How did you come up with your username? Why did you choose it?

[aletheos]

Aletheos, from the greek word for truth αλήθεια(alítheia), changed to have an os‒sounding suffix to turn it into a masculine name(at least that's how I thought it worked at the time I came up with it, years ago. I don't actually know greek).

Why? It represents my ideal self, a truth-seeker and truth-speaker. The person I would like to be.

[AY38910]

It came from General Instrument's iconic soundchip, the AY. Dad had an old ZXS 128K in the attic, which used this chip. He had it since 1986 (I think). I loved making music on that thing, playing classic games...it was also what introduced me to programming. I would often sneak into the attic, plug it into an old portable TV and mess around.

Unfortunately the motherboard broke in many pieces not too long ago, turning the computer into a nice paperweight...

I chose this username as a tribute to it, because that thing was what started it all.

[zeroxmachine]

zerox machine is a lyric from my fave person adam ant's early single zerox ant was inspired by bowie calling himself a human xerox machine & i think the descriptor resonates a bit with me too; not in a plagarism sort of way as the song entails but in the way that everything i create and want to create is a mixture of things that i love.... song's embedded below!

[mychemicalvyvanse]

pun i came up with because i love MCR and i'm on ADHD medication lmao

both are recent developments actually! i didn't get into MCR as a teen because... honestly ppl were really awful to MCR fans online Back In The Day and i was scared of getting made fun of. but CRINGE IS DEAD and i think in my 20s i stopped taking myself so seriously, so i think i was more open to embracing the kind of earnest Angst and Drama as a way of getting thru hard times. in 2019 i went through a really awful breakup with someone who i really bonded with over shared music taste, so every band i liked reminded me of our relationship - and i think i started listening to MCR a lot around that time because that was familiar music that my ex didn't like  also started getting close w my best friend around that time and we kinda bonded over famous last words being our fav song. and then one thing led to another, i went as revenge era gerard for halloween 2019, and then THAT DAY they announced the reunion. ... and then i finally saw them on the reunion tour in 2022 and i cried soooo fucking hard 

and then like many ppl, i got access to ADHD assessment and treatment as telehealth got big and as ppl were starting to sink into the whole 'wow working/completing school from home is doing a number on my ability to focus' thing. i'd been trying to get support for it for years and the doctors in my area didn't believe me, but then i finally moved to a city where the healthcare providers are generally..a bit more progressive than the ones in my hometown. so anyway now i can follow my own train of thought, i'm maybe slightly better at regulating my emotions and coping with distress, and i can prioritize sensory input well enough to uhhh understand how roads work. so that's pretty neato!   

[patchworkgirl]

had many new beginnings in life. am technically covered in patches and stitches. the nickname somehow works well for my case. 

[CosmicRot]

Well, I like Space... I like Zombies... and CosmicRot sounds kind of like Cosmonaut :p
also I really like going by Rot! I think it's fun. 

[haumeaGeth]

Ours is a shortened version of our system tag, Haumea Geth Collective. It also happens to look rather Homestucky, especially when shortened further to HG, which is pleasing to me-

'Haumea' because a number of us like using space and technology as comparisons to help conceptualize how our system, brain, and body functions (and our husband suggested 'Haumea' because it sounds pretty), and 'Geth' because we've always really related to Legion and the Geth in Mass Effect, even before we were made aware of our plurality.