still can't decide whether I was lucky to have been given a real name so suitable as a login or whether this is an unlucky fact.

The selection of "marina" was obvious. I was a brand new freshperson at UCSC, I'd heard vaguely of e-mail from some of my friends at other UC schools, and when I discovered I could have such access myself, for FREE, I figured it would be a great way to keep in touch. Nora Jones and I headed to the Communications building and filled out the necessary forms. Knowing nothing of the importance of the selection of a login, she remained "Nora" and I "Marina."

Nora found many frustrations at UCSC, including the slow tediousness of the adm3a terminals in the Crown Stat Lab. In the Spring, Nora left UCSC for Riverside.

By Spring, I was heavily involved in the geek community and was a bit ashamed of my rather pathetic login. Everyone else had a first and last name: Dan God, Dan Crisper, Irene Pax, John Spcecdt... I was Marina Marina. Dull.

I considered changing my login. A simple form to file and exchange of money. It would be well worth the cost to have a "real" login.

Gregory? I loved the little guy when I discovered the comic. Sapo? My herpetological interests were already developing and sapo, the Spanish word for toad, is both obscure and humble. (Oddly enough, I have more recently been called "bufo," the genus name of many toads, due to the popularily of _Bufo marinus_ as a study animal by physiologists in our department.)

Now fully aware of the grave importance of such a choice, I could never decide on just the right alternative. I remained Marina in my indecision.

One day, I made the final breakthrough. I developed a real login name. I realized that Marina might be my name, given at the time of my birth, but that marina was a word all on its own, not requiring myself to give it life.

307 /u/marina> webster marina
ma.ri.na \m*-'re--n*\ n
[It & Sp, seashore, fr. fem. of marino, adj. marine, fr. L marinus] : a dock or basin providing secure moorings for motorboats and yachts and often offering supply, repair, and other facilities

My bookshelf version of Webster also gives Marina as a town in Western California with a population of 20,647.

Odd, as I have had my photo taken next to that city limit sign. (In fact, that was the first place I became interested in hang gliding, a hobby I was years later to pursue.) There are signs for me all over coastal regions, usually with a big arrow pointing the way.

At last I had found a login that attested to my love for the ocean, was easy to work into aliases, and could easily have been entirely made up!

Once I found that I could be marina, Just Another Harbor, a whole new geek persona opened to me. So, I might still be marina Marina, but so what if my name is my login?

This is a rather long story for a login which is essentially my name, but it took me a long time to reach a sense of satisfaction about the whole thing.