When I meet new fellow instructors, I love to ask them how they got their forum name. Did they pick it -- why? What's the story behind it? Did someone give it to them -- I won't mention any names "Sean Shoot Here".
Mine is really a bit boring -- wish I would've been a little more creative, but It's mine, it works, and I won't be changing it. My name is "Kim" -- not Kimberly -- it's Just Kim. Recently my 90 something year old Dad (now 98) sent me some paperwork to sign and it said Kimberly on it, so I called him to just confirm that he had truly sent it. I told him my name was wrong - it was listed as Kimberly rather than Kim. He told me that that's what he told them and then asked if I was sure that's what it is. I responded that I had a copy of my birth certificate right in front of me. He told me, well, your sister, Sheri changed the way she spells her name too. ;D -- No she did not, but apparently he wasn't really too much involved in the naming of his 5 children.
Once he told me the stories behind all of my siblings births, names, etc. When I asked him about mine, he simply stated, "I don't remember". I guess by the fifth child, well.......
Anyway, got a little off-topic there, but that's where I got my forum name and I, and I'm sure others, would love to hear the story of your forum name!!nn :)
Please share!
JustKim
Hi Kim and other fellow Appleseeders! I remember you asking at some point when we met at a Ladyseed in Alliance, NE how I acquired my forum handle. We have lived in the Pine Ridge of Nebraska for 43 years, on a few acres, and we have a mountain lion population along with way too many deer, elk, bobcats, skunks, coons etc, so that is where my moniker came from. I can see how your name would be confusing to people who are trying to be precise, especially on legal documents.
Pine Ridge Puma, aka prp
It's my initials and it wasn't taken already.
My middle name is Earl, I was named for both my grandfathers. And somewhere along the line I started ignoring instructions by testers and teachers and always used my full name for signatures and official documents. I went by Earl in school, and the full name was almost secret. Earl was my family and friendly name, so calling me for sales got me a lot of Bills. When everyone at RWVA's beginning was hiding under a false name (just my opinion) I told them to call me Earl if it was open, and it was. This was back in 2008, I had lived a career on rank or family name, I was good with Earl.
Hi Kim!
My forum name is also my nickname. My dad started calling me Flipper a couple years before my first Appleseed. I was flipper because I have such big feet **) I have to wear a mens 10.5 size shoe because they don't make a big enough size in womens shoes. It would be a womens 13 if they did.
Most people think it's because of the 1960's tv show about the dolphin. So many people asked me about that, so I had to go watch an episode to know what they were talking about!
OMG -- thank you everyone for responding! LIke I said, I really enjoy hearing people's stories. You can actually learn quite a bit about a person from some of these forum names. I am proud to say that I "helped" my husband with his forum name, "gunjunkie" -- I heard someone use the term in describing someone who had entirely too many (no such thing) -- a sufficient number of firearms -- if there is such a thing. Maybe I should say someone with an obsession with guns. ;D ;D ;D
Pine Ridge Puma -- I do remember you telling me how you derived at your forum name. Love it!
DEH -- well, how do you pronounce your forum name? "d""e""h" -- or some other way??
Flipper -- I hope you are proud of your big feet! Not many women can say they wear a size 13!!
Earl -- Your name fits you well. ;D Question is -- what's your first name???
So back in the day, I scored rifleman my third time out. I was mildly offering some coaching to a buddy that was on the line with me. The shoot boss / state coordinator at the time basically said . . .
"You're willing to take an orange hat? You fool! That's great! Pick a forum name! Now! Do it now!!!"
"Umm . . . there's no internet signal at the range? I don't know what's available?"
"Doesn't matter - pick something unique! Quick! Before you change your mind!"
Welp . . . my amateur radio call sign is unique.
Continuing on with this story - Despite my call sign being AF5US, I am not a veteran of the United States Air Force. I am not a veteran at all, and never claimed to be. I didn't request it as a call sign (aka, it's not a vanity call sign). It was just randomly assigned. It's the product of clean living, I guess ;D
I came up with mine so if I was found at a range wandering around they would know where to leave me. Keeping it easy to recall also.
Besides all the other names I've been called aren't printable here, so I've been told! ;)
Sorry, trying to be brief so; William Earl Dungey.
Wanted something mildly clever and literary. Still get a smirk or giggle from a student or two at most shoots. Cat Gravity should post about his handle :)
love this one!
Cat gravity - would love to hear your story -- sounds, ummm, interesting.
I was looking for a Revolutionary veteran Irish Catholic to name myself after, but there weren't a great many of them due to the anti-Catholicism of the British colonies. However, apart from some of the famous names from Maryland, there was Stephen Moylan, a Philadelphia businessman born in County Cork. He served honorably throughout the war, mainly as a colonel of cavalry, and ended up being promoted in 1783 to brigadier general.
Additionally, his initial appointments, for example as quartermaster general, were pretty disastrous. In short, he didn't do a very good job. But instead of going home in 1777 and saying to heck with it, he went back to Washington's general staff, and then began his run as a cavalry officer. In other words, Moylan was a failure as a soldier who eventually turned it around and became...well, by all accounts, he became an OK soldier. There's actually a great story of his cavalry troops showing up in front of General Washington wearing red uniforms, and General Washington having to gently suggest to Moylan that maybe having continental troops dressed in red wasn't the best idea. Not a great soldier, like I say.
But that's a big part of why I like him. Most of us aren't George Washington. Most of us are just regular folks, and when we try to do stuff we might fail at it, or maybe just do fair to middling. Moylan's a great reminder for me to not let my fear of failure or mediocrity keep me from diving in and doing my best.
I love the line from GK Chesterton: if a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing badly.
So true. If it needs to get done, you've got to do it, even if you're afraid you can't. And you can't wait for someone "better" than you to do it instead.
Handle: CarrollMS
Source: USMC
In 1969 at Quantico, Virginia, the Marines issued me two stencils with "CARROLL, M. S." and my service number. The Platoon Sergeant told me to mark everything. The large version survived; one can see it in my AS profile photo. I still use it today as an identifier and to mark my clothing and gear after 53 years. Since AS teaches the same steady-hold factors I was taught in 1969 with the M14, I thought it most appropriate to continue its use in this forum.
CarrollMS@yahoo.com
Mine comes from the University I attended. Georgia Tech.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramblin%27_Wreck (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramblin%27_Wreck)
I'm Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech and a helluva engineer.
Although I wasn't smart emough to be an engineer so I graguated with a degree in Indistrial Management.
Wreck
"9mm4545" was the phone number of a long defunct range in Knoxville, where I held a life membership. When the range folded, they kept my money, I kept their phone number. As to the age old question of which is better, 9mm or 45? The answer is yes.
This guy took my name so I had to come up with my own, but I did get out of that place with an engineering degree. ;D ;) What's the good word?
Quote from: Ramblin' Wreck on August 28, 2022, 08:12:12 AM
Mine comes from the University I attended. Georgia Tech.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramblin%27_Wreck (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramblin%27_Wreck)
I'm Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech and a helluva engineer.
Although I wasn't smart emough to be an engineer so I graguated with a degree in Indistrial Management.
Wreck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtrnztbMTHE
I had bought an M-1 Garand and learned about what not to do with your Thumb! So of course, I tried to slowly let the bolt close on My Thumb. Yes, it can be done. But it still hurts, I do not recommend doing so!! as the saying goes "Please do not try this at Home" or anywhere for that matter. That is why I am named TomM1Thumb as a reminder to never ever do that again.
It's my name. (:
Quote from: GTEngineer on August 28, 2022, 05:24:34 PM
This guy took my name so I had to come up with my own, but I did get out of that place with an engineering degree. ;D ;) What's the good word?
TO HELL WITH GEORGIA! O0
My forum name is kinda obviousâ€"at least to me. What may not be so obvious is my avatar. He is a geriatric version of the British comic character, Dennis The Menace, a prankster and ruffian. He and the U.S. Dennis the Menace were both created in 1951, three years after my birth.
When I joined the program my day job required explaining highly technical information to people without a technical background. So, teaching topics like IMC and KD came easier to me than many IITs. At one of my earliest shoots a fellow IIT, who shall remain nameless (cough.. cough.. Cleveland.. cough.. cough..), declared "she knows everything, we should call her Google!"
It stuck and there was no escaping. Believe me, I tried. **)
Cleveland was right. Yours is the second coolest forum name in the program IMO. Morpheus has #1 spot. O0
Wreck
Quote from: Google on August 29, 2022, 10:34:02 AMWhen I joined the program my day job required explaining highly technical information to people without a technical background. So, teaching topics like IMC and KD came easier to me than many IITs. At one of my earliest shoots a fellow IIT, who shall remain nameless (cough.. cough.. Cleveland.. cough.. cough..), declared "she knows everything, we should call her Google!"
It stuck and there was no escaping. Believe me, I tried. **)
I love telling our history and like to throw in some references to side stories. Sometimes a student asks about them and I will spend a few minutes talking about it. So I chose my name after the code name George Washington used in the Culper Ring. There were spies used by both sides even leading up to the events at Lexington/Concord.
Here is an article for a taste of some of them:
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/spies-revolutionary-war
Not much of an imagination here either. The helicopter I flew in The Army is a AH-1 and my name is Tom.
Tennessee Beast comes from a nickname given to me at a skateboard contest in Memphis in the early 00's. I carried it over to Appleseed because it honestly is the only nickname I ever had that "fit" (and I went to my first Appleseed event with a friend from skateboarding). I almost didn't use it because of some of my former antics, but I figured no one would "google" me because I am so well behaved now. @)
My forum name is derived from a complex series of algorithms linked to an array of inverted differential equations. ::)
I've been given Big John and General Lee (being my first and last names, respectively) at work, so I picked one. Bobby Lee was in a different war than ours, and I am not a general, so it was the former, though I've been in very few mines and not yet bagged a Cajun lady. The hero of the song has got me by an inch and a few pounds at fighting weight, but only by that.
Websters defines Eagle Keeper as:
A guardian of freedom and liberty.
Someone who maintains F-15 (Eagle) aircraft.
…and I can get cool patches for my shooting jacket. :beer: :beer: :beer:
As I've always told people, mine came during a burst of creativity,
Yes, it's my initials.
Long ago I adopted a "longie" Manx cat (well, kitten) who I named Emperor Norton. At the same time, the late Mrs Devilkitty adopted a "longie" Cymric (a long-hair Manx) who was named One Brown Mauser.
Now Norton decided he liked sleeping in the sink - in a very dark bathroom in a Toledo, Ohio apartment. I can strongly un-recommend turning on the water for a drink in the middle of the night without checking for the presence of a cat in the sink. It is not something you will soon forget. He got dubbed "the Devilkiitty;" eventually the article was dropped and he was just "Devilkitty."
If you have a Devilkitty, you need an Angelkitty, right? Mauser became the Angelkitty. Thus began the theology of the Temple of Devilkitty - eventually to expand as more kitties joined the household. I declared myself Grand Inquisitor and High Priest, tasked with rooting out heresy and bringing the knowledge and conversation of He who Purrs Beyond the Gate to the world at large...
He was a very important part of my life, and I started using "devilkitty" (all lower case, of course - to distinguish from "THE Devilkitty") on message boards/sites because it was never taken. What I didn't know is that I would be stuck with it off-line once I accepted an orange hat back in '13. Sometimes I think I should have come up with something more clever - but my Norton-kitty lives ever on...
I remain,
the Fanged Terror of Starke County,
Thanks everyone! This has been fun! There are quite a few forum names I am still curious about.....two wolves -- I LOVE your story!! Mrs Smith? and of course MO -- what are your stories?
Crazyduckhunter
For 23 years my now ex wife called me her crazyduckhunter.
It fits. I hunt ducks in crazy weather.
Cdh
Ummm...as a newly minted orange hat (literally THAT DAY), idiot here decides that he's going to interject his rifle shooting knowledge during a POI. So, it wasn't until that evening that I was introduced to "no one-more-itis" and that I probably should not STEAL someone's THUNDER.
Quickly got my forum name registered as SteelThunder, both as a reminder of humility as well as before someone else "gifted" me with a less flattering name.
:pop:
I didn't like the forum name picked for me when I qualified in the soaking rain (It had rained for at least 3 hours and it was the last AQT of the day)...soggy shooter
So I picked my own name.....from a well known movie....Top Gun after Kelly McGillis' character >:D
I went with Char-"ley" because Char-"lie" was taken....and it fits with my name Ashley
For me it just fit. I came to my first event as an instructor with no name. I had to sign up right then as I did not know any better. I used my email address as my name. Back then 308Libertys wife was making name tags for instructors in Fl. She refused to make a name tag for me until I got a real name. Trust me you don't say no to her. :)
I thought about it and changed it to ScubaSteve. I spend a lot of time under water. Actually just returning as I am typing this from almost 40 hours under water in Indonesia. Nothing else to do in the LA airport. :)
My Revolutionary War ancestor is the cousin of Dr. Samuel Prescott. My clan is from Pepperell, MA.
My ancestor was known as "Sarg" Prescott and he is the brother of William Prescott. William commanded the Battle of Bunker Hill and allegedly coined the phrase "Do not shoot until you see the whites of their eyes".
It is assumed that Sarg was a Sargent in the Continental Army and he was given a homestead in Maine after the end of the war. Homesteads were a common method that Congress used to compensate soldiers for their service. One of Sargs ancestors immigrated to the Dalles, OR and married a Holter. My maternal grandfather was a Holter and that is my connection to the Prescott clan.
We knew of the Prescott family name and we gave our youngest son the middle name of Prescott prior to my participation in AS or knowing of this family history. My aunt Joan was the family historian and told me the story of the Prescott family connection after I participated in my first AS event.
The reason that I have remained involved in AS is because my ancestors fought and died to give our country Independence and Liberty. It is now my turn to carry that torch and do what I can to carry on that tradition.
My name reflects my role in the family and the number of children my wife and I have. So far I've gotten one instructor and one blue hat in the kids. Working on getting more rifleman and instructors
My odd arrangement of a handle came about after being inspired by the history at my first Appleseed in Alice Tx, in 2018. Of consequence: Just Kim happened to be at Ron's shoot that weekend. I ended up leaving the shoot thinking, why in the world in our current society, are we so hellbent on undoing what our Founder's - by the grace of God, struggled for. Why fix what is not broke. Hence DontFix1776. Hats off to A-Lister and how he put his shoot together and also how history was presented that weekend. It encouraged me to stick around.
Pennys Dad,
Meet Penny, she has since passed but the name stays.
(https://i.imgur.com/sk4Y9oT.jpg)
Before I got bitten by Appleseed... had an earlier venture as a
competition BBQ Pitmaster equipped with a portable rolling kitchen within a 20 foot trailer. Took on the name BBQ Bandit as an LLC.
That set-up was readily available for emergency response within another non-profit Operation BBQ Relief (OBR) to respond to natural disasters. Took active part cooking on-site for 3 responses; Harrisburg, PA, Superstorm Sandy, and another response thru the online forum (The BBQ Brethren) smoking turkeys for the Lindehurst community affected by that same storm..
Sold the trailer... kept the memories and moniker.
When I first took the Orange Hat, I took the handle "intheburbs." I had started using that on other fora, primarily Chevy/GM boards because I owned a Suburban and lived in the suburbs.
One day I arrived at an event in my Taurus. BeeFree told me I should change my name to "inthecar." **)
My fellow instructors soon started calling me ITB, and it just stuck. So I formally changed it. The state of Michigan was kind enough to keep ITB unused as a license plate, so I claimed it. If a dark blue Suburban blows by you at 100 MPH, you know who it is. >:D
Now, when people ask me what it stands for, I simply respond, "I'm the boss." &) :))
Sailor-generated nick name from over 20 years ago. More background here (https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-11-12-mn-20462-story.html).
I am 7' tall.
Makes sense!!
Maybe I was born with it, maybe it's Maybelline.
It's not Maybelline.
Well, I'm old
My forum name comes from the postal abbreviation for the state of Michigan (MI) linked with the name of Northerners who were for states rights over an all powerful centralized government and were strongly against Lincoln's illegal war on the seceded southern states. I have been a bit of a history buff on the War of Northern Aggression, it's causes, and the fighting men of the South so a companion suggested I use copperhead as a forum name on a forum we frequented back in the early 2000's. There was someone who had that name already so I put MI in front of it and used it on most of the forums I registered on from then on.
The Wolfhound: I always say it is because I believe in dogs you do not have to bend over to pet. That much is true. Some of the Virginia instructors who have met them call them people sized dogs. It is also about how Wolfhounds are used to deal with wolves. They are not shepherds to stay with the flock. They take care of the problem, directly. They seek out the wolf. Then they come home. The wolf doesn't.
I LOVE these! Keep sharing!!
Well... maybe it's time to change.... due to an unforseen and recent incident... fell, fractured my jaw in two places... got up... and kept on working (at my home). Saw Dr. 3 days later... and no change of current treatment.
Been there before... felt like a total teeth extraction. Survived that experience with Motrin.
Just call me Timex...
Mine is simple. I AM an Old Navy Doc, a retired O6 and served during Vietnam and Desert Storm.
Thanks for replying and thanks for your service!
Years ago I bought an antique army M35 deuce and a half and restored it to what it looked like in 1966 as a tribute to Vietnam vets...looking at the specs for the truck, it says it is made of "wood and iron".
Being in Virginia, the "Old Dominion", and having this behemoth of a truck ("Where do you park that thing? What do you use it for?") I needed a moniker for a military vehicle forum I was frequenting, SteelSoldiers.com. Picked Old Dominion Iron, not knowing there was a surplus parts company with that name.
I still have the truck, drive it in parades and veteran's events, and once in a while camp out in it.
I am starting to go by Geek these days. I have been a tech person my entire life. I started using <computers> back in the 70's. I was on a fancy terminal with an external drive. 7" floppy disk. It was a university system. By the time gmail became a thing, I was married. Cherie is my wife. I was, and on most days still, her geek. I am proud of that moniker. A unique gmail account was cheriesgeek. I signed up on the forum long before volunteering with the organization. So, no cool, catchy forum name for me. If you see me at an event, feel free to call me geek.
From Northern Maine. First shoot was at Columbia Falls, Maine around 15 years ago. Second shoot was at Bosra, CT. I was the First Naval District small arms champion, rifle and pistol both. I weigh the same as I did when I graduated from high school. I can sit cross legged, lead forward and put both elbows on the ground and I'm older than dirt.
I was in the 3rd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment (then of the 4th Brigade(Airborne), 25th Infantry Division) for its first five years and first two deployments (Iraq in 2007 and Eastern Afghanistan in 2009). The "G man" or "gingerbread man" is the nickname for the stylized paratrooper in the regimental "pocket patch" you see in my pfp.
At the Camp Perry National Matches i heard someone call a distinguished Rifleman a HardHolder.
Meaning he was quite the shooter.
I just always thought that was really cool.
So I liked the name .
Most people assume it's a remnant from the military, but . . .
I consider myself a teacher (of technical skills in the military and also as a classroom teacher) and one of my favorite movies about a teacher is Dead Poets Society. On the first day of school, Mr Keating (the teacher in the movie) introduces himself
Now, this class, you can either call me
Mr. Keating, or, if you're slightly more
daring, "O Captain! My Captain."
At one of the schools I taught at, some students found out I liked this movie and started addressing me as Captain. It eventually spread around the school and students would occasionally get my attention with a daring, "O Captain! My Captain." I still like that movie :)
:) I made it my mission to chase that elusive Rifleman patch for nearly a year. Picture this: four events, countless hours of practice every week, and enough dedication to make a pro athlete jealous. But you won't believe what happened at the second event. :pop: Brace yourself, because this is comedy gold. An instructor and the almighty blue hat team managed to crack the code on my biggest issue. And what was that issue, you ask? Brace yourself for a stunning revelationâ€"I was fidgeting between every single shot! Yep, I couldn't resist tweaking and adjusting, convinced that each shot needed to be an absolute perfect masterpiece. It got so out of hand that they had no choice but to duct tape me to the mat. :slap: You heard that right, folks. Duct taped. It's even documented in the After Action Report. Don't believe me? Check out the link and prepare for a laugh. https://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=51812.0 (https://appleseedinfo.org/smf/index.php?topic=51812.0) Oh, and did I mention they even sent a really flattering picture of me all taped up to my husband? $$-0 That one didn't make it in the AAR. It's like a random act of kindness, really.
But guess what? After a few more events, I finally managed to capture that sweet Rifleman patch. Victory was mine! ^:)^ However, I had been so focused on that patch, I hadn't even tried to crack the code for a better forum name. :slap: So, I made a bold decisionâ€"to own my fidgeting tendencies. That's why I took my laser rifle stocks and engraved them with the words: "If you are FIDGETing, you don't have your NPOA." It's a constant reminder that perfectionism may be overrated, but a sense of humor is forever. ;D Plus, who needs perfect shots when you can have a killer sense of humor, right? And who knows, maybe one day I'll stumble upon a better forum name. Until then, I proudly parade my Rifleman patch and my status as the fidgeting legend of the range.
:beer: Cheers to someday truly learning that lesson, embracing our quirks and making the best of them! :beer:
Back in the early 80's. I was into computers before home computers were a thing. For Christmas, my father bought me a digital subscription (300 baud dial up) to the Greenville News. He chose the username "jemac", a mixture of my first and last names. As a hat tip to my father, I continue to use jemac in one form or another for most of my user names.
Jemac
JoeZ is my name and is therefore what I prefer to be know as. I dislike anonymity. Sorry that I'm not sorry about it.
Chris Garlich and I go by the forum name Ohio Piper. Born and raised in the Buckeye State and I play the bagpipe.
My last name is Schmidt - that's the German "Smith". Messer is German for blade/knife - so a Messerschmidt (or Messerschmitt) is a Knifesmith/Bladesmith.
I have been a custom knife maker in the past, so the alias Messer seemed appropriate. Plus, I'm a fan of WWII aircraft and Messerschmitt made some good ones!
At my first Appleseed event, my perfectionism was getting the better of me and Catch 10-22 couldn't understand why I was disappointed that all my shots were within the 3 or 4 "ring" of one of the targets. My darling husband kindly informed him that my disappointment was that they weren't all a dime size group in the 5 "ring". At which point Catch 10-22 gave me his now infamous side eye and told me those groups were juuuuuust fine.
Fast forward a month or so when I'm trying to find a Christmas gift for hubs, and these forums were the only way I could get ahold of my shoot boss from that event and still keep the gift a surprise. When the system forced me to create a name in order to be able to message my SB, I immediately remembered his advice against perfection. Therefore, Progress not Perfection was born.
The funny thing is, so many prior posts have talked about how life experiences inspired their forum name but mine is kind of the opposite. Progress not Perfection started as my forum name and has morphed into a life motto/daily reminder. :)
Very creatively, but someone already had chuck, so added an initial
bump
CaptainKirk was already taken...
I was a firefighter and a paramedic for many years. While on a fishing trip with several friends (who are all in the Army, and ALL about nicknames) we hiked in to a high mountain lake. During the 8 mile hike in, I had a couple of incidents that resulted in some scraps and bumps. So, after applying the necessary band aids, one of them looks over and says, " Jesus Mike, you're the medic. You're supposed to hand out the bandaids, not need them. Band Aid, ha ha! That's your nick name!"
Now, in the fire service, much like the military, if you get a nickname, it sticks. You can either have fun with it, or whine and cry, and then the blood is in the water, and the sharks will come in! I chose to accept it, and it has been my nick name for years.
In 2019, I hike the first 1,000 miles of the pacific crest trail, and my trail name? Band Aid. Within a couple of hours of hiking on the trail, I had a couple of booboos and scratches, and the bandaids came out. Another hiker instantly said "Dude, you really did earn the trail name "BandAid"!
Like many others based out of the Northeast, I am just brimming (not!) with nominative creativity.
Shortly after I heard about Project Appleseed, I saw there was a forum, so I just put up the same username (first initial, last name) that I've gotten used to putting everywhere else around the Internet.
Even after my first several shoots, taking a hat, taking a red hat; all the way until I made it to my first IBC, nobody told me these usernames were supposed to be readily pronounceable in the field!
Mine was easy. I had escaped the totalitarian, anti-2A state of NJ and found freedom, liberty, and sanity in Texas!
In 1983 I was tagged with Gus as a nickname. This was at my first duty station, Tinker AFB Oklahoma. For some reason on the squadron bowling team, everyone had a nickname based on the initial of their middle name. The catch was you could not choose your own nickname.
I guess I liked it because it was my nickname throughout my Air Force career and to this day. Anyway, it works for me. O0
In Liberty,
Gus
A couple of jobs ago... The owner of the business bought out several businesses at the local county airport. I had the choice of winter lay offs ( not much Winter paving / excavating work in Michigan in the Winters) or go work out at the airport. I was an extra set of hands for the A&P's / I A. For around six years. Neat job!!
Hence WingWrench.
INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW!! (BUMP)
You know someone named Smith who gets called Smitty? Well, it's like that...
Anyhow, I'm thisclose to changing my legal name to my forum name, it's that prevalent.
My original "Rifleman" name upgrade ("La Victoire Ailee") came from the Phantom of the Opera. It was a nod to several things in my life over the last 30 years.
Problem is, pronouncing it in French confused the Hell out of Appleseeders.
So, rather than try to explain it, I just picked a discipline that I started shooting a couple of years ago and . . . here we are.
I'm still debating adding "Vintage" to it, since I run a 70 year old Remington 513T and canvas coat against the other competitors' modern Anschutz and Walther rifles wearing full leather shooting garb.
I definitely stand out as a relic on the line.
My initials combined with everyone's favorite day of the year, income tax day. :) (It's rememberable)
I joined the forum before becoming a volunteer. I was just a shooter with questions, and I had been advised on the r/appleseed subreddit that I would get better answers on the forum, so I joined. The first thing you have to do, of course, is pick a username. I've made the mistake before of picking a username without giving it much thought and then being stuck with it for years, so I paused to think about it.
I wanted something related to the theme of fighting for Liberty and throwing off tyranny, but I didn't want it to be straight out of the American Revolution. I'm kind of a science fiction movie nerd, and I've always thought the rebellion fought by the underdog Rebel Alliance against the powerful Galactic Empire in Star Wars echoed some of those themes. I was staring at the screen, trying to think of a Star Wars-inspired name, when I looked up in the corner and saw the Simple Machines logo — a lever and fulcrum — and it immediately clicked! In the Star Wars universe, Fulcrum is a code name used by the agents of a secret network who recruit for the Rebel Alliance, gather and distribute information, and assign operations to different cells of the alliance. That's where I got the name Fulcrum.
Mine was the nickname of my 9th great grandfather, who as a young boy was hidden in the "potato hole" (his brother, "tub", was hidden under the wash tub) during the Indian raid in Virginia in 1644 that resulted in the death of their father. The fowling piece used for defense of their home is in the state history museum in Richmond.
In the 90s, some friends and I drove from Michigan to Jim Thorpe, PA to play in a world record paintball game. Over 3000 people attended. To get there, we drove through the tail end of a hurricane. We got up way too early, got lost in rain-soaked fields (or more properly, our local guide got us lost in fields so wet that he couldn't recognize things anymore) and then we ran around firing paint pellets at people for hour. When we got back to the hotel, we were absolutely wrecked... and Cartoon Network was airing a Space Ghost: Coast to Coast marathon. That madness infected us all, but I was the most terminally online, so I started using Zorak as an FRS radio call sign (during games) and forum handle before anyone else got to it.
"We are no ways dispirited here, we possess a spirit that will not be conquered. If our men are all drawn off and we should be attacked, you would find a race of Amazons in America." -Abigail Adams (letter to husband John dated 9/20/1776)
Regarding an earlier post in this thread: The very very best forum name, in my opinion, belongs to MinuteMom!