I actually didn't want to move over to my other account (Maskaluna) because everyone knows me here and it's difficult to change, but thank gawd somebody was smart enough to realize that veterans like me need a name change...desperately, especially old salts.

Who the hell came up with shiprat when I didn't even know they would be joining the Navy when they came up with it? Oh yeah. Me.

So now it's changed to my signature name. No, really.

For those of you who can't figure it out, or didn't think about it....my name is literally cheese names. One-third on purpose, two-thirds not. My name is actually Brianne Toma....but if you go by my nickname like so many of my military friends do, it's Mac.

Brie. (French icky cheese; I prefer it solid and cold as the Arctic)

Mac. (Macaroni & Cheese...a favourite dish of mine)

Toma. (Italian yummy cheese; can only buy it from a California business right now)

In A School this one dude used to call me Macaroni. It fit. And it was cute the way he said it, so it stuck for the longest time. Then I got to the ship....they called me Mac Skillz because my last name was MacAskill at the time....and they didn't know how to pronounce Scottish names cuz most of the Supply people were/are Filipino. And that stuck...then it just shortened to Mac, despite them also calling Irish people Macs, EVEN if there was a flubbin' O-apostrophe in their name. REALLY!? Irish people are MICKs!!!!! Not MACs!!!!

THEN I got to shore duty, where it became MacAskill again (how original), or they just called me CS2. But then I got married. And my Barracks buddies liked MacToma. They would call me Mac again, but MacToma really ran well with them.

What's with the extra B, then? It's not BMacToma, is it? It's BB. Wellllll...I like my middle name. It holds onto my German roots. So BB it is!

Thank you, DA. Names are important. And I never jumped ship so I can stop calling myself one.

B. B. MacToma

The Neu Age of Cheese!!!