The History of "Isaiah 'Tek7' Jones" (The Name, Not the Man)

Tek7

CGA President, Tribe of Judah Founder & President
Staff member
Preface

It's been a long time coming, but I'm finally settling in to explain the history of my alias, Tek7. The history behind my handles reaches back over 15 years, so there's a lot to tell. I'll try to keep it as brief as possible while still hitting the highlights.

I admit I'm a bit sad to be making this post because it means any mystery surrounding me or my name is ended. I know it's a silly reaction, but "Tek" has, over the last decade and a half, become like a second name for me. To explain the name takes away a bit of the charm, in my opinion, but several community members have been committed to keeping me accountable to fulfill my promise to explain my handle.

Some of the explanation will be embarrassing to post because it involves my teenage years. I've said before that adolescence is God's method of making people humble. I think you'll understand why a little better once you finish this thread.


Your friendly neighborhood teleporter

I won't go into the full history behind my interest in literature and writing; otherwise, this thread would be a novel instead of just a novella. Instead, I'll summarize: I enjoyed reading from an early age and developed an interest in writing short stories in grade school. That interest in writing carried over into adolescence.

Like most male teenagers, I read comic books. Consequently, some of my short stories were inspired by Marvel series such as X-Men and Spider-Man.

One of my first characters was a teleporter whose code name was Tek. I don't know exactly when I came up with the character, but I found a printed (not handwritten) character sheet for Tek dated January 1995 while digging through my archives. The original character likely dates back to 1993 or 1994.

I painted Tek as the lead character of my story and based his personality loosely on my own. The names of my characters carried over to my social life after joining and getting involved in a youth group in 1995.


Snarky comments and fake companies

After my family purchased a computer in 1994, I quickly discovered a natural aptitude for all things technical. My father quickly figured out that I could resolve computer problems fairly quickly--and inexpensively.

One day, when faced with a new computer problem, my father asked me to take a look at it. Feeling a bit snarky (but not mean; there's a difference), I sarcastically suggested I wave my magic wand over the computer to immediately fix the machine. My dad got a chuckle out of the idea.

This is where my memory gets a little hazy. I don't recall if my dad was the first to dub me "TechnoWizard" or if I came up with the "TekWizard" name myself. I called him earlier today for clarification, but he was out on business. When I do speak with him and if he does remember the full story, I'll be sure to post an addendum with new information.

Regardless of how the name sprang into being, the "TekWizard" name, inspired in part by my lead character (if only in spelling), was the basis of a joke business card (posted below).



I was listed as President and would handle the tech support side of the "business." Elihu was listed as Vice President and would help "clients" work through "girl problems" (something he was known for in our circle of friends).

I found two versions of TekWizard business cards today; the card scanned and posted above was the first and original. The second features a hand-drawn logo, my first e-mail address (crossed out and replaced with my second e-mail address), and only my name and titles. (Elihu had his own business card as of the second version.)

Side note: I later dropped the TekWizard name in favor of a more serious "brand" when I decided to take the opportunity to earn money by fixing computers more seriously. I even developed a web site for my startup "company" and posted it to GeoCities (and later to hosted space on an Australian Internet service provider given to me by an online acquaintance).

The first TekWizard business card was designed and printed in 1995 or 1996.


Teenagers will be teenagers...unfortunately

Oy, this next part is embarrassing.

/sigh

I mentioned two members (me and Elihu) of the fake company TekWizard in the previous section, but there were others. We met at a youth group in 1995 and became friends shortly thereafter. (Elihu I met in grade school; he was the one that invited me to visit the youth group, if I remember correctly.)

Here's the embarrassing part. Our circle of friends, like most teenagers, developed a suddenly and overwhelming interest in the opposite sex, as well as all the drama that accompanies teenage relationships. To communicate "secret" information (which, in retrospect, was probably not nearly as secret as we believed), we developed a "TekWizard Code."

While digging through my archives, I found multiple versions of the code, the earliest being v1.1. In versions 1.1 through 3.5, my "code name" was Tek. Versions 3.1t and 3.5 listed my alternate code name as Isaiah.

Side note: For those who don't already know: Isaiah Jones is not my real name. It's an alias I use to protect myself and my wife from harassment. My last name is very rare in the United States (I estimate there are approximately 20 people with my last name in all of the US), which would make me an easy target for those wanting to harass the President of Christian gaming organizations. I later added the last name "Jones" to complete the alias when an online form asked for both first and last name. "Jones" and "Smith" were the most generic last names I could think of (ironic, considering the rarity of my real last name) and I thought "Jones" sounded better.

I can't remember when I started entering TEK as my initials to register a high score, but it was probably during this time (1995-1997).


The frontier days of the Internet

I was online even before the Internet went public in the mid-1990s, dialing in to local bulletin board systems (like those based on Excalibur) and Prodigy. In fact, I created my first e-mail address on an Excalibur bulletin board system. Good times.

While the public Internet was still young, along came a wonderful service called GeoCities. It allowed anyone and everyone to create and publish a web site to the world wide web for free.

While registering for a GeoCities web hosting account and e-mail address, I discovered that my username had to be at least four characters. On a whim, I tacked a 7 on to my alias and created my tek7@geocities.com e-mail address.


Yes, but it was good fan fiction

Most people don't know that Tribe of Judah was not my first collaborative online endeavor. Before founding Tribe of Judah in May 1999, I managed a StarCraft fan site called Sounds of StarCraft and rounded up a group of young but talented writers to collaborate and write a StarCraft fan fiction epic. The name of our site and the title of that epic was The Battles of Dylar IV. I still remember those days fondly--and I still have copies of the stories in my digital archives.

It was during my time as Lead Writer and Editor-in-Chief of The Battles of Dylar IV that I grew accustomed to being called by my handle as though it were my first name. It was also the first time I can recall being called "Tekkie."

The Battles of Dylar IV lost steam and I eventually shut the project down around 2000 or 2001. I trust the writers involved have gone on to other projects and continue to write today. There was a lot of great talent in that group and it still saddens me a bit that we didn't get to finish our story properly.


What's a guy have to do to get a decent game of StarCraft around here?

Most of you probably know the story from this point forward. I founded Tribe of Judah in May 1999, inspired by several bad experiences on Battle.net and a desire to play the game with fellow Christians. I first looked for existing Christian gaming groups; finding none, I sent out the call to Christian StarCraft players on the Battle.net forums to form a Christian clan and play together.

What most people don't know is that I very likely would have quit playing StarCraft if not for the people who responded to my recruiting call.

To write any more would be to diverge from the history of my alias and on to the history of my involvement in the Christian gaming community.


A secondary alias, for those times when Tek7 simply won't do

So that explains the "Tek7" part, but not the "gummyzergling" name I use for instant messengers and various accounts..

Well, the name "tek7" is often already taken when I register for free online accounts. Sometimes, sites or services require a username more than four characters long. In those situations, I use the name "GummyZergling."

The GummyZergling name originated from a random comment I made while observing a StarCraft match (probably on the Bobs Obs version of Lost Temple). I was marveling at how popular StarCraft was in South Korea and suggested that there may even be StarCraft-related snack foods for sale in that country. I can't remember the exact comment, but it was something to the effect of, "Imagine if there were gummy zerglings! YUM!"

And a secondary alias was born.


Conclusion

Most of those who (repeatedly) asked me to tell the story behind my alias probably regretted it somewhere around the fifth or sixth paragraph. If you somehow made it to the end of this thread, congratulations.

And just for the record, I'm not so vain as to volunteer this epic 15-year tale on the supposition that people are just dying to know how I chose my alias. If it weren't for community members like Litsafalda and Odale reminding me to post the full story, this thread probably wouldn't exist. So, in other words, you can thank (blame?) them for this thread.

And with that, the mystery is revealed. I hope it lives up to everyone's expectations (though, knowing the allure of the unknown over the known, I doubt it will).
 
Wow, what a cool story Tek. I'm planning on becomig a history major in college and this felt like uncovering a vital part of CGA/ToJ history as well as finding out more about you. I feel like I know you a whole lot more, even if I don't know your name ;)

thanks for the story Mr. Jones. I thoroughly enjoyed it :)
 
Gerbil next! :p

Thanks. Interesting you don't use your real name. I'll call you Sir from now on. T_T
 
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I read it all :). So from the original first usage basically, like me, you want to be a Superhero :) . Now we want to read the character sheet you made :D.
 
Thanks for that Tek!

I don't think it diminished the wonder surrounding the name "Tek" at all.

It is great to know a little about the guy that leads this fine organization!

By telling us a little about yourself, it helps the rest of us relate to you (as Stc95 said). :)

I remember in middle school a church friend and I used symbols to identify ourselves as (certain symbols had certain traits and we chose whichever symbols related to ourselves the best). Later after that I imagined myself as a car and what car I would be... often a Ferrari or a BMW M5... the good ole' days!

Anyway, thanks for this post Tek. Its great to know more about you!

I'll stop pestering you now. :D
 
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HUGS!!!! Thanks for keeping a promise to those of us who curiosity might "just kill the cat." I can't believe I've actually waited THIS long to get the "real story" behind the God fearing/loving man.

Blessings and Hugs, "Angel"
 
Somehow, this brings back memories when I first found ToJ and CGA. Wow.. :)
 
Nooo, the world is coming to an end.
The world was coming to an end anyway. At least now people have their curiosity satiated.

Nice History...

Too bad it took THIS LONG to do it...:(
Yes, well, I think you guess why it took me this long to post the history of my alias and handle when you consider the length of the post.

HUGS!!!! Thanks for keeping a promise to those of us who curiosity might "just kill the cat."
You're quite welcome. :)

I can't believe I've actually waited THIS long to get the "real story" behind the God fearing/loving man.
It only took me a few years. ^^;;

/muse

...Maybe I should apply to work for Valve. Or Blizzard.

I read it all :). So from the original first usage basically, like me, you want to be a Superhero :) . Now we want to read the character sheet you made :D.
I'll try to remember to scan and post the printed character sheet soon, but I make no promises regarding when it will be posted.

I have some pressing matters to attend to this week (speaking with potential affiliates for the Alliance, requesting quotes for dedicated server hosting for Tribe of Judah) that I slacked a bit on this last week.

No kidding...that and the TekWizard Code. :)
That won't be happening. ^^;;

I'm embarrassed enough that the Code actually exists and that copies remain. (Ironically, I'm not embarrassed in the least about a character sheet for a superhero character I created when I was 12 or 13.) There's also the issue of the Code including people's real names associated with their code names. I'd have to black out most of the content of the list for security purposes.
 
I remember Tek saying in the forums that anyone that really searched could find his real name. Even though I do know it, it's just too weird for me to call him anything but Tek... even face to face I would call him Tek, just like people would think it was weird to call me Nick rather then Whon.
 
I remember Tek saying in the forums that anyone that really searched could find his real name.
That may no longer be true. Bakey found one mention of my real name on the second version of the Tribe of Judah web site through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, but I e-mailed the staff that maintains the database and asked them to remove the page. They politely agreed.

With no new members being added to the toj-general Yahoo Group, I don't think there's any way left to find my real name associated with my alias online. If there were, it would require more effort than most griefers would invest, so I'm still protected from harassment (which was my original purpose in creating an alias).

Several CGA and Tribe of Judah staff members know my real name, but I have no problem with that. I just don't want my real name being publicly tied to my involvement in the Christian gaming community.

Just to be clear: I'm not at all ashamed of my decade-long involvement in the Christian gaming community. I've invested countless hours of time and effort into my role as President (and all the various responsibilities that the title carries). I just don't want some griefer getting a hold of my last name, finding my address, and signing me up for piles of junk mail.

Even though I do know it, it's just too weird for me to call him anything but Tek... even face to face I would call him Tek, just like people would think it was weird to call me Nick rather then Whon.
I've used the handle Tek for so many years and have grown so used to people calling me Tek over voice chat and at LAN parties that I don't even think it of as strange any more. Like I've said before, Tek is like my other first name.
 
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