The naming of things
Welp, tonight is it: the biggie. The sorta-semi-annual Trivia Cup* that we've been building up to for twelve weeks. First prize, $400. Second place, steak knives; third place - yer fired. (Note: if we can, remember to purchase a set of ultra-cheap, cheesy steak knives, and perhaps a picture of Donald Trump, printed out and placed on tagboard...also, new scotch tape for the trophy, and some of those cardboard crowns from Burger King that we can walk in wearing.) Wallace & Gromit is way, way out ahead in "chase points" - accrued by getting ten points for a first place finish, eight for a second place finish, and so on, for each of the preceding twelve weeks - but this is a single-game playoff, so all that's out the window. Yes, this will be mano à mano, brain cell on brain cell, veins pulsing in the forehead as we outclever the opposition. Ooo, I'm all a-tingle. Oh, yes, there's bheer involved, too.
I've given some thought to a possible change of name for the team. Wallace and Gromit was a good name when it was just ratravarman and me, because he looks a bit like Wallace and I look a bit (a lot, really) like a dog. However, our duo seems to have become an at-minimum quartet with the additions of the Mutant, muzikmaker21, and occasionally cnvarbiter, and naming a group after only a few guys says "law firm" to me, which is enough to break anyone out in hives. Maybe we can name ourselves something insufferably smug and condescending, and hire Richard Dawkins as our team mascot. He could walk into the bar and belittle everyone for us, meaning he could get punched and not us, which is doubly rewarding.
While we're naming things, I figure I can also ask some other questions. I had this idea a few posts ago, which, aside from some welcome interest from visible_bruises, was met with an unmistakable resounding yawn from my flist; however, I lack good sense, which means that I am no less likely to forge ahead with it. Assuming that I were to create start a shared world suitable for role-playing or just futzing with à la NationStates, what would I call it? Or, at least, what would I call the LJ community for it, since that's presumably how I'd start?
I'm also rethinking the name for my company. My flist was not enthusiastic about the name I'd picked out, even after allowing some leeway on the first poll that I'd posted on the subject quite a long time ago. Now as I get closer to going live with it (about bloody time, says the chorus from the peanut gallery), I'm second-guessing myself. I like the "Unique Services" part to it, and the same caveats apply (no bastardized MultiCapitalized names like TechNet or SciInterCorp or PushButtonBeepBeepCorp, and no three-letter acronyms/TLA's), but I find myself casting about for something that's a bit less misleading; "The Exchange" sounds too much like a financial services company. I can't do "Oriole", "Penguin", or "Weasel", so animals seem to be out. I could try something boring...the idea is to show that even though it'll just be me to start with, eventually the company will have a component where we'll have a "bullpen" of tech knowledge to draw from, and not just a single guy that gets stuck on site and forgotten about. Good for the employee, because sie'll** have an active company behind hir and have less of that "person without a country" syndrome that contractors get; good for the client because they'll get value-added, as they say in the biz. What do you, the viewers at home, think?
Oh, and finally, I thought I'd throw in one about the kitten, just in honor of her first vet's visit today.
Poll Calling things by their right names
* It works out to three times a year, I think, and it's a trophy, not a cup, which is a pretty trivial distinction to make.
** See here. Yes, I am insufferable.
I've given some thought to a possible change of name for the team. Wallace and Gromit was a good name when it was just ratravarman and me, because he looks a bit like Wallace and I look a bit (a lot, really) like a dog. However, our duo seems to have become an at-minimum quartet with the additions of the Mutant, muzikmaker21, and occasionally cnvarbiter, and naming a group after only a few guys says "law firm" to me, which is enough to break anyone out in hives. Maybe we can name ourselves something insufferably smug and condescending, and hire Richard Dawkins as our team mascot. He could walk into the bar and belittle everyone for us, meaning he could get punched and not us, which is doubly rewarding.
While we're naming things, I figure I can also ask some other questions. I had this idea a few posts ago, which, aside from some welcome interest from visible_bruises, was met with an unmistakable resounding yawn from my flist; however, I lack good sense, which means that I am no less likely to forge ahead with it. Assuming that I were to create start a shared world suitable for role-playing or just futzing with à la NationStates, what would I call it? Or, at least, what would I call the LJ community for it, since that's presumably how I'd start?
I'm also rethinking the name for my company. My flist was not enthusiastic about the name I'd picked out, even after allowing some leeway on the first poll that I'd posted on the subject quite a long time ago. Now as I get closer to going live with it (about bloody time, says the chorus from the peanut gallery), I'm second-guessing myself. I like the "Unique Services" part to it, and the same caveats apply (no bastardized MultiCapitalized names like TechNet or SciInterCorp or PushButtonBeepBeepCorp, and no three-letter acronyms/TLA's), but I find myself casting about for something that's a bit less misleading; "The Exchange" sounds too much like a financial services company. I can't do "Oriole", "Penguin", or "Weasel", so animals seem to be out. I could try something boring...the idea is to show that even though it'll just be me to start with, eventually the company will have a component where we'll have a "bullpen" of tech knowledge to draw from, and not just a single guy that gets stuck on site and forgotten about. Good for the employee, because sie'll** have an active company behind hir and have less of that "person without a country" syndrome that contractors get; good for the client because they'll get value-added, as they say in the biz. What do you, the viewers at home, think?
Oh, and finally, I thought I'd throw in one about the kitten, just in honor of her first vet's visit today.
Poll Calling things by their right names
* It works out to three times a year, I think, and it's a trophy, not a cup, which is a pretty trivial distinction to make.
** See here. Yes, I am insufferable.