Today, I'm nicely surprised to find an entry in En.Wikipedia about me. Well, it isn't really about me, but of what "Aimak" is. Now, for the record, I shall narrate how/when did I find my Internet nickname.
Back in 1997, I met the Internet and started to chat in IRC rooms. Many people started this way. The most important tasks at that time was to choose the right nickname. I disliked, I still do, those nicknames based on famous people, fiction characters, or things. It is also common to see people using god's names as nicknames, mostly greek and scandinavian gods. The words "Zeus", "Ares", etc were too popular. I wanted something unique and exclusive. Who doesn't?. The question was: Where can I find a "really cool" nickname?. Because Google wasn't an option at that time, I decided to try the traditional source of knowledge: an enciclopaedia.
I found at home an old enciclopaedia dated not later than mid 80s. Umm, I have got 14 volumes to choose, I thought. I also thought that it was a huge enciclopaedia. I had plenty time to think about stupid questions. As I was saying, I had to put down a list of requirements for my definitive and unique nickname. It was an important issue because the chosen nickname should identify me in the Internet and should not be changed anymore. The task was getting hard enough to not repeat the process again in the future. Here are some of the requirements I used:
- It has to be short word, but no less than 4 charaters.
- It has to sound well. Something cool.
- It has to start with the letter A or Z. This should allow to quickly find it in alphabetically sorted lists.
- It should be meaningfull, thus it has to be in the enciclopaedia.
I pulled the first volume. I opened it from the first page. I carefulle read every single entry. No success on the first page. I terrible thought came into my mid: Man!, this is a tough task. I'll never manage to find anything of my taste. I remember I had few candidates, but I wasn't sure about any. None sounded well to me.
As far I can remember, the book say that "Aimak" is the name of a scandinavian god. I could not find anymore if this is true. Years later, I belive around 2002, I used Google to find out more about my nickname and only got what Wikipedia shows now, more or less.
It is very interesting how a nickname chosen only to be used in the internet can become a part of you. Nowadays, some people call me by my nick and I anwser the same way as if it were my real name. Hope I'm not getting any psychological problems due to this. If it happens, I will post it here. Promise ;)
