I’ve had a gmail account for quite awhile but have only shared the address with a few people. Haven’t even looked to configure anything or see what all it does. Just use it simply to receive and send.

I subscribed to a big list called freecycle where you can advertise things you want to give away and also have a chance to receive items others are giving away.

The first time I used it, I advertised something I was giving away. In gmail I saw a response and replied to it immediately. It was much later that I realized gmail automatically grouped all the replies to my original message. Underneath the person I replied to were 25 or so other worthy people that I didn’t even know about! They were underneath, but rather hidden until you “expanded” the message.

This whole gmail thing, and how I have not checked it out, has made me think about how much now email, the Web, computers are just a necessary hassle/convenience I use to get things done.

Not too long ago, well 6 to 10 years ago, I would have spent hours – days – no, weeks, checking out everything google mail would do. Just for the fun and excitement of seeing it work! Reminded me of the days I enthusiastically spent setting up “personalized pages” :), or even my online banking. It was fun, and interesting and exciting! Now it is time consuming.

One of these days, I’m going to check out my gmail.

Check the instructions on the site for setting up the client. They require using SSL, which is not the default in Thunderbird.