ot a particularly good story, but a story nonetheless... A long time ago, I was in high school. And all my friends at the time had nicknames. Except me. It is difficult to rhyme my name (Karen) with something. Until one day, my friend Ana-Banana said something about this guy in our class named Mike Fejeran (complete dork she liked). Then she said my name and realized that they rhymed. So I was to get married to Mike to take his last name so that my name could rhyme. Fejeran is pronounced feh-hair-en.

So when I got my UCSC email account and was told to choose a login, I didn't want my real name because I really don't like it so I chose "fejeran" because I could think of nothing else. So I started geeking on ICB with "fejeran" as my nickname. Ultimately, people shortened it to "fej" and pronounced it "fedge." So it stuck. And that's the name I am known by, by geeks. Several geeks call me this to my face, most often if there is another Karen in the room.

I haven't used it as an account name but I'm considering making the transition. My steady account names have been "salient" which I randomly chose because I like what it means and how it sounds and what it looks like spelled.

That's the short and long of it! :)

-fej