What's in a name?

I feel I should clarify where I got the name "F3rret", since every single reader I have has asked the question. It all started a long long time ago, when I was playing Descent with my good friend and next door neighbour. We had installed the game, and it asked us for a "Pilot Name" to use. Rather than use the names our mothers gave us, we chose "Weasel" and "Ferret". Damn, we were so cool then!

I kept the name "Ferret" for a long time, until I branched out from dialup modem games to playing over the Internet. At that point, I realized that there were a lot of people out there who thought they were as cool as I was, because I found the name "Ferret" was taken on a lot of message boards, game servers, etc. So, I changed a letter to a number and wound up with "F3rret", and I've been using it ever since.

The only unfortunate thing about this name is that I don't particularly love ferrets, nor have I ever owned one. Occasionally people will ask me how many ferrets I have, and they sound very disappointed when I tell them I've never even handled one. Well, they either sound disappointed, or start calling me a fraud and get really irate. The internet brings out the best in everyone, doesn't it?

In any case, these fine fellows are the closest I'll ever get to owning a ferret, and I'm OK with that: