Sta.sh
I might have said this before, but if you didn't know, 533497 was my student ID number from middle school through high school in Albuquerque Public Schools. I'd already graduated high school some eight years earlier, but the number stuck in my mind for a few reasons I won't bore you with (Someday, though, maybe I'll tell the story of the ID number I had when I worked at Target; that one was fun.), and when my friend *Legendary-Skye convinced me to get a DeviantART account, it was the first thing that popped into my head. I didn't give it that much thought because I honestly didn't think I'd stick around long. Luckily, for me, I was wrong, and I'm both proud and appreciative of the circle of friends I've earned in the past four years.
There had been talks for years of DeviantART offering the option for username changes, but I never thought it would happen, or that it would be handled as smoothly as it has been, complete with URL redirects and notifications to watchers. Hell, even blocks are still in place (which, from what I understand, is always the biggest technical hurdle to overcome when implementing that sort of option), for better or for worse. In all, my only reservation about changing my name was simply the URL redirection. As for the name itself, it wasn't a hard decision because, put simply, no one really knew me as 533497. No one ever called me by it in casual conversation (except maybe once, and it was someone who was just referring to a comment I'd made on someone's upload.). Instead, generally, it's been either Matt or Roland. I like that, it tells me people are giving my gallery and journals more than a passing glance. It's almost a kind of litmus test, like the pronunciation of Behringer. On that note, I was actually a little disappointed that *SpaceCaptSteve (the creator of Blade Kitten, Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, and Darth Phobos, to name a few) of Chrome Studios changed his DeviantART account name from Falterdan. Falterdan is a made-up curse word from his Blade Kitten comic. Of course, if you weren't familiar with his work, you might just think it's a weird name, a sloppy attempt at disguising "Daniel," which is part of the humor.
So, now that I've finally put to bed any possible debate about the meaning behind 533497 (people thought it was everything from a phone number to a pronounceable word to a digital root encryption a la 616=Caligula... it was really amusing.), I should probably explain Neuron Plectrum. It's based on a Nokia phone. Probably my favorite cell phone that I ever had was my Nokia Mode; it had a full keyboard and an awesome camera, the best since my Motorola ZN5... and then it went through the wash. I'd never been so mad at myself in my life. I'm normally so careful with my electronics I can only think of two other times in the 12 years I've had cell phones that I've so much as dropped them, and I've had at least eight in that time, so I think it's a damn good batting average.
The Mode going for a swim was an indirect result of some very nasty surgery I had on my leg. I'll spare you the full story except that it was decided to leave my incision open afterwards so it could heal from the inside. This meant keeping it bandaged for several weeks. One day, while changing the bandage, things got a bit "gory" and I ended up doing a very hurried load of laundry while I took a shower. The sad part is, I finished my shower and moved my stuff over from the washer to the dryer and it was a full 20 minutes before I realized my phone was missing and the rather loud "thumps" I kept hearing from my dryer weren't just my jeans. I let it dry out, having heard miracle stories of MP3 players and the like coming out of worse situations fully functioning as long as they're allowed to dry first. Sadly, mine was toast, as evidenced by these two very boring YouTube videos (in which you can still see one of my other hospital bracelets from a subsequent ER visit) [link] [link] . The worst part was I didn't have insurance and the phone was about six months old, which left me 18 months away from a decent upgrade with a carrier I'd already made up my mind about leaving. What I ended up doing was something no one at T-Mobile or AT&T will tell you, but is perfectly legitimate in every sense of the word: I bought a prepaid phone and swapped the SIM cards. Obviously, they don't like it when people do this because they want you to extend your contract, to which I say, "No chance, you mental bastards who fired me for being 'consistently average.'"
The Nuron (sic), was the prepaid phone that I... disliked the least out of the line up, though I'll admit it has grown on me considerably, especially the video mode. It's a rebranded 5230, part of their music phone series. In keeping with this emphasis on its use as an MP3 player, its older "resistive" touchscreen needed a stylus, which was actually a guitar pick. Mine didn't come with one, as it was refurbished, and the only reason I even knew that was what the stylus looked like was because of the instruction manual, which referred to it as a Plectrum. I had never, ever heard that word before. Engadget described it best as the "uncool dictionary term for a guitar pick." I'd agree with this sentiment except that 1) Plectrum is such an odd word to say that it's rather infectious, and 2) "Nuron Plectrum" is just too irresistible a combination of words to ignore. I'd once thought of using it for a second account, the one that would have been critiques only. While that account will never emerge, the name will, only with Nuron spelled correctly so I don't sound like some shill for Nokia (my next phone is going to be
To wrap up, 533497 is gone, except as SEEAGT on DeviantLAW, *NeuronPlectrum has taken its place, but I don't expect to be called by that name anymore than I was by 533497. Please feel free to stick to whatever you called me before. I've changed my user icon (which had the number running down the side) to one made by =deidaraart5 for my Twitter account (that way, I don't have to change my signature).
*I say "somewhat revisited" because earlier, I'd debated changing my journal headings from MJA to RMJZ, but decided against it as there was no reason to break continuity.
