journal features

a new name

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2013.11.08

Due to my identity records being stolen from the website of a clueless Trust Company, I sought the advice of a lawyer. He suggested that one of the strongest ways of defending your identity after it's been compromised is to swap your first name and your middle name, and carry on life as normal.

Well, I don't have a middle name. Mari and I discussed this extraordinary idea, and it got silly. We wondered how it might go if we asked Ken for help for the randomizing element e.g.:

"Helicopter Michael Werneburg"

"Han Solo Michael Werneburg"

I could just see the day twenty years from now when some nurse or bank clerk looks at her tablet and hesitantly says, "...Megatron?"

In that vein, a friend then suggested:

"Spacepilot Michael Werneburg"

One of my colleagues suggested that I use one of my designations:

"P. M. P. Michael Werneburg"

The ideas keep coming. Maybe just an initial, "Q Michael Werneburg". Or something that looks like a typo "eburg Michael Werneburg"; or "Full Name: Michael Werneburg".

Mari had the funniest suggestion, though: "Ken". That would mean there'd be three Ken Werneburgs in the family.

rand()m quote

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.

—Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.