I frequently find myself telling the story of how I came to be known as “Etoile” online.

I first started my time online with the decidedly unglamorous handle of BFXT07B. This was from the original Prodigy service (launched by Sears and IBM in 1987), which didn’t allow users to pick their own names. Around 1990 or so, Prodigy made the stupid move of charging per e-mail, and sometime before 1991, my mother switched us from Prodigy to GEnie, which was another online provider - this time owned by General Electric (the capitalization in the name is intentional). At GEnie, you could choose your own name, and my mother helped me pick STAR. (An interesting side note: I remember celebrating my tenth birthday online with my GEnie friends - double digits!) Eventually my mother switched to an actual ISP, and I didn’t have my own account for a few years. In late 1995, I discovered MOO Français decided to sign up for a character. Remembering the name I’d most recently used online, I translated it to Etoile - the MOO software didn’t support accents at the time (though it now does). Ever since then that’s the name I’ve used for online forums, chats, and so forth. Occasionally I’ll use my real name (Meredith) if most people seem to be using their real name in that community, or I’ll use woofiegrrl (an early nickname my girlfriend gave me) if I find Etoile is already taken - it doesn’t happen often, and sometimes it’s because I’ve already signed up at that site! I don’t even try for Star anymore, I assume it’s always taken by the time I find the forum. One final name I might use online is bunz, because my girlfriend sometimes calls me bunzimus cutimus and very often calls me Bunz - it’s her pet name for me. The vast majority of the time, though, I am Etoile.

According to the 1984-1985 page of a technology and Internet timeline, the very first domain name registered was symbolics.com on March 15, 1985. A current check of the Network Solutions whois database reveals that the record for symbolics.com was created on October 8th, 2002 - so somewhere along the line was a break. The timeline mentions that cmu.edu was the next domain created, and sure enough the whois search reveals that the record was created on April 24, 1985. I was just four years old! I can’t believe any domain has been around quite that long.

It’s not a meme, it’s not a writing prompt, but it’s Sunday and it’s time for this week’s Unconscious Mutterings.

1. Trolling :: posting
2. Profile :: biography
3. Tin :: metal
4. Phenom :: Judith Light
5. Mug shot :: criminal
6. Tubular :: awesome
7. Six Flags :: season pass
8. Pickup :: oversized
9. Auction :: sale
10. Astonishing :: amazing

Some cool links:
Your Dictionary - Quick word lookups and translations, word of the day, specialized dictionaries and word lists, games, and articles.
Journalist Express - Research links for journalists. News sources, information repositories, things like that.
Network for Good - Helps individuals make responsible decisions about which charities to donate to.
My Imager - Online image editing similar to GifWorks, but for JPG images as well.

The Bay Area’s Mercury News has a great article called Barrier Breaker, about an 18-year-old girl whose family came to the U.S. from Afghanistan so the girl could attend school. She’s now graduating from the California School for the Deaf at Fremont.

I won’t get to see the whole site until A brings the laptop home tonight (this machine doesn’t have Flash and I don’t feel like downloading it), but from the front page I can tell that Milo’s Tongue is going to be a really funny site! I don’t think he’ll achieve the cult status of the adorable Mr. Winkle, though, even if Milo was featured by Yahoo! today.

There’s this strange concept called fanlistings. Not quite a webring, and sort of like a clique, they’re for anyone to join who is a fan of the topic. I’ve joined several, even though I don’t really understand the purpose…I just like making a list of things I like, and that’s one more way to do it. There’s a site called TheFanListings.org that organizes “official” fanlistings, though I’m not sure what all the fuss is about - it’s not like they’re sanctioned by a celebrity, as an official fan club might be. There are fanlistings for all sorts of topics; I currently run the kayaking fanlisting and I’ve submitted the Hothead Paisan fanlisting as being complete. I’ve been approved to create a fanlisting for Kristine, but I’m having trouble with the design for it - none of the already-established fanlistings for webmasters look like what I want - I don’t even see pictures of the webmasters! (They all seem to be a lot of patting each other on the back, too.) I’m considering starting some other fanlistings, too - I applied to run one for k.d. lang but I think the application got lost, and now the category is closed. I also want to try fanlistings for artist Masami Teraoka, the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For (even though I don’t like it - just to give it a fanlisting), the magazine The Advocate (I bought an issue on the newsstand this weekend and once again I really wish I could afford to subscribe), subways, sign languages, and the movies And the Band Played On and Aimée & Jaguar. Not that anybody would join any of my fanlistings, I’m sure - though if they did, I’m already all set with PHPFanBase to manage the members. Besides, there are some pretty bizarre fanlistings already out there - Spike’s left eyebrow scar? Men’s hips? CAPS LOCK?! Help, I’m getting sucked into this fanlisting business - I think I should go post some of those maps on eBay, or play Spyro, or something.

I was kind of surprised by a recent ad in The Advocate. Most of the ads feature gay couples prominently - Bud Light’s Be Yourself ad, Avis’s car rental ad - and plenty of others seen at the Commercial Closet’s What About Print? section. And then there’s an ad for Orbitz that kind of threw me. The copy fits in with all the other ads in the magazine - “Get a room. (it’s easier than you think)” - but the couple depicted is a guy in a blue suit and a woman in a pink dress and hat. A heterosexual couple. I applaud any company that’ll spend money on advertising to gays, but it kind of surprises me that Orbitz didn’t bother to design a more suitable ad, or even pick one that didn’t feature people.

I seem to be doing a lot of memes this week. Here’s the current Monday Mission:

1.What is the difference between spirituality and religion?
Four letters. Seriously, that’s about all it is to me. I have so little interest in spirituality and religion that I don’t care about a greater difference.
(more…)

The Santa Cruz Sentinel has a great article about baby sign called Look who’s talking. Most people don’t know a six-month-old can ask to nurse! If you’re interested in more information, the ODP category Signing with Babies has great links.