n the fall of 1987, I started at UCSC, and heard about ucscb, and realized that I *had* to go get an account. So, I went down to the communications building, they gave me an application, and on it, they asked for a seven character login name. I thought about it for a while, but most of the ideas I had seemed really dumb.

I almost decided to come back later, after I'd thought of something cool. However, I then thought of a contraction of my name, "bobeson" (from Bob Ellefson), and liked it. Mostly I think of it as akin to "Bobby-san," like the Japanese honorific postfix applied to my childhood name, but since it also works as a contraction of my real name, I thought it had *just* enough double-meaning-coolness to elevate it above the other lame ideas I'd had, and I went with it.

Ever since, almost every account I've ever had has used that login name - it's never been taken by anybody else. The only exception was the time I returned to UCSC after having been gone for a few years, and CATS told me I couldn't have "bobeson" because it was in use - apprently they didn't believe me when I told them that was my old account. So instead, I had to use "bobesan" for the rest of my time at UCSC, at least on the CATS machines. Now I have bobeson.com, and I suppose I'll use it for the rest of my life.

It may come as no suprise that I can be reached via bobeson@bobeson.com