" by Melissa Etheridge. Very good song. It rocks. As they say. The song ended and things shifted quickly and rather joltingly to "Tennessee Waltz" by Lacy J. Dalton. Whoa! 70 to 15 in the blink of an eye. There is no radio station on the planet that'll play those two songs back-to-back. None but my iPod. And that, dear friends, is why I love my iPod. Heh.
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Pamie has a nice new design. One of the things that caught my eye as I was checking it out was a prominent link to a FAQ. I dunno if she had a FAQ on her old page or not. If she did, I never read it. So, even if it's not new, it's new to me. That first bit in the FAQ about strangers calling her Pamie sounded very familiar.
I was introduced to Usenet back in the dark ages of 1989 or so. I couldn't figure something out and someone told me about rn and they pointed me to the newsgroup I needed. I started regularly reading pertinent technical groups. Things like comp.sys.mac.hardware. It was great. You could get quick and generally very competent (not to mention, free!) help. And, in return, you'd help others. I'd post to those groups. But, not often. Sometime late in 1991, I stumbled across the rec.* and soc.* arms of Usenet. Where people talked about non-technical things. It blew my mind. It had never occurred to me that people would talk to strangers about "fun" stuff on Usenet. How singularly peculiar! The rec.arts.music.* people talked about music. The rec.arts.tv.* folks talked about TV. The rec.sport.baseball.* people talked about (surprise!) baseball. Wow. Cool. If you didn't know someone in your immediate circle of friends with an interest in XYZ, you could surely find someone on the right Usenet newsgroup to talk to about XYZ. Amazing.
Anyway, back to the point. I quickly jumped into the rec.arts.tv.soaps (r.a.t.s) discussions. I thought it would be fun to use a nickname when I signed off since other folks seemed to be doing that. I went with the nickname many of my friends use: Joey. I'd never done that on any of the serious groups. After a couple of weeks, though, strangers were calling me Joey. And, it was just weird. Very very weird. So, I quit using the Joey thing online. I think I might've even posted an explanation. I'm glad I quit using the nickname. Otherwise, I'd still be going around with all sorts of people I barely know addressing me as though they knew me well. Imagine. This might all be posted at joey.org instead of joanna.org if I hadn't come to my senses back then. Whew.
And, yes...I've been reading the various incarnations of pamie.com since shortly after it first appeared. And, no...I've never met Pamie. But, we have exchanged the very occasional email. And, I always call her Pamie. 'Cause that's how I know her. But, I sign off as Joanna. 'Cause that's just the way things are. Kinda weird, eh?
Post script: One of the funny things about the whole nickname thing is that, all on their own, the folks in the r.a.t.s group gradually came up with another nickname for me: JoJo. Nobody had ever called me that before. So, most of the friends I made in that group in the early 90s call me JoJo. And, that doesn't seem at all weird. But, that's probably because the nickname grew from my interactions with the folks in the group. It didn't just appear out of nowhere. And, that's as it should be with nicknames, doncha think?
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And, finally, there was good news from the HR folks at work today. Lately, all we've been getting is bad news from them. For example, the Legislature changed the retirement package for those of us in the Teacher Retirement System. Effective September 1, the new rules will require that I work at least an additional 5 years (possibly 9, it's a little unclear) to receive full formula benefits. Yep, more people in the pool...fewer people paying for it. I get it. That's why I also have a tax-deferred annuity. And, yada yada. Anyway, the good news. The Legislature apparently also changed the Longevity Pay scale. Currently, we get an extra $20 each month for every three years of state service. That's an extra $120 for me each month since I've been working here forever. Starting September 1, however, we'll be getting an extra $20 for every two years of service. That'll mean $180 more every month (a $60 bump). Way cool. I do not sneeze at $60. Nosireebob.
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