For me it's kind of funny and ironic I think the word is, nobody has ever called me a badass in the real world I was always made fun of even to this day mainly by Mormons in suits probably in their 40s I'm an age guy with a good memory. But I was an easy target back then I was scrawny what I could I do, but now I'm in the middle of my 5th surgery in a row I'm not a weakling anymore. So I give myself a better name than anyone has ever given me to help me along. I used to think I was destined to help bring the corporation down but I'm not sure that's why I'm here anymore. I'll just be lucky to get my mind back again and maybe help another get their old mind back that would be good. So whats your story behind your screen name?

Here's how I came up with "commongentile" as a screen name: I've known Mormons over the years who told me I would make a good Mormon and urged me to consider becoming one. My response sometimes has been, "Nah, I'm nothing but a common gentile and plan on remaining one!"

I also have a kind of philosophy about screen names. Some people invent a persona for use on the Internet that is largely fictional and gives a very false idea of who the person is outside of cyberspace. I don't believe in engaging in such lying on the Internet. However, I like the idea of an individual extracting from his or her complexities, a persona that accurately represents a portion of that person's identity. Thus in my case, I've used more than one screen name around the Internet and these screen names often represent different aspects of myself. "commongentile," for example, represents my interest in everything connected with Mormonism, as well as my enjoyment in playing around with various ideas. But there are a lot of other aspects of me that don't show up here in the "commongentile" screen name.

I did not start out with my current screen name until someone told me I had 'spiritist' beliefs on this board.

I don't really believe I am a 'spiritist' but do share many beliefs and have a whole lot more than I read about concerning 'spiritism'.

I'm not very clever when it comes to stuff like this, so I just went with the last calling I was in before leaving the church.

From the quote by B K Packer--"The truth is not always useful." I feel so angry that I fell for their lies for so long. It is obvious that at least BKP was all for keeping the truth under wraps.

My whole life was based on lies. Don't lie to me!

I was only willing to divulge the fact that I was british. I was probably over-estimating the likelihood of being identified by someone who knew my (rather large extended tbm) family before I was ready to 'come out' as a total and complete apostate.

For a long time I thought it was "ano-nook"--like a legendary Inuit name or something.

Mine's from the howlingly bad Jeff Lindsay apologetics article where he tries to explain that when the king needed his "horses and chariots" in the BoM (both of which didn't exist in the real mesoamerican world), perhaps he actually meant some kind of supplies, like "chicken and backpacks".

I decided to upgrade to a GA name later and went with Chicken N. Backpacks.

How about N. Chicken Backpacks?
Or, Chicken, even the Backpacks?

Anyway, another fun name!

right on the beach. New Year's eve, some acquaintances shot off fireworks that did not clear the palapa roof. They paid for the rebuild (upgrade), and were VERY welcome guests forevermore.

The bar is now La Perla Flameante. I'm not very flameante.

It was a fun night.

I thought you were referencing the gorgeous and extremely pricy underwear. ha! I need to come up with a name that has more than one meaning. ;)

I no longer believe in the church. I believe in standing after you're falling. I believe in bouncing back like a basket ball even if you're on the floor and you have to crawl. I believe falling is not failing. I believe in stalling like you are an idling car when on a crowded freeway but that you have chosen another road avoiding colliding in a lds train wreck, and I believe you may wend your way through life's traffic accidents getting body repairs and what have you but you're on your way- Painting in a WIN.


I believe in bouncing back like intensive care after a heart attack. I believe in making a life without the lds lie but you will blend what's best back in you, just like making banana bread capturing flavor nutrients from spotted banannas instead of throwing them away. I believe you are not not done in like an over ripe banana- I believe you are taking those delicious nutrious fantastastic skills and blending humor and silliness as your shield against lds stupidness. I believe in painting in the WIN in you & painting in the win through how you run your kitchen, sewing, computer, diesel engine machines, how you type how you love how you write poetry drinking your coffee.

I believe. I believe if its even the remotest possibility after all these surgeries & my family's surgeries that you still stand up, crawl when you fall and stand & you dance even when it is only the rhythm that moves you for stiff, and still, your music is ebbing in your soul - that sound you can't move to it, but yet I believe, in turning on internet radio if need be & moving to the sound that flows through you. & you hear your grandbabies laugh. / I hear my grandbabies' laugh.
I believe in love & painting in each WIN.

O I believe. I believe. I believe in roses along sidewalks on cold winter days growing in dryer vents unseasonable warmth. Even winter roses can be painting in the WIN. & you will notice it. you will see and you will notice- you will notice it. Through that winter rose blooming in December storms in the dryer vent it brings to you, even plants can paint in the WIN.
and when the storms blow and they will blow again it'll be painting in the WINd. Same diff.

I believe.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/2017 10:30PM by paintinginthewin.

not very creative..I was born in June.

About 20 years ago, a 5 year old neighbor kid walks into my house and say's "Hi Jonny the Smoke". I thought it was funny and my first name is Jonathan, so when I needed an internet alias for my first post ever, which was on this BB, I used it.

Nope....name came from WA, lived in OR for the last 6 years.

Everybody's names are interesting, but Jonny the Smoke is pretty cool. Not sure why, but it is.

Wrong place...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/2017 07:43PM by nomonomo.

Mine's not too creative, my first initial with my last name, plus the abbreviation of where I live.

My favorite line from one of my favorite movies, "The Shawshank Redemption":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46GwJbrMghQ

As Andy notes, "It comes down to a simple choice: get busy livin' or get busy dyin'."

There are so many great scenes and quotes from that movie. I actually have a t-shirt with that quote that I bought after touring the prison where the movie was filmed.

A few years ago, when I was leaving the church, everything that I was learning was an actual revelation. I was very much a TBM. Yes, I was a BIC, but I was still in pretty deep. When my wife questioned things, I would close up and that caused our biggest arguments, because I wouldn't even allow questioning. It took a long time for me to look at the church objectively.

Learning what the church was, was terribly shocking to me. My entire world view flipped in the matter of weeks because I inhaled everything I could find from what I now knew to be reputable sources and not as the church put it "anti-mormon".

It was shocking, but it was also very, very liberating. The church, it's limited world view, the pressure to be "perfect", the guilt over being inactive, all of it was constantly overwhelming. To learn that none of it was true and that I didn't have to live my way and that I could be who I wanted to be was, it was so very, very freeing. I could literally feel the tension releasing in my shoulders.

When RPackham referred me to this site and I found a large group of people who understood what I was going through, It was a relief. I wasn't alone in this. So, I picked a name that went with how I felt, I was Finally Free!

temple name

cool! If I ever change my screen name, I might do that too.

Mine has many stories.

A garden veggie with a catchy name.

Mine is very simple. My name is Cindy but another site, not Mormon related, told me that "cindy" was taken and suggested "cinda". This was years ago and since some people called me cinda in college, I've stuck with it.

Named after one of my favorite author's siblings in one of her novels.

When I took a personality quiz (in depth, not one of the frivolous kind,) turns out she and I share the same personality traits (from the Stanford-Binet personality test Eric K. posted here awhile back.) I was pleasantly surprised to learn that we share similar personality traits.

Or shared. She's been gone a long while. Louisa May Alcott was her name. One of my childhood faves.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/2017 07:18PM by Amyjo.

One of my absolute favorites also. I called my last trip to Orchard House a visit to my personal Mecca.

Thank you for sharing that. I'll have to check out the virtual tour of Orchard House online.

That's someplace I haven't been, yet. Maybe I'll be able to fit it into my travel plans while I'm still back East.

:)

So your real name hasn't been Amy this entire time?

When I mentally left the morg, I felt I needed a name to reflect that. Since the morgbots say non-mormons are gentiles, I am now a gentile. One day I will make it official but I am waiting someone to die first. :(

After I got out of jail for beating the bishops son into the hospital. The bishop told my father, I was "unworthy" to be a member. That was 60 years ago. Still a badge of honor.



.

Mine is nothing fancy. Like some of you have mentioned, I wanted anonymity early on--was kinda worried some family member would discover me here, and would even alter insignificant details to sort of throw them off the scent! Now I'm not so worried (hi, guys).

Anyway, I'm a nevermo, so I was just trying some combinations of things until I found one that wasn't taken.

So, for whatever it's worth, I've been Nomonomo ever since!

Well, I say "holy crap" a lot but thought that may be too much for a screen name :-)

"holycarp"? Sounds fishy... and I'm not being koi...

Mine isn't clever. It's cuz I live in the Midwest and I prefer to remain anonymous. Although a forensic inspection of my posts would give people a lot of clues about who I am and what I do I, I don't think I've ever divulged my first or last name or where specifically I live in the Midwest.

I will say that I lived for a long time in Kansas and I'm a fan of KU basketball.
Take that Gonzaga! *blows raspberry*



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/2017 08:09PM by midwestanon.

Grew up in Prairie Village. Brother went to KU. Saw the Temptations at Allen Field House in 1968. Changed my life...I went to school at Univ of Florida.

Gatorman
9-4
23-6
7-1

I love pugs and have owned many of them. I am not a guy like Pugsly Adams on the TV show.

All the variations on "gentile" are self explanatory.

I am Gay and was BIC. Since one can NOT be gay AND Mormon, I became an Oxymormon.

A very clever play on words!

Itzpapalotl is an Aztec goddess that means obsidian butterfly, sometimes thought to be a clawed butterfly, maybe even referring to a bat. She's a skeletal warrior goddess with fingers tapering into jaguar claws and eagle claws for feet, rules over a paradise that houses the victims of infant mortality and is associated with fire and birds. She is both beautiful and terrifying, depending on how she chooses to appear to mortals.

Pretty cool stuff and most of the symbols have meaning to me on a deeply personal level, especially after learning about Nahua philosophy from the last chapter in my intro to philosophy class. :)

That IS pretty cool. An obsidian butterfly--I love it!

First part--I went to BYU

Second part--a double entendre meaning a mistake or erection.

Never picked up on the "mistake" side of the double entendre (probably because your posts are always right on)!

Named after a creature now extinct.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_wolf

That's so sad. :,( Love the mythology of the beasts, though.

It's where most of my comments come from.

Because every general authority is a rock star.

It's my name

The Valkyries were part of Norse mythology, and since quite a bit of my heritage is Scandinavian, (Sweden, Denmark,Norway, and Netherlands),I thought it was a good choice. Plus, I like Wagner!

After leaving the church I was at a party with my nevermo friend. She started calling me the unmormon. I thought it was funny, so decided to use it as a username.

badassadam Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So whats your story behind your screen
> name?

Someone here a long time ago ruminated on missionary appellations that would be funny mixed with "elder."

Elder Elder
Elder Butts
Elder Young

And of course Elder Berry. I loved it and elderberries so I took it as a "New Name." It was supposed to coincide with my taking a more over-the-top posting approach as if I were a mega TBM. I found I'm not really good with that kind of satire thought I love reading it.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/black_balloon/

An Australian indie movie, not bad if anyone gets a chance.
Husband and I watched it with mixed feeling when our youngest son (with autism) was small.

I registered under that name whilst playing an online game. I couldn't think of anything on the spot when signing up here, so just used that.

I IS WHAT I IS...

These are all really good stories even if its just your name theres a story there too of a crazy exit out of mormonism. I knew I heard getbusylivin from somewhere that phrase keeps putting the pressure on me to start livin again. Painting in the win that is an interesting phrase I'll have to remember that one. Theres a lot of badass ones I'll have to reread like the Aztec goddess. I didn't realize we were considered gentiles till now thats really good to know. Some of these Ill have to reread.

And for the record, you've now been officially branded as a BADASS! The Boner.

How I felt when I starting waking up to the truth.

NICE I know I can be more of a badass then I am right now it's hard to feel like a badass on crutches but maybe thats a badass thing that I'm living life with a hurt foot on crutches and therefore straight up badass. Oh who am I kidding I'm getting my butt kicked and I'm counting down the days till I see the doctor to get this wrapping off of my foot and get rid of these crutches then hopefully my foot will be good to walk on again and I may be a happier person.

I knew, when I found RFM a few years back and created a name, that there would be MANY MORE [bright, brave, beautiful people] (once members) leaving/ escaping Mormon CULTure, hence the name more-many, not to be confused with mormony, moremoney or mormany. I also briefly used the name mormonomore a couple years ago but dislike all things Mormon, so kept the email but no longer post under that name. Still don't think moremany fits like a glove but it works okay for now. Folks know who I am because I'm me.

M@t

I love everything about the sea, and Cora was my Great-Grandmothers name