Before I starting working as a software test engineer, I worked at an AT&T call center in Monterey. [Incidentally, that's how I met
mamoosh.] As is typical for most companies, AT&T sponsors emergency medical response training for its employees so that they can help facilitate evacuations and perform basic lifesaving actions in the case something really bad happens. As I was an early AOL user [back when it was called AppleLink Home Edition], I had to limit myself to six characters, and CPRATT was the first thing that came to mind. My real name is Wallace MacPherson, but I was always ashamed of it because of the bad reputation the Scottish-American community had in my home town of Stockton, CA [they had supported Frank Chin's boycott of Maxine Hong Kingston's parents' dry cleaners just off of Pacific Ave. in the 1970s and fallout from the Scotscott continues to this day.]2. My name is _____ because ______.
When I was born, my Dad was sitting in the waiting room at Dameron Hospital in Stockton reading the New Yorker, which is to this day his favorite magazine. Apparently, there was a glowing review of My Dinner with André in that issue, because I wound up getting named after Wallace Shawn. I still think it's kind of weird, but on some level it makes sense - my parents were hoping to have a portly, balding, witty conversationalist as a son, and sometimes wishes really do come true!
As for MacPherson, family legend has it that the name originally came from Frank Alvah Parsons, whose name lives on in the hearts of Project Runway fans everywhere. When my great-grandfather left Idaho to carry out his mission in Germany, he apparently fathered a child in New York City on the outbound journey by Jane Frank, who was a Parsons student at the time; not wanting to admit maternity, she coined the name MacPherson as a subtle nod to the child's origin. That's a whole 'nother story, however.
3. My journal is titled ____ because ____.
"Thrustworthy Computing" if only because it's the best typo I've ever seen on a Microsoft Web site. If I had to name my journal again, it would probably be Tolles Tagebuch.
4. My friends page is called ____ because ____.
"Christopher Pratt's Friends" because I maintain intense, close personal friendships with everyone on my friends list. Bonus fun fact: I've enjoyed mind-blowing anal sex with over 80% of my friends list!
5. My default userpic is ____ because ____.
I'm not sure who my default userpic is because I ganked it off of Bear411 when I was drizzunk on Cosmos a couple of years back during that epic Lord of the Rings Extended Edition marathon... oh man, what a night. Anyhoo, I think that's dude's kinda hawt and I'd probably do him. Just let me hit the ATM first...
