Who were you going to be?
Thursday, October 11th, 2007 - 2:43pm
I was mowing my lawn yesterday and I was thinking my random lawn mowing thoughts. The thoughts that get churned to the surface under the constant roar and vibration of landscaping equipment. Taking the left front corner for the 5th time I started imagining something that usually pops into my head when I'm doing something repetitive: old SNL sketches.
And that reminded that Chiggie Von Richthofen wasn't my first choice for my handle for this site. It was Fred Garvin. I had decided on it a few weeks earlier and I think might have even registered it before I decided to make a change.
It doesn't take long in this place for our handle to become just as meaningful as our given names, even more so sometimes, but sometimes I forget that each and every name was a choice. It was basically a passing conversation about Space: Above and Beyond that caused me to be known as "Chiggie" rather than "Garvin."
That got me wondering what the other established goodjers had for their second place when choosing a name. I'd love to know the avatars that might have been for the people that have become so indoctrinated with their names that I can't see the source of the handle without thinking about the forum member.
While I'm pretty happy with my decision, my only regret is that "Fred Garvin" would have had the only tagging thread ever where every submitter suggested the exact same thing.
At first I thought this was about the last episode fo Chuck. That would be a great -- and painful -- thread.
I don't honestly remember. Something about Boba Fett or a handful of modernist poets?
Elysium: The democratization of the web ... has installed an illusion of a digital first amendment that protects speech no matter how poorly spelled or stupid.
XBL: E Munnie
elementsofmeaning.blogspot.com
All I know is that whenever I see your name 'Gettin' Chiggie with it' in a will smith voice goes through my head.
I was going to be Magnus, but my shift key wasn't cooperating that day.
"This is way, way more bad boy than you're gonna be able to handle." - Tommy Gavin on Rescue Me.
Xbox Live: AbsolutTexan
My home on the web
kuddles was my nickname in highschool and the first year of university on my dorm floor. It derives from spelling everything without capitals and mispelling things, which was cool at the time or something.
As a result, a lot of the first forums I joined, as well as many of my original email addresses featured that name. Even though I don't associate with it anymore, and almost nobody currently ever calls me it, it's been too much of a mainstay. I've tried using other nicknames, or even just my generic real name in other forums/communities/etc., and it creates too much confusion and hassle for me to deal with.
The image I guess stems from the fact that not only do I have difficulty coming up with a new nickname that I associate myself with, but also an image. I could never get a tattoo for the same reason. I'm always changing my mind. My first love was cinema, and still kind of is, so Juliette Binoche continues to appear on most forums I previously or currently frequent. As a result of that avatar, people constantly assume I'm female.
I would think the first rule of PR is to ignore forum people, because they vacillate between crazy and liar. - Elysium
I started out as painthappens and later registered Bounce here but then decided against using it.
WOW: Bounce
I've had the online nickname Elliottx since 1993 when I created my AOL account. All it is, is my name plus X at the end. It was damn clever for a 9 year old! The only times in which I don't get 'Elliottx' is when I signed up for the site many years ago and can't for the life of me remember my password and the email account was closed in '99.
XBL: elliottxW
WoW: Jozak - 80 Death Knight
Oh, yeah, that's sexy... tell me more!
I generated a virtual world in the toilet bowl this morning.
-- Podunk on the PS3's mystical, magical abilities
I made a mistake registering for the forums here and originally used my real name. I was "Joshua Allen" but have since switched over to my handle that I use everywhere.
Though to be fair, I am hardly an established member of the GWJ community.
I originally registered as Devlaeminck, after one of my cycling heroes, but in games folks kept calling me "Dev" on teamspeak and I never realized they were talking to me. I tried to get people to call me "Minck", mainly so I could use my Eddie Dane voice and say "You killed Mink, you son of a bitch!" That never caught on.
So I swapped to a nickname I picked up backpacking through Central America.
*Legion* wrote:
informationgames.info
http://twitter.com/nnschiller
Funny, I thought this was going to be a thread about what people wanted to grow up to be when they were kids.
I've been using this handle for over a decade. I wouldn't know what else to use.
Back in high school, I used the handle "The Gunslinger", from King's Dark Tower series.
I've actually been pondering retiring this nick, since it's a borrowed name and not original, but I've been using it for so long and at so many places, I don't know that I could escape it.
Fedaykin98 wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:
Down there they just call me "jefe."
Elysium: The democratization of the web ... has installed an illusion of a digital first amendment that protects speech no matter how poorly spelled or stupid.
XBL: E Munnie
elementsofmeaning.blogspot.com
Same here.
At least the top result on it in Google is no longer a Furry site.
PSN: Kurrelgyre | Raptr | Spore | Steam | Xbox Live
In the beginning, I was Thanos. This was about 16-17 years ago when I was a denizen of a small BBS centered in South Florida abd known as O.L.G.A. The handle is directly stolen from Marvel's Infinity Gauntlet series. He snapped his fingers and instantly killed 50% of the universe's population. How cool is that?
Then I joined AOL, and Thanos was taken. I've had the Yoyoson moniker and its variations for about 13 years. Although at one point, around the time battle.net popped up, I decided I wanted a cooler name and so for a while I became "DirtGrimm". Yeah, doesn't that sound badass?
Then when CounterStrike came along and I started to LAN party heavily in high school, I thought I needed a name that struck fear into the hearts of my enemies. So I became Packetloss. Packetloss is unavoidable. No one can defeat Packetloss. Packetloss will kill you every time!
But for the purposes of this site, I relinquish my grasping for bad-assery and decided to stick to a name that was closest to my real-world personality. Plus, my Xbox Live account name was already Yoyoson, so that made things way easier.
In Ultima Online I used to poison hams and leave them on the ground in cities for people to pick up and eat. I can't believe how many people thought street ham was a good thing to eat. -Elliottx
I was going to register as luna but I believe it was taken. My other handles include Techno Dyke and chix0r but I figured I should stick with lunabean since I've had it the longest.
The darkness comes and the darkness goes
Last.fm
I used to go by "Violet Myst." This was a name I invented back in college. I needed to place a name next to the work I submitted to the literary/art magazine but I didn't want to use my real one. I love the color violet but I don't remember why I chose "myst" as the second part.
I eventually grew out of it. The name sounded cool at the time but I guess I got sick of being associated with some type of evil, purple gas. I wanted a new name but couldn't figure out what the heck to change it to. Then I got really creative and switched the two words. Changed "myst" into "mystic" so now it has a completely different meaning.
I am so CLEVER.
XBL / Art / Blog (09/20) / Buy! (10/07)
I absolutely abhor choosing handles. Trainwreck was a nickname given to me back in my late teens concerning a disastrous summer romance (she turned into a stalker) and it was fitting since I had to take the subway for almost an hour to go see her. So since then I've always been Trainwreck, whether in cyberspace or the real world. Choosing your own handle is similar to choosing your own nickname, it just doesn't seem right.
"The light at the end of the tunnel is just the light of an oncoming train." - Robert Lowell
"Boy exchange is a fun pain in the ass." - LiquidMantis
Xbox Live - Trainwreck GWJ
I think that I originally registered as "Staypuft," but for some reason that I honestly can't remember, I chose Poppinfresh instead. I used to go by the name of "Mostly Harmless" back in college. I kind of liked that one.
XBox Live: PoppinfreshGWJ
LobsterMobster wrote:
Likewise, so I've always just used my name. You'd be surprised how often it's available for a game. If it's not, adding numbers to the end is stupid.
So, I'll call myself Super Doug. It's satisfying to frag some teenager when your name is sillier than his.
I'd have broken down and cried if Ferret wasn't available.
I have nor have ever had any other meaningful handles. Kinda sucks because Ferret is almost always taken by some lesser mortal in any game/forum within 3 seconds of it opening, so I do a lot of the breaking down and crying thing. :'(
Yeah, I feel the same way.
I've tried to pick ones that were witty, cool, deep...you name it. But nothing ever really stuck.
My last stab at creativity was with my Xbox Live account where I tried to combine elements of my favorite pastimes. I came up with DJ Dostoevsky. It's okay I guess, but on reflection it seems kinda contrived.
Since then, I've decided to take the easy route and just keep it simple, using my real name. Not very fancy but it gets the job done.
I don't care what I am called, just as long as it is unique. I'm no longer the only peacensunshine on the web
.
There is someone else with the myspace peaceaandsunshine, and people always think it is me. I'm like NO, I'm the peaceNsunshine...the brunette one, hehe.
I'm Xoceana on xfire. I used to use that a lot, but no one could ever pronounce it.
dp
Story of his life
I might have gone with Mr. Clark, that was left over from my CS days. A lot of the crew I met in BF2 (Swampy, RichieRambo, etc..) probably wondered who the hell Hemidal was in the TS server and who was this Mr_Clark_DAS jumping into their squads.
Xbox Live | Steam | Last.fm
I was gonna be a contender
In the early days of online gaming my handle (so to speak) was always Pink Torpedo. However, I matured and decided to take the moniker of the man who coined that hallowed phrase: David St. Hubbins.
Xbox Live: hubbinsd
Ditto.
I've picked MoonDragon in some different celestial context many years ago (probably 12+). Beeing a lazy bastards, I stuck with it for the most part. I use it now constantly as my web alter ego.
Once I was registering for some online gaming service and it was taken. At the time I was also into Norse mythology, so naturally I tried to pick a name from it. Unfortunately all of the usual suspects were all already taken.
Ended up settling on Gjall (the horn that Heimdall will sound at the comming of the Ragnarok). I've since found out that this means something else to the current nordic language speaking people, and try not to use it too often.
(@)
Maybe you should start one. It would be interesting. I wanted to be Goldie Hawn when I grew up. (Private Benjamin)
I was going to be Certis but some utter cockmangler already took it.
"THE HELL ASS BALLS." - Prederick, expressing frustration in the time-honored way.
I always used Ratticus to label my online persona. When I started lurking here I noticed that there was a 'Ratboy', who was also 'Lord of the Rats', so I struck out to find a different name. Also, there was starting to be more and more Rat(t)icus' out there.
Druidpeak is based off of the Druid Peak wolf pack in Yellowstone. It gave me something unique, and also carried a piece of my love for the outdoors. Big manly love. Like a bear hug. Grrrrr.
This post sponsored by cheese.
Gods. That sent me off in search of an image to reply with that I now really regret.
In an attempt to purge I give you this:
Live: LiquidmantisGWJ | PSN: LiquidmantisGWJ
Web: Mantis on the Mountain
--
Women can't be in the same room with me without abandoning men forever - rabbit
Long, semi-convoluted thinking here for mine:
1) My handle, for many other forums, was Red Bear Dave. (Dave being my real first name) This often got shortened down to RBD.
2) I find out that there's some Mexican pop band thing called RBD.
2a) I refuse to have people ask if there's any connection between me and a tweeny-bop band.
3) So, I take the initals and try to think of something that sounded at least vaguely decent using them.
4) I happen to go into a pseudo-Shakespearian mindset, and think of rubb'd (which would be pronounced rub ed, two separate syllables).
5) I capitalize the Ed part, since I can't type special characters to save my life, nor do I want to learn how.
6) Thus, RubbEd for this forum (I don't use it anywhere else, so feel special...or sorry, depending on your outlook)
I accrue pens like Hefner accrues bimbos. -- duckideva
I agree on the balls. Not a fan of the balls. -- wordsmythe asserting himself in OOC Theater