Story behind your screen name?

[Deimos]

Since people have great trouble pronouncing both my real name (its Japanese) and the abbreviation to that (English turns a "o" into a "ooo") I will gladly keep Deimos, it has sort of the same meaning as the symbol I use as an avatar. But again, Ægishjálmr is kind of hard to pronounce.

[CrazyGoatLady]

Agreed Thomas. I have been using my real name on a couple of other things I'm on and I will from now on

[Frosty]

Ah, don't change Chellie, Iforge wouldn't be the same place without your "Crazy Goat Lady" login. Well, not to me anyway.

My last name is Frost so I've gone by Frosty since preschool. Tried anyway. While I was getting close and finally on my way to school my parents told me to get used to being called, "Jack Frost," so that's how I introduced myself. 

The teacher told the story of Jack Frost that first day of preschool. I've always envisioned myself as the good guy, hero and there was no way I wanted to be identified as the trickster Jack Frost. Frosty the Snowman was at least happy and did nobody any harm. 

One day in preschool and there were people I ran into in college that insisted on calling me Jack. 

Frosty has been my web handle in one form or another since logging on the first time. The Lucky was added after surviving the accident in 09, it opened my eyes to how lucky I've been my whole life. So until I'm tagged with another one it's good.

Frosty The Lucky.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

My handle came from my habit of taking cuttings from weeping willow trees at friends and relatives property’s and then sticking them in buckets of water to get them to root out and start new trees and then I plant some and I give some away to people. Don’t ask me why, I’ve just done that for years just because I like the tree lol. 

[Frosty]

I've thought about doing something like that though weeping willow isn't common here. Erosion control with willow consists of whacking up willow about 2' long and jamming them in the ground while walking. Any water in the next couple weeks assures it'll grow.

What I thought would be fun and didn't do was to plant four and grafting their branches into seat, back and arms. I experimented by cutting a few twigs, sharpen the ends and inserting them into slits in the willow in sight of the living room window. Not having the goats anymore nothing but the occasional moose trims it. I have to take a chainsaw to it every couple years. 

We don't get large willow here, certainly not trees.<sigh>

Frosty The Lucky.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

The seat idea would be awesome! I’ve seen pictures of bridges over streams in the rainforest made by locals guiding living vines or tree roots together over the stream  There is a massive weeping willow close by me in westville Oklahoma standing by an old repair shop down town next the railroad I don’t know how old it is or the old building but it’s the biggest one I’ve ever personally seen. 

[Frosty]

Have you tried knocking on it to see if a hobbit is trapped inside?

As fast as willow grows here I probably wouldn't have gotten to sit in it more than a couple weeks. 

Self closing gate maybe?

Frosty The Lucky.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Lol no I’ve never stopped but I slow down and look at it every time I’m up that way hopefully nothing is trapped inside but you never know I’ve seen and heard of a lot of strange things come out of trees when cut up for firewood , Willow does grow pretty fast I guess a gate or a fence could be made from it like how they used to do with Osage but you would probably need to get more moose or goats to keep it under control or you might get permanently fenced in! 

[Frosty]

I don't want to be the guy sawing a willow log with a Hobbit in it. EWWWW!

On that thought if you do stop and knock be ready to dodge, you wouldn't want Old Man Willow to tuck you into his crotch for a keepsake or snack.

The moose do a pretty good job of trimming willow, tag alder, birch, cotton wood, what ever has buds on it in winter. The goats used to keep them trimmed down like a lawn or as high as they could reach if hanging over from the far side of a fence. 

The pussy willows are starting to poof all over the place. Hopefully this cold snap won't kill the buds. It really delays green up if the trees, brush, etc. have to sprout new buds. That happens every few years.

Some winters we'll have a real warm spell and plants, willow especially will start to bud and it turns cold again and kills the buds. OR we can have a late cold snap that lasts a week or so and it's say, "so long Bud" for our deciduous friends.

There are a couple legendary false springs, the year with two winters was the one that was fresh in everybody's memory when I moved up. Mid December through early January it warmed up, snow melted, ground thawed, trees, flowers, etc. started greening up and mid January the temps tanked, -30 -40 zone till late February. That summer Anchorage stunk from rotting lawns and gardens, mature trees held up better but it wasn't safe to walk in the woods until after a couple good wind storms blew all the widow makers down.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Jobtiel1]

This handle doesn't have a really interesting story behind it. It's an abbreviation of my real name, Job Tieleman, and the one behind is because "jobtiel" was already taken the first time I wanted to use it. It has been serving me well for 10 years now!

[pnut]

13 hours ago, TWISTEDWILLOW said:

I’ve seen pictures of bridges over streams in the rainforest made by locals guiding living vines or tree roots together over the stream  

They use strangler figs for that. It's pretty amazing. 

Pnut

[Frazer]

13 hours ago, Frosty said:

Have you tried knocking on it to see if a hobbit is trapped inside?

When I read this, the first thing that came to mind was:

Quote

Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo!

Ring a dong! hop along! Fal lal the willow!

 

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Thanks pnut it’s been awhile since i read about it I couldn’t remember what they used but it is definitely pretty cool, odd stuff Ive seen or hit while cutting so far,  bullets, chains, steel cable, spikes, a horse shoe, and a few years ago I had a customer come by the shop to get a new chainsaw chain and he had hit a really old black powder revolver! Not sure I want to know why that was in a tree lol. 

[JHCC]

11 hours ago, Frosty said:

There are a couple legendary false springs, the year with two winters was the one that was fresh in everybody's memory when I moved up.

My friend Fr. Simeon down in Juneau posted the following on Facebook this morning:

Quote

Welcome to Alaska in late April. 

Winter is from 8pm to 8am. Spring will be from 8am to 12pm. Summer will start at 12pm and go until 4pm. Fall lasts from 4pm to 8pm, at which point Winter will prompt kick back in. 

Dress accordingly.

 

[Joe Dirt]

  I've had a few nicknames working in the oil and gas industry over the past ten years. Joe Dirt is the only one to have stuck around. One of the company men thought I had a mullet tucked under my hardhat and started calling me Joe Dirt. For those that may not know, Joe Dirt is a American comedy staring David Spade.

 Didn't think about using my real name after having problems trying to use it for a gamertag. Broke my L5 vertebrae and didn't have much to do so my brother got me playing online first person shooters.

  After a few adult beverages and what I thought was comedic genius, I came up with SmallAsainChild. The game I had been playing would tell you who you got killed by. So I thought it would be funny if the enemy seen they had been killed by a small asian child. I am not small nor am I asian which made it seem even funnier to me. 

 Any ways didn't think that would work here and thought my real name was maybe already taken. So Joe Dirt it is. You can call me what ever you want, just don't call me late for dinner.

 Craig aka Joe Dirt

 

 

[George N. M.]

My folks back in Chicago would ask me what we did in Laramie in the summer.  I would reply that we would usually have a picnic if summer fell on a weekend that year. ;-)

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

JHCC, that sounds a lot like our weather forecast here in the Ozarks.

[Joe Dirt]

Wyoming is my favorite state along with Tennessee. Just had a natural affinity for both. 

 I'll never forget my first run in with a couple of y'all's crazy critters. Badgers are not to be messed with and there were some strange looking crickets out your way.

  Joe Dirt

[Stradawhovious]

New here, but I'll join in on this one anyways.  "Stradawhovious" was taken from the Simpsons episode "The Be Sharps" when Homer found an old violin at a flea market, snarked "Stadawhovious?" and tossed it over his shoulder. It's relevant to me because I was a Luthier for a little over a decade years back, and we used to joke about it when I was in school for violin restoration. 

Since then (1998) I've used it as a screen name on every forum I've been in.  Old habits die hard.

[Bantou]

It started as the name of my main character in World of Warcraft (yes I’m a nerd, no I don’t care lol). It’s been my tag online ever since. 

[Frosty]

HAH! If you don't remember your D&D player characters from the 80s till present you're no proper nerd. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

My two main characters were both fighters: a dwarf named Ivan the Slavic and a human named Rafe Strong-Arm. 

[Bantou]

12 hours ago, Frosty said:

HAH! If you don't remember your D&D player characters from the 80s till present you're no proper nerd. 

Frosty The Lucky.

That pre-dates me by a few years lol. I actually just started DMing a campaign a few months ago though. 

[Frosty]

A nerdling eh? I'm not half nerdish by a long bow shot. 

My longest living character was a human ranger name of Rick. Yeah, Ranger Rick, plagiarized right out of Boy's Life, you betcha. My other favorite was a human Druid name of Cane.

I applied level adjustments to making the two spells he knew used stronger. Cane knew Grow and Heal. He wore a vest with many pockets containing: seeds, spoors, bits of rot and various bits of unspeakably icky but useful life forms. Cane also carried hundreds of small vials and scoops made from different things for collecting . . . stuff. 

Gandalf's duel with the Balrog on the bridge? HAH!, Cane would've let it come then tripled it's size in the middle of the bridge. If the bridge didn't fail the balrog wouldn't fit through narrow passages. 

The human ranger Phodan didn't last his first game but that was my fault. His full name was Phodan Do Pedo. The DM took issue and I didn't change it so Phodan succumbed heroically but. . . <sigh> Don't tick off the DM!

I tried joining games at local card and game shops but D&D isn't any fun anymore. Everybody rolls super hero characters and you're killing demigods and such right from the start. BLECH!

A friend and I have been playing e1 & e2 rules and modules and have been having a ball. He's on Ted 3 a half elf assassin thief. I'm still running Dak, human Druid, he's survived and thrived three sessions!  Teds haven't been so lucky. We rolled fatal injuries during our last session and were about to call the day when I remembered we'd drunk an invisibility potion which adjusted our hit points enough we survived the attack. Then we threw a glowing vial through the door and slammed it shut. The demon thing released ate the evil clerics while we ran for our lives. 

Starting characters weak and nearly powerless is so much more fun. Perhaps Sean and I can start a new trend at the local game shop. 

Frosty The Lucky.

 

[JHCC]

One of my good friends from college has been D&D creative manager and designer for Wizards of the Coast for many a long year. One of the very nicest people I know.