I have missed posting for 2 days now so I decided I am going to do the Steemit Name Challenge. It is quite similar to the contest we just had in Steemit Achievers, the #mynameiswhat contest. If you want to do the same, see the rules below.
Here we go with the rules:
•Tell us in a post how you chose the current Steemit username you have. The story behind it.
•Tell us your real name!
•If you could change your current username, which name would you choose and why? If you have a possible usernames list, mention it!
•Nominate 5 people for this challenge
•Use the tag #steemitnamechallenge so that the creator of the challenge can track all the posts and check them out
I'm nominating my fellow #steemitachievers to do the challenge, @g10a, @long888, @birjudanak, @lebron2016 and @junebride.
When I first learned about Steemit through @meetmysuperego, it sounded too good to be true, to be honest. She invited me on the 15th of December 2017 but I checked it around the 18th. When I got to the site, it did not have a landing page, it looked like craigslist to me, and it said beta at the top, so I was like... ohhhkay, now what?! I read a few blogs and scan @meetmysuperego's page before I finally decided to click the Sign Up option somewhere on the page.
When I signed up, I was not thinking of a new username, I thought about using the many IGN I use but then the few ones I tried were taken and I don't want to use numbers along with it because using numbers makes me feel like I am the nth person with that username in the platform. I did not really think hard and deep to come up with my username. I was watching Nickelodeon's Bubble Guppies at that time and it's a show about half human-half fish creatures. So that gave me the idea to use mermaid then the rest was all done by my subconscious. I have been dreaming of being a mermaid by day and a vampire by night. My brain still works that way, I have weird fantasies like a kid would have even at my age of 30ish.
Before I entered "mermaidvampire" in that username field, I reflected on @meetmysuperego's name. I was thinking, wow she has a nice name, it says a lot about her and the life she lives. She has explained to me why meetmysuperego was her pick. She said, she wants to show the world what are the desires of her heart. Her online identity will speak more of what she wants to do, what she wants to accomplish, someone brave, bold and daring for travels and adventures. Someone bigger, better, stronger and free. I was thinking her pick for a username was brilliant and since she introduced me to Steemit, I should have that kind of handle as well. Then I decided, okay, I'll use @mermaidvampire because I think it's as impacting as @meetmysuperego. I think it's going to be easy to recall and I think in the bloggers' world you need a name or a brand that is easy for name recall. It was decided, I finished the registration. It told me to wait a few days. I do not recall how long it took, I actually ignored Steemit after then. I finished the process when I got the email and saved the long encryption for the password because it warned me many times about it. In the online world, when the dev tells you this stuff are by design, you believe them, you don't go against it and ignore warnings because it is so dumb to do so. That's how I had the username and password and then I ignored Steemit until January 1, 2018.
On January 1, 2018, I lurked the whole day in Steemit. There were so many good posts of food, travels, celebrations and contests. It was so fun to read the blogs and SBD and Steem was quite high. My mind was reading and calculating stuff and I was amused and entertained. Then I saw posts mentioning fishes. Dolphins and Whales. I was curious why they classified levels with marine animals. I wondered if there was an orca, because I love orcas, they are the pandas of the oceans. Then I thought, wow the name I used belongs here then. It's half mythical sea creature and half mythical blood thirsty thing.That made me happy, I thought I belonged in the platform coincidentally because of the username I made for it.
If I am to dig into my brain why @mermaidvampire, there are many reasons I can come up with. The name itself represents a lot of things about me. The name means a lot to me now, 3 months into my Steemit journey. It is a reflection of my strengths and my weaknesses. My desires and my limitations. I am weird, I'm a creep and freaky and generally... again, weird! I believe each one of us is unique and to some degree have that weirdness, but for my case, I kind of had more dose of weird than most others. I don't know if it'sa good thing or a bad thing for the world but it is a gift. I am like this by design and I appreciate the universe making me like this because it's fun to be me and I have quite a life. LOL
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I want to be a mermaid because I enjoy the ocean. I love snorkeling but the thing is, I know how to float but I don't know how to swim. Sounds stupid, but yes. At a young age I was traumatized about swimming. My nanny was with me while we were in the pool, she did not want me to swim like my siblings because my dad told her to not let me do anything crazy like that. She was strict and she followed my dad's orders like he was God. She went away for a little bit and that gave me the chance to join my siblings and tried jumping into the water holding on to the side of the pool, trying to dip myself into the water, and all tricks I can think of. When she came back and saw me there dipping myself into the water and got my hair all wet, she was so furious. What she did was, she held me by the legs and dipped me. I was crying and screaming and that's the first time I realized you cannot talk intelligibly underwater. I drank, I breathe water because she dipped me for awhile. I still perfectly recall this to this day that's why I can say I was traumatized and never again did I enjoy being in the water to swim.
Mermaids have nice hair, while I always have a bad hair day. I am naturally born with a wavy hair. It looks straight when it's wet but then when it dries they go in different directions and fly away like it's repelling my very own scalp. At some point last year, I wanted to have mermaid hair. I wanted to have it rainbow colored or even just ombre but then the doctor said I can't because I should avoid ammonia from now on. Ouch!
Every little girl who has seen mermaid movies like Barbie's Mermaidia, Little Mermaid and even Jesebel, would have thought how cool it would be to explore the depths of the sea and be gorgeous. LOL. Me, I do feel this way because I LOVE FISHES! I love fishes so much, I used to be a fishkeeper. I only stopped taking them as pets because my doctor advised me not to have them anymore to avoid dirt which may cause infections. My body now is immunocompromised, dirt and anything harmful will cause me a lot of trouble. It can cost me my life even.
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I think I'm a vampire. Why? Because I go to the hospital for dialysis, 3x a week. I sit there for 4 hours per session and watch my blood cleaned by a machine. I call it blood spa. I feel like I am a vampire having my dose of blood regularly but I do it in a humane way, not by biting people's necks and killing them. I have also had 4 bags of blood transfusions already and that makes me even more vampirey. LOL
I am imagining if I were a vampire, I won't be evil. With all that power, I can actually use it to change the world in a good way. I love vampire movies and series (Except Vampire Diaries because that's too cheesy to my liking). My favorite female vampire is Sonja in the movie Underworld: The Rise of Lycans, her love story with Lucian the Lycan (werewolf) was amazing, sad but amazing. Her dad condemned her to death, I hate that she died but that made the movie even more awesome, the reason why I can't forget Sonja, that smoking hot vamp who died by sunlight. I also liked Lucian, the werewolf, if I have another pet dog, I will name him Lucian. My favorite male vampire is Mick St. John, the character in the series called, Moonlight. I had a crush on him when I was younger, I watched every episode. LOL
I love the idea of vampires because of their sensitivity, strength, immortality and their cool adaptation in the darkness. It's probably hard not to be exposed to sunlight but yeah, that's the reason I want to be mermaid by day then vampire by night, thus @mermaidvampire.
Tell us your real name
Wow, is this a trap? My name is Karen and that's all you need to know. My friends call me different names depending on the level of friendship and which group of friends they belong. Some call me Koi, Kai, Karen, Kar and many others. My cousins call me Daffy since third grade because I had this favorite hoodie that had a Daffy print and I asked mom to buy me Daffy stuff. They hated that phase in my life because they think Daffy was fugly and that black things aren't cute and kiddie.
My mom and dad wanted to name me Alexandra before I was born but then they went and watched a movie while mom was preggo of me and the antagonist was a whore named Alexandra, so they did not name me that. They got Karen from Karen Carpenter, my dad's favorite female singer.
If you could change your current username, which name would you choose and why?
Nope, I won't because I love it. I think more than 10 people has told me in the chat in Discord and in Steemit that they like it. I don't have a reason to change it, at the moment. The name just reflects how I want to be remembered always by the people I had interactions with. I want them to remember my stories and it starts with remembering my name @mermaidvampire. I want to make an impact. I am chronically ill and my life is uncertain if it's gonna last long, so I strive to be of significance, touch others and be remembered. I want to leave a story or a legacy and that way be immortal. Like how a mermaid and a vampire is in ideas, I want to be able to explore the darkness and light of life, the best of both worlds, be limitless and be immortal.
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