A Sad Day In My Internet History

posted on 2005-01-06 at 00:13:42 by Joel Ross

Over the holidays, a part of me was lost.

Follow me back in history if you will. I was late getting into computers. In 1995, I got my first computer as a senior in highschool. Being new to the Internet, I signed up with AOL. They offered the most hours (remember that? When the internet was by the hour?), so they got my business. Finding a screen name was difficult. At the time, my favorite musician was Bizzy Bone, of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. So I tried Bizzy as a screen name. It was used. Bizzy187. Used. Bizzy211. Used. Note that those numbers mean something, but I won't go into details about what they are.

Anyway, I eventually got frustrated and typed in bizzy10510. A completely random number. And it wasn't taken! My first ever internet presence was created!

Since that time, I have registered bizzy10510 as a user name just about every place I go because it's never used. And if it is, then most likely I just forgot I registered there before.

So why was a part of me lost? My mom took over my AOL account when I moved out. I didn't need it once I got a cable modem, so she took it over. My screen name was the master account, so it couldn't be deleted or changed. So I kept using it. Mainly on AIM, but I still used it. Just after Christmas, my mom switched internet providers and cancelled the account. So my very first internet presence has been turned off.

AOL doesn't allow account holders to carry over screen names to AIM - at least they don't now. My wife still has hers, but her account was turned off a few years ago.

But that's not the main reason it's a sad day in my internet history. Most people don't know this, but while using that screen name, I met my future wife online. We started chatting online on December 11th, 1997. We eventually met in person, and started dating. Obviously, we got married.

So while losing the account is a trivial thing, I definitely have fond memories of it. Maybe I'll try to get the name back in a few months, after AOL recycles the screen name. That's the nice part of having an uncommon screen name!

Categories: Personal