So why'd you choose your username, anyway?

[Belligerent Savant]

.

[Edited out unnecessary added detail]

I proposed the plural version of my username as a pseudo-band name during a recent gathering of former social misfits. The first word can be considered [at times] an apt descriptor; the second word, not so much...

[ShinShinKid]

Well, the sword school I study is called Shin Shin Ryu, so, I just took that and added kid on the end.
I kind of like the word...kid.

[psynapz]

It's a bit of a hologram:

synapse = the spark gap across which neural activity fires like lightning, creating the epiphenomenon of consciousness. When dormant, it's sleeping. Sometimes just napping. Sometimes it's controlled into this state, a state of non-processing. Such a tiny, simple thing, so easily controlled, yet en masse so indescribably powerful.

psy = psychological-as-in-psyops, coercing us into napz of unawareness.

psy = psychic, or psi = psionic, as in the metaphysical transcendence of the mind to exert will upon reality exterior to physical manipulation by the body, if awake.

PSI = pounds-per-square-inch, a measurement of pressure. Our minds are under ever-increasing pressure while our consciousnesses doze in peaceful slumber, blissfully unaware of the crushing force of weight bearing down upon us by TPTB and the mess they've made for us.

napz = sleeping, plural, as in frequently and/or en masse.

napz = nappies, as in diapers, as in taking a big steaming (psy)brain-dump wherever I happen to be standing.

wet-naps = quick hand cleansing after a purchased meal, so psynapz = quick mental wipe-ups after consuming a high-calorie infomeal of questionable ingredients

Spelling with a Z = throwback to w@r3z$p3@k, d@\/\/g! 3133+ h@x0rZ r00l! = solidarity with Anonymous

[stefano]

When I was 22 I lived in a house in a forest outside Stellenbosch, renting with two mates. Our nearest neighbours were pretty much subsistence farmers, living out there about eight to a little house and doing odd jobs to get by. They had somehow got the idea that my name was Stefano (my name sounds almost nothing like 'Stefano') and came to the fence and called me that loudly when they wanted a lift to town, which I helped them out with from time to time. One of my housemates decided that they'd picked the name because I look like Stefano DiMera, the villain in Days of our lives. I definitely did not look like that when I was trim and rosy-cheeked, but have to admit that I am no longer either of those.

[marycarnival]

Many moons ago, I started my first email account. It was hosted on a good friend's basement server. Having never had an email account before, I was at a loss as to what my username should be...this was also a server that hosted IRC (or however that works), so my email name was my IRC name as well, so I wanted it to be really boffo...

My friend told me of a factoid that she had read, about a couple about to have a baby girl. The mother wanted a traditional, classic name, and the father wanted an unusual, quirky name. They compromised and named the child Mary Carnival. I liked the sound of that, so I chose that as my username....has been my email/forum/hulu/whateveryounameit name ever since. I imagine that if this little story is true, that there is a woman out there who is really named Mary Carnival. If so, I'd like to meet her, at least so that I could apologize for stealing her name!

Edited for funky grammar

[Avalon]

I've spent time in Glastonbury, and had some life-changing experiences there.

[DoYouEverWonder]

It's a reference to a song from this album. And I like that it was a question that could be asked in a couple of different ways, with different meanings.

[semper occultus]

idly googling for Kelly Brook - as one does - * she was mentioned* in connection with some rubbish-sounding "female James Bond" film project with my eponymous title.

it means "always hidden" & was a motto for MI6 so :

my username keeps me "hidden"
it has an intel connection
I thought it sounded sort of mysterious & possibly a bit cool - ideal internet camouflage as I am neither of those in RL.

[82_28]

[freemason9]

Well, the sword school I study is called Shin Shin Ryu, so, I just took that and added kid on the end.
I kind of like the word...kid.

you have a sword?

[Luther Blissett]

In the fall of my senior year at design school, I was tasked with choosing a thesis subject for my senior design project. It'd be a book that we'd be expected to design, produce, and bind multiple, identical copies of.

I really liked the magazine Dazed and Confused; mainly because I consider myself to be pretty well culturally-informed and that magazine was really ego-busting in that regard. Every issue seemed like this universe that was impossible to tap into; it almost felt like a hoax at times (reminding me of a handful of "punk"-ish zines which hoaxed entire scenes in little rural towns in my teenage years, which were delivered to shows in larger cities. I fell for it once and went on a drive looking for one of these areas in the middle of the night, TOTALLY believing that there was a Star Wars collectible-themed antique store, jazz cafe, and 24-hour diner in this little old PA Dutch burg in the middle of nowhere). The subtitles often read like this: "This month, Dazed visits with Eskewich+Elkevitch, the dynamic pair whose new work in the Maidstone Covenant scene has been exploding for the last 18 months or so. Come take a dive amongst the tulips and gypsies with us." Like, WTF does any of that even mean? I just read an introduction that tells me absolutely nothing about the article I'm about to read. Work? Exploding? Google any phrase for hints of context and get nothing. Maybe it was because I am American and just couldn't understand what they were talking about, but I always took delight in exploring these strange unknowns.

Anyway, Dazed is primarily an avant fashion and culture magazine, but back then it was a little more heavy on the culture, and the actual layout of the magazine was genre-pushing. I have held onto the old random copies that I would have purchased back then. It was the "Word" issue that year which covered a lot of literature and gonzo journalism. Towards the back I stumbled upon a piece on Luther Blissett. It was, at its very essence, confusing; and this, more than most other pieces contained within, seemed as fake as could possibly be.

Luther Blissett was an anonymous, deconstructed multiple-personality street project carried out by anarchists from Bologna, largely against the fascism of Prime Minister Berlusconi. Blissett was a former footballer from the UK who had once played for AC Milan, one of Berlusconi's teams. Through some sort of good old fashioned Italian racism, Blissett was derided and sent back to the UK. His name seemed like a perfect symbol with which to attack the establishment.

A lot of what I found at first was rather heady, dry, masculine, and heavy on the Eco-isms - especially on the Luther Blissett website at the time. The deeper I went, the more romantic I found it, and their projects, to be. I tried to imagine a graffitied, mobile anarchist talk radio van on rainy Bologna streets at 3am, the gatecrashed bus parties, a chimp on television, the delightful exposure of psyops in colorful 90's Italian mass media, a Reformation-era tale told in swarthy modern language. I settled on doing my thesis project on Blissett, largely based on the Dazed article, which in and of itself seemed almost to be part of it. I felt that the themes of the legend fit well with the personal story I was starting to develop in my style which would eventually lead me to success in my field - carrying the themes of modernism, socialism, dissent, beauty, ecology and optimism.

The production of the book was invigorating and I would often have my professor literally howling with delight. He wanted me to be outside, doing THINGS, and using them in the book. It was one of my favorite times in my life and set me up well for a very creative, very wild post-graduate year.

In the end, my thesis was a success, and the Luther Blissett project eventually because Wu Ming. I felt that it had lost a bit of its jangly, 90's eurolustre, but everyday I could see the spirit of the project being carried out in new ways. While in totality it seemed to be happening completely outside of the realm of the harsh realities of the Bush administration, much of the groundwork laid by Blissett and Wu Ming is alive today in cultural spaces occupied by Anonymous, 4chan, Wikileaks, and this place (the analysis wing of the contemporary web activist universe). It often informs me, in the back of my mind, with any activism I take part in. And as a nom de plume which very specifically states to the world "I am anonymous", what a perfect handle.

It was only later, after I pulled a faux pas in the General Discussion by posting not only a personal appeal, but one that revolved around child abuse, was I informed of one Blissett project that is not written about very much and of which I, a self-professed Blissett expert, was unaware (and even now, a search of Luther Blissett and "satanic panic" returns little results of substance). Knowing what I know about the project, its founders and its spirit, I cannot say what the motivation was behind this. However, it certainly ruffled some here and made them very suspicious of me. I promise that I was genuinely unaware, and hope that most people here do not associate my username with satanic panic.

I am very fond of the history behind this username and think that the very small, very localized operations it carried out in Italy in the mid-to-late 1990's really set the stage for modern dissidents using internet / real life means to carry out humorous pranks and attacks on present-day fascist entities. That could just be romantic old me, but it's still a rather straight path when studied in the broader scope.

[Alyxical]

I actually regret my choice of username so much that it's one of the reasons why I almost never say anything here (though the main reason is that you're all about fifty times smarter than I am, and therefore I don't have a heck of a lot to contribute).

But I haven't changed it because I can't think of another one I like. Plus Jeff used it when he signed my copy of his book, which makes me feel absurdly sentimentally attached to it.

I used Snow White Rabbit as a name on another site ages ago, and foolishly did not stop to think, when I signed up here, that having "white rabbit" in my name might be a very bad idea. It simply represented a fusion of two of my research interests (folklore and entheogens) at the time when I started using it.

[Seamus OBlimey]

Don't ask, don't see, don't tell..

[Nordic]

Do I really need to explain?

I do not find these women attractive because they look too much like family members:

[bardobailey]

The second time I met Ram Dass I was wearing a name tag with this name on it. He giggled. I saluted and walked away. It seemed appropriate to resurrect it when I signed in here.