Friday, August 17, 2007

What's in Hawk's Name?

So Myg is interested in better understanding how we define ourselves through our names in SL. For more info you can see her write-up, What's in your Name? Jelly already explained the origins of her name in her post, so I guess it is my turn now... :)
I selected the name of HawksRock a little over ten years ago. It is a tribute to my university alma mater, the University of Kansas. The mascot of KU is a fictional bird-like creature called a Jayhawk. Wikipedia explains the origin of the term Jayhawk as:

The Jayhawk is a cross between two hunting birds--the noisy blue jay and the quiet sparrow hawk. The term came to prominence just before the Civil War, in Bleeding Kansas, where it was adopted by militant abolitionist groups known as jayhawkers. With the admission of Kansas as a free state in 1861, Jayhawker became synonymous with the people of Kansas. The Jayhawk appears in several Kansas cheers, most notably, the "Rock Chalk, Jayhawk" chant in unison before and during games.


So I am combining the mascot with the "most famous college cheer in all of sports" the Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk chant. http://www.ku.edu/about/traditions/songs/rockchalk.mp3

I began my foray into the realm of net-ertainmnet by playing cards on yahoo. I was killer at spades and bridge, although the crowds couldn't have been more different. Young people play spades, old fogies play bridge. I luckily get along well with both. I have always been known as Hawks for the last ten years. Therefore when I entered SL the HawksRock was not negotiable. I can't remember at this point which last name I originally selected, but I do know that it was not allowed because some other HawksRock beat me to it. So I did the typically guy thing and just picked the first option that appeared on the list of available names.

I had no idea that the last name would even matter. Overall though I have come to like Gunawan and can't really picture myself with any other name at this point. So ... now you know... doesn't that feel special... :)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Bridge! w00t! Does that make me an old fogie? Actually, I can't play for shit, but it's cooler than Texas Hold 'Em.