Names

Already have my bank and SIN cards. It's weird how there is all the fuss in England about new security features in cards, such as the embedded chips and holograms (well, those have been around for ages), but there is nothing like that here. This is a normal card, as far as I know, not a ghetto card with limited functions, like they have for students and immigrants in England.

The SIN card is nice. Too bad they misprinted one of my surnames (Viega instead of Viegas) in my work permit and then had to go along with the mistake in the work card. I predict all sorts of problems when I have a job and get paid... They will want to give me cheques in the name of Viega, but my account is in the name of Vasco Castela and I cannot prove that my name is Viega because I only have one piece of ID where I am called Viega (they always ask for two - SIN card does not count as ID). I could have used JVSC Viegas in my card, but then whenever someone asks my name on the phone, for instance, I have to say I am called João Viegas, which no one can pronounce. and feel very embarrassed about it. And I do have to say I am João Viegas if that's what my cards say, for if I say I am Vasco Castela and try to pay with a card with a different name they will tell me that I must pay with my own card, not someone else's!

Once I spent half an hour on the phone with someone from the water company trying to convince them that I am both Vasco Castela and João Viegas. "So who are you, Vasco Castela, or Joaho Veegus?", "I am both.", "How can you be two people?", "Easy, these two people are just one, me.", "But if there are two people, they cannot be one", "You're right. Perhaps that means that there have never been two people, except in your mind". This conversation took place pretty much in these terms. Half an hour of this is good fun. They wouldn't believe that I had 4 names, let alone 5, and I had to go through 4 supervisors just to get them to accept my money (rather than report me to the pigs for having stolen a credit card).

Having 5 names in England or Canada is very annoying. I have considered the possibility of changing my name to Vasco Castela, but then I will get a ton of questions for why I changed my name, with people wondering whether I had problems with the law in some country or whatever.

My children will have seven names, just to piss everyone off.