Wherefore art thou Romeo?

[Marcus]

I use this handle because I'm unimaginative when it comes to names.

Usually I have to add "316" to the end of it when I register. The 316 is the number that Hotmail suggested to me when I registered for my email address there (which I still use): marcus316-at-hotmail.com ... I registered the email address sometime in the mid-nineties, I believe.

316 is accidental?? All this time I have been assuming that you were an evangelical Christian.

LOL ... Christian, yes ... evangelical ... not so much. I was also amused at the random number assigned to me at the time. I am quite familiar with the reference.

[Joaz Banbeck]

My avatar is from the Hugo-winning SF novel "The Dragon Masters" by Jack Vance.

Joaz Banbeck is a rather studious type, preferring to stay in his study contemplating astronomy and other sciences. He only comes out when he wants to look at something that has aroused his curiousity, or when his village is attacked. He leads his people in warfare against multiple attackers, and wins every time. When one enemy leader is particularly persistent, upon capturing him, Joaz has him executed in cold blood.

[sumiyaka]

The name of one of the corners of the old Rouen-les-Essarts racing circuit.

(disclaimer: I do not like real motor racing one bit, but I did like playing Grand Prix Legends years ago.)

I'm curious... where did you find the patience to race GPL if you don't like motor racing!!? I love racing, provided there are motors and pavement involved-- and that is the only reason I stuck with GPL long enough to go fast.

[HermanHiddema]

What can I say

I sometimes play online as herminator, which is a nickname given to me by some players at our club, because I was always killing their groups

[dfan]

My first name is Dan (so I'm already a dan player!) and once in college when I was typing it, I accidentally swiped the f key in the middle of it, resulting in dfan. Since there are a million Dans around, I thought using dfan as a regular username would be good for disambiguation, and I've used it ever since (except for the times when some David Fan or something beats me to it).

[Kirby]

What can I say

I sometimes play online as herminator, which is a nickname given to me by some players at our club, because I was always killing their groups

Interestingly(?), I am also sometimes called the "Kirbinator", but not for the same reason as you. I actually don't know the reason why.

[xed_over]

Short for "crossed over" -- a private joke between my wife and I based on the phrase from the movie "For Richer or Poorer" with Tim Allen and Kirstie Alley. While hiding out with the Amish, at one point they each say to the other, "Oh no, you've crossed over!" as they each begin to adapt to the ways of their hosts. That line just carries a special place in our hearts from our own recent past experiences with changing religious affiliations.

Soon after seeing that movie and laughing at our new favorite phrase, I had logged onto Yahoo games from a back room in the house and joined some game my wife was playing (she didn't know at the time, that we could have more than one connection to the internet back then). Did that several times more for a few days at different times of the day (sometimes from work) before she figured out who I was. I only wished I could have been in the house at the same time she figured it out to hear her laugh out loud. I've used that nickname online ever since.

Started playing Go about 2002 from watching coworkers play. And at the time, I didn't know there were any other players in the world who played this game, until we discover DGS from sourceforge.net. Then I met another local player online who invited me to a local tournament. I won $50, discovered a much larger local (and national) player base and I was hooked!

[gaius]

What can I say

I sometimes play online as herminator, which is a nickname given to me by some players at our club, because I was always killing their groups

You are aware of the American Pie connotations of that nickname, right Herman?

Anyway, my handle is just a Roman name, which is similar to my name. It is also the first name of the great ruthless emperor who went by the name Gaius Julius Caesar and the first name of the great socialist reformer Gaius Sempronius Gracchus. So how could I resist?

[Loons]

Loons are my favorite not-extinct-bird, that is Gavia immer. I like scientific names, so I'd've called myself that, except it sounds effeminate and people with effeminate names online tend to attract some unwanted attention (re; simpkin). I also rather like the observation that loons can swim well and fly well but have a lot of trouble walking, a series of facts which I feel have excellent metaphorical value.

I also like to go by Erehsawekaj, and I think my current IGS handle is Saawekaj, which are rather obviously just a short phrase and my name written backwards. I'd like to just go by my initials more often, but I think the name JEW could be misconstrued as announcing my mother's religion.

Recently I made accounts named Sphenodon, after a genus of non-lizard reptile native to New Zealand - a rather cool relictual Gondwanan genus (Tuatara is their common name). If I leave New Zealand I will certainly use the account Sphenodon, as I started using Loons outside Canada.


Edit:
Just thought I`d say; I am going to continue thinking of Sodesune as "Sodesoon" xedover as "ssedover" despite their real name origins. I know I am not alone.

[HermanHiddema]

What can I say

I sometimes play online as herminator, which is a nickname given to me by some players at our club, because I was always killing their groups

You are aware of the American Pie connotations of that nickname, right Herman?

Also Herminator is the nickname of Hermann Maier, the pro skier. It is a rather easy pun on Herman, after all

[dfan]

My avatar is from the Hugo-winning SF novel "The Dragon Masters" by Jack Vance.

I recognized the name immediately. I'm a total Vance nut and am currently anxiously awaiting the first volume of the Compact Vance Integral Edition. But perhaps that's more relevant for a "Vance expenditures and significant others" thread...

[Elesthor]

Mine was created during a role playing game (a paper one, not a videogame), at first, my character was called 'Eles', and was fighting with a hammer.
The scandinav god, Thor, is often represents with a huge hammer, so I finished to call "Elesthor" =)

[Violence]

I used to go by etl3, my college ID, since I couldn't really come up with a name I liked.

So I went to Japan, I'd estimate I was around 4 kyu at the time, but very unbalanced, since I had spent most of my ddk days eating problems for my 3 meals a day. Naturally, my Go was incredibly crude and highly unstable. I would cut anything and fight anywhere, and somehow come out on top.

So I went to a Japanese igo kaisho, and was paired against the weakest player in the room, since it was dan hours(kyus were expected later in the day, they segregate them so that they can schedule dan level lessons and lectures at different times than kyu level lectures; it's not really strictly enforced, people just naturally come at different times to get the right teaching), but they let me in as an exception. So it was me vs a much older 1d, probably in his 60s. We started at 4 stones, greeted each other, and played.

I destroyed him, didn't make it through midgame with my brute force, rage style.

His comment after the first game and he found out that I'm not Japanese: "Ohhh.... beikokujin, ka... yaru na... yaru na..."
(Ohhh, so you're an American... not bad, not bad."

He decided to go down to three stones. Didn't make a difference. The same kind of thing happened again.

He said to himself: "Ahhh, chotto... komaru yo ne..."
(This is a little annoying... isn't it...)

Down to two stones. Less than 150 moves, and resignation again.

This time he said nothing. He was pretty visibly upset.

1 Stone, I took black. He died in late middlegame.

Again, he was silent. He roughly passed me the white stones and we continued, some of the other people his age started gathering around to check out who the young kid was.

And when he resigned after I killed a group in the first fight, he got up without cleaning up the board, walking away and muttering to himself, "Keh... nanja sono purei... tada no bouryoku dake jarou..." (What the hell is that play style... it's just mere violence, that's all...)

That phrase kinda stuck in my head, "tada no bouryoku," mere violence. Made me smile a bit to get a comment like that, so I took his insult as a compliment. So when I decided to choose a new screenname, I thought of what the guy had said, and named myself Violence.

I thought to myself, that my violent nature across the board is the only reason I won games as a DDK, and an SDK. It was my only virtue, so why not make it my name?

[xed_over]

So it was me vs a much older 1d, probably in his 60s. We started at 4 stones, greeted each other, and played.

Heh, nice story... kinda reminds me of a pickup game I played at the Penn Go Congress a couple of years ago. I was rated about 9kyu at the time. A lady from the group of Japanese tourist asked me for a game, but wouldn't give me any more than 4 stones. She was 1d. I beat her fairly easily I thought.

[daniel_the_smith]

So it was me vs a much older 1d, probably in his 60s. We started at 4 stones, greeted each other, and played.

Heh, nice story... kinda reminds me of a pickup game I played at the Penn Go Congress a couple of years ago. I was rated about 9kyu at the time. A lady from the group of Japanese tourist asked me for a game, but wouldn't give me any more than 4 stones. She was 1d. I beat her fairly easily I thought.

If that was who I think it was, I was roped into being her pairgo partner during the 2008 congress (she'd been demoted to 1k). Seems her original partner dropped out on her and I was in the right place at the right time.

Halfway through the first game I figured out why: she was nowhere near 1k. Maybe 10k. We got crushed. The second game we got crushed in, too, but that one at least was funny because our opponents had a similar strength gap, 4d and 6/7/8/9k (goddess, I don't remember what her rank was-- is she here, btw?), so there were mistakes on both sides.

I was paired against her in the open the next day and got my revenge. I recall making 10th or 11th line territory. It was a hollow victory, though: I think I used 6 or 7 minutes on my clock and she used over an hour.