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I work this weekend. $9/hour, then $12/hour next week.

Someone has asked what "etaoinshrdlu" means.

First, it is derived from the old Linotype keyboard, in which keys were arranged vertically rather than horizontally. ETAOIN was the first vertical row, SHRDLU the second. These represented an educated guess as to the most frequently used letters in the English language, with "E" being supposed most frequently used, "T" being next in line, "S" being 7th most frequently used, etc. A modern analysis has shown this to be quite close to being accurate.

Next, it became common practice (and who knows why) when making an error in typing to simply drag one's fingers across the first two columns of keys, thus "etaoinshrdlu" appeared and the error was supposed to be fixed before printing. But of course, it was overlooked many times, which meant readers of such newspapers as the New York Times were treated to the phrase time after time.

Next, Etaoin Shrdlu has appeared throughout 20th Century literature (usually in farce or fantasy) as the name or names of characters. A short story called The Naughty Princess has Sir Etaoin and Princess Shrdlu falling in love, for example.

Next, Etaoin Shrdlu is the name of the first (and may I say the best) track on the latest Cul de Sac album, Crashes to Light, Minutes to its Fall. An enchanting 9 minute tune and possibly the best UT accompaniment that exists.

Finally, EtaoinShrdlu was one of my transition names in UT. I generally pronounce it "ed doe in sherd lew". Before I joined {KS}, I was EtaoinShrdlu for a few weeks (in fact, I was recruited as EtaoinShrdlu), but after I discovered that no one could spell EtaoinShrdlu, I went back to my prior name, Entropica. There's quite a story behind Entropica as well. There's quite a story behind Nepenthe too. Here are all the names I've gone by in UT.

Entropica
EtaoinShrdlu
EtaoinShrdlu{KS}
Entropica{KS}
Nepenthe
(BoD)nepenthe
PoorYorick
HerselfTheElf
Aristotle
KevynWight
JooJooBowDra
Chatterer
AlGore=AntiChrist
Watcher

Of course, I've been Entropica, Entropica{KS}, and (BoD)nepenthe for the vast majority of my thousand+ hours playing UT online.

AlGore=AntiChrist was only used in jest on election night (I noticed many interesting names that night) and the day after. I said I'd stay with that until the election was over, but unfortunately, that was a month ago and the election still isn't over.

Watcher is my anonymous spectator name. I used it extensively during my Domination days to gather info on people like -=AA=-Domino and |BH|BeRT and to observe possible recruits.

Entropica was the very first name I ever went live with on the original Unreal and on UT.

Nepenthe, which means a substance or item or idea which gives forgetfulness of sorrow, was used in the days following my departure from the ranks of {KS}--I thought the name was fitting. I'm still Nepenthe in gameslink and enterthegame irc.

(BoD), of course, means Brothers of Darkness and was conceived the first night we all experienced the majesty that was Rocket Arena.

Entropica{KS} was a very respected member of the Domination community, a real go-to guy. Nickname was "entro". He is missed.

JooJooBowDra was a name I used when I was in {KS} but was playing on my old stomping grounds like Lo Grav/Relics/Custom Maps/XLoc, Gamespy Speakeasy.net CTF, Wizards of the Coast, or Zoob's World. I thought I should divest myself of the clan tag while not playing the clan's game (Domination). There are a couple players on DVDA's LoGrav server I've known for nearly a year now. That place is like Cheers--where everybody knows your name (no matter how it changes), and they're always glad you came.

HerselfTheElf was seldom used, but it was me getting tired of being such a target in Domination and just wanting to play some fun pickup games. You get a reputation after a while and soon everyone wants a shot at you. "Oh man, it's Entropica{KS}, I'm gunna see what he's made of". And then you smack them down 15 times in a row and then the one time they get lucky they don't let you forget it. I didn't do that very much though, as it was frowned upon. It was called "stat cheating" when great players would change their name and keep ngStats enabled for the sole purpose of trying to lower the ranking of another player. BeRT was most guilty of this. Once he saw Domino was going to win the #1 quarterly award for Domination, he resorted to aliases to try and dump on Dom's points. I never kept ng on though. I just wanted to alleviate some pressure and have a fun game sometimes, and I suspect others did the same. I mean, I was just like everyone else once in a while, if I saw the great -[BHS]-Thrawn, I'd go after him to see how we measured up.

PoorYorick is the name I used during a dark period for my DSL. I was getting some horrible packet loss and ping spikes and generally would have been much better off on 28.8.

The others are short-lived names I used here and there for various reasons or when checking out new gametypes (Assault, Team LMS, Unreal Fortress, Cosmic Unreal, Strangelove, Killbox, etc.).

(BoD)nepenthe has been my moniker for over 3 months now, hundreds and hundreds of hours of playing time. I am called "nep" by my old teammates, my brothers, everyone on PuF and Proving Grounds and #pu and most other places I frequent.