Explain Yourself!
 

On this, the occasion of my 100th POST, I thought I'd start a thread about something that I've been wondering about for a while now:

I'd love to know the stories behind the names that Cellar Dwellars use here.

Some Dwellars have already 'fessed up in other threads. We've seen explainations for the origins of Undertoad, dhamsaic, and even yours truly. And some names we can make confident guesses about. I'd bet a fair sum that there's a real Lisa behind Lisa... Galadriel probably went through that awkward JRR Tolkien phase in 8th grade... ndetroit is probably... mmmmm... in Detroit? Or, maybe not.

Some are just plain mysterious. What are we to make of Warch, for instance? Or Slight? Chewbaccus? Scopulus Argentarius? The ubiquitous Sycamore? And a bunch more too numerous to list here.

In a way it would be nicer to preserve the mystery... but I wouldn't be here in the first place if my curiosity didn't usually get the better of me. So, if you feel like sharing your etymology, please don't hold back.

on this, the occasion of my 200th post... oh, nevermind...

sycamore posted his. but i forget what it was. and why. and where. so really, i'm just here to take up space.

for those too lazy: my name is dave ham, and i work at saic. real simple.

most places, though, i go by the handle "becoming"... so i'll share that one with you:

there's a song, by nine inch nails, called "the becoming"... track 7 on halo eight... it has a very special meaning to me, and it's been with me through some very defining moments of my life... the song fit me pretty well... and it's just sorta stuck... i'd recommend hunting down the lyrics (probably at www.nineinchnails.net, i think they still operate) and reading them for a better understanding...

[Edited to remove comma after URL]

Galadriel... Cate Blanchett... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.... Cate Blanchett....

the perfect woman? I think so. :)

Hmmmm...mysterious eh? Here's the mystery busting scoop- Warch is an old tag given accidently when I was 10. I won a swimming contest (big deal for my kid ego) and while triumphantly (I thought) recieving my award, my last name was mutated into Warch in the presentation and on the ribbon. My family had a great laugh at this and as they are given to relentless goodnatured torture, never allowing one to get to big for their britches, it has been in continuous use celebrating my humble status, rather like "Biff". Elementary (school) my dear Hubristic one.
:)

"The me that you know, he used to have feelings..."

Great song, dham. I believe I briefly explained my story when NBN brought up the Terence Trent D'Arby lyric in another thread. Ah, I like the full story though. :)

So, how did one Terry Blastenbrei of St. Louis become a tree? It's rather simple.

Sycamore is the name of the musical project that I started in 1993, of which I was the primary songwriter and vocalist. Don't ask where the name came from...it just sounded cool. Sound--think "Psalm 69"-era Ministry meeting a hokey drum machine. The whole Sycamore project consisted of two (very bad) recordings in 1993 and 1995, one (bad) performance at a school theatre guild party in 1994, and two appearances on KDHX 88.1 FM in St. Louis in 1993 (The station is listener-supported. A buddy of mine had an alternative show on Thursday afternoons...we came on and sang the theme to "Small Wonder."). I keep threatening to resurrect it, but I wouldn't fit well in a band, and I'm really only interested in doing spoken word these days.

When I started whoring myself big time to the internet in 1997, I settled upon the "Sycamore" moniker, which I prefer as my nickname today. In high school and college (and still to a degree today), my nickname was "T-money." For whatever reason, my friends and I thought it would be cool to have hard hip-hop nicknames, circa 1991. When we first started Sycamore, I was known as T-money, the Round Mound of Sound. When I lost 70 pounds in 1994, it changed to T-money, the Lean Mean Sound Machine. Furthermore, I hate my real name, and so many people on the 'net know me only as Sycamore (which is primarily here and in old Depeche Mode fan circles). In real life, most people just call me T.

What is funny is what people THINK the name means. Some quote the Terence Trent D'Arby lyric from "Wishing Well." Others think I am some sort of hippie. *laughs* But it's not an "internet persona" of sorts...I act no different here than I do in real life. NBN can vouch for that.

Myinvisible nick
 

Only those who remember me from the "old days" remember the nick I used to use. Keymaster.

Even though I retired that name years ago, I still hear it now and then from old friends and I will post it's genesis one more time for those who don't know/remember whence it came.

In my computer infancy (1984 or so), I was looking for a handle that wasn't like all the others (famous personalities, comic book characters, etc) and was a bit original. So I decided on Keymaster. As in Master of Keys. Follow that thought a little and you get Master of Keyboards or Master of computers. Simple, no?

Then along came Ghostbusters. I haven't lived that down even yet. And me without even copyright protection to sue under.

I just made lemonade out of that particular lemon and went on with my pitiful excuse for a life.

Please keep the name reverently in KAOS g-files and don't profane the bandwidth with it.

Brian

i like ziggurats :)

I got this name from my dad.

BTW, Cate Blanchett can't be the perfect woman as long as Charlize Theron is around.

ugh.

Charlize Theron is kinda cute... if the light hits her face the right way, and you're really really tired, and you haven't had sex in a month... if those conditions were met, I could understand her being considered "desireable"... and she was definitely cute in "The Cider House Rules"...

however, examine: http://us.imdb.com/Name?Theron,+Charlize

notice the "headshot" picture... now, I of all people understand that a picture is just what you looked like at that moment from that certain angle... *but*... and this is a big *but*... Charlize Theron constantly looks awful. Or, at least, awful to me. Now. This automatically rules her out of the "perfect" running. She may well be an exceptionally nice person, compassionate, intelligent, etc. But the term "perfect" would seem to imply that one found her attractive at all times. And that, my friend, is just not a very becoming picture, meaning that she, therefore, cannot be ruled to be "perfect".

Note that Cate Blanchett is stunning *and* cute in every photograph taken of her. So she's got that one licked. From listening to her talk and reading about her on various magazine sites and whatnot (no, I'm not stalking - I've read about Charlize Theron and Kevin Spacey and just about everyone else - *movie addict*), I can have a reasonable expectation that she's above average intelligence as well. In addition, she even has an accent! Perfect in that I could give her a hard time for being an Australian. :)

Feh. The ignorance of youth.

The perfect woman is CNN's Christiane Amanpour. In the last 24 hours, she's gone into ex-Taliban houses looking for, and finding, evidence that they were gathering information on nuclear weaponry. She's bold, driven, knows what's important, gets her sources and shows no fear in the face of conflict.

"In the last 24 hours, she's gone into ex-Taliban houses looking for, and finding, evidence that they were gathering information on nuclear weaponry. She's bold, driven, knows what's important, gets her sources and shows no fear in the face of conflict."

I believe the proper word for that is stupidity.

Actually, the perfect woman (to me) isn't Cate Blanchett, but I can't say who it is here, 'cause then you'd all know. Toad knows what I'm talking about. But that's all I can say... Cate Blanchett is pretty cute though :)

Nope. It's intelligence in various definitions.

I have to edit this. And be more carfull!

:)

Could you point me to a reference? And also, what is the definition of this intellegence of which you speak? :)

Duh...well no...but Christiane could...um..but shes not in town right now...sorry;)

hey I need all the help I can get! I'm kinda challanged.

*watches in amazement as yet another thread careens out of control*

Bah. You're ALL wrong!

Theron and Blanchett are Barbie dolls. Amanpour's just a Trouble Tourist with a camera. The PERFECT woman is... *drumroll* National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.

Man! What a package! Intelligence. Power. Guts. Nice legs. It doesn't get any better than that!