o I was a wee froshling, living at Cowell in the (in)famous Parrington Dorm, and one Mr. Steven Jay Lerner was living down the hall. He was in this circle of friends....John Vinopal (who was banned from campus - the first I ever saw of him was as he was getting kicked out of our first dorm meeting of the year), Gerald Moulds, Doug Jones, Peter Lasell.

Steve decided one day that TODAY WAS THE DAY that Julia was to get a computer account. You had to go to the CC to set one up at that time (1990). He was going to take a shower, and then we we'd go to the CC and set me up.

While he was in the shower, I pulled every mythology book I could get my hands on, looking for a cool, meaningful name. When that didn't prove fruitful, I pulled a thesaurus, and maybe a dictionary. I was determined to have a GREAT login name. See, it's very difficult for me to make decisions, and I tend to take things way too seriously. But when you're talking about your alter ego...

So Steve was baby-fresh out of the shower, and then he proceeded to start dragging me out the door. "Okay we're going NOW." If you know Steve, you know it's hard to protest logic like that, and I had to leave my reference materials behind.

Desperate to decide on a login, I searched the dorm hallway walls. My eyes caught a glimpse of a Dr. Seuss poster I'd put up outside my room. And there it was: LORAX. I'd never even read the book at that point, but it was a COOL WORD.

SO I was lorax for a number of years until I was living at twin.peaks in SF with one Mr. John Daniel. He liked to call me "uvula", claiming that it was an easier word to say than "Julia". I distinctly remember him yelling either on his way up or down the stairs one day: "Uuuuvvuulaaaaaaa!!!!!!"

I decided this would be a good Next Step in my login history. It was time to leave my college identity behind and enter into a world with a brand new name, PERFECT for confusing drunk people at parties.

Now, when I meet people at parties, a typical introduction might go something like this:

"Hi, I'm Julia." (confused look comes back at me)

"Account uvula?" (yet another confused look)

"I used to be lorax?" (here it comes.....)

..."oooOOOOOhhhhh!" (a look of comfortable familiarity!)

I hate to say it, but had it not been for Parrington and gristle, I wouldn't be a part of this group today.