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Well, then it's gonna be a Tengwar tattoo for one daughter and hieroglyphs for the other!


... and best-seller kat-herder ferrets for everyone!

Heck, here in Indiana we get nuthin' cool, all you see is tattooz of tractorz!

Thus we gave the third kid an uncommon name.

Which was?

Tilo (pronounced tea-low). It's actually a normal name in Germany, and it fits a pattern common to many present-day Dutch names (Benno, Addo, Remco, Timo, etc), yet people here think it's so unusual, sigh. In the US, they just figure it's some weird Dutch thing.

Pitty the child who has a strange and/or bizarre name inflicted upon him or her by bohemian parents!

It's less bizarre than the names he could have gotten if we'd stuck to family tradition. The options were Trifon, Vinal, Juan Nepomuceno (the Nepomuceno was required), and Cipriano. We might go back and use one of them at some point if another boy joins us.

Trifon

I instantly imagined a scene in some epic space opera novel, featuring the terrible moment when the dreaded Trifon warfleet jumps out of the hell dimensions of hyperspace and rains Zed-radiation destruction down onto the defenseless cities of Earth!

Thus we gave the third kid an uncommon name.

Which was?

Tilo (pronounced tea-low). It's actually a normal name in Germany, and it fits a pattern common to many present-day Dutch names (Benno, Addo, Remco, Timo, etc), yet people here think it's so unusual, sigh. In the US, they just figure it's some weird Dutch thing.

So, not to sound like an ignorant American but, is Tilo a boy or girl? I like the name.

My mom gave me an unusual name. Then, 10 years later, it became a very popular name. The good news is, people who just see my byline assume I'm a lot younger than I actually am.

We selected Kolten for our kid, which is supposedly somewhat common in Germany, but isn't so usual here. However, I suspect it might end up like Kyle, since I hear of more and more Koltens (or Coltans) being born all the while. When we picked it, neither of us had ever met someone in person with the name.

Tilo is a boy, and not an ignorant question at all! As someone everyone assumed was a boy from her name all her life, I think it's a *brilliant* question.

My very first child was named Meghan, which wasn't a common name back then. And apparently lots of people had that same grand realization that year. She ended up with a best school friend named Megan and in gymnastics (briefly) with *two* other Me(a)g(h)ans.

I think I've met/known of/been acquainted with six or seven "Megans" in my life. And every single one of them spelled their name differently! (Including our M.O.Muriel)

I think I've met/known of/been acquainted with six or seven "Megans" in my life. And every single one of them spelled their name differently! (Including our M.O.Muriel)

So you're saying that people named "Megan" have some problem with spelling?

Ha, my parents got my name from The Thorn Birds. Although, to save people headaches, they decided to leave off the extra "n" (Meghann).

Wow, people are so inspired by the books they read, they name their kids after characters! We fiction writers hold a high place of honor in society .

@Scott: yeah, I've seen my name spelled 10 ways past Sunday. Megan, Meagan, Meghan, Meghann, Meaghan, Megyn, Meagyn . . . blah.

WOW! I thought this thread was about avatars! I see that Rebecca got hers up .

WOW! I thought this thread was about avatars! I see that Rebecca got hers up .

Hee! I did, thanks to an assist from Dustin (thank you again!) Apparently files that are as small as 6Kbs are too small for me to handle.

Wow, people are so inspired by the books they read, they name their kids after characters! We fiction writers hold a high place of honor in society

Remember that the now-common given name "Wendy" first appeared in the Peter Pan stories.

Thanks to all who filled in for me on this thread, as I'd been tardy in offering assistance.

Almost all internet service providers give each customer a certain amount of web storage space -- I take it for granted that everyone knows how to access and use that space, especially for something simple like an avatar.

Sorry to be an idiot about this, but even after reading the thread I still have not been able to figure out how they got it to work. I tried putting it on Google Docs and Flickr and using the URL, but no dice. If my ISP provides storage, I am sadly ignorant of it or where to find it. I tried drawing an avatar a while back on a website with "picaso" in the name, only to find out after a half hour of work that it would not let me save the image at all, and of course the size was all wrong as it was. I now have a picture that I believe is the right size , but am stuck. Not a big deal, but any advice (think of how you might explain it to a third grader--wait, most third graders are far more tech savvy than I am) would be appreciated.

OK, here's how I set mine up, step by step...

1. I posted the avatar someplace where I had posting rights (in this case, my blog).

2. I viewed the avatar on my blog.

3. I right-clicked it and selected Properties to see information on the avatar.

4. I noted the exact dimensions, and I made sure the file size was under 6 KB.

5. I highlighted and copied the complete URL to the clipboard. (Be careful. With hosting sites sometimes the URL is so long, they show only part of it. In Internet Explorer, if you highlight the URL and drag, it will show you the missing characters.)

6. I closed the Properties window.

7. I went to the WotF Edit Avatar page.

8. I pasted in the URL.

9. I typed in the width and height, since I had a problem once where the automatic sizing didn't work.

10. I clicked Submit.

If those steps don't work for you, feel free to yell for more help. (I would offer to drive up to help in person, but you know the kind of weather we're having!)

Thanks Martin, that did the trick. Though it took me a while to figure out how to log into my blog, it worked after I sorted that out.

Now I've gotta ask: what is it? It looks like a staircase in a house; but even at 400% zoom, I can't figure out more than that. And the file name has "Whale" in it, and I can't guess what a whale has to do with that.

Now I've gotta ask: what is it? It looks like a staircase in a house; but even at 400% zoom, I can't figure out more than that. And the file name has "Whale" in it, and I can't guess what a whale has to do with that.

It is a staircase, but yeah, most of the detail is gone. Here's a link to the actual painting, "Aqua Dementia," by a good friend of mine Keith Grassmick, who I am trying to convince to enter the IOTF: .
Please check out the rest of his beautiful work on his site too: http://keithgrassmick.com/. I used it in part because I wrote a story inspired by the painting (I cannot say any more, if you know what I mean), and it makes me happy to see it every time I post here, even if it is tiny.

Please check out the rest of his beautiful work on his site too: http://keithgrassmick.com/. I used it in part because I wrote a story inspired by the painting (I cannot say any more, if you know what I mean), and it makes me happy to see it every time I post here, even if it is tiny.

Oh. My.

Yes, please tell him to submit to IOTF! Those pictures are good! I may have to beg for an introduction at some point. He knows ships, and he knows SF. That's a nice combination for my Q4 Semi-Finalist!

UPDATE: Oh, and he knows King Strang! Bonus points for Michigan history buffs.

His mother grew up on the island, and his cousins were close friends of mine growing up there. He and I have actually got a children's book in the works, though we've both been too busy to do much with it for a while. I'd say 75% of his non-commissioned work that I've seen has elements of fantasy, sci-fi, or ships, and all of it is really good stuff.

Points to you as well for your knowledge of relatively obscure Michigan history! I rarely meet people without Beaver Island ties who are even aware that Michigan ever had a Mormon Kingdom within its borders.

Points to you as well for your knowledge of relatively obscure Michigan history! I rarely meet people without Beaver Island ties who are even aware that Michigan ever had a Mormon Kingdom within its borders.

A buddy of mine is a Blissfest regular, so I've heard some stories. That prompted some Wikipedia research and other reading. The story is odd enough that it sticks.

Now I've gotta ask: what is it? It looks like a staircase in a house; but even at 400% zoom, I can't figure out more than that. And the file name has "Whale" in it, and I can't guess what a whale has to do with that.

It is a staircase, but yeah, most of the detail is gone. Here's a link to the actual painting, "Aqua Dementia," by a good friend of mine Keith Grassmick, who I am trying to convince to enter the IOTF: .
Please check out the rest of his beautiful work on his site too: http://keithgrassmick.com/. I used it in part because I wrote a story inspired by the painting (I cannot say any more, if you know what I mean), and it makes me happy to see it every time I post here, even if it is tiny.

Wow! Yes! Tell him to enter IOTF contest! Awesome artwork!