User Name and Avatars: Origin Stories

[Omak Darkleaf]

I’ll never tell!

 

[R_J_K75]

Screen name is nothing special, just my initials. I was too brain dead to be creative that day.

Avatar is Keith Moon "the Loon", original drummer for the Who. It's a well-timed screen shot from the "Who Are You" promo video. In it he's wearing a monikered shirt that reads Keith, and headphones which looks like he's duct taped to his head. He's just acting like a clown throughout the whole shoot and its very funny. Then again, I'm not sure if he's actually being serious, but I doubt it. It's also pretty funny that they have screen door partitions in the studio which I'm guessing is to affect the sound for one reason or another.

 

[Deset Gled]

My original avatar was a goth Hello Kitty. I started using it when avatars were something like 64x64 pixels. As avatars got bigger, I always kinda liked the 8-bit feel of the small B&W avatar. So, when I finally decided it was time to grow up and move beyond the childish jape of my old avatar, making an 8-bit Hello Cthulhu seemed like the logical progression.

My username is the result of a young me being tired of all the "cool" usernames being taken on Hotmail and AOL, so I came up with something that didn't require a series of numbers.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

Mine is pretty obvious

The Prydain Chronicles was my first foray into fantasy literature when I was 10. Taran was my favorite character, of course.

So why not just go with "Taran"?

Taran The Wanderer was the name of the 4th book in the series where Taran, an orphan, strikes out on his own and goes looking for his parents, trying to find out who they were and, therefore, his identity. The avatar is from the cover of that specific book.

My father died when I was very young so I never knew him. When I signed up for this forum, in 2003, I was 28, the same age my dad was when he died and so the question of identity was really on my mind.

 

[DeviousQuail]

I'm my early twenties I downloaded a game that required a username. You had to use a randomized one, because it didn't allow putting in your own. After clicking through a few times I got DeviousIgneousQuail. I was tickled by the imagery and picked it.

I didn't play the game for long, but at that time I was finally moving away from Facebook and wanted an anonymous username for forums and the like. I shortened the name because DeviousIgneousQuail is a mouthful and didn't want to be known as DIQ. My avatar will be a generic quail until I learn how to make an actually devious looking quail.

 

[Meech17]

I'm my early twenties I downloaded a game that required a username. You had to use a randomized one, because it didn't allow putting in your own. After clicking through a few times I got DeviousIgneousQuail. I was tickled by the imagery and picked it.

I didn't play the game for long, but at that time I was finally moving away from Facebook and wanted an anonymous username for forums and the like. I shortened the name because DeviousIgneousQuail is a mouthful and didn't want to be known as DIQ. My avatar will be a generic quail until I learn how to make an actually devious looking quail.

I don't know.. That quail looks rather unassuming.. Which is exactly the kind of demeanor a devious quail would try to present...

 

[payn]

Name: Snarf Zagyg
Most people assume it is combination of two things. First, Snarf from SnarfQuest, the Elmore comic that was a mainstay of Dragon Magazine in the 1980s. Then Zagig Yragerne, the mad mage of Greyhawk who to godhood (ZAGYG!), thus making me an insane zeetvah.

Those people would be wrong. It is, in fact, a tribute to Roland Barthes. Didn't see that coming, did you? No one sees the semiotics until its too late, my friend.

Interesting, I thought it was Snarf from Thundercats.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Interesting, I thought it was Snarf from Thundercats.

You caught me! I was actually trying to call myself Snark, but unfortunately, I am illiterate. That's what Mama Snarf always told me.

"Snarf, you listen up and you listen good. You're illegitimate. Now get yer Mama some of that Boone's farm and a handle of tequila - not the fancy kind, but one in the plastic - to wash it down with."

Oh .... never mind.

 

[payn]

You caught me! I was actually trying to call myself Snark, but unfortunately, I am illiterate. That's what Mama Snarf always told me.

"Snarf, you listen up and you listen good. You're illegitimate. Now get yer Mama some of that Boone's farm and a handle of tequila - not the fancy kind, but one in the plastic - to wash it down with."

Oh .... never mind.

Boones farm and plastic bottle tequilla? I believe thats what they used to call Combinación Hacienda.

 

[R_J_K75]

Boone's farm

I had someone once tell me that his doctor told him to drink Wild Irish Rose to get his daily vitamins. I'm serious, there's some things you just can't make up. Needless to say, everyone else in the room laughed at him for a good 5 minutes straight