# Nicknames?

*The Urth list — 6 messages, 5 voices, 11 Dec 2002*

<https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/3660>

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### ArchD'Ikon Zibethicus
*11 Dec 2002, 00:13*

Ummm...I just joined...are we supposed to be using Vironseque nicknames?  
Will my existing name do - it is that of an animal...

Is there a digest available?  I forgot to ask...

->Zx<-

____________________________________________________________

The proliferation of children who can reach the heights of computer creation 
brings to light a basic feature of the computer itself - it is 
infantile...[t]he microcomputer is above all a game and is infantile.  But 
it is also very dangerous.  We need to know whether it does not also 
'infantalize'.

-Jacques Ellul, `The Technological Bluff'
________________________________________________

The disciple Hui-K'e asked Bodhidharma, "Please help me to quiet my mind."  
Bodhidharma said, "Bring me your mind so that I can quiet it."  After a 
moment Hui-K'e said, "But I can't find my mind."  "There," said Bodhidharma, 
"I have now quieted your mind."

-Charles Luk

________________________________________________

Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.

-Democritos

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### William Ansley
*11 Dec 2002, 02:54 · follows ArchD'Ikon Zibethicus*

> "ArchD'Ikon Zibethicus" <zibethicus at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Ummm...I just joined...are we supposed to be using Vironseque 
> nicknames?  Will my existing name do - it is that of an animal...
> 
> Is there a digest available?  I forgot to ask...

First, welcome.

I certainly do not speak in any official capacity for the list, but 
there is no requirement to use a "Vironesque" nickname unless you 
want to; I have never used one. Your existing name is perfect, 
actually. _Ondatra zibethicus_ or the  Common Muskrat - you fit right 
in with Nutria and alga.

There is a archive of the list available at <http://www.urth.net/urth/>.

If you want to subscribe to a digest version of the mailing list, 
send an email to urth-request at urth.net with the text:

digest true

as the only text in the body of the message.

Ranjit Bhatnagar, the very generous fellow who is responsible for the 
existence of this list in the first place has prepared a summary of 

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### ArchD'Ikon Zibethicus
*11 Dec 2002, 04:15 · follows William Ansley*

> First, welcome.

Thank you.

> Your existing name is perfect, actually. _Ondatra zibethicus_ or the  
> Common Muskrat - you fit right > in with Nutria and alga.

That's the one!  In honour of Deacon Mushrat from `Pogo'...

> If you want to subscribe to a digest version of the mailing list, <snip> 
> This should be the same info you get via email when you join the list.

Yes, thanks; I have now (hopefully) attended to this.  I either didn't get 
or didn't notice the E-mail in question when I posted the preceeding 
message.  I will try to poke around in the archives, time permitting.

> I am looking forward to hearing what you have to say. You can't be any 
> crazier than the last few people who have joined the discussion.

Many would disagree!  (However, I suppose that's my cue for a tedious brief 
introduction...)  I can tell a hawk from a handsaw well enough when the wind 
is in some quadrants, but only on some days...  I am an ageing, irritable 
recluse in increasingly poor health, living in poverty with my young family 
in the Blue Mountains of Australia (which very nearly got burned a couple of 
days ago in bushfires).  I was introducted to `Shadow' in the mid-1980s by a 
friend who mistook me for an intellectual, and I immediately realised that I 
had encountered a uniquely significant fantasy author.  I read `Shadow', I 
believe, in a single weekend session, and then immediately sought out the 
rest of the series.  The rest, as they say is history.  What more is there 
to say?

Oh, yes - I have kept in touch with the development of the Long Sun and 
Short Sun series, of course, as well as gathered everything else I can find. 
  I hope that they _never_ attempt to film the Book of the New Sun, but I 
can see in my mind's eye a deluxe anniversary hardback edition sumptuously 
and strikingly illustrated by Barry Moser's beautiful woodcuts...

Other authors whom I particularly enjoy include (off the top of my head) 
Ambrose Bierce, James Branch Cabell, J. G. Ballard, Louis-Ferdinand Celine, 
Amit Chaudhuri, R. A. Lafferty, Alasdair Gray and Jonathan Carroll.

Look forward to talking,

->Zx<-

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### Alice K. Turner
*11 Dec 2002, 04:38 · follows ArchD'Ikon Zibethicus*

You can use any name you like, but if you're going to be posting a lot that
unwieldy sig is going to cause some annoyance.

-alga

> Ummm...I just joined...are we supposed to be using Vironseque nicknames?
> Will my existing name do - it is that of an animal...
> 
> Is there a digest available?  I forgot to ask...
> 
> ->Zx<-
> 
> ____________________________________________________________
> 
> The proliferation of children who can reach the heights of computer
> creation
> brings to light a basic feature of the computer itself - it is
> infantile...[t]he microcomputer is above all a game and is infantile.  But
> it is also very dangerous.  We need to know whether it does not also
> 'infantalize'.
> 
> -Jacques Ellul, `The Technological Bluff'
> ________________________________________________
> 
> The disciple Hui-K'e asked Bodhidharma, "Please help me to quiet my mind."
> Bodhidharma said, "Bring me your mind so that I can quiet it."  After a
> moment Hui-K'e said, "But I can't find my mind."  "There," said
> Bodhidharma,
> "I have now quieted your mind."
> 
> -Charles Luk
> 
> ________________________________________________
> 
> Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion.
> 
> -Democritos
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _________________________________________________________________
> The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE*
> http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
> 
> 
> --

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### James Wynn
*11 Dec 2002, 17:33 · follows Alice K. Turner*

>> "ArchD'Ikon Zibethicus" <zibethicus at hotmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Ummm...I just joined...are we supposed to be using Vironseque
>> nicknames?  Will my existing name do - it is that of an animal...

> William Ansley [mailto:wansley at warwick.net] wrote:
> I certainly do not speak in any official capacity for the list, but
> there is no requirement to use a "Vironesque" nickname unless you
> want to; I have never used one. Your existing name is perfect,
> actually. _Ondatra zibethicus_ or the  Common Muskrat - you fit right
> in with Nutria and alga.

> I am looking forward to hearing what you have to say. You can't be
> any crazier than the last few people who have joined the discussion.
> <G>

Crush offers:
I second William's optimism and if you want a Vironese nickname  I can also
suggest that you merely shorten your last name to Zibeth or even Zibet which
are other names for the civit cat.

Heck you could even use "Musk" in that case which is also synonymous with
"civit" (as president of the crazies, I felt obliged to offer that one ;-D).

-- Crush

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### Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
*11 Dec 2002, 20:34 · follows James Wynn*

>> Your existing name is perfect, actually. _Ondatra zibethicus_ or the
>> Common Muskrat - you fit right > in with Nutria and alga.

> =20
> That's the one!  In honour of Deacon Mushrat from `Pogo'...

Ah, bravo! Another appreciator of the great American humorists --=20
mine own nom du Viron coming indirectly from Don Marquis, I salute
you, sah.

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