What My Name Is?

Let me tell you all a little story. Yesterday I get a phone call from some number I don't know. Most people who know me know that if I don't know a number I don't answer it about 99% of the time. So when I got this call I didn't answer the phone (not to mention I was at work). The caller left a voicemail and I check the voicemail about an hour later.

It turns out that the call was from a guy who was looking for someone to teach a Microsoft Office course and he'd gotten word from a friend of mine that I was a "computer expert".

Sidebar: I have a degree in computer engineering so most people interpret this as if it means you know every single thing there is to know about computers. In reality, a computer engineer is much less of a computer expert and much more of a person who knows everything about computer hardware, software, input/output interfaces that nobody really cares enough to learn about. In other words, everything that you take for granted when it comes to your computer is what computer engineers are VERY learned at (ie - your operating system, your hard drive, your firewire port, your usb port, your RAM, your motherboard, your keyboard, etc.). I could go on but then I'd seem like more of an a-hole than I have already made myself sound like.

Since the guy who left me the message is under the impression that I am a computer expert I figured I'd roll with it. Not fake it but see just what the job entails. But after taking a second listen to the message I realized one very important/embarrassing thing. The caller addressed me in the message as "Mr. Boney".

To put this in perspective, a lot of people I went to college with called me BoneyMike. That nickname started in high school and when I went to college I was dumb enough to create the yahoo account - boneymike@yahoo.com - that I gave to everyone for the first 2 or 3 years I was in school. So the nickname stuck with me through college and even now some people still refer to me as Boney or BoneyMike, especially those who haven't seen me since college. With that said, you probably figured out that the friend who referred me to the guy who called was a friend from college. But more importantly, that friend KNOWS MY FULL NAME!

So why didn't he just give this guy my friggin' government name? I have no idea!

And this is my way of introducing one of my pet peeves. No grown man should introduce another grown man to someone else by his nickname. That shyt should be a man law. I don't care if we're on the basketball court or in the board room, don't introduce me by my nickname. Whether I am present or not does NOT make a difference. If not my full name, at least reference me by Mike.

I appreciate my friend's recommendation but at the same time I think it's embarrassingly unprofessional for someone to seek me out as BoneyMike for a position in which I might get paid for. You don't see people looking for Lil Pistol Starter to offer him a manager's position at Kaiser do you? And Quan-Quan is not going to get a call back about that marketing position if her girlfriend Michelle can't give the hiring manager Quan-Quan's full name, Quanita Johnson.

So to all my friends and business colleagues and associates, please do me a favor when you're doing me a favor and reference/introduce me by my full name. If you don't know it, call me first!