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What's the deal with your nickname? How did you get it? If your nickname is self-explanatory, then tell everyone when you first started using the internet, and what was the first thing that made you say "wow, this isn't just a place for freaks after all?" Was it a website? Was it an email from a long-lost friend? Go on, spill it.

"Kip," of course, means "dweller at the pointy top of the hill" in Old English. It's also the Dutch word for duck; the smallest unit of Thai currency; a gymanstics maneuver; a tanned cowhide, or bundle of same, as well as a method of drying and preserving fish; shorthand notation for one thousand pounds of pressure; and a place to crash, as well as the act of crashing, for the night.

It's also the prep school nickname for "Thomas." My father, Thomas, who never went to prep school, along with my mother, Tina (ditto), chose to give me the nickname shortly after I was born.

It works quite well on the internet when paired with my last name. Pretty much unique, really.