MetaFilter

What's the deal with your nickname? How did you get it? If your nickname is self-explanatory, then tell everyone when you first started using the internet, and what was the first thing that made you say "wow, this isn't just a place for freaks after all?" Was it a website? Was it an email from a long-lost friend? Go on, spill it.

mikel is the spelling of "Michael" that my brother used in order to bug me - as any older brother knows, younger brothers revel in bugging their elders in small but annoying ways. When I started signing up for more and more sites, I was using everything under the sun, and quickly found I was losing track. So I chose to use "mikel" whenever possible, and it has stuck for several years now. Almost everywhere I'm either mikel or mikelbyl.