 |
|||
Welcome |  |
Yeah. When Mentor started thing he did was get himself a Alex even got himself a |
| Me? I have a third floor walk-up. | ||
| Storytime with Ken | ||
Why do I use the handle "KennX"?
I don't know if you ask yourselves that. Actually, I'd be surprised if too many of you care. But there are several stories that go into explaining it, and this way I have a site I can send people too when they ask.
Point one: My given name is Kenneth; Kenneth Hallaron. I used the diminutive form "Kenny" until I was ten or eleven, but after that I decided I'd prefer "Ken" and asked people to adjust. People I've met since, obviously, didn't have to change. Today only a handful of relatives (mostly aunts and uncles or the ones who live far away) and my landlord (who I met at school/church when I was 10) still call me Kenny, but to most people I'm Ken.
There was a video dance at my alma mater the year after I graduated college. I was still coming around and visiting my friends. It was often enough that the dorm president told my former roommate that I should get a dorm t-shirt. Anyway, this girl on the social board asked the aforementioned ex-roommate to help with setting up the dance. (Why did she ask him? Hint: they've been married seven years now.) It was also a weekend I was visiting.
So me, Eric (another friend at school), and Neil (a friend from home) decided to help Doug help Karen out. We pretty much WERE the set-up crew. But it was somebody else from Social Board who was doing the bulletin board the following week. There was a note about the dance and it ended "... and special thanks to Doug Zeitlin, Eric Mc Donald and Ken". He didn't know my last name. He didn't ask anybody my last name. (His name was Peter Gibson, BTW, and he forgot poor Neil altogether.)
EVERYONE IN UNISON: And he forgot poor Neil.
(Yes, these are real names. Since there's a link to www.RCUHero.net elsewhere on the site, and our names are all over it, there's no real point in trying to be anonymous.)
Now, the fact is, our circle of friends was tight and fairly famous (infamous?) around campus, so from context people knew it was me. But this started a joke that I didn't need my last name any more "like Madonna, Cher, or the Pope." So I joked I was going to change my name to "Kenn" so people could still call me "Ken" for short.
(People actually have to work to make it clear they are saying "Kenn" not "Ken". The 'n' sound gets extended.)
I would like to think I was influenced by my then-recently-departed first cousin-once-removed, Lenn. I really liked Lenn. He was the first relative of mine (outside of my parents and siblings) who really talked to me as a person instead of a relative. He explained all of that first, second, third cousin; once-, twice-, thrice-removed stuff. He took the time to explain to me who was being talked about, instead of assuming that just because I was in the family I knew who everyone was. When I was twelve or thirteen it really meant a lot to me.
Anyway, the "Kenn or Ken" joke never really went away, in that circle of friends, and since I still hang around with them... And then there is my friend Jenn. I spent several years trying to be more than friends with her, but it never quite took. But for a long time we hung out together an awful lot. Now "Jennifer" was one of the really popular baby names in the early-mid 1970s. And, frankly, the commonness of her name irked my friend who decided (independently of me) to use the diminutive form "Jenn" instead of "Jen" or "Jenny". And because of my name... Well, one of my favourite actresses put it best.
It was at Visions'96 or '97, in Chicago. Jenn and I were in line, together, to get the autograph of Sarah Sutton (the actress who played "Nyssa" in the early 1980's on "Doctor Who"). Ms. Sutton, of course, was asking "and who do I make this out too?" And she got "Jenn-with-two-Ns" and "Kenn-with-two-Ns" from us. She commented that we sounded like a cartoon duo. We liked that comment.
So that's the whole Kenn or Ken thing came from. Then came the CLAMP Bistro. CLAMP is the name of a specific group of writers and artists who work together on several manga projects. (I think "studio" might be the right term.) The CLAMP Bistro is a mailing list, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/clamp_bistro/, dedicated to fans of the works that this studio produced. There can be a LOT of virtual role-playing there, and one of the things that happened is that CLAMP used several characters from various series in their ongoing epic "X" (AKA "X/1999"). This resulted in having to know if the Seishiro we were talking to was SeishiroTB (from "Tokyo Babylon") or SeishiroX (from "X"). Then, one day I invented *MY* doppelganger "KennX".
(In theory, as "X" is still running, CLAMP could include me in an "X" story. Not remotely likely, but theoretically possible.)
I even gave "him" a separate e-mail address since AOL gives seven screen names per account. Now, sadly, the Bistro is USUALLY quiet. So that account wasn't getting much use. And then I picked up the game Freedom Force. And I decided to get active with that fan community. Because of Energy-X, and because I already had the e-mail account active, recycling the KennX name was a natural choice.
I have no short stories... ^_^ And this is only my personal name. There is another whole story about my last name and why it's "Hallaron" with an "-aron" instead of "-oran", rife with political and religous intrigue. I'll save that one for later.
| HOME | MARVEL FAMILY | RCU |
| EPIDERMIS | NETTING | MORE NETTING |
| ARMOURY | SAUSAGES | Why "KennX"? |