[sept1c_tank]

How did you develope your screen name?

I've often wondered about some of the crazy screen names attached to geocachers. Some are obvious. (maybe not ) Some are downright hilarious .

Several people have questioned mine, so here is the explanation:


I recently spent 9 months in Australia. Aussies definitely enjoy the english language.

Among other quirks, the Aussies use a lot of slang including some Cockney rhyming slang.

In Cockney rhyming slang, septic tank refers to Americans. (Tank rhymes with Yank)

Being a Yank, I thought sept1c_tank fit pretty well.



HOW DID YOU ARRIVE AT YOUR SCREEN NAME?

[DustyJacket]

MY story is boring.
Back in 1998, my wife bought the DustyJacket.com domain name for selling collectible books.
(DustyJacket -- dust jacket)

At the time I used to use BillAtHome everywhere because I was a programmer - contractor working out of my house.

When I got an "honest" job, I needed a new name, so I started using DustyJacket -- especially as my wife gave up selling the books -- she'd rather keep them. So now, I've taken over the domain for my own use....

Although, after I started caching in the winter months, I noticed that when I got back to the office after a lunch cache, my jacket was awfully dusty, so I guess it applies.......

DustyJacket
Not all those that wander are lost. But in my case...

[Swagger]

I go caching (sometimes) on my motorcycle, which is a cruiser. Not terribly creative, I know...

--
Random quote:

[quills]

mine came from when i was in the service. my hair was very short and when i combed it back it stood straight up. one of my buddys said it looked like i had a porcupine on my head. it stuck with me the whole time i was in the service. i figure if it's not broken why fix it. it's worked for this long.

[Og's outfit]

We bought a garden statue, (the one in my avatar), and my daughter and I were trying to think of a name for him. We decided upon the name of my Great-Great uncle, Oglesby May. Og for short. I started using that name when I played online games even though I'm a woman. I thought it a pretty cool name.


That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!


OG

Prophetically Challenged (or is that Pathetically?)

[GeneralBracket]

My first screen name was Col. Bracket. I used this because WAY back in the day me and a friend of mine used to play a computer game called LHX. It was a helicopter sim game. When typing a name into the game I began to type "Col." and accidently hit the "[" key. And so it was "Col. [" (bracket).

We'll after a few years it became clear that nobody got the joke. At the time it didn't occur to me to just type out the word "Bracket". So, I went in search of a new nym.

Back then one of my favorite movies was Planet of the Apes (the original). I wanted to pick a character name from the movie. Thinking (correctly in retrospect) that a remake could happen one day, I wanted to choose an obscure name that would be unlikely to make it into a remake. So it was to be General Ursus, the ape general from the second movie, Beneath Planet of the Apes. I used that for a long time.

Recently (a few months ago) I discovered a rather unsavory character had been using the nym. I traced it back as far as I could but was unable to prove who used it first. I just decided to abandon it and look for a new one. I remembered my old nym and this time it did occur to me to just spell it out. So, I decided to reclaim it and keep the promotion I had received when changing the first time.

So it's General Bracket.

[Tahosa and Sons]

Tahosa - Dweller of Mountain Tops.
Just look where my real caches are and you will see what I mean.

The orgin of the name comes from the Kiowan Language, and since I have lots of respect and admiration for our Native Americans. I just adopted it and carry their spirits with me when I go into the back country.

Tahosa - Dweller of Mountain Tops.

[Cat'N'Geo]

Once long ago & far away, when dirt was still being fit into the R&D budget...

There was a game Called Shadowrun, in the original book of rules is a cartoon of a mage who is wearing a button that says "668 Neighbor of the Beast" I spent about 3 days laughing at that, on and off.

My Charecter in the game started out with the handle "Gladhand" cause he had a cybernetic hand with 6 super sharp blades buit into it a la Freddy Krueger.

But everytime he got into a fight he would use grenades, and kill the enemy before he could close to hand to hand (oops).

And get Really DUSTY.

About that time Quake came out for the IBM 486. I needed a nickname. Dusty, was taken. I've used this ever since.

They say this universe is bound to blow,
I say we crank up the Calypso Control!
~Jimmy Buffett

~Someday I Will~

[junglehair]

It was near the end of the year at college, and I was long overdue for a haircut. A friend (english was not her first language and tact not her strong suit) said to me "your hair looks like a jungle today!"

-Junglehair

I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken.

[wannafly]

my name is pretty self explanatory, i just want to fly!

[briansnat]

I kind of whish I was more imaginative, because I just used my e-mail name. Brian...which is my first name (duh) and Snat, which has been my nickname as long as I can remember. Actually its a shortened version of my last name, which is long and Polish.

"Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, he'll sit in a boat and drink beer all day" - Dave Barry

[Alan2]

Alan was already being used.

Alan2

[Wildgoose]

One of my favorite movies, "The Wildgeese".

"No matter where you go, there you are."

[tozainamboku]

My geocaching handle is the Japanese pronunciation of the following kanji:
? East, ? West, ? South, ? North

(The characters will show as squares or question marks if your computer/browser doesn't recognize Unicode or you don't have a Chinese/Japanese character font. But you can see the characters in my avatar).

I spent some time working in Japan back in the 80's.

東西南北
-- I found it in the last place I looked.

[Stunod]

My screen name is my dog's name, Stunod (Stu for short). Since most people thought it was a cruel name ("Stunod" is Southern Italian dialect for "stupid" or having one's head in the clouds and not paying attention, from the Italian "stonato" which means, "out of tune"), I tell everyone he was named for "donuts" spelled backwards.


"Just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand."

[CYBret]

Way back when I got my first aol account I was "Bre_1t," since my name is Bret with just ONE "T" as opposed to the more common 2 "T" variety. Of course, the underscore and lowercase L confusion cause problems, so I needed to change it.

About that time, the TV show Friends had just become popular, so I adopted the name ChandlerB for all my online activities (which mostly meant chatting on the Undernet). Then a porn distributor from Manila started using the same nick on Undernet, so I had to change again. Seemed pretty silly to fight for a nickname that was going to cause more trouble than it was worth!

One night I tried typing "Cyber-Bret" and noticed that they almost ran together, so I switched it to "CYBret" and it just kinda stuck. So far no one's doing anything like distributing disturbing photos of Winston Churchill in compromising positions with this nickname.....but give em time.

Bret

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.
When a man found it, he hid it again." Mt. 13:44

[cachew nut]

quote:

---

I tell everyone he was named for "donuts" spelled backwards.

---

Good thing you didn't call your dog Oznorts

[Northern-Lights]

Actually....we read through the forums for a week or more before we actually registered. We knew/learned that teams usually have a card and a picture/avatar for their team. We decieded to pick something that told a little about us and yet could still get a decent avatar. We used to live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan...and love the northern lights and the north country in general...hence, the name.

If God is your co-pilot, it's time to change seats!!!

http://www.mi-geocaching.org/

[Gonna Find It]

I spent a lot of time deliberating over this very item - usually I use my email address (or part of it) or something else Gator-related. But I like the more game-centered name, and I like the way it sounds out loud - maybe something you would call over your shoulder as you were trotting past a Geomuggle on the way to a hunt, or something you could use as a mantra if you were starting to get frustrated...



Wolfie

------------------------------------------------
"Is it peas?" - Ellen

[Dru Morgan]

I'm impressed we made it this far without being Markwelled. Maybe it is a sign of the times that there are so many new people and all the old timers who did this thread last year have moved on (or mellowed out). I'll answer again.

I first started here with "TheHeavenlyHost" as that is my domain name. I have a web hosting business, and am a Christian, so the play on words just worked. But I spend a lot of time in #geocaching, and people started calling me THH or had to type the whole thing out. I changed my nick in there to DruMorgan (which is my real name) and then people didn't associate me with my geocaching alias. So, I paid my membership and changed my name to Dru Morgan and my title to The Heavenly Host. Once I made the transition, I dropped the title in favor of changing it to suit my mood. Now, I'm stuck with my real name.
Besides, who wants to go to a picnic and have people say, "Hey, there's FTF-Dude-69!"
hehe

Ever notice how anyone that caches more than you do is a maniac, while anyone that caches less than you do is an idiot? -Dru Morgan

[Mr. 0]

Well mine is car related, and is probably going to bore most people here.....but here goes.

Let me start off by saying I'm really into racing....basically if it goes fast, I'm interested. Anyhow I do a little drag racing from time to time as a hobby. A couple years back I bought an '89 Mustang Convertible that I was going to strip down, and convert into a more race dedicated car. It had the little 4 cyl. motor, and didn't run. The guy told me it blew the head gaskets. No big deal as I was going to scrap the motor anyhow and replace it with something bigger. A friend of mine who told me about the car started calling me Mr. 4 Banger (For those who don't know....basically poking fun at the fact that my stang had a much smaller engine than his). So after a little time of searching for the motor I wanted and coming up empty handed, I decided that I wanted to drive it, since it sat in my garage for a few months. So I started to tear the engine apart to fix the head gaskets, and discovered they were fine and that one of the pistons had blown up. It was laying in the oil pan in chunks. So at that point the same friend started calling me Mr. 3 banger due to the lost piston/cylinder. Then I went ahead and yanked the engine because I was bored....again that friend then started calling me Mr. 0 (Typed as the number zero, pronunced Mr. Oh) since I now had zero cyl in my car. I eventually got fed up and sold it on e-bay.


I told you it was long and boring.

Mr. 0

"Remember that nature and the elements are neither your friend or your enemy - they are actually disinterested."

Department of the Army Field Manual FM 21-76 "Survival" Oct. 1970

[The Falcon]

Bak in 1984, I was deep in the forests of Northern Canada when I got off course and was lost for weeks. I was forced to live of the land, capturing wild rabits and deer with snares, building dew traps to catch water each morning as the sun broke through the trees, a rebirth of myself and the land. I abandoned my need for possesions, for reliance on others for shelter, for food. I was responsible for mylself, I was in charge of my destiny.

After months of living like a wild man, a falcon came to me, and told me how to leave the forest. It was revelaed to me that the falcon was my spirt animal, and has guided me in life ever since.

=====
It is the tale, not he who tells it."

[The Frantic Cachers]

When I was 12 I got my first job as a golf caddy at the local country club. When you are young you are given a nickname...mine being Pancake. Please don't ask why cause I really couldn't tell you. For some reason the name had stuck to the point even my mother was callin me it. Since then, I was called evenything from cake, to cake man to Pan man to flapjack, to 15 years later Pan. Even my wife sometimes calls me it. So to keep a long story short, my screennames usually have the infamous Pan in it.

oddly enough I am a cook and it has nothing to do with that

[Renegade Knight]

It was an accident of fate.

Or Destiny. I'm not sure yet.

[carleenp]

Mine is boring. Carleenp is my real name! I just don't spell out the last name. I did add "pika cacher." That is because I was into pokemon at the time I signed up as a paying member. I am still into pokemon to some extent, at least I still think pikachu is totally cute, but I have moved on to other much more interesting (and less cute) japanese animation since then. Regardless, my pika cacher handle will remain.

[Tsegi Mike and Desert Viking]

Tsegi is Navajo for *canyon*. Mike's family is from Canyon de Chelly on the Navajo Reservation. I'm of Norwegian descent. I live in the desert, hence Desert Viking (explorer not pilager).

*****************

Till a voice, as bad as Conscience, rang interminable changes
On one everlasting Whisper day and night repeated -- so:
"Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look behind the Ranges --
"Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go!"

Rudyard Kipling , The Explorer 1898

[TotemLake]

Lacking the true creativity I see in other names, I went for a little known landmark near my home.


Cheers!
TL

[mozartman]

the 18th century austrian composer in my screen name has a lot to do with my job, as well as being an inspiration! http://kbaq.org/music/mozartbuffet

[pdxmarathonman]

My geocaching name came from an email account I created when I was at the peak of my running career (translation: before my twins were born). Naturally I initially tried to get marathonman, but had to settle for it with the locality prefix of pdx. So, even though my running is much more pedestrian than it was 5-7 years ago I still hang on to the dream. The really funny part is that at geo-events a lot of people just shorten it, and call me pdx. I'd much rather they dropped the prefix and not the interesting part.

Unrelated note regarding the post 2 above this one: I lived in Kirkland when the Totem Lake shopping center was built - I could practically see it from my bedroom window in the Kingsgate neighborhood.

[ChrisCindy]

Umm we think ours is self explanatory. Kinda boring too.

[Jomarac5]

Umm, we think ours is self explanatory. Not sure if it's boring though.

*****

[Jaguar1]

I'll let you figure it out

"Following animal paths may make the bushwacking a little easier, but probably won't pay off in the long run, since deer tend not to geocache much." - Geocacher Peeve on the Vaught Ranch Bushwackin Fun (B.D. #2) cache

[nonnipoppy]

Our first grandchilds was born last Nov. My wife thought long about what she wanted to be called (not Grandmother) and anointed us nonni and poppy. We geocache together so nonnipoppy.

[Hard Oiler]

The local name for a resident of the town of Petrolia, Ontario. Also the name of the trail where the first cache I placed is hidden.

[bigredmed]

I work for the University of Nebraska (Big Red) Medical Center (Med), thus my screen name: bigredmed. I was shocked that no one else had snagged it before me.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nebraskache/

[GeoGryffindor]

We were chosen to be in the GeoGryffindor House by the sorting hat.

"Nice find! I must go tell Harry, Ron and Hermione."

[vamelungeon]

I'm a melungeon from Virgina = vamelungeon.

[Breaktrack]

Hmmm, well, I have to agree with that posted above, it is amazing no Markwells have been inserted up to now....lol. But I suppose that's a good thing.

Mine is from my Army Tanking days.... we always dreaded breaking or throwing a track in the field. The funny thing was, while I helped quite a few other crews put a track back on in the field, my crew and I never lost or threw a track, not once. To those in the know that's quite an accomplishment.

Now I did have one of my own road wheels pass me on a tank trail at Fort Hood one time after having broken off....lol. Another time I Broke the #1 torsion bar on the left side during some rough terrain which should have resulted in the track slipping off as well, but we didn't know about it till we got to our destination and were doing routine after operations maintenance.... just lucky I guess...


"Trade up, trade even, or don't trade!!!" My philosophy of life.

[worldtraveler]

By the time I found this website, all the good names (like "Eureka", my first choice) had already been taken. I wanted my name to be descriptive, so I began thinking (ouch!). I recalled that when I described my occupation to most people, they would almost inevitably reply, "My, you're quite a world traveler, aren't you?"

Works for me. Also sounds more exotic than "migrantworker"

Worldtraveler

[Technojunkie]

Mine's pretty self explanitory....

I mean, most of us are.... At heart...

Have fun!

Tim
KB5OGH
================
I just need a fix!

[Desert_Warrior]

quote:

---

Originally posted by bigredmed:
I work for the University of Nebraska (Big Red) Medical Center (Med), thus my screen name: bigredmed.

---

Hmmmm... from my background I thought you were a medic in the First Infantry Division. (The Big Red One). How wrong I was!

My name is a long story. I started out with my ham radio callsign, KD9KC. My kids (Army_Scout and Desert Kid) thought it was unimaginative and boring. Among friends I had been referred to as a true Desert Warrior. So the kids (and wife agreed) suggested I use Desert_Warrior. And so it was. I know I have a love for carrying the fight to the enemy, waiting is not my style. You can find me at the head of the dust cloud.

For grins, my soldiers also referred to me as "Battle Cat", but that story is for another time.

Mike. Desert_Warrior (aka KD9KC).
El Paso, Texas.

Citizens of this land may own guns. Not to threaten their neighbors, but to ensure themselves of liberty and freedom.

They are not assault weapons anymore... they are HOMELAND DEFENSE WEAPONS!

[Planet]

Years ago, in the time BG (Before Geocaching) I met a guy (who is still a good friend) My name is Claire. When introduced he said "I think I'll call you Planet". "Huh?" says I. "From a B-52's song" he says. "Planet Claire where all the women have pink hair." Oh, ok. And it stuck. It seemed the perfect name for geocaching. I do answer to Planet in real life amongst friends.

Cache you later,
Planet

So many caches, so little time.

[mustanglx]

I think most people can figure it out for them selves.

It is the car that I own and do autocrossing in(run around cones in a big parking lot) and go to race tracks and have fun at high speeds.

For those car nuts out there, you should be able to decode this, I have a personalized license plate that reads, 4NOMORE.

mustanglx

[Darkmoon]

I got mine when I started my spiritual journey into becoming a shaman in the 1990's! Darkmoon is a different way of saying new moon, since you can not see it, no reflective light and such! That is also the start of the cyle of life, the rebirthing from old to new once again! it just kinda fit in my journey of life!

Darkmoon

All you have to do to fly is throw yourself at the ground and miss!

[Planet]

Older threads on the same subject can be seen Here and and here and I am sure there are more. But that's plenty of reading for now.

Cache you later,
Planet

So many caches, so little time.

[team westhop]

Team Westhop is the combination of the last names of 2 couples who started geocaching together. Simple enough.
My individual geocaching name is skybluepink. I can't claim credit for it though. I was actually searching the web for things to potentially use as a signature item and came across a quirky website that sells stuff called skybluepink.com. I ordered some stuff and loved the name so much I adopted it.

[PDOP's]

Position Dilution of Precision (PDOP)relates to the accuracy of a GPS fix. My first job working with GPS involved a mapping grade receiver which required a PDOP of less than 4 for submetre accuracy and of course ''lower is better''

It seemed like a good fit for geocaching.

PDOP's GPS Pages

[RuffRidr]

I've got a '91 Jeep Wrangler that is lifted and has rather large tires on it. Because of the leaf springs on it, it is somewhat of a "rough ride". So I started using that nick on a Jeep board that I hang out on occasionally.

--RuffRidr

[CrimsonWrath]

I started looking for a name a while ago to use as a handle for playing online games. I started with my alma matter's school color and started adding onto the end. I think my first choice was Blade, but that was taken. I eventually wore out a thesaurus looking and settled on Wrath.

I've used this name in various places such as SOCOM Online for the PS2 and deviantART. My avatar looks much better animated (you can see it at deviantART), but I thought it was fun to plop it into a Vista. It is a crimson edged sword.

[SeventhSon]

I have six older brothers

SeventhSon

== If at first you don't succeed, skydiving isn't for you. ==