Categories
Dream Journal

Dragon Loot & New Logo

Setting is somewhere in the Warcraft universe. Perhaps Azeroth, maybe not. After you defeat the dragon queen Alexstraza, you collect her dropped loot from the lake. I’m staying there and “camping” the same loot over and over, but not for greedy reasons — there’s some kind of glitch that happens when high level loot gets collected by low level players. The thinking goes, I can distribute it myself if any happen to show up (none so far though).

The devs have changed the name of the Horde and now I’m inspecting the new logo, which is a paw print wrapped with a banner, with the name underneath: “Congress”. Takes me a minute to process their intended meaning as just “a gathering”. Terrible name choice. Plus the thing makes the horde look like a bunch of furries.

On waking, I have an advertising jingle from the album Music For Biscuits in my mind: Luxol by Mike & Sammes Singers. It was used on an old Radio Unpronounceable, the Olympics episode, once upon a time…

Categories
Glot

Reasons to Be Zebest

It’s a great name. You might not think so now, but you will. It’s silly. Not everyone gets it. That’s part of why I like it. The other parts, of which there are many, are equally great.

It’s a superlative. Ok, everyone should get it at this point. “Orin is the best” … “Orin’s the best” … “Orinz-tha-best” … “Orin Zebest.” Get it? I’m receiving a compliment everytime someone says my name, albeit a back-patting, tongue-in-cheek, fake-it-till-you-make-it, aww-you-really-mean-it? kind of way.

It’s short. It’s memorable. Zebest: six letters. La Londe-Berg: eleven letters, one dash, one space. It’s pleasing in that manner; “Orin Robertjohn Zebest” is seven syllables of twenty letters, and omitting the middle name it’s ten letters. My initials, with the name change, would be O.R.Z. I like that the last name begins with a Z. Somehow having it near the end makes it more special—save Zebest for last. “Save Zebest for…” get it? Ha! There’s lots of neat little sayings one can make:

  • Cross your fingers and hope for Zebest.
  • Zebest of both worlds.
  • “It was Zebest of times, it was zeworst of times…”
  • “Zebest laid plans of mice and men.”
  • Put Zebest foot forward.
  • Zebest things in life are free.
  • Honesty is Zebest’s policy.
  • Zebest is yet to come!

See? And I like that. I don’t mind that it’s weird. Half the purpose is for the name to be a little out of the ordinary. Not that “La Londe-Berg” isn’t exactly unique. Lots of people change their names, especially in San Francisco it seems. I met a guy named Aaron Ximm the other day, and he told me that he changed his name when he got married (not a bad idea considering the confusion that a combined last name would cause if it belongs to only one of those combined). The name XIMM is actually Roman numerals for October 1st, 2000, Aaron’s wedding anniversary. And, since it was my girlfriend Lynae who came up with the idea anyways, and she’s said in the past that she’d be fine with being known as “Lynae Zebest,” well… umm, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. So right now the only thing to consider is how I’d like to go about it, and I would like to go about it.

You hear me? I know it’s a silly name. It’s not silly to want it, though. Future employers, friends, family, other… I appreciate your input. But don’t try to change my mind, thanks. I’ll close with a (paraphrased) quote:

Zebest ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.

-David M. Ogilvy

Categories
Glot

A Topic of Conversation

I’m it.

Recently, lots of people’ve been talking about me, or so they say. I sent an email yesterday to my folks about a certain question, and I’ve been getting a lot of feedback. This morning an old friend comes into work and says that him and another old friend were talking about me last night over a few beers. Where’ve I been? What’s so interesting?

All I did was tell my family that I was considering a legal change of name to something I’d come up with as a joke about a month ago. That’s not so bad if I really like the name. Maybe, sure, I should’ve been a little more serious since I’ve been thinking and thinking trying to come up with a good last name for years, and I actually don’t take it lightly, although I still want it to be fun and different. Anybody hear of this yet? Yeah, I want my name to be Orin Zebest. Write it down.

And maybe, hey, if I wanna get talked about I might as well tell those old friends what’s going on with me since I haven’t seen ‘em in, like, at least four months. That’d be good.

That would be the best.