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Mods, please move this elsewhere if you feel it fits better there.
Here's a topic/thread where we all can explain the reasons we chose the User names and Avatars we use here.

I have seen similar threads on other forums I frequent, and I always seem to learn things about people from them, so I figured I would create one here.

The explanations of mine are pretty boring, but I'll start anyway:

]=====[ MY USER NAME]=====[

I first accessed the Internet in 1996, when I created an account on AOL.

I had to choose a User Name (although they called them "Screen names" there).

Lacking imagination, I wanted mine to be "Robert Lancaster" (my "real life" name), but the longest a Screen name could be there was ten characters (I think because they created a folder for each user on their server, and whatever OS they used on their server was limited to folder names being to more than ten characters in length).

"Lancaster" is nine characters all by it's self, so I tried "RLancaster", but it was already taken, as was "BLancaster" ("B" for Bob).

I tried adding my middle initial: "RSLancaster", thinking that it might still be available, but even THAT was too long (by only one character).

Which character could I take out of "Lancaster", but still leave it pronounced pretty much correctly? I decided that the "e" was it.

I tried the Screen name "RSLancastr", and it was accepted! Today, eighteen years later, not only is my email address STILL "RSLancastr@aol.com, but I have used the User Name "RSLancastr" on every Internet site I've ever been to which requires a user name,

(Okay, I TOLD you that mine was boring. Yours doesn't have to be as boring - or as long).

]=====[ MY AVATAR]=====[

It's based on the logo of my "Stop Sylvia Browne" web site (http://www.StopSylvia.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;).

I created it for my avatar on a forum where I am best known for my Skeptical work (such as my Stop Sylvia site), and have used it on many forums ever since, mostly because I am too lazy to create a new/different avatar for every forum I frequent.

Okay, those are MY explanations. What are yours?

Hey,

I'm moving this to the general section.


jay

In England if you are from a diffrent country in the United Kingdom you get called certain Nicknames. If you`re from Ireland it`s Paddy ,from Wales it`s Taffy and Scotland it`s Jock. I was born and raised in Scotland so when i moved to England to live evryone just called me Jock.
The 1971 is the year i was born.

My avatar is a Thistle surrounded by Celtic Knotwork. The Thistle is the National "Flower"of Scotland and Celtic Knot work is strongly associated with Ancient Irish and Scottish art.

-Jase-

When I started learning flourishes (just before I started collecting) it was through De'vo's DVD Xtreme Beginnerz. His whole schtick was that cardistry was so cool and awesome things had to be spelled in cooler ways than normal (ie it wasn't called cardisty, it was called Xtreme Card Manipulation - XCM). So when I created my user on his forum and the old UC.net, I took what someone had uttered while seeing my early skills with a deck of cards and XCM'ifyed it.

Jock1971 wrote:In England if you are from a diffrent country in the United Kingdom you get called certain Nicknames. If you`re from Ireland it`s Paddy ,from Wales it`s Taffy and Scotland it`s Jock. I was born and raised in Scotland so when i moved to England to live evryone just called me Jock.
The 1971 is the year i was born.

My avatar is a Thistle surrounded by Celtic Knotwork. The Thistle is the National "Flower"of Scotland and Celtic Knot work is strongly associated with Ancient Irish and Scottish art.

-Jase-

See, this is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to learn about people from this topc - Thanks for the explanations!!

I was aware of the "Paddy = Irish'" thing, but had never heard of the "Taffy = Welsh" nor "Jock = Scots" things. Interesting!

In the USA, "Jock = an athlete" (or, more specifically, someone rather obsessed with being an athlete).

I might have guessed the Scottish connection of your avatar, had I been more observant. To me, a thistle means either Scotland, or the character Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh.

And I have noticed that when someone has a year in their user name, it usually is either the year in which they were born or the year they began using the Internet.

So I had deduced from your User Name and Avatar that you are an obsessive athlete who is a fan of Eeyore and who first started using the Internet in 1971.

Eerily accurate, eh?

ETA:

MagikFingerz wrote:When I started learning flourishes (just before I started collecting) it was through De'vo's DVD Xtreme Beginnerz. His whole schtick was that cardistry was so cool and awesome things had to be spelled in cooler ways than normal (ie it wasn't called cardisty, it was called Xtreme Card Manipulation - XCM). So when I created my user on his forum and the old UC.net, I took what someone had uttered while seeing my early skills with a deck of cards and XCM'ifyed it.

Interesting, thanks for explaining!

I had thought that it was perhaps your significant other's nickname for you (mine sometimes calls me "The Magic Man", and it's not because of any cardistry, believe me).

And the Avatar means that you are a big fan of the film The Matrix.

...It's almost like I'm psychic!

Yep, big fan of the Matrix. And since I felt like I could do things nobody else could (cardistry isn't big in Norway, but then again, nothing is big in a country with only 5M people), I felt The One was a fitting avatar

MagikFingerz wrote:Yep, big fan of the Matrix. And since I felt like I could do things nobody else could (cardistry isn't big in Norway, but then again, nothing is big in a country with only 5M people), I felt The One was a fitting avatar

Regarding The Matrix, I:

• loved Part One,
• was fairly indifferent to Part Two,
• was barely able to sit through Part Three.

Thank goodness there has been no Part Four.


...yet.

username:

I work in a highly overachieving/competitive profession. The phrase "the grind" refers to the daily process of working and chipping away at something that is very monotonous. I'm "On the grind" because I am currently beating my head against the corporate machine and working as hard as I can to both improve my work performance, as well as my cardistry!

Avatar:

self-explanatory.

OnTheGrind wrote:username:

I work in a highly overachieving/competitive profession. The phrase "the grind" refers to the daily process of working and chipping away at something that is very monotonous. I'm "On the grind" because I am currently beating my head against the corporate machine and working as hard as I can to both improve my work performance, as well as my cardistry!

Avatar:

self-explanatory.

So, you'e a miller?

Thanks for the explanations!

Like Robert I'm a long time internet user and started in 1994 in college during my Computer Science days, with many BBS systems before that. At that time there were few users and it was easy to have your pick of screen names and not being a sci-fi junkie (and being a bit lazy) I usually just picked my name. This extended into jobs where I often managed the systems so again had my pick and stuck with my name or a small variation. I've mixed it up a bit lately so I don't have the same exact name on every system so in this case it's a reference to my current location.

As for the avatar, I like to mix things up, changing them occasionally, and my current one here many will recognize as being borrowed from the KS project 'Pairs' and the 'Barmaids' edition. Now that I'm more established here I'll possibly create a custom one to last, but that would mean more time than I have at the moment.

ecNate wrote:Like Robert I'm a long time internet user and started in 1994 in college during my Computer Science days, with many BBS systems before that.

Yes, I was on many BBS systems, well back into the 1980s.

If you downloaded a lot of Shareware games back then, you might have tried one or more of my DOS-based Shareware games, written and released back in the 80s and early 90s:

1. MLYAHT - Microlink Yaht (a version of the old dice game "Yahtzee")
2. MLSHUT - MicroLink Shut The Box (a version of the old dice game "Shut the Box")
3. MLPUSH - MicroLink Push Your Luck (an original dice game)
4. MLOTRA - MicroLink Otra (a memory game similar to "Simon")
5. MLLOYD - MicroLink Loyd (a version of the old "15" Sliding tile game)
6. MLCRUX - MicroLink Crux (an original puzzle/matching game)

At that time there were few users and it was easy to have your pick of screen names and not being a sci-fi junkie (and being a bit lazy) I usually just picked my name. This extended into jobs where I often managed the systems so again had my pick and stuck with my name or a small variation. I've mixed it up a bit lately so I don't have the same exact name on every system so in this case it's a reference to my current location.

As for the avatar, I like to mix things up, changing them occasionally, and my current one here many will recognize as being borrowed from the KS project 'Pairs' and the 'Barmaids' edition. Now that I'm more established here I'll possibly create a custom one to last, but that would mean more time than I have at the moment.

Nice! Thanks for the explanations!

RSLancastr wrote:

MagikFingerz wrote:Yep, big fan of the Matrix. And since I felt like I could do things nobody else could (cardistry isn't big in Norway, but then again, nothing is big in a country with only 5M people), I felt The One was a fitting avatar

Regarding The Matrix, I:

• loved Part One,
• was fairly indifferent to Part Two,
• was barely able to sit through Part Three.

Thank goodness there has been no Part Four.

...yet.

The first one was an instant classic. The second I can understand why people didn't generally care for much, but I loved it. Lots of special effect action, and in my book movies don't need to have deep meanings and stories to be good. The third, well... definitely the worst of the three, and created more questions than answers. I wouldn't mind a fourth if it explained some things better and tied up some loose ends.

I think I am exempt from disclosure.

MagikFingerz wrote:The first one was an instant classic.

Agreed.

Did you see the recent film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty?

There was a scene in it where Mitty is in a car rental place in a remote area of either Iceland or Greenland (he is in both during the course of the film). When he asks the clerk if he has any cars available to rent, the clerk gestures towards the parking lot and tells him that there are two available; he has to pick between the red one and the blue one! Mitty looks out to the parking lot, and we see two tiny, almost capsule-shaped sub-compact cars, a red one and a blue one. Mitty chooses (IIRC) the blue one, and the film continues from there. I had to explain the reference to my wife.

The second I can understand why people didn't generally care for much, but I loved it. Lots of special effect action, and in my book movies don't need to have deep meanings and stories to be good.

To be honest, I don't even remember a thing about the second one now other than my "meh!" reaction to it.

The third, well... definitely the worst of the three, and created more questions than answers.

...the main questions, in my mind, being:

1. "why in the world did they even bother making this piece of crap?!?"
2. "Did the screenwriters even see Parts One and Two?"
3. "...a rave??!!??"

I wouldn't mind a fourth if it explained some things better and tied up some loose ends.

I'm not sure I would go see a fourth, were they handing out free, cast-signed decks of Bicycle "The Matrix: Part 4" playing cards at the door!

Well my username is something i came up with a longgg time ago, meaning a swift flying angel.

And my avatar ive explained somewhere some time ago, was Lotrek's take on my portrait originally intended to be in the Grotesque deck =)

volantangel wrote:Well my username is something i came up with a longgg time ago, meaning a swift flying angel.

I've seen the prefix "Volant" prefix used elsewhere since meeting you here, and have been meaning to look it up. So it means "swiftly flying"?

And my avatar ive explained somewhere some time ago, was Lotrek's take on my portrait originally intended to be in the Grotesque deck =)

I'll resist the urge to comment on a portrait of you being "grotesque", and simply say that I had detected something... "LoTtrekkish" in your avatar.

Thanks for the explanations!

Mike_Ratledge wrote:I think I am exempt from disclosure.

...but not from comment:

I think that your User Name shows that you have even less of an imagination than mine does me.

One of these days, I'll show you the avatar I wanted to create for you.

RSLancastr wrote:
If you downloaded a lot of Shareware games back then, you might have tried one or more of my DOS-based Shareware games, written and released back in the 80s and early 90s:

1. MLYAHT - Microlink Yaht (a version of the old dice game "Yahtzee")
2. MLSHUT - MicroLink Shut The Box (a version of the old dice game "Shut the Box")
3. MLPUSH - MicroLink Push Your Luck (an original dice game)
4. MLOTRA - MicroLink Otra (a memory game similar to "Simon")
5. MLLOYD - MicroLink Loyd (a version of the old "15" Sliding tile game)
6. MLCRUX - MicroLink Crux (an original puzzle/matching game)

Hah, I'm old school and I remember playing MLYAHT. I'm willing to bet that you used that particular number of characters due to either a CompuServe or Prodigy naming limitation. I'm aware of this because I also wrote a shareware game back in the early 90s which eventually got published and sold through Wal-Mart (a Windows version of PaiGow poker).

Regarding my name... nothing fancy as it's just a shortened version of my last name and what everyone calls me, even the CEO at work! The avatar is a logo I had designed by someone on Fiverr.com... a very cool site.

RSLancastr wrote:If you downloaded a lot of Shareware games back then, you might have tried one or more of my DOS-based Shareware games, written and released back in the 80s and early 90s

Very cool, but actually my time on BBS was on a Mac LCII and I didn't get into PC until a few years later. I looked up the games though and I see they are still available with a bit of a cult following at the time it seems. The screenshots remind me of the days learning to program in DOS using Pascal and the utility programs I wrote back then. 'Good ole days' with IRQs and limited memory.

Strag wrote:Hah, I'm old school and I remember playing MLYAHT.

MLYAHT was the first of my games. It also generated by far the most registrations and mail, probably because the game on which it was based (Yahtzee) was, by far, the most popular and well-known of all of the games on which I subsequently based other games. So it doesn't surprise me that it is the one of my games you played.

I'm willing to bet that you used that particular number of characters due to either a CompuServe or Prodigy naming limitation.

Careful, I think you'd lose that bet! IIRC, I used that number of characters in the file names to leave room for two characters to represent the game version (eg, MLYAHT20.ZIP contained version 2.0 of the game, etcetera), within the eight character file name limitation of DOS at the time.

MLYAHT received mostly excellent reviews, many of which said that it was the best of all of the shareware/freeware "Yahtzee clones" out there.

Here's an exerpt from a 2011 review of it on http://www.myabandonware.com/game/microlink-yaht-1te:

myabandonware.com wrote:ML Yaht remains to this day one of the best computerized versions of Yahtzee dice game ever made.

Since all six of my games used simple "text mode graphics", they were all written up (and made available for downloading) in recent years on a site devoted to old DOS games written in that mode:

http://www.textmodegames.com/

Here are the pages on that site for each of my games:

1. MLYAHT - http://www.textmodegames.com/download/ml-yaht.html
2. MLSHUT - http://www.textmodegames.com/download/zips/mlshut.zip (Link broken)
3. MLPUSH - http://www.textmodegames.com/download/zips/mlpush.zip (Link broken)
4. MLLOYD - http://www.textmodegames.com/download/ml-loyd.html
5. MLOTRA - http://www.textmodegames.com/download/zips/mlotra.zip (Link broken)
6. MLCRUX - http://www.textmodegames.com/download/ml-crux.html
   
   ... And here is an article I wrote for that site, titled "One Author’s Experience: The MicroLink Games":
   
   http://www.textmodegames.com/articles/o ... games.html
   
   And now, back to our regularly-scheduled topic:
   

   I'm aware of this because I also wrote a shareware game back in the early 90s which eventually got published and sold through Wal-Mart (a Windows version of PaiGow poker).

   Nice!
   
   None of my games were ever sold in stores (that I'm aware of, anyway), but they were, of course, carried by many of the commercial distributors of Shareware.
   

   Regarding my name... nothing fancy as it's just a shortened version of my last name and what everyone calls me, even the CEO at work! The avatar is a logo I had designed by someone on Fiverr.com... a very cool site.

   Nice! And, thanks for the explanations, Mr....Stragmeister? Straghund? Strag-alagadingdong?

ecNate wrote:

RSLancastr wrote:If you downloaded a lot of Shareware games back then, you might have tried one or more of my DOS-based Shareware games, written and released back in the 80s and early 90s

Very cool, but actually my time on BBS was on a Mac LCII and I didn't get into PC until a few years later.

That's okay, Nate - you can be my friend anyway! ("Some of my best friends are Mac users."

...but then, so is my ex-wife...

I looked up the games though and I see they are still available with a bit of a cult following at the time it seems. The screenshots remind me of the days learning to program in DOS using Pascal and the utility programs I wrote back then. 'Good ole days' with IRQs and limited memory.

Yes, they were all written in Good Ol' Turbo Pascal!

I'm not too original either.

My Username is my name irl. Spencer Burk. My jersey number in highschool football (the American one) was 49.

My avatar is the King of Spades. Which is funny, because when it come to the game Spades, I am actually, the King of Spades.

Meaning... I am better than you. Trust me.

SBurk49 wrote:I'm not too original either.

My Username is my name irl. Spencer Burk.

My jersey number in highschool football (the American one) was 49.

I'm so glad to hear that, because "S'Burk!" is very much like the sound I make after drinking a carbonated beverage too quickly. and as for "49"... let's just say I had you pegged as an old miner who drinks a lot of soda.

My avatar is the King of Spades. Which is funny, because when it come to the game Spades, I am actually, the King of Spades.

Meaning... I am better than you. Trust me.

[/quote]

A pretty safe bet, since I have never played the game.

Thanks for the explanations!

Well the name is a variation on my original Gamer tag from waaaay back. Which was simply nECrO. Like RSLancaster, I was on the internet early. 1992ish. (BBSes and Usenet baby!) Back then it was common for the elite and wanna be elite to mix cases in their names. I was somewhere in the middle then. I ended up using variations because it's been about a decade since I was able to get that name. No matter how early I got a game someone else already had nECrO. Go figure. The name itself, other than being the Greek word for corpse or dead (nekros) it is a nod to the Necroscope series of books by Brian Lumley.

As for my avatar, I get bored and change them. You will notice most are skulls. A theme you would understand if you could see my tattoos.

PS If I ever visit Texas Sburke I'll be glad to put that Spades claim to the test!

RSLancastr wrote:

OnTheGrind wrote:username:

I work in a highly overachieving/competitive profession. The phrase "the grind" refers to the daily process of working and chipping away at something that is very monotonous. I'm "On the grind" because I am currently beating my head against the corporate machine and working as hard as I can to both improve my work performance, as well as my cardistry!

Avatar:

self-explanatory.

So, you'e a miller?

Thanks for the explanations!

Haha, I'm a business/strategy consultant. Great topic btw, great idea on making it!

nECr0MaNCeD wrote:Well the name is a variation on my original Gamer tag from waaaay back. Which was simply nECrO. Like RSLancaster, I was on the internet early. 1992ish. (BBSes and Usenet baby!) Back then it was common for the elite and wanna be elite to mix cases in their names. I was somewhere in the middle then. I ended up using variations because it's been about a decade since I was able to get that name. No matter how early I got a game someone else already had nECrO. Go figure. The name itself, other than being the Greek word for corpse or dead (nekros) it is a nod to the Necroscope series of books by Brian Lumley.

As for my avatar, I get bored and change them. You will notice most are skulls. A theme you would understand if you could see my tattoos.

Thanks for the explanations!

1992? Man, that is early!

PS If I ever visit Texas Sburke I'll be glad to put that Spades claim to the test!

And the gauntlet has been thrown!

OnTheGrind wrote:Haha, I'm a business/strategy consultant. Great topic btw, great idea on making it!

Thanks, it has turned out to be pretty interesting, hasn't it?

Well, since Robert invited me, I'll join in. Hammer is most of my last name, Brohammer. In the military, unless your name is really short, it somehow gets shortened. So, Hammer it is. I went with Maddest Hammer not because I'm angry, but that I was usually the guy that said "hey y'all, watch this". Happily, I still have all my fingers and toes. In my last few years before I retired, I was the guy yelling at the kids doing the dumb stuff I probably would have done if I were their age. So, crazy, not mad. And a play on words from the Mad Hatter...

which leads in to my avatar. Why use a picture from a Disney movie, when you can beg someone you know who illustrates to draw a likeness of you with top-hat and cards for the 10/6.

And no, I'm not overly fond of Alice in Wonderland, or Lewis Carroll, but the Hatter was one CRAZY bastard.

And for a little extra, anyone curious about my signature line, I am a baseball fan, and while in San Francisco one cold summer day, my wife and I went to a Giants game. Anyone that has been to SF knows that the panhandlers are EVERYWHERE...(kinda like Paris), anyway, while leaving the game, I saw one particular, um, gentleman, sitting with his cardboard sign which said "I will kidnap and torture your boss for $1" I thought that so funny, I gave the guy a $5. Mostly because I hated my boss. Anyway, I still think it's pretty damn funny...

MGB
Rutesheim, Germany 2014

Thanks for the explanations, Hammer!

And, special thanks for the bonus/extra explanation!

Now, the next time I start one of these topics (on some other forum), I'll probably title it "Explain your forum User Name, Avatar and Sig Line"!

...which reminds me, I need to attribute mine.

ETA: Done.

nECr0MaNCeD wrote:PS If I ever visit Texas Sburke I'll be glad to put that Spades claim to the test!

Ya know I WAS going to go easy on you.

But since you've misspelled my name, no mercy.

SBurk49 wrote:

nECr0MaNCeD wrote:PS If I ever visit Texas Sburke I'll be glad to put that Spades claim to the test!

Ya know I WAS going to go easy on you.

But since you've misspelled my name, no mercy.

You have my most profound apologies sir.

As for taking it easy.... My grandma said, bring it.... don't sing it...

SBurk49 wrote:But since you've misspelled my name, no mercy.

In all fairness, I think that he simply found the "e" apparently missing from my User name and gave it a new home in yours.

And hey, note that it is, at least, a silent "e" when appended to yours: Looks different, but sounds the same!

But I do feel your pain in this, as I cringe whenever I see someone misspelling mt last name as "Landcaster".