May 09 2007
Identity Crisis
I’m not alone. There’s another Brillig. I know. I’m as shocked as you are.
Actually, his name is Steve Bosman and he seems to be a pretty decent chap. However, his site is called ‘Twas Brillig*–the asterisk is apparently part of the title, so at least we’re not IDENTICAL, right?
But here’s the worst part. His blog has been around longer–a LOT longer than mine. Which means that he didn’t steal my name.
I stole his.
*GASP*
Okay, in all fairness, we both stole it from Lewis Carroll (you can read all about it here).
As I said, Steve seems to be pretty cool, though he’s certainly into getting his “geek” on–quite in tune with the world of video gaming and science fiction–not really a world I belong in whatsoever. But he also goes off on random rants that sound oddly similar to things I myself might go off on. And he’s in England, and I only wish I were in England. (I spent three of my “growing up” years in England and I pine for it. Oh, how I pine for it.)
So, really, no one is likely to confuse us with each other. But it also wouldn’t be the end of the world if they did.
As for me, I came up with the name ‘Twas Brillig just on a whim, as I was making my blogging debut a month and a half ago. In high school I had done a few service projects that I wanted to do anonymously and so when something needed to be signed, I (again on a whim) signed it “Brillig.” So that when people asked who had done it, they could say, “‘Twas Brillig.” (If you listen closely, you can still hear my 15-year-old self giggling over that.) So, 13 years later, when I decided to start up a blog, I just grabbed at whatever came to mind, and I’ve been Brillig ever since.
I like Lewis Carroll just fine. I’ve read all of his stuff and it’s all dandy. But I’m not obsessed with him. In fact, he’s not even one of my favorite authors or anything like that. I’ve had a lot of readers find me because they like Lewis Carroll or, more specifically, the Jabberwocky. And that’s great! Welcome friends! But it feels a bit strange to be paying hommage to an author/poet who I am not exactly obsessed with. Haha.
With all of that said, though, I do actually really like the Jabberwocky poem. I love that it’s nonsense and yet it makes perfect sense all at once. And I guess that that’s where I’m hoping to go with this blog.
(Some days, though, I think it will very likely be a little more nonsense than actual sense…)
So, how did you come up with the name for your blog? I’m sure many of you have explained this many times already, but humor me and do it again!
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My husband . . . he calls me a walking catastrophe . . . which melded into Kateastrophe.
It’s so fitting!!
Big surprise, I was a little tipsy when I set mine up. And, at the time I thought I would take it in a more serious direction, but then as you can tell, I changed my mind about that one.
Also, I just like the idea of questioning things.
No person or situation is ever really what you think it is or should be. That’s just life.
I kind of started this blog thingy as a joke. But, sigh, now It has me hooked as if it were made of deliciously addictive cheese, and so I’ll be around a while.
As for Whiskeymarie, Marie is both mine & my two sister’s middle names & my dear Mom’s name. And well, I think everyone knows how I feel about the whiskey.
Oh, the horror - not another Brillig.
Hey, in my mind you are the one and only fabulously divine, crazed, funny Brillig!
Lets see on the blog name I’d been reading a friends blog for some time and thought “Wow that might be kind of fun” but never took the plunge. My friend kept urging me to start one and said “its really fun besides its kind of therapeutic it helps me get some of my frustrations out”.
That cinched it - blogging to save my sanity was an absolute must for me. Thus it was born the Worker Mommy blog “Because I must Blog” - Preserving my Sanity One Post at a Time”
What a bizarre coincidence, eh?
I actually had a contest to name mine. People submitted their ideas, I picked my favourite three, and then posted a poll. I was really happy with the results because Temporary? Insanity suits me perfectly.
I wanted “Jane of All Trades”, but someone already had it (so much for feeling original). I was tearing my hair out trying to think of a catchy name, and I picked up a novel about a pregnant lady I had lying about the house, and in the synopsis at the back it said ‘Rebecca was blooming …’ and then I paired ‘blooming’ with ‘marvelous’ as this makes a commonly used phrase at home in Ireland (I’m sure you’ve heard it) that can be positive, or sarcastically negative in meaning and I thought that summed up my daily adventures nicely! So I set it all up, launched my blog and only THEN did I google it - oops - turns out there is a UK maternity wear site called Blooming Marvelous. I did think of changing it but so many people have linked to me (okay about 5 lol!) I don’t think I’ll bother changing it - I like it
If it’s any consolation to you– you’re the only Twas Brillig in my book. Flashback Friday beats any English man’s ramblings.
One of my favorite movies is Some Like it Hot. Sugar Kane is the name of Marilyn Monroe’s character.
I’ve had my sanity questioned on more than one occasion and I like to be in control, so Crazy and In Charge seemed fitting.
Okay, first of all, you have to be WAY more popular than that other Brillig, because even in your blog infancy you have created a steady fan base. Including me. And since I don’t even know this other guy, then it’s all good in my book.
Secondly, I am also a baby blogger and didn’t do such great homework when naming my blog–originally calling it only ’something to say’ and then finding out there are loads of people out there saying just that on their blogs… so then I added the ‘about life in The Netherlands’ part so as to be distinguishable from all the other something to sayers. And also to definitively state what I was hoping to do with my blog. The thing is, if I had been thinking about it at all, I would have loved to have created some sort of super-cool catch-phrase identity. But I am just not that quick on the draw…
And not to say that I am not content with it all. I just so so so so so like blogging and may I add that I so so so so so so like you too Brill? You are awesome. I knew I would like you from the second I saw your masthead. I happen to LOVE the jabberwock. No need to beware it at all.
Shall I shut up now? You know me…. always something to say.
The name of mine - the wonderful world of des - is just a play on my vanity. I’ve often thought about changing it, but there are too many people linked to it.
the url - diggitydes - just came after trying everything I could think of, only to be rejected.
my name - super des - is another play on my vanity. I once changed it to “regular des” but there was public outcry so I changed it back.
woah bummer, especially since I’ve always thought yours was one of the best/most unique titles around! I had the same thing happen to my FIRST blog name (Adventures in Parenting) - I came up with it on a whim and didn’t check to see whether anyone else had it, because at the time it didn’t really matter. eventually did the painful process of renaming… I don’t know how i picked “absolutely bananas” except it involved me, the husband, and some wine. Scary, to think what name we COULD’VE chosen. My criteria were, 1) starts with A, b) unique and memorable, 3) available web domain, 4)not currently in use. So I started brainstorming and… that’s the long and short of it, really!
Ah, yes. The Blog name. Well, it took me some time to decide. I wanted something with my nickname “Jewels” in it, but I couldn’t think of anything clever. Then I settled on my old standby - Blonde Canary. I came up with that name years ago. It’s simple - I’m blonde and I sing. The fact that I love 40’s music best of all made ‘canary’ a perfect choice! There you have it - Blonde Canary!
Wow. That is cool reading about blog name origins. I always ask people how they came up with their nicknames online. I love it when they have something like Iwuz6whenudied and I say, “What’s the story?” and they say something like, “Oh, I don’t really have a reason how I came up with that. Was just random.” Yeah, right.
I don’t know that anyone else has the name Cathouse Teri, anywhere. but if they do, I wanna meet ‘em!
I use another online name Queen of Sheba, which suits me very well for many reasons. But mainly because she traveled a long way to meet a great man and found that the half had not been told.
As for the Cathouse thing and “The Road Lester Traveled,” I believe I explained already VERY recently at my blog.
By the way, I love the Wonderful World of Des-ney.
I don’t really know how I chose mine. I simply came up with a few things that interested me, and somehow settled on one. I wish I had a good story behind it, but sadly I don’t.
When I was 14 and we got AOL, I was obsessed with both butterflies and the number 4 (it’s always been my favorite number.
After several rejeceted choices, it suggested Butrfly4404 back. I was like, whatever, okay. It’s been my name everywhere ever since!
When I started my blog at myspace, it was named “the madness of me” which was super lame, but I was lost with it. Then I found that quote by Abram Urban (the one in my header)…and thought “Butrfly Garden” was perfect. When I moved to blogger, my ‘unique’ spelling helped nail my url.
My original blog was “What On Earth Is That Smell?” because with all my kids around, there was always some new smell permeating my surroundings (good or bad). When I changed to Wordpress, I kept my screen name as my blog name because on some sidebars, people were calling my blog “Thoroughly Mormon Millie” anyway.
See, it’s so boring.
I knew I wanted to do a work at home mom blog, and I really feel there’s a revolution going on right now, where mom’s are more able to work from home now than they ever were before, thanks mostly to the Internet. So it became Work at Home Mom Revolution.
Wow! Thanks for playing, everyone! These were a blast to read!!!
My rants blog was just that: a place for me to rant and I was so incredibly new to the blogging world that I just kinda picked it and the url that blogger gave me…which sucks by the way. All those dashes just wear me out.
Sorry I didn’t get to this earlier… I kept meaning to and then, well, life happened. You know how it goes.
I’m so disappointed that there’s another Brillig (let alone the Twas Brillig site!) But to me, you’ll always be the only Brillig (love the story - and I got the reference when I first read your site).
Anyway, when I was coming up with the name of my blog I thought about what I would write about. And I figured I’d write about the good and the bad moments in my life and what is better than chocolate to celebrate the good or wallow in the bad? So I thought “Pass the chocolate” as in pass it to me when times are bad and pass it to you when times are good….
Novembrance is the title of a book I’ll write at some point. It is (obviously) a portmanteau of ‘November’ and ‘remembrance.’
James Joyce uses the term in Ulysses. I love Mr. Joyce, but I have the same experience you do with seekers of all things Lewis Carroll.