On Being Jack
(Hi Diklaw!)
I have a name that is quite different from the regular names. It is so uncommon that simply appending @yahoo.com or @gmail.com to my name would generate my email address. No need for the name388@ or firstname_lastname@ that those, unfortunately named with the more standard names, have to resort to in order to achieve uniqueness in places like yahoo or gmail or hotmail. Like Eminem or 50 Cent or The Game, any mention of my name and you can be pretty sure it is referring to no one else but me. Google my name and the closest proper noun it gets is a town in Cameroon and a Jewish artifact of some sort.
In the course of conversations, it is entirely a different thing. There are certain disadvantages in having an uncommon name. When i tell a new acquaintance my name, I might as well have told then it is Krzyzewski (say what?). Conversations like the one below have happened numerous times:
Me: Pabili ng isang tall na frapuccino.
Starbucks cashier: Whats you're name, sir? (para isulat sa cup)
Me: (I mention my name)
Cashier: I'm sorry?
Me: (I mention my name again)
Cashier: Par-what? (while leaning forward with the ear tilted towards me)
Me: (I slowly mention my name for the third time with exagerated emphasis on each syllable)
Cashier: Fernan?
Me: Jack na lang ho.
Thus the evolution of my name Jack...
I have a name that is quite different from the regular names. It is so uncommon that simply appending @yahoo.com or @gmail.com to my name would generate my email address. No need for the name388@ or firstname_lastname@ that those, unfortunately named with the more standard names, have to resort to in order to achieve uniqueness in places like yahoo or gmail or hotmail. Like Eminem or 50 Cent or The Game, any mention of my name and you can be pretty sure it is referring to no one else but me. Google my name and the closest proper noun it gets is a town in Cameroon and a Jewish artifact of some sort.
In the course of conversations, it is entirely a different thing. There are certain disadvantages in having an uncommon name. When i tell a new acquaintance my name, I might as well have told then it is Krzyzewski (say what?). Conversations like the one below have happened numerous times:
Me: Pabili ng isang tall na frapuccino.
Starbucks cashier: Whats you're name, sir? (para isulat sa cup)
Me: (I mention my name)
Cashier: I'm sorry?
Me: (I mention my name again)
Cashier: Par-what? (while leaning forward with the ear tilted towards me)
Me: (I slowly mention my name for the third time with exagerated emphasis on each syllable)
Cashier: Fernan?
Me: Jack na lang ho.
Thus the evolution of my name Jack...
posted by Jack's Rice at 11:27 PM
3 Comments:
Found it. Thanks to technorati.
"you can be pretty sure it is referring to no one else but me"
From the writer who never wrote, the blogger who never blogged.
:< would have wanted a fuller more substantial blog before showing it to you..
Looking for information and found it at this great site... » »
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