Why are you called Larry, Adam?
I often get asked "Why the hell is your user name Larry when your actual name is Adam?". Normally I mumble something about it being a character from a comic book I collected when I was a kid, but this always leaves me a little unsatisfied as there are so many other miscellaneous pieces to the story. so here, for the first time, is the unabridged, uncensored, "honest to god", truth.
Long long ago in a galaxy far far away ...
I collected a comic book called "Badger" (this URL is yet an other tribute to the fact that you really can find anything on the net). Badger was a new kind of superhero, a Vietnam vet with multiple personalities (seven in total) and who could talk to animals. He was also an expert in several martial arts and was employed by, and lives with, a slightly insane celtic druid called Ham who uses his ancient magical powers to play the stock market.
Badger's main purpose in life was to was to fight for justice by:
- Beating up or killing anyone who was mean to animals.
- Killing demons and various other nasties that accidentally get summoned by Ham or that Ham needs removed from the scene to gain monetary or political advantage.
Beating up those bastards in McDonalds (actually it wasn't McDonalds it was an unspecified fast food restaurant) who always ask if you want frys with that, but never ask if you want ketchup.
- Trying to appease the various authorities that would really rather see him locked up permanently (or dead).
- Beating up meter maids.
- Wrestle with his own psychosis.
Badger had an abusive stepfather called Larry who was his emotional nemesis, the "root of all evil" in the series and of course made an occasional appearance. Now back to the point ... when I first got into computers a friend of a friend, Andrew Stephen, was running a bullentin board called Milliway's. Milliway's was the only board in town which allowed handles and by far the coolest one in town. The first time I logged in and had to choose a handle I chose Larry for no particularly good reason. As a useless piece of trivia I also had a handle called 655321. I'll be impressed if you remember where that came from though you can find out on the net in less then 30 seconds if you're good :).
Anyway, I managed to make a minor reputation for myself on Milliway's with the name Larry and got slightly attached to it. When EarthLight came along and I needed to create an account for myself it seemed to make sense to create one called "Larry". These days it's so ingrained in my subconscious that typing anything else at the login prompt (like adam or ashand) just pisses me off and I avoid it if at all possible.