That was over my head Shadragon! Cool name though.
OK, the long version.
When I signed up on Excite.com I was looking for an email address. I wanted something simple for people to remember. I used to work for a computer gaming company with Dragon in the business title so I tried 'Dragon@Excite' 'RedDragon@Excite' 'GoldDragon@Excite' and all the other colours of the rainbow. They were all taken.
R.A. Salvatore wrote a book called Streams of Silver. One of his characters was a dragon called Shimmergloom.
Shimmergloom is the nickname of Haerinvureem. He was a shadow dragon who arose from the depths of the Underdark after the Battlehammer dwarves of Mithral Hall delved too deep in their mithral mines. Shimmergloom drove the dwarves from their ancestral home, forcing them to resettle in the Icewind Dale region, and supplanted them with his Duergar servants. Shimmergloom reigned over the hall for roughly one dwarven generation until Bruenor Battlehammer, the rightful heir to the throne of Mithral Hall, returned to the hall in his adulthood in order to reclaim it. Shimmergloom attempted to retain his hold on the hall through the efforts of his servants, most notably, two shadow mastiffs, although he eventually had to confront the intruders himself, where he was eventually slain by Bruenor after the dwarf strapped a barrel of flaming oil to his back and jumped on to the shadow dragon's back. The ensuing inferno destroyed Shimmergloom, although Bruenor was unwittingly saved by carrying the scimitar Icingdeath with him into battle, with the blade's magical protection from fire allowing the dwarf to ride Shimmergloom's burning corpse safely to the floor of the gorge.
Haerinvureem was the last survivor of the Jaezred Clan, clan of Shadow dragons, who conquered the Drow city Chaulssin. After centuries of reigning and enslaving, the dragons were overthrown by their own offspring and most were killed. Only Haerinvureem managed to flee.
Told you it was a long answer. hahaha
So basically, Shimmergloom is a survivor who went out fighting. I could live with that. So I tried 'Shimmergloom@Excite',... Already taken. Shimmergloom was a shadow dragon so I tried 'ShadowDragon@Excite'. Yup, also taken. DOH! At this point I had tried two dozen name combinations and all were taken so I took Shadow and Dragon and concatenated them together to shadragon. Short, sweet and easy to remember. Success! and my email account was established.
Now before you write me at 'shadragon@excite' be warned that is my SPAM account. If a web site or company wants my email address to send me a password or activation link I give them that one. Then I log onto it, get the info I need and log off. They can spam that account all they want. I log on every month or so and mass delete everything without reading to keep things tidy. I was getting almost 200 spams a day at one point. I established another Excite account for personal use with the name based on a confluence between a Pharonic legend, the pyramid at Cheops and my career at the time. Now THAT is a long story...
Today, I have seven email accounts with my latest on GMAIL (Love that service).
Congrats on the stereo experience B. Good to know some people are not afraid to try. I still see too many blinking '12:00' on peoples VCR's to this day. Oh and I got my buck this year. Found it in the dryer last week.
I am heading out to a dive pro meeting tonight. The Regional Manager for PADI Canada is coming through to talk to all the DM's and above in the province. Not exactly sure what it is all about, but it will get me out of town for an evening. I am hoping for donuts...
