h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The Dojo of Coolness was an entity I created in high school, based on my observation that the majority of people were highly stressed out and this affected their physical and mental health. The purpose of the dojo was to spread the importance of relaxation and to train people in the art of being cool. There were two Dojo Masters, myself and my Chinese partner Hao, who has since disappeared under suspicious circumstances. The Dojo occasionally makes reappearances in various forms, but is for the most part inactive. I use Master of the Dojo of Coolness occasionally as a screenname when I feel some of my others are being overused or when I want to confuse myself.

In my first week on the h2g2, certain individuals got impatient with always typing out my name, and gave me the acronym of MotDoc. Later, I added the smiley. It came off of a top-ten list and was mostly chosen because my dad always draws stick figures that have little antennae like the ones on the . And its distinctive.

So there it is. Not the best of stories, but F/b requested it and I present it to her.

And it is happily received MotDoc

What a great thing to do in high school: try to de-stress your peers. Most of my time in secondary school was spent trying to distress my peers. Shame Fb, shame

I'm sure there must be a good anagram of Frenchbean to think about it...

Lord Ford


Fb

Hi there...

My nickname was the result of needing a nickname that wasn't female. As many of you know, when you sign on in a chat, you immediately get a flood of inquiries about name, age, gender, etc.

I settled on Mudhooks after a number of other boring and uninspired names.

My ex was in the Canadian Forces and used to refer to feet as "mudhooks". It is a naval term for anchors, as well as for feet. He would often say "Getcher mudhooks off the couch."

Since I like to go barefoot everywhere, since I like the sea, and since it is most definintely NOT a female nickname, it serves its purpose very nicely.

When I first started chatting, a lot of people (mostly women) thought that I was a male who liked fishing. It lead to a few awkward moments when, after a long conversation with a woman, it would suddenly dawn on the her that I wasn't male and they would suddenly disappear.

Mudhooks,
I've often had the same experience in the opposite direction while chatting under my AOL identity. It is rather non-gendered, and it can be amusing to see how quickly other men stop being friendly once they realize that I'm one of their own. Makes it pretty clear what most people are looking for online.

It's embarrassing though to use the wrong pronoun when referring to another researcher. I've done that more than once.

H

Perhaps if we came up with a suitably neutral substitute. Like instead of saying 'he' or 'she' we could adopt the more formal but also more neutral phrase 'the researcher'.

Hmmm, This sounds like a familiar question!

Mr. is taken; as is Mrs. and Ms.

Perhaps just M.?

'M. FordsTowel'; 'Hi M.'; 'M.'s a silly one'; 'If we talk about FordsTowel M.'ll get upset'.

Nah,... it's not working.

A name is something to hang our preconceptions on, and the only embarrassment comes when a reseacher gets huffy after someone else draws the wrong conclusions from their possibly ambiguous nickname.

One way to avoid misunderstandings is, of course, to describe the persona you want other researchers to imagine you as on your space. Obviously if this departs to any great extent from the truth be cautious about attending h2g2 meetups

Pimms

Not many people know that I'm actually a woman.

B

Pimms It also rather depends on people reading your PS.

You could always go to a meetup incognito. Does h2g2 have an Incognito? I feel sure it must have

I'm never going to get to a London meet at the rate I'm going. The next one's the weekend I've got family to stay But I'm in London the following weekend for a wedding (the famous knickerless wedding ), which is useless timing


Fb

At least those of you in the UK are close enough together to have meets. And to get together for mini meets with researchers you like occassionally.

Being stuck in the geographical center of a rather largish continent makes it hard for me to get anywhere.

I'm stuck in the middle of another largish continent I believe. A rather less civilized one.

Your Dojoness, I think we're in the middle of the same continent. I've never heard the part of the country where I live referred to as civilized, so........

Sorry, thought you were an Aussie.

Here goes......I live in Peckham in London; I'm a socialist - hence red; I'm a pom to the Aussies; pom pom is a silly ball on hats, and I'm a bit silly; 'with knobs on', is a daft English term for 'very"..

Hello Redpeckham

Long time no see. Have you been away again, or just plain busy?

No I haven't been away again. just plain stuck in London. How's your plans for settling in Oz going?

Oz is on course for February. I've handed in my notice at work and leave there on Jan 28th

Heaps to do before then of course .. packing, selling, giving away, saying goodbyes. Oh, and Christmas

And in the meantime, Gosho's moved in with me He'll be coming to Oz too

Life never seems to be boring for long

Six Fb

Is Gosho a boyfriend?

Gosho - U147203 - is indeed a boyfriend

We met on h2g2 and he moved from Texas to Perthshire last week