The story behind your screen name?

[DustHand]

You would think. Mom's maiden name. Zzzzzzzzzz

[Bob]

My name is Bob.

<yawn>

[junglesmacks]

Simple:

DustHand

Dust = really??
Hand = my given middle name.

Your middle name sounds like it would come with a more interesting story than your eplaya name.

+1

[Thumplin]

I have a short name that doesnt stand for anything. TJ L Elgin. doesn't stand for anything. While watching the sun rise on my friends roof with a bunch of my friends drinking jager and champagne, while completely blitzed we figured out what my name stands for. Thumplin Jablowhammer Lebowski Elgin. now my friends call me Thumplin or Thumpy.

[Mosin]

Mosins are a fetish of mine. I like to touch them and squeeze them and smell them and call them George. They usually come with a free gallon of cosmoline, and are still the best deal on the planet. They also come in handy in times of strife/revolution/crisis (eg. Stalingrad 1942, Budapest 1956, USA 2000-2008 ). I won't let you play with mine, so get your own while they are still cheaper than a tank of gas...

[Marscrumbs]

I'm a collector of Martian Meteorite microspecimens. I was a ninties burner who moved on after they started fencing in the playa and started Black Rock city. But years later my best friends invited me back. The same year was the Martian opposition, the nearest in 60,000 years. I thought that might be a good occassion to do something special as I won't be around next time that happened. The oppostion would occur Wedsnesday and were else could I celebrate nearness to Mars with so many good Earthlians. So I made an orange martian exploration theme costume and hit the road. First stop a mountain gathering of amateur astronomers with multiple telescopes. After seeing mars close up, it was off to the playa. After getting a gate ticket, I first went outside the event for a drive. Playas are wear us American meteorite hunters like to search for cold finds. Some BLM guy stop me and explained I was picking up trash and enjoying the open playa. After I showed him my ticket he let be go by my business as long as I was picking up antiquities. Few hours later I was in the event. Decided that while this wasn't the Burning Man I remembered, it was still pretty cool. At the end I gifted some genuine martian crumbs from known Saraha desert martian meteorite DAG 486 and NWA 998 at some art temple design like a stack of Playing cards on a take one- leave one table. Crumbs were sand grain size in a gel capsule placed in small gem jars with lables but don't know if anybody would believe these were real martians. If anybody picked up one of these please email me.

[Playa Hater]

Dont hate the playa, hate the flame.

[OregonRed]

When TheCo and I started dating in 1999, he asked if he could call me "Red" (I'm a red-head). I said yes as the only nicknames I had before that were Shell, Shell-Shell, and Shelley-girl. All just plays on my name (Shelley), and none felt like me.

When I came out to TTITD for the first time in 2001, I introduced myself as Red. My first year on eplaya, I was Red. Then, one day I tried to log in and my account had disappeared. When I created a new account, the system wouldn't let me use Red because there was already a registered user with that name (yes... ME!!!). So, I decided that since I am from Oregon I would become OregonRed. (Oregon is pronounced ory-GUN not o-RE-gone, btw)

I still introduce myself as Red on the playa, but all the eplayans that are in my village call me OregonRed... A few even just call me Oregon.

Whatever... Just don't call me late for cocktails!

[illy dilly]

I'm a collector of Martian Meteorite microspecimens. I was a ninties burner who moved on after they started fencing in the playa and started Black Rock city. But years later my best friends invited me back. The same year was the Martian opposition, the nearest in 60,000 years. I thought that might be a good occassion to do something special as I won't be around next time that happened. The oppostion would occur Wedsnesday and were else could I celebrate nearness to Mars with so many good Earthlians. So I made an orange martian exploration theme costume and hit the road. First stop a mountain gathering of amateur astronomers with multiple telescopes. After seeing mars close up, it was off to the playa. After getting a gate ticket, I first went outside the event for a drive. Playas are wear us American meteorite hunters like to search for cold finds. Some BLM guy stop me and explained I was picking up trash and enjoying the open playa. After I showed him my ticket he let be go by my business as long as I was picking up antiquities. Few hours later I was in the event. Decided that while this wasn't the Burning Man I remembered, it was still pretty cool. At the end I gifted some genuine martian crumbs from known Saraha desert martian meteorite DAG 486 and NWA 998 at some art temple design like a stack of Playing cards on a take one- leave one table. Crumbs were sand grain size in a gel capsule placed in small gem jars with lables but don't know if anybody would believe these were real martians. If anybody picked up one of these please email me.

Thats super neat!!!
So the 'crumbs' that you find are actually microorganisms that got stuck in an asteroid that eventually hit earth?
I really hope that the folks that found them knew what they were!

[Asherbeez]

Well my first name is Alex hence the 'a' and the last bit is a play on my last name. Honestly i have had people call me all kinds of versions of my last name (bondy, bondo, sherbert, sherberdy, the list goes on) so I picked one.

I, like others, have yet to receive a playa name. I think my solo attendance this year will increase my level of random interaction, therefore elevating my chances of an assignment of said dusty nomenclature.

[kelizabeth]

My Playa name is Paisley Cuttlefish. It is also my Berkeley Liberation Radio DJ name. How did I get it? I think its creation involved substances that prohibit me from remembering that detail...

[OregonRed]

My Playa name is Paisley Cuttlefish. It is also my Berkeley Liberation Radio DJ name. How did I get it? I think its creation involved substances that prohibit me from remembering that detail...

+1

[Dr Helix]

First Burn was in 08. I deecided to build a modest little art car and trailer that I drove around with the notion of being an old time medicine show selling "elixir's." I came up with Dr Helix and it stuck. It has since evolved into Heliarc. Nothing exotic here; I'm a welder and the term "heliarc" describes what older welders called the process for welding aluminum. "Heli" for helium which was a gas they used, and "arc" for arc welding although that's a bit misleading. Nowdays it's called TIG welding, TIG being an acronym for "Tungsten and Inert Gas". And you now have your welding lesson for today. Class dimissed.

[Frostyfire]

Frosty: given by my late nana (she loathed "grandma") my mom aunt and uncle tryed to call me by that niccname and i had issues with it . vehemenantly insisting that "thats not my name, stop it!". well i tryed that with nana and she matter of factly replied "look here. your my grandson! and il call you what ever the hell i feel like calling you". so with her and only her it stuck...and sumarilly died with her as well... then 1 magical day i discovered Fire spinning. and all the crazy cool stage stuff that goes along with it, and all that is affiliated with it .. i.e burningman and stage names. heh i tear up when i think overmuch on it .. but i ressurected it in homage to her . i think she would be and is very proud of my spinning and what its done for me since learning it existed a year and 2 weeks ago. so i go by Frosty on stage and in general, i spin Fire . im also a living contradiction so it works for me on a few levels .

[J/J]

bean, a newb, part of the tootsybean duo- as a skinny youth called bean pole, 70s playing the washtub bass called string bean, reading philosophy became supreme bean, back to the lander becomes green bean, looking forward to very soon becoming BAKED bean or maybe jelly bean or the playa shall provide –

[DustHand]

Great story, FrostyFire!

[junglesmacks]

MOO!

[catinthefunnyhat]

It's pretty self-explanatory. My name is catherine, regularly shortened to cat by my friends. I don't usually capitalize it. I sometimes wear funny hats (my regular winter hat is a beret that looks like a ladybug; I am extremely partial to ladybugs).

The name was chosen/made up rather impulsively, and I regretted it almost immediately. Although I am a big fan of Dr. Seuss, the eponymous cat book is not one of my favourites of his (I'm partial to What Was I Scared Of?, Bartholemew and the Oobleck, One Fish, Two Fish, and Oh, The Thinks You Can Think). And then there's that video, which I really like, but which has some awkward associations here. And I'm not a cat person. So the name, I think, kind of misleads people. There are so many people here with usernames I admire; I find myself wishing I would've taken some time and/or been a bit more imaginative.

Despite the somewhat awkward fit, though, I kinda think it's grown on me. I'm not going to change it unless a new and amazing alternative presents itself. I don't have a playa name, and I've never had a nickname. Naming oneself is difficult.

[Straightveg]

couldn't come up with a username, so I went with two lifestyle choices that are important to me.
Straight- short for straight edge, no drugs, alcohol or tobacco (I include caffeine in the drug category simply because it gives me awful headaches)
veg(as in vegetable)- short for vegan, don't eat meat, dairy, foods containing animal products or derivatives. Also avoid animal products as much as possible in daily life.
NOTE: I try to avoid being preachy, holier than thou, and intolerant. My view is your lifestyle choices are yours to make. You enjoy your bacon, and I'll enjoy my cucumber sandwiches. I reserve the right to make snarky comments under my breath though. Live and let live.
You know, like that pig you MURDERED to clog your arteries with...
EDIT to add: NOTE2: I don't identify with the straightedge "scene", just the core lifestyle choices of avoiding drugs, alcohol and tobacco. Again, tolerance for your choices.

[litlaur]

I am little. I am Laura. Since a lot of nicknames are formed by just using the first syllable of someone's name, that's what my friend did with Little Laura.

Every once in a while, someone who's never met me and does not realize I am little will ask if the name implies that I'm always lit.

[wh..sh]

Great stories!

[junglesmacks]

Great stories!

...and yours?

[48_love]

48 because it is more enigmatic than 23 ... and love is freaking awesome.

[wh..sh]

Great stories!

...and yours?

Let's see...

One night at the burn, I was chatting with this person. I spent good five minutes trying to teach him my name.
Finally he said "Screw this, I will ask you few questions". He asked me about the music I like and books I read.
And somehow we ended up talking about HHGG and about how I was mostly harmless (yes, nerds find each other)
Suddendly in the middle of the conversation, he had a realization and screamed "You are Whoosh!!" "You are the mighty Whoosh!".
Eventually the name spread among my camp.

What I love about this story is the fact that it makes absolutely NO sense. The conversation, the name, nothing...
The whole incident was hazy and I probably looked like a ball of disco lights to that guy.
But he was convinced that I was whoosh Being a transient being that I am helps with the name.

Edit: because, on a serious note...
I have always been this over-thinking/over-analyzing fool. Hence, I take great pleasure in finding things that makes no sense to me.
It's a way I find relief from my usual self.

PS: Recently, this cute 6 yr old girl started calling me "bubbles" (and now its a family joke). I was shocked initially.
On the upside, if I ever consider change of profession anytime, I atleast have a name.

[mgb327]

Well shit, I feel real left out here. I don't have a "playa name" as such, just my moniker that has been with me for 15 years or more. Back in the early 90's I built an MGB with a 375 horse 327 drivetrain out of a '64 'Vette hidden inside. I spent many years on the car-show circuit and the Super Chevy Show. One of my hobbies is building wacky planes/cars/boats. I was running a front engine 454 BB Chevy Nostalgia rail dragster and the MGB327. Wierd, but nobody else had one...strange to hear you announced staging at these big tracks as " and here comes that MGB-327, folks!". So, the name stuck. Not really me anymore, I sold the car a few years and it is tearing up the racing circuit somewhere around Chicago. I toured it mostly East Coast. Last year was my first year at BM, and I was so overwhelmed by everything I never developed/adopted any playa name. I was blown away, completely. Totally altered my life, completely. I am one now. I get it. Never been happier. Completely changed the way I see people, spirituality, music, love, community, humor, all of it. I hope this year to be more interactive with others, as last year I was so overwhelmed I wasn't as "social" as I would have liked. I suffer somewhat from shyness, and as a child, it was crippling. It is getting better. I have made some friends here on eplaya that I hope to socialize with a bit this year, BDC people, and some others. I shoot for WDYDWYD?, that helps. I am hoping to "find a name" this year. I am open to whatever comes up, I think this year I will settle in more, I want to be like an egg in an egg carton with you all. I lived on the oceans for almost 16 years as a boat captain, driving for Mobil Oil, running fishing charters, delivering boats, hauling the "cargo of the day", general pirate shit. My name for 15 years back then was Capt. J. Strange to be in some open water near some un-named Carib. island and hear that name wafting out of the radio speaker. Never knew to duck or answer the damn call. Maybe this year something will settle into my core as to who I am NOW, after BM did it's thing to my soul last year.....sorry, I tend to ramble...let the snark commence..

[junglesmacks]

I like blowing bubbles..

[wh..sh]

Good because bubbles like to be blown

[junglesmacks]

[mgb327]

Isn't Bubbles one of the clowns involved in The Clown Problem?

[Sail Man]

I like blowing bubbles..

I bet you do