Identity: Self-image

First an announcement: I think that Xanga now allows 8 blogrings instead of 4. Well, Zettonv has started a blogring for the man who was my favorite read. If you have the time, room and inclination, join SAMMY STORM ROCKS!. There's also one for me started by simply_marie, that crazy girl...

Xanga names

M

ost of us have names that were given to us without any consultation at all--duh. And we have lived with this as our signifier. My name is that of a Danish King and was the name of the priest that married my parents: Leopold. Okay, don't laugh too hard. You can imagine what I had to go through as a kid. Back in the 60s and 70s, all my classmates had names like David, Steven, Mike, Dennis, Paul. Were these guys my friends? Not really. With a name like Leopold, I was teased and mocked. Do you think its a coincidence that I had friends named Meldon, Kim and Robin--yes these were all males.

So when people tell me that you have to be yourself, I know for a fact that in many ways, I became who others made me to be. So identity and self are in large part a construct of different influences brought about by the society in which we find ourselves, as many commented in yesterdays post. I was really moved by some of the comments.

Now it strikes me that with the Internet in general and Xanga in particular, we all have the opportunity to come up with a name that we ourselves believe to be a reflection of our true selves--or at least what we wanna be. I have a few readers who have the most interesting handles. I remember thinking that No1watching was the name of a Chinese chick who thought she was pretty hot stuff--#1 is watching you--but I found out later that it was just the opposite: "No one is watching." Oh, how embarrassing for me! Sekura81 is supposed to mean Cherry blossom (jp. sakura) but I'm not sure how the misspelling came about. Maybe I missed it in her explanation, and I'm just to lazy to go back and search for it. gokingsgo is Vlade's blog, so it makes sense he would be rooting for the team he's on. Zettonv is the name of some evil character in a Japanese action series... I think. And ddsb2000 wrote about his name once, and it was about being at the beach and seeing or doing something "dirty" which is one of the Ds in ddsb... but I forget what the rest was exactly... Geez, I claim to read everyone's blog, which I do, honest. but I dont' remember a damn thing! Sorry guys.

Some other names, I just guess: Detachable? Perhaps she detached herself from the Lion Island and moved herself over to London. Bane_Vixen? A vixen who is the bane of all those around her? Hattori_Hanzo? Isn't he a legendary ninja? Why use that handle? Maybe he's slick and fast... blu_jazz? A chick who likes blues and jazz, or bluesy jazz, or she's just blue and jazzy? Hehehehe. Asnhoopla? Wait, an Asian around whom there is a lot of hoopla, right? wildkat03? Don't wanna guess if she's lusting after a teacher... hehehehehe. Iluvpajun? Is pajun something to eat? hahahah! Other names leave me in the dust. I can't guess the likes of silvermyst_ashke or Hydralisk96 or imahima (which sorta means "I'm bored now" but this young girl I know is always so energetic)...

Someone once asked me: Why Onigiriman? For those of you unfamiliar with Japanese cuisine, Onigiri means "riceball", a ball of rice usually with somthing in the middle, taken on outings or to work for lunch because it's easy to carry around; sorta the J version of a sandwich. My response: Once--and maybe even now--I was a little overweight. Once, I had dubbed a tape for a friend, but instead of putting my name on it, I decided to draw a caricature of myself and came up with Onigiriman: I saw myself as a pudgy trianglular blob of rice wrapped in seaweed. The sunglasses are for my bad eyes. the ponytail for my long hippie hair, and the lack of arms and legs are indicative of my lazy, unmoving, unmotivated, procrastinating self... But I'm delicious to eat. Mmmmm. Anyone wanna take a bite? Okay, okay, too gross. hehehehe...

Oh yeah, not to be anal, but please refer to me only as Onigiriman. I don't need a "sensei" or "-san", unless you really want to. Hehehehhe. But I do insist on the suffix "-man". Not that I want to be gender specific, but because there is another Xangan called Onigiri--I wonder what's her story? Is she a rice ball too? Come to think of it, maybe we should start a rice ball blogring.

Anyway, that's my story. What's yours?