MetaFilter

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.

Right, my nickname. Now that's an interesting story--ok, not really. I'd been waiting to register on Metafilter for over a year but hadn't been frequenting much over this summer ('02) because I had a visitor staying with me that took up most of my free (read: computer) time.

So I stopped by one day and noticed that, good God, registration was open to twenty people a day! A couple of fist pumps later I realized it opened at Noon Pacific time (my time) and my heart jumped to my throat: noon? I have to get up at noon? So I set my alarm--I'm not kidding--and woke myself up slightly before noon the next day. I waited for the annointed hour to roll around and hit the glorious link when it did. I started to fill in the form when a realization dawned on me like so many bricks from a third-story window: I had no name. I delved deep into the recesses of my brain for what seemed hours, if not days, only to give up and go with my e-mail address. Unfortunately, I delved for so long that twenty people registered. I decided then and there to spend some quality 'me time' the rest of the day and night deciding on a cool user name. Alas, I believe I spent the time watching movies (as I'm prone to do) and doing things more social than sitting in a dark, windowless room with no noise but that of my own breathing, thinking of nicknames to use on the internet (as I'm equally prone to do). So I ended up using my e-mail address again.