MORE Avatars With Attitude
by DarthGranny, HSM team writer
Some of you may recall the article I wrote last summer about people I met in Home who had created very unusual avatar names. In some cases, the names were pure whimsy (like Dubblwump), spun from a wild imagination, while others (like EmptyThemePark) had deeply moving backstories from highly intelligent Home residents.
Or, as Forrest Gump opined, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get.” That said, viewing Home as a gigantic Whitman’s Sampler is not difficult to do – from the sweet crème centers to the nuts.
Could there be more fascinating stories to discover? Can a gecko save you money on insurance? Could the Dos Equis man really look that good in person? Life’s major questions!
First, I looked at my own Friend List. Definitely some interesting eccentrics there. One of the wildest avatar name stories is, of course, my Homeling pal, GlowingMickeyVan. To get at the reasoning behind that name you have to know the background story: Van is the family vehicle parked in the driveway, witness to many joyous family outings. When it was purchased, the car salesman congratulated the family on their astute selection of a mini-van.
“No!” They recoiled in horror. “This cannot be a Minnie van! We would have to put a large red and white polka dot bow on the roof. This is a Mickey van. Mickey rules!” And the bemused salesman walked away, nodding his head and counting his commission.
But, ‘glowing’, you ask? Well, that’s where the story gets even more interesting. They decided to paint the van with a special compound that does special things to the longevity of the vehicle…and also makes it glow. I could tell you the entire story about that paint but then I would have to kill you.
It still left me with the quandary: how do I greet this friend? Note that Homelings do not say “Hi.” Hi means Mother Ship which is obviously high above Home, circling in orbit — or the condition of some of the more colorful Homelings — but it is never used socially. Homelings believe in meet and greet: “Greetings, Glowing…uh … right…”. So do you call him Glow? GMV? Van? Mickey? Or do you take the coward’s way out (a ruse I am highly familiar with) and just say, “Greetings!” period. Full stop.
Then I met backarch. She looked normal – no scoliosis in full sway that I could see. So why that name?
Ask a question and then be blown away by an answer: she has been playing rpgs since the earliest days of Ultima and Zork and Lord British and the first Final Fantasy and…after two hours of reminiscing about the good old days, when girl gamers were as rare as a virgin at an open casting call, we got to the story behind the name:
She usually plays as an archer! And, when you draw the bowstring, your back arches! So her gamer name in every rpg has been backarch! Our conversation attracted a male we called ‘Zippy‘ (no real avatar name revealed to protect the illiterate) who eavesdropped shamelessly. Then, when we deigned to allow him to comment, he accused us of lying! It was beyond his comfort zone that two women, both older than his own mother, would be in Home discussing the earliest days of gaming. What is it with these kids who think that the PS3 sprung forth, fully-formed like Venus on the half-shell, just in time for their generation to lay claim to all gaming?
Next wild encounter, same evening, was Phreakishly Green.
And if you believe this story, let me know. As you can see in his picture, he is wearing clothing trimmed in green. “Ah-ha”, I surmised, “An Irish lad preparing for St. Patrick’s Day! Or taunting the black and tan! Or using that Gaelic charm to wow the ladies.” All wrong — at least according to the tale he spun: the green reference is a result of a very green and oddly shaped fingernail which he has had since early childhood. Right: it was the result of an experiment gone wrong.
According to Phreak, it happened when doctors attempted a “nail transplant procedure” used for children ages 3 to 7 years of age which included “transplanting a toenail to the hand to replace a fingernail after an accident severed and destroyed the original nail”. So now he hobbles about on 9 toes, forever commemorating the youthful misadventure that brought about the gangrenous appendage dangling from his wrist at this time by immortalizing it in his avatar name.
And if I believe that, there’s also the story about the ‘little people’ and rainbows and pots of ….ah, forget about it.
Another interesting sight was the avatar dressed as the monocle-wearing Parker Bros. symbol on the cover of a Monopoly game box. The avatar name, “EyesBleed/NoSleep” is self-explanatory to any die-hard PS3 gamer and Home aficionado. We forfeited sleep, family meals, and body hygiene months ago when we found Home so the bloodshot eyes phenomena is nothing new.
But for a young man in his thirties to deliberately dress like a board game character that was old when I was still a pup (back in the 1940’s) was interesting. And his friends who were hovering in attendance were also interesting. They kept disappearing into wardrobes and re-emerging in a wide array of avatars and costumes, rather like a horde of demented shape-shifters in a J. Michael Straczynski script.
What makes it particularly interesting: this not a costume sold in Costumes! It took him hours of searching and shopping and gaming and inquiring in Home to find each piece from the top hat to the cane (only place I could find that was in the Where’s Waldo costume so that was one heck of a search), the monocle (I think that is a Midway game prize), the facial hair, and those absolutely perfect shoes.
Some people live their life in Home in default clothes and some people LIVE their life in Home in the most delicious role-play fantasies with clothes, props, and appreciative friends! He also did a few quick changes in wardrobe and each avatar he popped back with was astounding. This man takes amazing his friends quite seriously indeed.
Some of the Avatars With Attitude take the attitude all the way into lifestyle! One of my most fascinating personal friends in Home is Anubus_the_Great.
Anytime I get an invitation from him, it reminds me of the Steppenwolf song lyrics, “come with me little girl, on a magic carpet ride”. He is the grand-daddy of glitchers, going back to the beginnings of closed beta days. We have floated on magic carpet rides and other gravity-defying structures over almost every personal space in Home. The views that he reveals are of a Home as an enigma, a mysterious place of legends and myths, a landscape that puts Oz to shame.
And the man is also an enigma. In his own words, “I don’t have a degree in Egyptology but I love to learn and be about it. I and many other humans feel like that – they are connected to our destinies in some way. It’s almost like the hold the key to our future as well as the Mayans, the Hopi and many other tribes from ancient history.
I am interested, and, in a way, involved with it all. We are what we think most. What have you been thinking about lately?”
Another fascinating Avatar With Attitude is SealWyf, right here on the HomeStation team. She is so intelligent it is almost impossible to resist the temptation to sit at her feet and just keep asking questions.
“I have been the Sealwyf since high school when I discovered Joan Baez’s song, ‘The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry,'” she tells me. “I fell in love with the myths of selkies, which are seal shape-shifters. Sealwyf was my concoction of pseudo Old English for seal woman. Since nobody else seem to have come up with that name, it makes me easy to find on the internet. I am still obsessed with selkies and marine mammals. I even maintain a separate Facebook account for my fictional uncle, a selkie walrus.”
Another Homeling friend, AutumnSpice37, has a rationale for her avatar name choice that I am sure many can relate to: “May favorite season is Autumn, and Spice because I made this screen name at that time when I liked a Spice Girls song very much. The 37 is because that was my age at the time.” No matter how prosaic the reason, the name is unusual and lovely – like the lady herself.
Jujusuka7: “I have been a student and teacher of Asian martial arts since 1963. ‘Jujusu-ka’ means, in the Japanese language, ‘one who studies Jujutsu’. The number 7
indicates the rank I attained, 7th Dan (or Shichi-Dan), Black Belt, 7th degree. This rank which I received in 2001 from the Founder of my ‘style’, the late Dr. Moses Powell, after 30 years of study with him indicates a senior master of his methodology.
“While humbled, I am at the same time very proud of my accomplishment. As you know, most people whom I encounter in PS Home simply refer to me as “Juju”. I like that, too. It is certainly easier to say and type than “Jujusuka”.
Besides, in some certain cultural circles, JuJu refers to a kind of black magic. That works for me, too!”
(Consider, for a moment: this individual has been studying martial arts for more than three decades. This means that he was a trained killer before most of Home’s population was ever born — in some cases, before the parents of Home’s population were even born.)
Now for another friend I can really identify with: Macatac7. 
As you can see, she does not look like a Mack Truck. Nor does she look like she lives on a steady diet of McDonald’s. So where on Earth did that name come from?
“Although my Id is Macatac7, not many people ask me about that name. I know that many assume that it refers to a McDonalds burger craving, but it does not. The attack is not for food but for Apple Macintosh computers. I fell in love with Macintosh computers from the day they were introduced. Yes, I did see the “1984” famous advertisement for the Mac when it was launched. I am an artist and at the time the possibilities for the Mac and creating art was far ahead of any other computer.
Seven is my luck number and Macatac was already taken as an avatar name. Having never been part of a virtual community before, I wasn’t thinking about creating an ID that would lend itself to being a good name in which to be called. If I was to create an ID now, I think that I would have in mind that people are going to call me by my ID name or a part of it. On first meeting people, may will call me Mac – which is OK – but sounds a bit too masculine for me. A very good friend of mine whom I met soon after coming to Home called my ‘Maca’ from the start. I instantly fell in love with that name is it is the name I have been called by ever since.
And, finally, one of the most interesting people in Home: CountEdmondDante. For the more educated residents in Home, the name is instantly recognized as the Count of Monte Cristo, hero of the famous novel by Alexandre Dumas of a man wrongfully imprisoned who finally escapes from the Chateau d’If to rebuild a life that had been shattered by unkind fate. “Ok,” you say, “there are plenty of avatars in Home who have assumed the names of fictional heroes. What makes this guy so special?” What makes Ed special is the parallel between the fictional character and his own life.
In his case, however, the prison was his own mind. Edmund is a schizophrenic. In a world where psychosis is still regarded as a ‘mental’ illness instead of a physical illness that can be treated and controlled with medications – similar to other chronic conditions like diabetes, asthma, and migraines, life can be miserable for the victim of that illness. The stigma of “crazy” lingers even after the medications have erased the symptoms that had caused the bizarre behavior. Living in that same world with the friends, relatives, school buddies, neighbors, and others who ‘knew you when’ is a daunting prospect – especially for someone who is having to completely reorient his life to a new-found reality.
So, he came to Home. Expecting nothing. Asking for nothing. And discovered that, to his amazement, everyone who meets him likes him. No one is making judgments based on society’s bias against anyone who has suffered from psychosis. No one is watching his closely for any slip in behavior. He can be himself. A self he is still discovering.
Now he is extremely popular, active in Team RHO, surrounded by friends, and — from what I have observed — attracting the attention of young ladies in Home. I am encouraging him to develop an new-found talent in writing fiction – a skill he had no idea he possessed. He has a lot to share in Home – and in the world.
If you know someone who has an unusual or interesting screen name in Home, let me know! HomeStation is always on the lookout for more avatars with attitude.
February 12th, 2011 by keara22hi | 17 comments
Keara is also known in Home as DarthGranny. She is a wicked little old lady with a wild sense of humor.
The monopoly guys name is rich uncle pennybags.Im constantly amazed at what ppl can come up with given time and some materials,another good example of human ingenuity and another great article.
awww,i kinda miss zippy. 8( oooo, EXCELLENT article, hun. just for the record. if it was a female wizard, she always became cheezwiz, and if i was FORCED to be a guy, then it was always major clown. WOO HOO!! lil mouse
Well. I’m honored to be amoungst such a brilliant group of individuals. Thanks for the love Darth G!!! I owe you a free embalming session!! xD …but I’m gonna have to charge tax for the typo on my name!! Lol! No worries.. I look forward to seeing you on home. All of you actually. Let’s spread truth one avatar at a time.
I love the articles here at Home Station Magazine. Keep up the good work.
Joanna
Agreed.
Thank you Keara your a sweety…nice article girl
Fun read! Well written
LOL Auntie! (ok if I call you that, unless you want to be my home tutu?)
I have had my name forever, came from my mother in law actually. She told my husband I was Walking Talking Poison….cuz I wasnt a catholic lol!!! Been using Poison in some form or other ever since. My email is actually WalkingTalkingPoison lol.
I think I read somewhere that you play poker. Add me if you do, I have yet to get a full poker table!
Ah… I knew there was a reason you hadn’t beleived my tale. It was slightly misconstrued.
The PhreakishlyGreen moniker is about my finger NAIL, not my finger as a whole.
http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/11/30/441795/Picture%207.jpg
This is the green nail in question. I still have all my fingers and toes, but only 19 cumulative nails. The toe that they removed the nail from to put on my finger, has no nail at all… and by the end of next year, even the green nail may be gone.
If you would like a picture of the nail-less toe as well, I will be more than happy to provide :p
OMG! Please! I just ate lunch!!!
hey, you said you were a non-believer :p
Great article as always Keara. My name is an easy one. It represents a piece of my real name and also the year I was born. Also the fact that I have lived in the “burbs” most of my life. I am glad that we are having fun with this magazine as well as being a more serious publication. As you know, several of those you mentioned are friends of mine as well, and great people all.
What a fun article Keara! You must have started something as I was asked in a Homeling meeting last night where my name originated from. Now I know why!!
Keep up the fantastic work, I very much enjoy reading HSM
Greetings all:
Great article Burbie! Thats an interesting story about CountEdmontDante. I would never have guessed. With a son who has a mental illness,(many of those posting here know him) I can understand that situation all too well.
As far as me, actually the van is reflective vinyl, and NO, its not illegal. In reality it’s one of the safest vehicles you can drive, because no one can say they didn’t see it!!! I’m an advocate for all things unusual. Pictures can be seen on Disney forums (We spend a good bit of time @ Walt Disney World) and on a couple other sites with a couple google searches. I’ve driven lots of vehicles in my time, and none were normal. We’re planning a new Mickey Mouse van, but it will be a bit bigger to fit the business and family needs. We’re lookin at Sprinters now! It will also be a LOT more creative and more reflective than the current one.
Farewell (bows)
Very enjoyable read. It was very interesting to hear the stories of the people behind the IDs. On occasion, I like to guess what someone’s ID references. Most of the time I am wrong, but it always makes for an interesting conversation and a way to learn more about the person behind the avatar. Thank you again for the great site and online magazine.__
I remember being intervied for this waaaay back