Agreed. Nothing cute and nowhere to hide.
Masterless or wandering Samurai. I work with a guy whose name is Ronin. Cool
Right…to many wack jobs out there nowadays that can take advantage of people just by knowing their names…
Mine is rather boring; ‘Dune’, from the Frank Herbert novel, and ‘Kidd’, from the Samuel R. Delany novel, “Dhalgren”. I had read them around the time they first appeared when I was delving into philosophical SciFi novels.
What led me to choose this particular alias was having been raised on the south shore of Long Island. Growing up, we were hard core beach denizens. I attribute that mainly to most of our families having emigrated from the landlocked neighborhoods of Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx during the great migrations to the ‘burbs’ in the early '60’s.
We spent many days and nights on the dunes [hence, DuneKidd], partying, romancing, relaxing, and achieving the all-important ‘getting rid of that tan line’. It was fun. Eventually, I found that the noise of the subway, the scent of the pavement and the lure of NYC was far more interesting and exciting.
Now, I reside on another island, only this one is composed of concrete, steel, and glass. Still, just as fun.
I’ve always been an artist of some kind. Primarily a photographer but also woodcuts, etchings, and painting. Everything’s that visually mediated between the world and myself is by photons. 46 is the age I was when “online” life started.
Great story and so much more interesting than anything having to do with “desert baby goats”
. Thanks for sharing!
Given your helmet icon, my name should be self explanatory. Lol
Wow! That’s a blast from the past. I read that book decades ago, when I was probable a little too young for some of that content - if memory serves…
Cheers.
Many thanks to those who have taken the time to participate in the thread thus far.
What motivated this was a recent walk in my neighborhood when I realized that I knew virtually every dog by name but only maybe half of their owners. Reflecting on this forum, I recognize I think of most folks in terms of their system. What this thread has confirmed to me is the multidimensional nature of our backgrounds. I feel a greater appreciation for our members knowing a little more about the context of their monikers.
I’m still hopeful we’ll hear from others before this thread fades as there are still many interesting user names out there. I’m speaking to you @badbeef , @terzinator , @vmax , et. al. 
Amen! No explanation required for me. Received my undergrad degree (BSEE) in 1981. Although I’ve lived in Florida for almost 45 years, I’ve been a UM football season ticket holder the past 12 years. Go Blue!!
Wow that’s great I’m also in Florida but never thought of getting season tickets. We did go to the bowl game this year against Alabama. I actually went to Michigan Tech but I grew up near Ann Arbor and have been a Wolverine fan my whole life.
My father was Puerto Rican and my mother was Irish. Later in life when my father remarried, he married another Puerto Rican woman. Her children refer to my father’s children as the McRican side of the family, so that makes me a McRican.
I was in Puerto Rico 2 weeks ago. It was 88°at the airport in San Juan when we left and -2 at Chicago O’hare when we arrived back home. 
That’s fantastic.
Cheers.
I would have refused to exit the plane.
Some good stories and now I understand some of the usernames. Mine is the first letter of first name (p) and last four (motz) are the first four of my last name (eight more after that). I’ve used that username on multiple sites.
Goblue, I’m a Michigan Tech grad too, 1979. My how things have changed there! The “computer” was a punch card reading Univac (if memory serves me right). Lots of new buildings too.
I don’t have any other on-line presence so tend to keep a low profile. Also a low profile wallet! Hard to keep up with some of you guys …
Yep - things have changed a bit! I had digital design classes based on a development system built around an 8080 microprocessor initially and later a Z80. Work was all stored on single-side, single density 8” floppy disks. Remember the TTL and CMOS Cookbooks? We thought we were on the bleeding edge (which, in a sense, we were for the time). I co-op’d in a lab that had PDP-8’s and PDP-10s. Equipment stored in what was essentially a walk-in freezer!
You haven’t lived until you’ve stayed up to 2am in the morning to submit your deck of cards for batch processing only to discover a stupid compile error an hour later. I think my affinity for coffee had its beginnings then.
I’m grateful to have lived through that piece of history from both a technology and music perspective.
I had lots of friends that attended MTU. Great school but a climate not for the faint of heart! People down here in Florida are amazed to learn of the colored poles that would get attached to fire hydrants and vehicles parked on the street to ensure that snow plows wouldn’t run into them😀
Born and raised in PR been living in So Flo for close to 30 years
Those climates are too warm for Vikings.
You had floppy disks?! High tech! The last year I was there they had a record snow, 350+ inches. Snow piles still around in mid-May when I headed home. Snow didn’t bother me but the cold wind could do a number on you. Thankfully the campus was small.