Nickname Quiz

As some of you may see, there is a quiz on the right sidebar. At present it rotates between six different questions. Don't take them too seriously (or you'll be locked up in an institution). :-D Well, one of the questions is concerning my various nicknames, so I thought I'd stick some background behind them:

• Bear - without a doubt my longest running nickname from when I was 12 to present day. This one started when the Muppets first played onTV. Everyone turned up at school trying to do imitations of the various characters. I tried to do Fozzy Bear and found I was spot on. ["Come on! Come on! You know the Bear is funny!"] This was immediately met by people saying, "He's the Bear, He's the Bear!" After that, the Nickname stuck for a long time. I've actually been given this nickname about seven times from differnt groups of people for different reasons. In a way, it became my name for a while, with friends forgetting my real name. (Some peopel still only know me as this, not knowing my real name).

• Dog - short lived nickname only used by a few people. We were playing one of those word games (where you had to guess the rules being used). The way it was played, was you said the line, "When I go on holiday, I am taking a ..." at which point you say what you are going to take. I was playing against three other guys, Joseph, Jon, and John. I thought the rule at first had something to do with the letter 'J' so I was saying things like "Jumbuck", "Jelly Donuts", "Jabawocky" etc. I was always wrong. Eventually I thought maybe it was something else in the word ... the second vowel, the last letter, etc etc. Always WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! Eventually I figured out the rule (after many hints from Joseph, Jon and John!) It was the first letter of your name. So, the first thing I decided to take, was a DOG! After that, Joseph, Jon and John (plus some others) started calling me Dog. Actually, it was mainly Joseph. (He embarassingly yelled it at me in the UTS University Library once).

• Dabido - The Japanese name for David is Debitto. I just made my own version of it, calling myself Dabido. Japanese sounding without meaning anything and differnet from all the other Debitto's in the world!

• Libido - A version of Dabido given to me by some friends in AE (AsianEuro chat site).

• Mouse - My first ever nickname. (Other than "YOU!" and "Hey! D!@^head!") After kids at school tried to invent a nickname for me from my name (Stevenson) and then giving up, they decided to call me Mighty Mouse, which got shortened to Mouse eventually. This was superceded by Bear a few years later. (Yes, I am here to save the day!)

• Fozzy - See the "Bear" point above. Some people prefered to call me Fozzy rather than Bear, as they didn't consider me to bear like.

• Wizzer - Given to me in school in Adelaide. Most of the kids aimed to get 'C' averages. They didn't want to stand out from the crowd. Some smart alec kid actually got A's and B's ... um ... and that was me. So I was nicknamed Wizzer the Wizkid from WA. It was used as an insult to try and pull me in line in the hope I'd start to get C's like the rest of the class. Not me! I always march to my own beat.

• Legend - Given to me after I got a High Distinction at University, while simulateously doing a full time job (40+ hours per week), a part time job (30+ hours per week), the house work on Saturdays (ironing, vaccuuming). During this time I also used to cook for myself and do the washing up for both myself and my wife. (Taking into account travel time, I was living off three or four hours sleep each night). Nickname didn't take off with everyone. lol

• The Old Man of Rock 'N' Roll - Given to me when I was in a band called "Living Proof" (for those who remember the band). The other three members (when we were a four piece) were 23, 18, and 18 years old. I was 24 years old. Thus, being the oldest, I was nicknamed "The Old Man of Rock 'N' Roll". Supposedly because I was SOOOooooo Old. Um, yeah! So old!

• Nick - This nickname was given to me when I was sharing a flat with my friend Lisa. (Who was like a sister to me) Her brother's name was Nick. She claimed I was just like her brother Nick ... horrible to her! (In a brotherly sort of a way). So she nicknamed me after her brother. People would hear her call me Nick, and would ask, "Why does she call you Nick?" I'd just say "Because it's my NICK name." Some people would almost laugh ... almost. She stopped calling me it after her brother died, but a few other people continued it whenever nicknames were brought up.

That explains the origin of the nicknames. (Of course, there are other nicknames I had, and I was given Bear so many times it wasn't funny. One of my favourite incidents was when I was running through the snow at Perisher. A girl came up to me and told me I looked like a Bear from a documentary running through the snow. This cracked up my friends who knew my nickname!)