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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 hate meeting friends-of-friends. I'm always petrified that I'll be in full schmooze mode with some likable and intelligent people when suddenly and inevitably, someone mentions 9/11 in any context at all. Before the conversation can move on, someone drops the bomb. "If you believe the official story, anyway."

Now I know full well that the Right Thing to do is to take hold and pull the conversation kicking and screaming into relative sanity. But I don't think I could. I'm not anywhere near sure that I could stand in such close proximity to that monumental fountain of stupid without completely losing my social abilities. What I'm really afraid of is hearing myself, as if from afar, saying "No, you're wrong and here's why."