> My nickname started out as an attempt to distinguish myself in a crowded community - for the first 3 years of my 'internet life', I was known just by my real name, Andrea. When I changed the focus of my website slightly, making it part of a huge community, I found a lot of people with my name out there. So I decided henceforth to go by 'Sosiqui' as a distinguishing thing. Yup.

It's sorta the same thing with me. My first hangout on the internet was a doll collecting board, where I posted as 'Julia in WA' (a lot of the other posters listed their names that way, you see). After a while, it got sort of dull (and I recall there was another Julia and several Julies), so I changed my nickname to my current Quartz.

> Interestingly, this led a year later to the closest I've ever come to an identity crisis between the external Andrea-me and what I'd come to call the internal Sosiqui-me... but that's a long story, and doesn't apply anymore. I think it's safe to say, though, that I identify very strongly with the Sosiqui nickname. I almost think of myself as Andrea AND Sosiqui, using both names interchangably to refer to myself in my mind. But that's getting into the Realm of Much Complicatedness.

And that is *exactly* the same with me. Sometimes even now I identify more with my internet name than my real name, but that's my own problem.

> Anyway, I love my nickname and I don't think I'll ever change it, except to return to my real name (if I chose to do so).
>
> Sosi"if only people could pronounce it right ;)"qui

I remember when I first arrived at RinkWorks I considered changing my name, but now I'm so used to Quartz I couldn't possibly think of changing it. Besides, neither my e-mail friends or anyone here would get used to it.

Qua "Oh, yeah, I forgot about Liz's question in the first place. Ahem - I like Liz best" rtz