So do you still have fun with the "TA" thing or is it old and boring now?

Philo

wtf was up with the TA thing in the first place?

I just figured one or two people might not figure out who I was if I didn't put that in.

Yeah, we already tried to name him Mr. T, and HE tried the Notorious T.A.W.  Who could Mr. Weiczorik (sp?) be, if he left out the T.A.?

Nice to know your real on-line last name, though.  Thanks.

from answers.com

TAW is an acronym for:

Tacuarembo, Uruguay Regional->Airport Codes
Tampa Armature Works Business->Firms
Test de Accesibilidad Web International->Spanish
Internet
Theater Automation WOW! Business->Firms
Theater Automation Wow Community->Media
Theology And Worship Community->Religion
Today's Arizona Woman magazine Community->Media
Tokyo's Agents Of War Governmental->Military
Transgender at Work Miscellaneous->Funnies

The last one seems appropriate

Back when my band broke up, I wanted a new ID for AIM and everything else was taken. Since my last name is damned near unspellable, using my intials seemed like the best choice. The domain followed, and I figured I'd just use it as my "brand" from then on.

I don't see how you could possibly give up the chance to go with "Mark Tokyo Agents of War"

Philo

Transgendered Androgynous "Women"

I would have, probably 50 years back. Not now.

"Mark T. A. Wieczorek"
Ah that explains it. It's not hard to pronounce it.

There are a half dozen different pronunciations based on where you come from, and on the internet, it's not the pronunciation so much as the spelling that's the problem.

"Wieczorek" is close enough to "wisecrack', dontcha think?

You're not the first to make that joke...

"I before E, except after C, or when used as 'A', as in neighbor and weigh".

Funny, "Wieczorek" does follow that rule, and I got it wrong abouve.  To get it wrong, you can swap the i and e, and the last 'e' could be an i, e, or a.  Or 'o', for that matter.

I have great sympathy, there's a few different ways to spell 'Allan' too.  Your problem is worse.

Thanks

Why don't you just use "Wiggin?"

Hands up, how many non-Polish people know how to pronounce Maciej _and_ what the english equivalent is?

Smith.

I'd only read Ender last year, and besides, who wants to steal a name from some work of fiction?

I have no idea how to pronounce that, but I'm going to guess it's "Bush" in English...

Matthew

In school I knew a guy named Maciej Kowalewski and it wasn't till about a year of trying to get "mah-chee" right that he said we could just use Matt.

Polish language is a secret weapon against their neighbors.  The complexities of German and Russian are as nothing against the mindsplitting Polish rules of conjugation. If you don't get it by the age of 3 you have little chance of passing as a native.

There was a discernable pause way back in school every time a new teacher turned up to mark the roll and tried  asking for our resident Pole. It usually terminated when he said "It's OK. Just call me Vok".

I'm shocked Philo hasn't put an & symbol between those two letters. Really.

Well duh - I shouldn't have to.

Philo

I would think it would happen just by, like, instinct.

I have no idea what you're t&alking about.