Eagle-eyed reader JJ, sent me this today:
net.zanshin.PlacesLivedException: placesLivedCount may not be decremented at net.zanshin.blogs.001243.html (I’ve lived in six states:iii) at net.zanshin.blogs.000572.html (I have lived in 7 states: xv) at net.zanshin (index.html:1) at user.jj (see what mark is doing:1) at user.jj (preflight checklist:114) 08 May 2007 12:13:04,553 ERROR JJUsingWebDaemon : [10.170.77.54-63b5c0.1126c1a3314.-7ff2] runtime exception…
It seems that in an earlier posting, 44 Things About Me I claimed to have lived in 7 states, and in this week’s posting, 46 Things About Me I only claimed 6 states. Hence the PlacesLivedException.
The correct answer hinges on what constitutes “lived in.” Two years ago I was using the looser “any place I’ve stayed that wasn’t a vacation” rule. This year I employed the “any place where I’ve had mail addressed” rule.
In my life I have lived in New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Washington, South Carolina, and Kansas. Seven states. However, my stay in Pennsylvania was very brief, only about 4 or 5 weeks as my parents were in the process of moving from New York to Illinois. My mother and I stayed with my paternal grandparents while my father went ahead to start his new job and to find a rental house.
This brings up a slight exception to the “any place where I’ve had mail addressed” rule. You see, I was born in Brooklyn and lived there for 10 months before we moved to Illinois. I doubt that I got any mail in that time period. New York stays on the list since it is my place of birth. Pennsylvania is out as it was transitory.
And besides, as the the chief source of requirements for this site, I am allowed to change the rules without prior notice. Still, kudos to JJ for having caught the discrepancy. Heck, I’m tickled that someone out there is actually reading this stuff.