January 2004

January 2004 was the 100th month of the email contest! Wow, that has been a long time!

But more on that elsewhere. For here and now, lets talk about January.

January was the month that Erica Livingston decided that she really wanted to win the month. She started out the month sending around 30 messages a day. Sometimes less, sometimes more. As the month progressed she started increasing her pace. Then on the 24th of the month she went into overdrive and sent 321 emails in a single day. This compares to the 246 emails she send in ALL of 2003. After that, she started putting the brakes on again as the end of the month approached.

Meanwhile, Brandy, who had won 8 of the last 9 months, and was starting to look unbeatable, having the advantage of sometimes seeing my email over my shoulder, saw that Erica was trying to send lots of email. Now, Erica's emails included sending me all the school closings in Pittsburgh during a snowstorm (one at a time), counting several times, sending messages one word at a time, forwarding articles from news sites and posts from sites she visits... all sorts of things. Brandy wasn't too thrilled, but decided that given how much time she was spending with me in January in person, rather than online, she was not in a real position to compete. She made a few valiant attempts, sending a few dozen possible names for my new bird, and a few dozen suggestions for things she might want as birthday presents. It was enough to let her claim the #2 spot.

But there was no touching Erica. Erica finished the month with more than double the number of emails as Brandy's second place effort. It wasn't even close. So congratulations to Erica, who wins the email contest for her first time. Go Erica! You can stop now!

On the other end of things, Matt and Marilyn fall off the Top Ten, and Ivan and Kelly reclaim their spots on the list.

Dec

Feb