The Sunday Salon: A Trick for Online Handles and Usernames

As a disturbingly intense and pretentious preteen during the absolute thick of the Wombat Years, I took my online usernames very seriously. My Neopets username had to communicate how mature and serious I was to everyone who clapped eyes on it. All who enjoyed Flash games and feeding virtual pets would know of my deep, poetic soul! But it communicated only my failed Goth status. (So close and yet so far, young Clare, so close and yet…)

It’s hard to come up with a good username, especially if it’s going to be your online handle across multiple platforms. I spent a lot of time in my first year biology class brainstorming the Literary Omnivore. There are username generators out there, but I think the best names come out of yourself. Examining your own interests, for example, or even just pulling things that are personal but assigned, like your astrological symbol or your birthstone. Or your own name!

One trick that I’ve been recommending to people is to make anagrams of their names to give them a pool of interesting words to get the juices flowing. For instance, “Cram Credible” sounds like a good name for a food blog spin-off… if I hadn’t already picked out The Omnivorous Literate. (In my head, obviously, since I am, once again, kitchenless.) My favorite anagram generator comes from Wordsmith.org, but there are plenty others. Sticking favorite book titles in the anagram generator is also an idea—”Ed Noels Forthright” sounds like a charming BBC interview program. (Nils points for what the original was.)

I graduated from the University of Denver Publishing Institute on Friday. It’s been an exhausting, intense, and wonderful month, compounded by the fact that I am staying in Denver for work. I’m going to be shady about that until the job actually starts, because the older I get, the more superstitious I get, but I’m happy. I’m really happy. I’ll be happier when I have a place to live, though…

This week’s links:

• Given DC’s attempts to set up a Justice League movie, I think we should all look back at Bruce Wayne, the young Batman show that never was. In an alternate universe, season four of Bruce Wayne saw Bruce earn his degree in MY PARENTS ARE DEAD! and graduate to being Batman, resulting in a Batman movie and then a Justice League movie. You have to seed these things, DC.
• The director of The Lord of the Rings‘ fanfilm prequel Born of Hope has started a Kickstarter to fund her next project, a fantasy webseries featuring a female lead. This combines two things that I love: fantasy and ladies.
• Gavia Baker-Whitelaw said it when she said that Peter Capaldi is the “least worst option” for the new Doctor—i.e., if the role must be given to a straight white man, this is pretty good.
  • Racialicious has more.
  • No, Moffat, asking one black actor if he wants to play the Doctor and giving up after that doesn’t count as trying.
• Renay alerted me to the fact that Lucille Ball is the reason Star Trek exists. That’s so cool!
• The music video for Mumford and Sons’ “Hopeless Wanderer” features Jason Bateman, Ed Helms, Jason Sudeikis, and my beloved Will Forte making good-natured fun of the band’s aesthetic, banjos, and intensity. (There is drinking of tears.)
• I really like this zenhabits post about having a flexible mind, because it reminds me that I cannot control the actions and reactions of others. I am the only variable I can completely control. I find this very comforting.
• I completely missed #twittersilence, due to my program sucking up my time. I understand the intention and respect it, but I think loud voices are better used to speak out against such things. Also, Caitlin Moran spearheaded it, and I don’t care for her.
• A Skype chat with my awesome friend Natalya reminded me that this amazing bit from Drew Carey’s Improv-a-Ganza exists.  It breaks every improv rule, according to her, but Jeff Davis and Chip Esten have such a good relationship that it works. It’s magnificent.
• tumblr user bloggish reminds us that pink is how our brains see infrared and ultraviolet. This is probably why I’m so entranced by my neon pink nail polish, because I can barely conceive of it.
• Nouvelle Vague is a French band that covers eighties new wave and punk rock songs in a very beachy sixties lounge style. You may think this sounds like that time Glee covered “Dancing With Myself,” and that’s because Glee steals things. Here’s them covering “Ever Fallen in Love,” my favorite of their songs.
• Boycotting the Russian Olympics because Russia just declared war on homosexuals is a great idea! Christopher Bird outlines some much more specific practices in order to hit the sponsors where it hurts to get the point across.
• The Bodleian Library at Oxford is running an exhibit called “Magical Books: From the Middle ages to Middle-earth.” For all of us who can’t go see it, John Garth at Oxford Today has an article about it.
• Alexis Coe at the Awl interviews Deborah Yaffe about Austen fandom and her new book, Among the Janeites.
• LEGO builder -infomaniac- built a stupidly gorgeous LEGO model of Edoras. This is the closest I’ll get to my Éowyn versus the Witch-king set for a good long while. (Although I would have recommended this hair piece in blonde.)

This week’s acquisitions:

Purchased: None
Added: Among the Janeites by Deborah Yaffe (via the Awl)

How did you come up with your online handle or your blog title? Alternatively, what’s the best anagram for your name?