My user name is a bit of a play on words and an extension on some metaphors and analogies.
To start with, did you ever hear the story about the chicken and the pig, and the egg and bacon breakfast? The chicken was involved, but the pig was committed.
My choice of the user name Lampwick started with that story. When I started PE at Thunder’s Place, I had done some inconsistent pumping, but nothing that you would call a regular PE program. After all, everyone knows that PE is impossible, right? I read the public forums at Thunder’s before I joined, and I had time to think about a user name. Reading at Thunder’s took me from knowing that PE was impossible, to opening my mind to the possibility that PE might, in fact, be possible. But I knew that to really know, I would have to commit myself to following a routine faithfully and consistently. As I started thinking about a user name, commitment was a characteristic I was keeping in mind. The pig was committed. What would it mean to be committed to PE?
That led me to Lampwick. Lampwick (sometimes also known as Candlewick), as you may recall, is a character in Pinocchio. He was a bad boy who went to Pleasure Island and turned into a donkey.
As those who are well endowed are sometimes said to be hung like a horse (or donkey or mule or pony), and since a number of characters in the story of Pinocchio (including Lampwick) had certainly accomplished, however inadvertently, what is generally considered to be impossible and considerably (in fact, totally) increased their similarity to donkeys, that seemed like a somewhat apt analogy given my PE aspirations.
Lampwick presumably did not go to Pleasure Island to become a donkey, or to become hung like a donkey. But if the human Lampwick did wound up as a donkey in all senses of the word and dimensions of the concept, it was an outcome not of a casual or isolated act, but a sustained and consistent pattern of behavior that lead to greater change. Although I do not consider myself to be a bad boy, nor do I aspire to being one, Lampwick is the guy in the story who turned into a donkey and stayed one. I could’ve chosen the better known Pinocchio, who also turned into a donkey (at least in the original story), but his change was not permanent; he changed back. I guess he did not follow up with a maintenance routine.
So, my choice of the user name Lampwick was in part to be a reminder to myself that great changes that many would consider impossible were possible if they were pursued with a sustained commitment.
I haven’t become a donkey yet; my modestly increased resemblance thus far have been limited to between my legs, but given my chosen analogy, forewarned is forearmed; I’ll be monitoring for further changes. (I wonder whether SparkyX would consider growing tall hairy ears and a tail to be a positive or a negative PI?)