Another stupid question ... Why did our beloved Webmeister choose the name 'Ziroc' ?

[Father Bronze]

Another theory is that . . .

Our webmaster needed a name and quickly. All of his on-line friends had names. He wanted one too! It just wasn't fair. And he wanted the coolest name of all, not just something average like Breserker, Spellmaster, or Archer . He didnt' like the cute names like DiscoDuck or BunnyMan . He needed something classy, archaic, bold .

He searched the pages of every myth and legend book ever published. He read until he was almost blind. When he was done, he was still at a loss. He decided to go for a walk on the beach.

The beaches of Florida were pretty vacant at this time of the night. The moon glowed brightly in the southern sky. The waves washed gently against the shore. And our webmaster stubbed his toe. The first thing that crossed his mind (after the few @#!&* he uttered) was what had he stumbled over? This was a sandy beach. A few seashells, yeah. A rock shouldn't be here. So he got down on his knees and scoured through the sand, finally grabbing a small metalic rock. He took it home.

As soon as he got home he dug through the back closet until he found his "Acme Junior Professor Chemistry Set -- complete with protective eyewear and breathing mask." He prepared for his analysis. He put on the protective eyewear, donned the breathing mask, snapped on the rubber gloves, and even found his old bicycle helmet as head protection. He looked like a total geek, but he was prepared. He started by scraping a bit of the rock into several different cereal bowls (he'd misplaced the petrie dishes and test tubes). He then added a bit of this chemical, a bit of that chemical, and waited. The first bowl did nothing. The second turned bright yellow. The third started fizzing and the fourth popped and crackled. He dug through his closet again to find the "Acme Junior Professor Chemistry Book of Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Anything." On page 6459 he found his answer. Yellow, fizzing, and crackling signifies the presence of zircon. Little had our webmaster known, but he had literally stumbled across a piece of zirconium. Further reading informed him that zirconium is found in nature as zircon in the beach sands of Australia and Florida. He liked the name zircon but couldn't find the right combination. Zirconman was a little long and too many "n" and "m" sounds. Zirconrock was cool, but just didn't have quite the right twist. Saying it faster sounded even cooler Zirconrock, Zirconrock, Zirconroc, Zircoroc, Ziroc . That was it. He would call himself "Ziroc" after the zirconium rock he had stumbled across on his midnight beach stroll.

P.S. If you would like to read more about Zirconium, check out the link at The British Columbia Institute of Technology


------------------

Most Subtle Official Straightman of the Laughing Hyenas -- Grammarian Brigade.

[This message has been edited by Father Bronze (edited 06-01-2001).]

[sylent]

Thats a wondrous imagination you have got there FB!
I am stunned, and very amused!

- "Never underestimate the Magik of laughter"

[This message has been edited by sylent (edited 06-02-2001).]

[Memnoch]

ROLFMAO!!!!!

------------------

Originally posted by Father Bronze: P.S. If you would like to read more about Zirconium, check out the link at The British Columbia Institute of Technology

Holy crap! That is SCARY! I didn't know this Zirconium existed until AFTER I got on the internet a did searches for 'ziroc' on yahoo.. I made the name up in 1990! PLUS, I made the name up here IN FLORIDA! freaky.. rocks may talk to me! haha What is even WORSE you say? Read this paragraph from that British C. Site:


(Comments by me in brackets)
"Zirconium reacts with the oxygen and nitrogen (I do too) in the atmosphere to form a protective film that prevents further corrosion of the metal (I wear clothing). It is known in industry as a tough, corrosion-resistant metal (I'm a tough ass too! ) that is suitable for use in high-performance pumps (My Wife likes that), valves, and building material for jets and rockets(I've flown in a jet). Zirconium has very low neutron absorption (Ignore people I hate) capability and it serves as the inner lining of reactors in nuclear submarines and atomic power plants (Free power!). Its compounds have many miscellaneous applications in ceramics (Bowls to eat out of), catalysts, and special alloys. When alloyed with niobium, zirconium becomes superconductive (I have a temper). The sulfate of zirconium is used in tanning white leather.(Tanned in FL)"

Scary huh?


------------------
Ziroc
Ironworks Webmaster
www.tgeweb.com/ironworks



[This message has been edited by Ziroc (edited 06-02-2001).]

[Moiraine]

Father Bunny, that was brilliant ! :Applause: (No smiley for that ... ).

Aaaa, Ziroc, honey, seems that you will have to rename this site ...

ZIRCONWORKS !!!

------------------


The world is my oyster !
And now I have the knives to open it ...

[This message has been edited by Moiraine (edited 06-02-2001).]

[This message has been edited by Moiraine (edited 06-02-2001).]

[This message has been edited by Moiraine (edited 06-02-2001).]

[Cloudbringer]

HAHAHAHA... oh the secret is out now, but boy this was fun while it lasted! ... Uh, Z, er, talking to rocks!? ROTFL!!!


Cloudy

------------------
Raindancer of the Laughing Hyenas Clan
Storm-Queen
StormCloud of the Black Knight
Heart Mind Soul Forever

[Reeka]

Father Bronze! Brilliant as always. We shall have to think of another topic to test your writing skills on.

------------------
O_H_F

[arion windrider]

poor ziroc, the cats out of the bag(wink wink)...great name for a great webmaster

------------------
Swordmaster to the King of Riva.. ALL HAIL TO BELGARION KING OF RIVA

[Father Bronze]

Originally posted by Ziroc: Holy crap! That is SCARY! I didn't know this Zirconium existed until AFTER I got on the internet a did searches for 'ziroc' on yahoo.. I made the name up in 1990! PLUS, I made the name up here IN FLORIDA! freaky.. rocks may talk to me! haha What is even WORSE you say? Read this paragraph . . . (edited for brevity)

Yeah, Ziroc, I thought about carrying the metaphor to an extreme, but thought I might be going overboard. Thanks for facing up to your true self. It's sort of like one of those psychic name readings where they tell you the kind of person you are based on some extraneous data. BTW: Ziroc isn't in any of the name catalogues so that story option was closed.

[Father Bronze]

We all know that our webmaster has a love for everything Star Trek (his particular condition probably has a clinical name, but we'd have to ask someone like kiwidoc to know for sure). Even though we love the Ironworks, we must realize that The Great Escape Studios came before Ironworks. So it is not surprising that our webmaster took his pseudonym from one of the "lost" Star Trek episodes . . .

Our webmaster was attending the annual Star Trek convention. He was excited, because this year he had brought enough cash with him so that he could purchase a brand pair of Vulcan ears. And if he were lucky, he could pick up a pair of slightly used Vulcan ears and use the rest of his savings to buy himself a cheap plastic comm badge.

While walking the aisles of the convention hall, our webmaster accidentally bumped into a tall dark Klingon. Thinking this an opportunity to try his linguistic skills, our webmaster struck up a conversation -- in Klingon of course. Before our webmaster knew what he was doing, he handed the guy $200 and the Klingon handed our webmaster a beta VCR tape entitled "Star Trek -- The Lost Episode."

Our webmaster was so excited that he decided to skip the mind-meld seminar head straight home. He rushed in his apartment door and turned on the computer. He quickly e-mailed his closest friends to tell them what a treasure he had found. They didn't believe him, of course, and proceeded to once again tease him about his lack of a pseudonym. So our webmaster gave up trying to round up his friends for an impromptu Star Trek viewing party, and decided to go solo. He popped the tape into the VCR and sat in front of a blue screen for about 10 minutes. Then the screen turned to zig-zagging lines of black. Then to vertical lines. By this time our webmaster was slightly loopy, both from the euphoria of finding "Star Trek - The Lost Episode" and from staring at a TV screen that showed nothing but static. After 30 minutes of blank screen staring, characters appeared and it appeared as if the show were starting. The sound was barely audible through the static from the tape. Our webmaster assumed that this was for effect -- you know, the "I can't hear you Scotty" sort of effect. Our webmaster could only make out one character's name. Ensign Ziroc. Then the screen went blank. Rather than admit that he had been duped by the burly Klingon into buying a "fake" tape, our webmaster decided to write his own Star Trek story. And he used the name Ziroc as his pseudonym. Maybe that alone was worth the $20.

------------------

Most Subtle Official Straightman of the Laughing Hyenas -- Grammarian Brigade.