I’m a little late to the game here, but since you specifically asked...
I have been wearing glasses longer than most all but the very oldest few of the forum members have been out of diapers, so I got called “four-eyes” a lot (and I do mean a LOT) as a kid. As a wee tyke, I got introduced to the original X-Men comics owned by my oldest brother, and I was fascinated by Cyclops, and, to a lesser degree, by Colossus. My dad was on the road a lot for work, and we lived out in the country, on a dirt road, back in the days when gasoline was still less than $0.40 per gallon, you had to pay extra just to NOT be on a party line, and (more to the point) CB radio was beginning its upward swing in popularity. Dad got a CB radio for each of our vehicles to keep us all apprised of where Smokey or a County Mountie was “taking pictures” on our “front door” so we had better “back it down” so that we could avoid “feeding the bears.” I could go on, but you get the picture (or you don’t, and you probably don’t care). Well, I just HAD to have my own CB handle, and what better one than Cyclops? It referenced a cool comic book character who shot beams of force out of his eyes and was the leader of the group (which really appealed to me, since I was the YOUNGEST brother), plus it was a subtle “in your face” to all those jerks who looked at me and saw nothing more than my (very thick) glasses.
Fast-forward to the early 21st century, when a certain email provider began its beta program, and I needed an email alias. Well, I was already using a variation of my actual name with both my ISP and another independent email service provider, as well as various work-related computer accounts, and I thought it was time to branch out a little bit in the labeling process, so I tried using Cyclops, only to find out that, alas, I had not been the first person to attempt to register with that moniker. That led me to think of some number to append to the word, and because of some motivational tapes (yes, cassette tapes) I had been playing, I had the numbers nine-four-two in my head, so I figured that SURELY that number would not already be taken, and I was right.
Now that you’ve read this, are you sorry you asked?
This is an awesome story. So, ever since you joined Cyclops, I've always viewed you as Cyclops from X-Men since I'm a huge Marvel fan. I'm so glad that your name is inspired by the actual character and this whole time, I was actually right while playing with the idea that's where you got it from
My first name is Michael.
My first love is Batman.
90 is for the year I was born, 1990.
Does it give away a lot of personal information? Yes.
But my father gave me the ID when I first started using the internet when I was 11.
This is an incredible history, BatMike. I like how you stuck with it since you were 11 and your dad gave it to you so it holds a special place in you heart. Good stuff, gentlemen.
I came up with the word "Vibble" as a nonsense word when I was quite young, and not long after that I made the fictional character of "Doctor Vibble", who created the bizarre, chaotic life forms known as Vibbles. To this day I have no idea what a Vibble is (though I have since found out it's also the name of a town in Sweden or some such), but even years later, the name stuck, and now I use DrVibble on pretty much all online platforms.
I've since incorporated "Doctor Vibble" as a character into a book I'm working on, so he lives on at last!
This is a really cool history on your name and I like how you made up the word and have used it across all platforms. Good stuff
