My Alter-Ego, Hugh Jass

So many places on the web want you to sign up with a name and email address in exchange for access to content or services. As an end user I'm like, "I just want this one free thing you're offering, I don't want you to spam me with daily advertisements for the next umpteen years!" So I have an alter ego identity I use.

Here's how I signed in for free wifi at the airport recently:



Yup, Hugh Jass is my alter ego. I've been joining webinars, downloading free pdfs, and connecting to airport wifi as Hugh for years.

"Wait, why's this tagged as humor?" you may ask.

Read the name. Say the name. Hugh Jass. It sure sounds like "Huge Ass", doesn't it?

I'm hardly the first person to make this joke, of course. It's one the names Bart Simpson uses to prank bar owner Moe in The Simpsons, as far back as at least the early 1990s. There was even a 1991 episode in which a guy named Hugh Jass actually answered the phone at Moe's Tavern, foiling Bart's prank.

What about a real-life Hugh Jass? A quick web search finds a number of hits, though many of them are pages discussing pranks. LinkedIn claims there are 240 contacts matching "Hugh Jass"... though there, too, the top hit looked like it was an account created as a joke. But at least a few others at cursory glance seemed like they could be legit.

As far as hugh.jass@gmail.com... whoever owns that I'm address, I'm sorry for the extra spam I create for you. 🤣

Finish Strong, Finish Tired

It's been a long week, and I am tired. It didn't start out seeming like it would be so crazy. Then the past few days got really nuts.

Monday wasn't so bad. I did have a meeting starting at 7am and a bit of project work that went past 5. In this middle, though, I had enough slack time to rest.

Tuesday was the lightest day this week. Meetings came at an easy pace through early afternoon, and after 3pm I was able to hang out at the pool for a while.

Wednesday got busier but still there was time for the pool late in the day. Basically I squished all my work into a solid run from 8a-4p... with a break for lunch... and then went out to the pool at 4:15pm. Though by 5:30, still sitting on a lounge chair pool-side, I was answering the last few emails and Slacks of the day.

Thursday was a gonzo, 13-hour day. I started with a meeting at 7:30am and basically went nonstop until 8:30pm. A big part of that was driving out to the far side of Sacramento for an in-person business meeting. At least I shared the drive with a colleague (though I did most of the driving) to keep the road trip from being too monotonous.

Friday was supposed to be my catch-up day... until it turned into a 10 hour marathon. In consulting and travel-oriented jobs there's generally an expectation that Fridays are home-office days with minimal meetings. They're when you catch up on all the loose ends and followups you couldn't do when you were booked in back-to-back meetings and/or traveling earlier in the week.

I had planned for my Friday to be like that, sort of to balance out Thursday's endurance test. I'd do a bunch of followups I didn't have time for on Thursday, spend a few hours catching up on a project I hadn't gotten to that's now due, and maybe finish early enough to enjoy the late afternoon heat at the pool. But then between Wednesday and Thursday five customer meetings landed on my schedule for Friday. Five. And five customer meetings means at least another 4 meetings for prep calls and/or debriefs. Going to the pool mid-afternoon fell off the schedule right away, and I started to worry I might even have to work into the evening to get that long-term project finished. 😰

Thankfully today didn't turn out to be that bad. I finished all my work by 5:30. But the day was basically a sprint all the way from 7:30am.

At 5:30 I checked the weather outside. It was still warm enough to enjoy the pool! But I was out of energy. All I wanted to do was get some takeout for dinner, eat quietly, and stretch out at home with my personal computer for the rest of the evening. I finished the week strong at work, but I also finished too tired to enjoy anything else.

Update: Friday night I was so tired I went to bed at 9pm. 🥱