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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.

I'd like it understood that when I am referring to 'tedious nerds' I am referring to those members of the group nerds, who are tedious. I'm not saying that all nerds are tedious.

You know who you are. Well, come to think of it, you probably don't.

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I'll give a prize to the first person to email me with the exact origin of my nickname. Clue: the 'i' stands for a longer word. [Update 10th April 04]. A few folks have guessed but none have succeeded.

It's probably not that hard...but the chances are that I will spill it to riffola in NYC in May '04.

[Update] Ha! riffola didn't show so no-one knows! *maniacal laughter*

[More update - March05] Finally! Tarrama got it.

Season 5 [1F03] Marge On The Lam

They walk past a vending machine advertising Crystal Buzz Cola.

"Mmm," Homer says, "invisible cola." When he turns out his pockets, he finds no change, so he decides it's time to stick it to the man. As he reaches up the slot, Carl warns him that someone lost an arm doing the same thing, but Homer passes it off as an old wives' tale. Inside the machine, we see the skeletal remains of another arm with the hand still clutching a Fresca can.

I first used the internet...1980. Well, a very small corner of it...

It got useful c. 1996 when I could email & find out about my second love.