Far too often, when I am introduced to someone as Gabriel, I immediately become Gabe. If I wanted to be called Gabe, I would have told you that was my name in the first place.
I had to struggle to switch from thinking of you as your former online name to your actual real name, because I am bad about that sort of thing-- I stick to the name I am told first with a horrible tenacity and even if offered some other form of address, find it almost impossible to change, because I have a hard time remembering names in the first place, and whatever I've managed to imprint on my brain is more or less there to stay. I make the effort, of course, if I'm wrong, but as far as your real name and your common nickname are concerned, I don't think I can change again, so I've never asked.
This culture's butchery of names is something I never seem to grow accustomed to, and largely why I am giving my flesh an emotionally neutral un-fuck-up-able first name to spare myself further stress from customer service people trying to be chummy by giving me nicknames. If "Gabe" crawls up my arse sideways from friends, I can't imagine how much more it would make me wwant to scream from a telemarketer.
And then there is the issue of my real real name, which I hardly tell anyone, because I don't think many people can be bothered to try to pronounce it correctly, and I lack the patience.
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Date: 2006-10-02 01:56 pm (UTC)I had to struggle to switch from thinking of you as your former online name to your actual real name, because I am bad about that sort of thing-- I stick to the name I am told first with a horrible tenacity and even if offered some other form of address, find it almost impossible to change, because I have a hard time remembering names in the first place, and whatever I've managed to imprint on my brain is more or less there to stay. I make the effort, of course, if I'm wrong, but as far as your real name and your common nickname are concerned, I don't think I can change again, so I've never asked.
This culture's butchery of names is something I never seem to grow accustomed to, and largely why I am giving my flesh an emotionally neutral un-fuck-up-able first name to spare myself further stress from customer service people trying to be chummy by giving me nicknames. If "Gabe" crawls up my arse sideways from friends, I can't imagine how much more it would make me wwant to scream from a telemarketer.
And then there is the issue of my real real name, which I hardly tell anyone, because I don't think many people can be bothered to try to pronounce it correctly, and I lack the patience.