My gear (not that it matters, but for the curious)

* Canon Powershot A20. Used from August 2001 to May 2004. Trusty old 2MP point and shoot. I curse it for the lack of manual control (no speed priority, aperture priority or any control over ISO). But that was my first digital, and bought in Hong Kong, for quite a decent price at the time.

* Nikon D70 (I had to fight hard to find one in May 2004.)

Since then, I got for it:

- SB-600 speedlight (very happy with it)

- Nikkor 70-300mm G f/4.5-5.6 (not too impressive but cheap and does the job)

- Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 (used)

- Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6

- Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 (used)

- Lensbaby 2.0

* Nikon FM2n (used)

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The story behind the nickname

I took Japanese I in university. Two of my friends also did but they were in a different class.

When the professor took the attendance in the first class, "Yan...", she paused and looked, longer than for the others. Ah?

I don't have an uncommon name, although it's special in a way that it can be written directly in Japanese without adaptation, as is often required with western names.

Throughout every class, we would watch some educational videos. They were old (circa 1980) videos produced by the NHK. "Yan and the Japanese people", it was called. It turns out that the main character's name in this whole series is "yan". "yan-san this, yan-san that" was heard throughout. The character is also kind of goofy looking.

So, what do you think my friends came up with when they saw me after this? This is how the nickname was born.

I was thrilled when I found all the 2 series episodes online a few years ago.

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I'm Male, 28, and Human.