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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
 Posted - 12/20/2004 : 21:13:16
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(This may have been brought up before-- if so, then perhaps Dave could just direct this post there...)
After being a member here for over a year, I've seen some interesting user names. Some are (or rather, seem) easy enough to figure out. Dave W is perhaps a first name and last initial. tkster is likely a first and last initial with a fun -ster ending (remember that SNL skit where Rob Schneider plays the Richmeister? "The tkster, makin' copies..."). Wendy is probably her first name.
My user name, Cuneiformist, refers to my field of graduate study-- the culture of ancient Mesopotamia. Because the two main languages, Akkadian and Sumerian, were written in the cuneiform script, many scholars refer to themselves as cuneiformists.
But what about other user names? Why Siberia? Or @tomic or way or, for god's sake, verlch?
Have an interesting story behind your user name? Or care to explain a cryptic one? Post here and share with the rest of us!
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
Posted - 12/20/2004 : 21:37:40 [Permalink]
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I'd guessed the meaning of your handle, Cuneiformist, but how does one pronounce it?
And Dave W. is actually a cunning encrypted anagram of a... no, it's my first name and last initial. 
By the way, the only "what's your user name mean?" thread I remember is the one over on SkepticTimes. But don't forget: I haven't been here since the dawn of the SFN. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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gezzam
SFN Regular
Australia
751 Posts |
Posted - 12/20/2004 : 21:45:20 [Permalink]
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gezzam is just made up of my nick-name (Gezza, from Gerald) and my last name (Meyer-Heinrich, a mouthfull and an absolute pain in the arse surname to have in primary school - kids can be so cruel)
I like it now, not as common as Smith or Nguyen...lol
Most of the time gezza is taken, but gezzam never is, so I use that everywhere......keep it simple.... |
Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it's a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from.
Al Franken |
| Edited by - gezzam on 12/20/2004 21:47:01 |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 12/20/2004 : 21:48:51 [Permalink]
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Humbert Humbert is the main character of Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita, which I consider to be perhaps the finest book ever written (perhaps only eclipsed by Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian.)
I adopted the moniker rather spur of the moment when I signed up. It was just one of the first names that popped into my head, although I do find something mesmerizing in the cadent repetition. Of the name, Nabokov himself wrote: "The double rumble is, I think, very nasty, very suggestive. It is a hateful name for a hateful person."
Unlike the character, I don't consider myself a hateful person (and neither am I a murdering pedophile), but there were other complexities of the character I did identify with. But really, I consider the name to be no more than an easy to spell alias.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
| Edited by - H. Humbert on 12/20/2004 22:05:51 |
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 12/20/2004 : 22:12:59 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dave W.
I'd guessed the meaning of your handle, Cuneiformist, but how does one pronounce it?
Ahhh-- good question. The Brits say the word cuneiform like /kew-ne-form/, while in the States we say is /kew-ne-ih-form/. Obviously, I say it in the latter way, so my name (to me) is /kew-ne-ih-form-ist/. Brits (or Aussies?) may say it differently...
Also, I only brought up the idea that a similar thread was brought up before because I recall long ago-- when I first started visiting here-- seeing something similar. However, since I tend to purge most things over 3 hours old, I may have either made it up, or seen it at another forum... who knows? |
| Edited by - Cuneiformist on 12/20/2004 22:15:38 |
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tw101356
Skeptic Friend
USA
333 Posts |
Posted - 12/20/2004 : 22:15:26 [Permalink]
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TW is for Tom Wallace - a childhood friend who died in a car accident at age 10. 101356 was the day he was born. I picked it as a pseudonym because it was more likely to be available when registering for something on the internet.
- TW |
- TW
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 12/20/2004 : 22:44:17 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by tw101356
TW is for Tom Wallace - a childhood friend who died in a car accident at age 10. 101356 was the day he was born. I picked it as a pseudonym because it was more likely to be available when registering for something on the internet.
Interesting-- from rather evil-sounding book characters to the memory of a childhood friend lost many years ago to variations on one's own real-life nickname. I wonder what other strange explnations are behind user names.
Another question: do people keep the same name (or similar ones, e.g. Smith vs. Smith1) at other forums or websites? I have a small rotation of usernames, though, for instance, at TheForce.net I refuse to actually join until I can think of a suitable "Darth" name. And as Darth Cuneiformist doesn't have an cool-enough ring to it, I have yet to join. |
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way
New Member
USA
35 Posts |
Posted - 12/20/2004 : 23:03:54 [Permalink]
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Well, for those of you that remember "real" video games (Space Invaders, Asteroids, etc.) and the video game arcades then you'll also remember putting in your initials (3 character limit) for getting one of the top ten high scores. I thought that something other than my true initials was called for so WAY became my 3 character nickname. It is taken from my first name which might easily be guessed at this point.
I still use it as an alias to this day. |
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Plyss
Skeptic Friend
Netherlands
231 Posts |
Posted - 12/21/2004 : 00:29:22 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Cuneiformist
Have an interesting story behind your user name? Or care to explain a cryptic one? Post here and share with the rest of us!
Back when i used to play MultiUser Dungeons i needed a nick for a new character i wanted to create. This was during my graduation year and one thing i did frequently was protein expression in [i]E.coli[/]. Now the expression system we used made use of a T7 bacteriophage promotor in front of the genes we were interested in for high expression. However these promotors are somewhat "leaky", there is still some expression without the T7 promotor being activated. This is undesired if the gene products you are interested in are highly toxic or in another way detrimental. The way to circumvent this was to add a plasmid called PLysS which surpressed this background expression.
Anyway, Plyss then struck me as a funny (and almost unique) nick and i've used it on the MUD i played for many years. So when i decided to unlurk at SFN it was the first thing that came to mind. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 12/21/2004 : 02:57:55 [Permalink]
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Filthy because I am; lower case 'f' because I'm lazy as well. Why, when winter comes along, I sew my self into a set of long johns and don't come out of them 'till spring. The last time I took a bath, the septic tank backed up and had to be pumped out. And then the pump broke.
Soap and water are, indivudally, pretty much harmless. But combine them and they react into a foul and deadly, corrosive substance that will destroy all of your protective insulation.
I haven't shaved in 30 years and don't even own a razor.
And my motorcycle hasn't been washed for over a quarter of a century. It is caked in layers crud from all over the country.
Furthermore... Oh... Don't believe that, huh? Fucking skeptics....
Ok, it's the first half of the road name, 'Filthy Phil', given to me by a well-known M/C, back in the early '60s. It's stuck to me for lo, these many decades.
Sometimes I go by Duvenoy, an intentional misspelling of Duvernoy, the man who first described a serpents venom delivery system. The venom gland is called, 'duvernoy's organ.'
Oh, and the part about the motorcycle, a chopped,'46 Harley 'U' model, is true. It has won a great many show trophies in the Ratbike Class and always draws a crowd where ever it goes. It gets gets comments like: "My gawd, does that thing actually run?" And, "I'd be ashamed to be seen with that!" 
The razor part is also true.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 12/21/2004 : 05:23:33 [Permalink]
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K, here we go...
I'm a mad roleplayer since I was 12. Being fond of horses, I roleplayed, well, horses (still do) in online, play-by-post games, those that make you write obnoxiously long, almost book-like posts. That's how I learned english enough to be writing this post without a dictionary, in first place.
Last year, while chatting with an online buddy, we were trying to come up with a new character, a mare named... Siberia! I'm fond of russian history as well, so that's one of the reasons. My games aren't really realistic, horses behave almost like humans, speak and such (hey, it's fantasy world anyway). So, I liked her so much she's been promoted to my (future, unfinished, attempt of) book's main character (she's human in that one)! I use it as my alias 'cause, a) I like the word, b) I love my pony, c) I love my human, d) I just like it, damnit.
That's the tale.
And by the way, Lolita's a great book. |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 12/21/2004 : 05:45:15 [Permalink]
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| BigPapaSmurf is one of the names that The Collector aka The Comic Book Guy allowed Lucy Lawless to call him when he kidnapped her. Also I DMed a D&D game where Papa Smurf became a powerful anti-hero, which was classic. |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 12/21/2004 : 06:15:52 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by BigPapaSmurf
BigPapaSmurf is one of the names that The Collector aka The Comic Book Guy allowed Lucy Lawless to call him when he kidnapped her. Also I DMed a D&D game where Papa Smurf became a powerful anti-hero, which was classic.
I knew I'd heard that somewhere! I remember, now.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 12/21/2004 : 06:56:05 [Permalink]
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Gorgo was me dear mum's name. 
I have used revgorgo, as am an ordained minister (universal life), but cut it back to Gorgo after a nickname that was given to me based on how I looked with safety glasses on. Comes from a movie I've never seen, and has nothing to do with mum. Sorry, I lied.
edited to make reality seem more palatable. |
I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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| Edited by - Gorgo on 12/21/2004 06:59:40 |
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Wendy
SFN Regular
USA
614 Posts |
Posted - 12/21/2004 : 07:29:42 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Cuneiformist
Wendy is probably her first name.
Good guess, but no. Kim(berly) is my first name. It's not my middle name either, though I will only reveal that under torture.
Wendy is a nickname my Dad gave me when I was a child, because I loved for him to read Peter Pan to me, and I used to pretend that I could fly.
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Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do on a rainy afternoon.
-- Susan Ertz
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 12/21/2004 : 07:37:20 [Permalink]
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| Oh, yeah... and in some places I go as 'Dreia', the last letters of my first name (Andreia, of course). |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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