I have an old e-mail account, namely patmc@idirect.ca, that had become unuseable because of the amount of spam it gets. On top of that I rarely check it, may every few months, so by the time I take a look at it it's got more than ten thousand spams in it.

What's more is that it can only be reached two ways: either by the web page which won't access it when it's full, or by using a utility called e-Prompter which will only read about five hundred at a time. By using e-Prompter I can gradually delete the spams to make it accessable again, should I have need to. It will not work with Outlook Express, which is rediculous since it simplifies things.

I can't really use this account nor can I seem to get rid of it. I have used it once within the last year when something I was signing up for required a "real" e-mail address and wouldn't accept Yahoo or the like. But aside from that I have no use for it. I stopped using it as my main account years ago.

The story behind the errant address is an interesting one. It came into being when the e-mail server was being set-up and some test accounts were created. However, there was a crash and the list of account holders disappeared. So only those who have an account knows who owns that account.

I have e-mailed to get it removed but it seems the company has no interest in it. They would remove extra e-mails for newer accounts but since this one has no official user it remains stranded. So I'm left with a free e-mail address on a paid system which I no longer have.

Most of the time I don't bother with it, but every now and then I'm curious as to whether I might have some real e-mail there so I go through and clear it just to check. Fortunately it's so old that anyone I actually get in touch with uses one of my newer addresses.

During the wave of free ISPs (which fell when their main provider went under), I picked up a few e-mail addresses. I even had one at thesimpsons.com once, though they closed that server. Currently, you can reach me at writerpatrick@netzero.net (older) or writerpatrick@yahoo.com (newer). I use a utility called FreePOP to download into Outlook Express. At least those addresses use better spam filters so they don't get bulked up. And just in case they do become unuseable I've already got one setup to switch to. I just hope I don't have to.

I spent much of today recording and updating my two podcasts, The Would Be Writer at http://writerpatrick.blogspot.com and Podcast Ping at http://podcastping.blogspot.com.

I'm getting better at recording. The Podcast Ping is something I've been doing for fun and I think it's helping my recording.

Unfortunately, I often record when it's opportune and not when I'm most up to doing it. I'm also still trying to break myself out of my dictation mode when recording. This may have to do with the increase of dictation I'm doing for my writing. The last story I wrote I dictated almost all of first.

I also had to push the last Would Be Writer out because illness, which I'm over now, kept me from recording for about a month and it hasn't left my voice in any better shape. It was also delayed while I finished up a story. However, with enough editing the recordings sound decent.

The next task for me will be to rewrite my latest story and submit it. I don't think it will need a lot of rewrite because since I dictated it first, I changed a lot when I typed it in so it's more like a second draft. But I would like to increase it's length.