A re-introduction/username change

[Embenny]

Hey folks,

Just wanted to make this thread to point out my username change and hopefully avoid any confusion.

When I named my account "mbene085," I had only intended to use it to lurk. I had lurked without a username for a couple of years and really didn't participate in any forums at all, so I put no thought into it. Of course, I got sucked into this great community and ended up posting on it...a lot!

The username itself was the university ID that was generated for me back when I started undergrad in 2004, which I always found slightly amusing since the three randomly-assigned numbers ended up being so close to my birth year ('86).

But it's super awkward for people to try to remember it, or to reference. Until someone learns/remembers my actual name, they're stuck calling me things like "mbene."

Still, I've used that name is so many places for so many years that it's kind of become a thing for me. I'd wanted to change my username to something easier to type or remember for a while, but couldn't think of what to do. Anything too different felt wrong.

So, I figured I'd just change it to the way I pronounce it. I'd usually say "Embenny zero eighty-five" in my head when I looked at it, so here we are. Luau was kind enough to change my username to Embenny for me. Hopefully that makes it easier for folks on the forum to remember who I am despite the name change. I've also added my old name to my signature, and have kept my profile Pic the same as it's been since the start.

[JSett]

I'm just gonna stick with Mike, I always prefer using peoples real names if they are fine sharing it.

[Larry Mal]

Good show. I always pronounced it "em-ben-ay" in my head for some reason. Maybe like "molto bene" in my mind or something.

I wish I had just used my real name. I thought I needed a fake internet name for some reason back in the day and now I don't. Oh well.

[Embenny]

I'm just gonna stick with Mike, I always prefer using peoples real names if they are fine sharing it.

Oh for sure, for anyone who wants to take the time to learn and remember my real name, I'm fine with that. But I don't expect everyone to remember it, so at least this should be easier for people to remember or type.

Good show. I always pronounced it "em-ben-ay" in my head for some reason. Maybe like "molto bene" in my mind or something.

I wish I had just used my real name. I thought I needed a fake internet name for some reason back in the day and now I don't. Oh well.

Hah, I like that. Makes me sound more worldly, like I'm posting from a café in Europe instead of the Canadian suburbs.

I'm happy with my online friends knowing my real name, but the whole doctor thing makes things a bit awkward when it comes to online presence. We are one of the few professions where we can be judged and disciplined for our actions outside of work, which is rather stupid but is out of my control. So if I were to use my full name anywhere online, I'd always have to think, "could saying this get me in trouble?" It's not like I'm out here handing out Kanye West-style hot takes about racial relations or anything, but it frees up some mental bandwidth to have a pseudonym acting as a buffer between me and all that.

[JSett]

I wish I had just used my real name. I thought I needed a fake internet name for some reason back in the day and now I don't. Oh well.

I genuinely assumed your name was Larry, apologies. On a related note:

See, so here's a thing..

My birth surname is 'Brett' but I decided, circa 1998, to not use my real surname online 'just in case' and, having recently watched the film 'Seven', chose Somersett. I stuck with it forever, through all forums, chatrooms, and into the birth of social media and as I met people in real life via those things I was just referred to as it on a daily basis as if it were my real name - even my now wife. At one point I had to get out my passport in front of bandmates as we were touring and I realised they'd never known me by any other name. As I went forward into my work more and more people were using it on a daily basis and it got a bit tiresome having to explain things and correct forms etc.

More people I knew knew me by Somersett than Brett.

So in 2020, during the lockdowns, I officially changed my name and all relevant documents.

[Larry Mal]

I genuinely assumed your name was Larry, apologies. On a related note:

Oh, my first name is Larry, or Lawrence, anyway, which I've been using more lately. It's my last name, which is not "Mal" but "Mollard" and I just shortened it years ago for my nom de plume as it were. But now I don't really see the point so much. I'm not a doctor and I'm not Kanye West and my views are pretty mainstream, at least in my opinion.

I guess I still think the Buzzstop is awful and Fugazi is totally overrated, the latter of which might be reason for hiding one's identity now that I think about it. Fans of that band can be a pretty militant group and I swear if I have to read one more time about how they don't charge a lot for their shows I might actually change my identity and live in a volcano or something.

[Embenny]

So in 2020, during the lockdowns, I officially changed my name and all relevant documents.

What a wild story. You're almost a real-life Garry from Parks & Rec.

I guess I still think the Buzzstop is awful and Fugazi is totally overrated, the latter of which might be reason for hiding one's identity now that I think about it.

You're just a little bit OSG and a little bit TGP, I guess! I can hear that kernel of truth when you joke about sustain. I know you secretly long to wail on a single note for 30 seconds during your blues solos, holding that note, bending up to it, letting the audience wonder, "is he going to do that thing where he bends up to it, starts letting it drift back down, but then bends right back up to it?" And then you bend back up to the note, making a stank face that lets everyone know that the thing is, indeed, happening. That shit is to middle-aged white guys in blues clubs what a bass drop is to a hangar full of ravers. They go apeshit for it. It's like, "he could choose any note in the E pentatonic scale, but this is the one he's gonna play for the next thirty seconds. A true master of the art form!"

[JSett]

I am a Fugazi fan but not at all militant about it...there are more important things to fight about on the internet.

[JSett]

So in 2020, during the lockdowns, I officially changed my name and all relevant documents.

What a wild story. You're almost a real-life Garry from Parks & Rec.

Hahaha, poor Garry/Jerry/Larry/Terry

[DeathJag]

I internally pronounced it Em Benai also. Thanks for the explanation and head's up! Man, that blues solo thing cracked me up! And I live in a town that has a lot of that shit music.

[Pacafeliz]

OH GOD WORLDS ARE COLLIDING AND EXPLODING

WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE WHO AM I THEN???!!!

[Chippertheripper]

embenny works for me.

are we sharing username stories?
My name is Chip, and I lived in a sort of punk rock flop house for a long time, and within which, we had a sort of pseudo grindcore band called Dr Mangler.
Everyone had sort of goofy gory names, and the one I was given stuck, and followed me through a lifetime of motorcycle and dirt bike racing too.
I use this screen names across all the active forums I waste too much time on, so it's likely me if you run across it again.

Cheers, OSG.

[JSett]

I must be an outlier then as I, in my head, pronounced it 'Em-Bean'. Or maybe because I'm British.

[Flurko]

Even if I read English text fluently enough so it sounds 'normal' in my head, more abstract words or numbers will be sounded out with the french pronunciation.
I rarely have a 'reading voice' in my head, but in this case your former username would be like "Em-béné-zéro-quatre-vingt-cinq", which is more than a mouthful and a good reason to not speak out loud internet names

[Embenny]

I was sure that everybody probably pronounced it a different way in their heads. It was awkward to try to pronounce in any language, though

I think the reason I settled on "Embenny" is that my best friend always called me by my initials, which are MBE, and "Embenny" kinda sounds like "Em Bee E."

are we sharing username stories?

Totally! Thanks for sharing yours.