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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hellefire" data-source="post: 3024829" data-attributes="member: 28129">NickHaven't told this story in a while so thought it might be fun.When I was young, my father was into, well, flower-child, not-exactly-legal activities. Hardcore sometimes, but only when we were with our mother (divorced parents, one in Alaska). I had a vivid imagination (started playing D&D at 7, in 1979, besides my own personal head creations). I thought it was a fun romantic idea that someday I might need to change my identity to hide from the cops (or smart people trying to find me). So, I made up a fake name I thought was reeeeally cool. Johnny Hell. Johnny, cuz I always liked it..from movies probably..too much Short Circuit for me I guess. I somehow knew, in my child-understanding of the world (I was actually 11 or 12 by then, was 1983 or 1984) that nobody would believe the name Hell. So I added an 'e'. Still pronounced the same. Johnny Helle.Enter college - 1989, USC in L.A. Had been into programming since I made the nickname, so was majoring in Computer Engineering (my big plans were to design, built and program robotics to go on a space station - also a dream I came up with about the same time I invented the fake name). Actually double majoring in computer engineering and acting, but thats irrelevant to the story. Anyway, me and my geek friends started playing with the newest thing...Bulletin Board Systems. Ooooh. Games. Messages. Play by post. Eventually met my first wife through a BBS. OK, they weren't all good <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />. So, I needed a username for the boards (as opposed to my university login, which had been assigned to me). Hm. Well, I remembered and liked my fake name for all those years, and never had a chance to use it. So, I became Helle on the BBSes. I don't think they had length requirements in those days, but it did seem a little...pale. Like it was missing something. Hellfire is not exactly original, but it clicked in my head while trying to think of something to add. So, with my own spelling, thats Hellefire. Been my nick of choice across the digital world since 1989.Thanks for letting me get that out. Aaron</blockquote>

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