Job Discussion Forums

[Twisting in the Wind]

Some of us have very interesting, intriguing usernames. Others of us just seem to be using our real name or some derivation thereof.

So, for those of you who have a unique username, why'd you pick that particular moniker?

For those of you who are using just your name, why did you decide to do that instead of being Mr. or Ms. Colorful?

I'll start. At the time I registered for this forum I felt really burnt out in ESL/EFL and like I was on some kind of hamster wheel, just going round and round, driving to work every day, and just going with the daily inane, strange flow. I was teaching at a Chinese Senior citizen centre at the time, and my English class was in this big room and had to compete with all kinds of other activities, such as mahjong, crafts, ballroom dancing and ping pong. I had to scream my lessons above the din to keep their attention, well, they were all ancient and deaf and couldn't really hear anything anyways.

Then the snacks girl would come around and interrupt my class with, um, snacks.Usually a rice crispie bar or some Asian treat which she would literally throw at the oldsters, like she was trying out for the Dodgers. Then, the copier would never, ever work and I had to run down the street and pay to make my own copies at a Chinese Kinkos, then they'd interrupt my class with my paycheck and make a big production of it, then the ancient ss were always nodding off in class and I could never tell half the time if they were just napping, or if they had just died, then the staff would write in Chinese on my whiteboard with the wrong marker, which was non-eraseable...and it just goes on and on and on.

So, all that to say that I felt like I was "Twisting in the Wind," just blowing with the crazy flow that had become my life.

Also, I was at the point of deciding to wrap up my ESL/EFL teaching for awhile, but wasn't really at the point of having any other career yet that I could go to. So I was in limbo, hence, "Twisting in the Wind."

Let's hear from some of the rest of you.

[Guy Courchesne]

I put my real name, and my pic, because I decided some time ago to make TEFL my career. My longer term goals are to continue studying in the field of linguistics and do some research. I post my real name in the hopes that I can make a difference in the field, and Dave's is the place I've chosen to start, apart from locally in Mexico.

That and I'm a total narcissist.

[Twisting in the Wind]

Guy Courchesne pined away for himself while staring in the mirror:

[cj750]

I chose mine because of the relationship to the ChangJiang 750 motorcycle produced in China...and although my shop sell Donghai bikes and parts..my initials match the Changs name...and even though ESL is not my chosen prof. it is however the tool that keeps my residence visa in order...

[omeletteman]

Mines a nickname I use for every single last thing on the internet. One of my friends gave it to me back in grade 7 (not as long ago for me as it was for some of you), because he thought my last name (Emmett) looks a lot like omelete (and yes, I am aware that I spelt it wrong, but it was grade 7, and its too late to change it now). So he came up with omeletteman, made a whole song and everything, it goes to the tune of spiderman, I can't remember the words though... That was about the same time as I signed up for my first email account, and so omeletteman just became my online identity. And I like that it's pretty unique, how many omeletteman's have you met?

[Glenski]

Have had this as a real nickname for about 20 years. It sure beats the other ones.

BTW, I'm not Polish, Russian, Eastern European, or any derivation thereof. It just sounds nice and a lot better than Glenny, or Glenno, or a few others that people have tried.

[Shonai Ben]

I lived in the Shonai area in Tohoku and the local language was called shonai ben.
I was too lazy to think of a better name.....

[ContemporaryDog]

A few years ago my friend and I used to play a rather silly game called Alphaman. You can download this game from the internet, its a rather basic (graphically) Role Playing Game which is actually surprisingly addictive, but in keeping with the silliness of the game we tried to come up with our own silly names for our characters. Amongst my favourites of his was "Oscillating Cottage". "Contemporary Dog" was my favourite of my own ones so after that I used it as log in here.

[denise]

[Gordon]

[Ariadne]

I've always loved the name Ariadne. Ariadne the spider from childrens literature, Agatha's sleuth Ariadne Oliver, Ariadne and the thread in the maze. The name is fun to say. It is also the name of someone I love dearly. I enjoy 'wearing' the name on Dave's, but it isn't really mine.
.

[matttheboy]

My online user name was my first email address from ages ago and is obviously a variation of my real name. I put my real photo up because i believe that it's too easy to hide behind the cloak of anonymity on forums such as these; if you have an opinion then you shouldn't be ashamed to own up to it. It doesn't bother me in the slightest that most people don't show their real photos and use their real names, just that i, personally, prefer to put a face to an opinion as it makes it easier for me to believe what the person is saying.

[IanN]

Laziness.

[Guy Courchesne]

ditto Matt

[Gordon]

I really never felt a need to hide behind another name. Besides, I like my name.