Misc: See if you can figure out who wrote me these emails
Things are just getting weird around here. You’d think that after being threatened with a lawsuit, offered a coffee date to resolve things, being sent a Cease and Desist, and having a web host dump you—all at the hands of a former Division I soccer coach and her marvelous attorney—you’d have seen it all.
Nope.
So check this out. I’m hanging around my house on April 12, a Saturday (no idea why that matters—should have just removed it), and sitting at the computer. I get an email. It’s from Anon Ymous (seriously). Sweet. I love anonydouches. I see it, while I’m on the phone with Christy, and laugh. She asks what’s going on and I tell her I just got an email. She asks what its about, and by then I had quickly caught the little preview offered by the fantastic Gmail. It says “Ryan I work with your wife.” Oh shit. I know exactly what’s up here, so I tell her it was nothing and we finish the conversation. I knew she’d worry. I read the rest and, well, here it is (and assume the person sending it to me doesn’t know how to bold the important stuff, so I added it for her, errrr, whoever):
Ryan I work with your wife. The UNR central administration do not want publicity on the lawsuit. It is very dangerous to them. Regardless of your intent they do not like your blog. They have found out that Christy works at UNR. They discard people who call attention to anything negative and the lawsuit is a real negative to them. Be careful and think about the affect this will have on Christy’s job. I was going to email her but did not want this on the UNR server. They terminate whistle blowers and you are a whistle blower to them right now. Be careful.
Holy scary, right? So I wait for Christy to get home and we talk about it with scrunched foreheads. After that discussion and, like, 40 beers (not really), we have a good laugh about it. It’s so ridiculous that we start making up ways to incorporate it into our daily lives. I start going around saying stuff like, “Since I work with you, I’m worried about our livelihoods” and stuff like that. And every time it happens, we laugh. And hug. Because we’re happy people.
So whatever. Life goes on, Christy continues to go to work, etc. Then, like, a couple of days later, she signs some papers at work. OMGWTF!?!1 Oh yeah, it’s just that promotion she got. The one that makes her Assistant Director of her department and all that. Whew. When she called me to tell me I was all nervous she just got canned because I outed a former soccer coach’s propensity for commenting anonymously. Psych!
After many happy days together, we arrive at Friday, May 2 (again, assume lack of formatting knowledge):
From: anonymous anonymous Fri, May 2, 2008 at 2:35 PM
To: me
Ryan, the UNR is under investigation by the FBI. The President too. This is serious stuff. All the whistleblower lawsuits are problematic to UNR. Keep Christy, your family and our office out of this. I know you are po’d that your site is being shut down. Some things are best. Stay away from this. Your blog is creating a lot of pressure in our office. I alerted you once. Your wife’s career should be your priority. Cheers.
Something is off here. The first email came from Anon Ymous (a Yahoo! account), but the second came from anonymous anonymous (a Gmail account). Are these even the same person? Are there multiple people from Christy’s department concerned about our situation? Will I ever remember to turn the dogcam on during the day? And seriously, WTF? It’s almost like the person who “works with Christy” didn’t know she just got promoted. What are we to do? Oh yeah, we laughed again. That’s the thing two happy people who love each other and have dinner at Greek Night at the Blue Plate followed by skipping to the Chocolate Bar for dessert/drinks do when they’re together. They laugh about the (allegedly) retarded person sending emails anonymously trying to intimidate them.
So, I ask you, friend of mrjerz.org, should we be worried? Is the administration at UNR really worried about what I do on this blog? Are G-Men crawling around the grass in front of Clark Administration as I type? Pretend you know nothing but what I’ve told you here today. Are we in for it?
And if not (as if), who do you think might be sending the emails?
Anyone want to claim copyright on them?
About Ryan Jerz
Ryan Jerz is an all-around good guy who shoots photos and video, builds websites, and works in the marketing department for the State of Nevada's official tourism agency. He recently started a consulting company called Milk Noodles. Milk Noodles helps clients put together comprehensive online marketing plans and then implement them. He received a Masters Degree from the University of Nevada, Reno's Reynolds School of Journalism in 2007.
Comments
Hiphopanonymous, May 3, 11:31 AM #:
first off my shit is down cuz you be ebonicizing yo last name and shit. Den, all I gots to say is, maaaaan fuckin smack dat bitch upside her soccerball head with a size 10 umbro. Knock the fuckin identity out dis mufucka. We da people want to know the truth Montell Jerz.
One.
Tommy Inglis, May 3, 11:36 AM #:
To borrow this phrase from another take it to em like a Trucker!
Ryan,
I would be really scared if I were you. You don’t even know.
The level of misinformation and paranoia surrounding the completely over-blown controversies at the good ol’ U. are simply mind boggling. Having worked there as both staff and administrative faculty, and gotten two degrees from there (and trying to complete a third), I can say without a doubt that most administrators have much more mundane and important things to think about than cloak-and-dagger assaults on their employees and faculty.
The U. is too disorganized and chaotic to have organized campaigns against so-called whistleblowers. In fact, if anything, they should hold back LESS when being falsely accused of various crimes against humanity, or animals, or whatever. If it weren’t for state law prohibiting the University and other organizations from discussing personnel matters, most people would realize there is more than one side to every story. They may also be surprised to learn that personnel actions are usually done for good reasons.
It’s much rarer to get fired from UNR for a shift in priorities than it is for committing some grievous act, even for the least protected classes: administrative faculty and student employees. It’s more common for there to be shifts in administrators than faculty members, a point that most members of the business community have trouble comprehending. Problem employees in their world—at ALL levels—are simply shown the door.
Are there inept administrators working at UNR? Absolutely. (Fortunately, the worst offenders are gone.) Are there out-of-control egos at the University? Of course. Just as there are inept, egotistical athletes, students, coaches, faculty and staff members. Are there scandals? Duh. Welcome to any human system in the world.
The University just happens to be in a unique position of being an easy target of which various self-proclaimed—and news-media-promoted—whistleblowers, and their attorneys, can milk the court of public opinion. (For a good read, check out former ag. dean Dale Bohmont’s book where he discusses how the local press went after him with a vengeance in the ‘80s, only for him to come out basically clean. Not wanting the facts to get in the way of a good story, the press was quite mute about the end result.) The RGJ’s lively and engaging and extraordinarily intelligent online forums provide much needed assistance in this regard.
Something to also keep in mind: It’s a rarer case that actually ends up claiming victory against the university system in court after all appeals, trials and motions are finalized. A perusal of Nevada case law will put that issue to rest. The University will often not fight back because of the time and cost involved. But when it does fight back, it does so because it knows it has a case. Which is sort of a given, actually.
The sad part of it is the monetary and emotional toll it takes on the parties involved, though the hired attorneys probably do okay regardless of outcome. Usually some good psychotherapy and a job change would settle the matter much more amiably than a long, drawn-out lawsuit that is loaded with paranoia and incoherent accusations.
But in all seriousness, Ryan, you’d better watch your back. What’s-her-name (the coach), the FBI and Cyberdouche are gonna fuck you up. Them and the army of all of your other enemies. And I hear that list is growing by the day. A little voice told me so. I think it was in an email sent from a FedEx Kinko’s. Or it was channeled from the cosmos via a pilotless drone [sic] flying over Reno last night that was being operated by a human-sheep chimera from a remote UNR facility. Holy crap.
sterling doak, May 4, 11:03 AM #:
Jerz! Get out of the house! The emails are coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE! …! …!!!
Nevadan, May 4, 12:21 PM #:
I work ‘up on the hill’ and have for about a dozen years. You and your sweetheart have the right perspective on this…..laugh and don’t worry about this stuff, because you are dealing with morons. The likelihood of your wife having trouble because of your actions is pretty much non-existent. The people at the ‘U’ who put credence in this stuff have so little credibility and go through their lives worrying about the boogeyman around every corner, instead of DOING THE JOB THAT THEY ARE GETTING PAID TO DO. If anyone, they are the ones who should be worrying about their long-term employment prospects. Sometimes the prognosticators of paranoid thoughts about others bring the proverbial sky down on their own heads, because the people around them just get sick of their stupid outlook on the world and don’t want to listen to it anymore.
The Anon Guy, May 4, 01:45 PM #:
The problem with these emails is that they don’t even come close to passing the stupid test.
First we are to believe that Jerz simply calling Patraw a bully would somehow upset an entity that just fired her for being a general pain in the ass. Why would that upset UNR higher ups? If anything, seeing Patraw’s tactics here should help their case.
Second, if by some wild chance UNR did have a beef with this blog, why would a “coworker” of Mrs. Jerz send an email to her husband? If the person really was concerned for Christy, and knew her, wouldn’t logic suggest that person would take her aside and say “Hey, that husband of yours is pissing people off. You better calm him down,” and, you know, give some actual facts. Or, if the coworker didn’t like her, why would they tip off her husband? So I doubt they were from an actual UNR employee.
And while it’s possible these BS emails were from Patraw, or her roomates(!), I would think it is more likely someone, none too bright, with a general beef with Jerz that thought they were being clever.
Too bad you can’t trace the IP address.
-Dave, May 5, 08:46 AM #:
You totally need to be worried. I hear the FBI has these robotic mind-control machines they send crawling up through the sewer lines where they lie in wait in your toilet until BLAM, suddenly you’re a pawn in their scheme to get a controlling interest in KFC. Beware, says I! That, or get a self-contained septic system. It’s the only way to protect your family!
Congrats to Christy. Promotions are like the spike in the prom juice…they make everyone happy!
myrnatheminx, May 5, 08:03 PM #:
It was me. Bad joke. Seriously, Kenzer is right—-a promotion is the perfect revenge, and if anything did ever happen in regards to your wife’s job, well, the above emails might come in really handy. Keep up the fight!
I think the only way to explain such stupidity is the involvment of higher education, they had to be college educated to pull something off that dumb.
Ryan, with all due respect, and I do mean with ALL due respect, this is so insane that it isnt even interesting anymore. Thats not to slight you for posting this stuff, but i mean, WTF is her problem? UNR, Administration, FBI? My alumni donations, and tax dollars at work. Makes me happy. I think she is actually outsourcing the email drafting to china or india because their command of the english language is about as strong as the tech support rep I got on the horn from AT&T last night – his name was “Kevin” but i am not sure that was his god given name.
Alas, not everyone can write as pretty as we do.
Hang in there. And dont forget about Nevada’s liberal gun laws. (for protection, protection). Or you could get tougher dogs, like Robin Masters had in Magnum PI, remember Zeus and Apollo. Ahhh thomas magnum, what a handsome fella.
Hang in there Jerz, I’m rootin for ya real hard!! (double exclamation intended)
Bry
Ryan Jerz is a Douche, May 18, 11:08 AM #:
Your such a moron Ryan Jerz. Your pathetic rants and idiotic diatribes are old and unworthy of reading. How you call yourself a journalist is under serious review.
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