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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.

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artlung = artist + respiratory therapist
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I think I decided on the name when I was an RT student. I had read Neuromancer in high school and it blew me away - so I was always looking for handles (Gibson's book has Case, The Dixie Flatline, Wintermute, Panther Moderns, Molly Millions - inspiring.

I'm gratified to have chosen a unique string, usually it's available wherever I go.

As for when I thought the internet was cool? Probably at World Cafe in Santa Monica - an internet Cafe. I would go there late at night and surf what must have been Netscape 2 browsers, and they had a #worldcafe IRC channel and I'd spend time talking to people all over the world. It was an eye-opener that I was part of something really vast, and really fast, and this changed everything. The Matrix was here.

I've been hooked ever since then, 1995 or so.