The Thread of Many Faces

[Wanderer]

Over the years, many have come and (less) many have gone to and from these hallowed Threads, some have become silent, have changed names, avatars (and/or identities?) after a brief or long hiatus. Sometimes it's confusing remembering who's who, who used to be who, who was who, if that newbie is indeed a new face or a wizened forum wizard in his fourth reincarnation.

So, as a sociological experiment as well as a mnemonic device, let's remember and document our prior selves. Starting with the name you first came into the forum and ending with the current one, if it has changed. Fell free to document avatar changes (risky for some, they'll be here a while;) if you must or anything else you feel is related to forum members' name-changes. I'll gather the responses in the second post as a unified list of changes for easier perusal by those interested.

[Wanderer]

Brian Havergal --> Walter Bruno --> Otto Skadelig --> Spitvalve --> Contents under Pressure --> Velimir --> Archaic Torso of Apollo
Cadfael --> Bogey
Cato --> Scrooge McDuck --> Cato
Gurn Blanston --> Gurnatron 5500 --> Gurn Blanston
Kishnevi --> Jeffrey Smith
karlhenning --> k a rl h e nn i ng --> karlhenning
ukrneal --> mc ukrneal
Bulldog --> Sammy
Franco --> sanantonio


No Name Changes

Draško
EigenUser
Hollywood
Jo498
knight66
Lisztianwagner
Mirror Image
North Star
( : premont : )
Sergeant Rock
Wanderer

[EigenUser]

No name changes, but a few avatar changes (not counting short-term changes). As far as I can remember:


Then this:


to which Ken gave an amusing reply (took me a while to find!):


Then this:


and now this:


For those who don't know, the name EigenUser is a math joke. There are these things called eigenvalues and eigenvectors in math (particularly in linear algebra and vector spaces). Mathematicians like to use 'eigen' as a prefix to any object related to them (eigenfunction, eigenspace, eigencondition, eigensolution, eigenmode, eigenbasis, etc.). "Eigen" is German for "characteristic".

[North Star]

I haven't changed my name either. I have changed my avatar over the years, though. First one was probably the violin sound hole, then ∫, and I think the current one after that, with various Santas during the appropriate seasons, with the b&w version for a while.

[Jo498]

EigenUser is the User who is not turned around by the Action of a webforum. He only gets longer (or more generally, multiplied by a scalar, so it could be shorter as well).

[Mirror Image]

I've never had a different screen name, but I'm not even going to launch into how many times I've changed my avatar. It'll be interesting to see how many times MN Dave has changed his screen name, though.

[Jo498]

I can't be bothered to find, edit and upload a picture and I never had any other name on this forum nor do I plan to change the username.

My favorite scientific expression stolen from German is bremsstrahlung, but I do find the combinations with "eigen" rather funny as well.
With the English language ruling supreme in scientific circles nowadays it is difficult to imagine times when some fields were so dominated by German-speaking scientists that the German expressions stuck. But it was the case until about 1930 and if German born (and usually educated there) scientists are counted, they were only passed in the 1970s by the US in overall number of Nobel laureates in the sciences.

http://people.idsia.ch/~juergen/nobelshare.html

[knight66]

A good idea, I hope the name and shapeshifters do drop in and contribute. I have always had the same name and the avatar has been with me for about five years, I don't even remember what the earlier one was.

Mike

[Cato]

Cato is a reference to the opponent of Julius Caesar, and to the three would-be dictators at the end of the Roman Republic.  The Cato family produced some characters: his great-grandfather was famous for warning that Carthage would rise a third time to attack Rome, and supposedly ended every speech in the Senate with "Carthage must be destroyed."

Cato the Younger ended up committing suicide in opposition to Julius Caesar, rather than be executed by him.



I switched some years ago to Scrooge McDuck, world's richest person, uncle of Donald Duck, and of course great-uncle to Huey, Dewey, and Louie.  He was created by one of Walt Disney's original "Duckmen," Carl Barks.  A great story-teller, Barks should be better known.  His stories were just so wonderful on many levels.

Don Rosa, in the later 1980's, resurrected the character and, following Barks, took Uncle Scrooge and his nephews to new heights. About 8 years ago near blindness forced Rosa into early retirement.  Both his stories and those of Barks are available in hardbound books now.

[Mirror Image]

I can't be bothered to find, edit and upload a picture and I never had any other name on this forum nor do I plan to change the username.

My favorite scientific expression stolen from German is bremsstrahlung, but I do find the combinations with "eigen" rather funny as well.
With the English language ruling supreme in scientific circles nowadays it is difficult to imagine times when some fields were so dominated by German-speaking scientists that the German expressions stuck. But it was the case until about 1930 and if German born (and usually educated there) scientists are counted, they were only passed in the 1970s by the US in overall number of Nobel laureates in the sciences.

http://people.idsia.ch/~juergen/nobelshare.html

Who is your favorite composer? I can send picture for an avatar.

[Jo498]

thanks a lot for the offer. My favorite composer is Beethoven. But I would never put a composer picture as an Avatar because that is not how I want to be identified on such a forum. It'd be either a photo of myself or rather something more "neutral" related to myself.

[kishnevi]

Originally, Kishnevi, from my blogging days, which refers to the city in Moldova where my grandparents were born and raised before immigrating to the US post WWI. Back then it was called Kishinev.  The current preferred version is Chisinau (with diacritics Google Chrome is not offering for use), and it is the capital of Moldova.  When my grandparents were born, it was a province of Russia called Bessarabia.
Eventually I switched to the current name, which has the advantage of being my real name, so it is easy for me to remember 😁.

[Moonfish]

I've never had a different screen name, but I'm not even going to launch into how many times I've changed my avatar. It'll be interesting to see how many times MN Dave has changed his screen name, though.

John,
The GMG admin will have to upgrade its memory capacity if you are going to post all your avatars in this thread!   

[Bogey]

Cadfael


(my first handle on the old board)

[Wanderer]

*bump*

Got the list started (second post). Any more name-changers?

[San Antone]

Cadfael


(my first handle on the old board)

Great series!  I just started reading the novels, and enjoy them as well.

[Sammy]

My avatar remains the same.  My username was Bulldog; changed it to Sammy when I adopted my silky terrier and named him Sammy.  Then I got a second terrier named Betty Lou.  Being a guy, I didn't change my username.  Why all the dog stuff?  DOGS ARE GREAT!

[Karl Henning]

Sometimes I have been karlhenning, sometimes k a rl h e nn i ng.

[Hollywood]

No name change here. 

[Mirror Image]

My avatar remains the same.  My username was Bulldog; changed it to Sammy when I adopted my silky terrier and named him Sammy.  Then I got a second terrier named Betty Lou.  Being a guy, I didn't change my username.  Why all the dog stuff?  DOGS ARE GREAT!

I agree. I love dogs and couldn't imagine my life without them. They certainly do add another dimension to our daily lives. I have a northern terrier named Chiclet and here she is in all her glory: