Oh to have a name like mine ;-)

Hello all potential readers out there!! How are you? Good? Well I hope so. Ready to digest another post?

Now bare with me for a wee second. My name is a very popular name. By that I don't mean that everyone hears my name and goes 'Oh what a wonderful name!', sadly ;-), rather that lots of people have it. A Google search will produce 45, 100, 000 results. Thats a lot of namesakes. The result of this is that i've grown used to having to create unique user names for things like e-mail or passwords, as, by-and-large, someone has already taken it.

It was too my great surprise and delight therefore that when I started my postgraduate degree I was able to use my name as my e-mail. No extra intials, or dates, or owt. Splendid.

However, I have since found that there is a catch to having such an authentic e-mail. Over the course of the last year I have recieved (and still do recieve) a growing number of e-mails that are for similar named people. For example I was contacted by a large Government reseach commitee who wanted me to present a paper to a world leading conference about Ocean studies. As flattering as I found this, my knowledge of the worlds oceans is limited, so i figured there must be another similar named person out there. And sure enough Liverpool Uni has a Professor Ric Williams, who as it turns out is a dude in all things Oceanic and is now leading a big expedition in the Atlantic. Nice.

And it goes on. Last week, I recieved an e-mail which stated simply 'Is this you?'. I did want to reply sarcastically 'Well it depends. It could be me. I am me. But am I the me you want?' but decided that was a tad harsh and didn't. That probably would've been a good idea though, as a week later I got a series of e-mails, apparently intended for a Ruth Williams, asking if I fancied meeting up for drinks, and estate agent talk. I did point out immediately that I am not Ruth Williams, but even still I was invited along for drinks. Turned them down though... It would have been a bit odd me thinks, plus estate agent talk doesen't sound all that good to be honest. Ha.

And then today I recieved two e-mails forwarding on important, nay essential, PBL (this is medical jargon for self-supported study) material related to respiratory illness. All very well and good but not really what i'm looking for with an Irish History degree. Ha.

Still I enjoy getting all these random e-mails. Makes life a little bit more interesting. On that i'm off to do some Irish history.

Hurrah...