What's the story behind YOUR TRF handle?

Wildman Rocketry
Onebadhawk
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blackbrandt said:
My Chinese book says gui means "honorable, expensive".
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Chinese languages are tonal... The meaning depends on how the word is pronounced, and in what context. In English, we have words that are totally unrelated, but share the same spelling. Take "tear" for example... do I mean a single drop from someone who is crying, or do I mean as in damage to a fabric? Context gives the meaning. Take the word "pare", "pair", or "pear". We are easily able to determine which word is which just by how it's used. Imagine hearing the sentence "He pared a pair of pears". You should be able to understand what is being said.

归 Guī (first tone) is a verb that means "to be under the charge of"
龜 Guī (first tone) is a noun meaning "tortoise"
規 Guī (first tone) is a noun meaning "rule" or "regulation"
Guí (second tone) is not listed in my dictionary, and might not exist in the language
軌 Guǐ (third tone) is a noun meaning "rail"
鬼 Guǐ (third tone) is a noun meaning "ghost"
櫃 Guì (forth tone) is a noun meaning "cupboard"
貴 Guì (forth tone) is a adjective meaning "expensive"
貴 Guì (forth tone) is a adjective meaning "honorable"
跪 Guì (forth tone) is a nound meaning "to kneel"
Gui (neutral tone) is not listed in my dictionary, and might not exist in the language

First tones are spoken high in your voice register and have a horizontal line in the pinyin over the main vowel.
2nd tones are spoken with a rising tone... imagine saying a word for a longggggg time, and your voice goes up in pitch (they have an apostophe over the main vowel).
3rd tones are spoken with a down-up tone. The sound dips then rises... don't ask me how to describe it via typing. In pinyin these have the "v" over the vowel.
4th tones are spoken with a short drop, command like tone. Imagine saying "No!" to a child about to touch a hot burner... It may be sharp, but it has nothing to do with commanding or demanding something.
Neutral tones are just spoken without any kind of inflection.

These apply only to Mandarin... Other "dialects" of Chinese may pronounce the words totally different, however the character remains the same, as it carries the meaning, but not the pronunciation. Other dialects of Chinese are different, but related, languages to Mandarin. Much like French, German, and English are different languages, but they are related. So you could ask someone if they speak "Chinese" and they could honestly say "yes", but when you start speaking in Mandarin, they might recognize a few words, but not know what you are saying, as they speak a different dialect (such as Cantonese, or Taiwanese).
 
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Mine came about after I got out of the Navy, I could not find a job and saw one of those gold prospecting shows on cable. So I joined them and went gold prospecting. Then in 2007, I was riding my motorcycle, and while sitting at a red light I was run down by a punk 15yo kid that stole his daddy's new Chrysler Sebring, trying to outrun the cops. Then the little puke starts yelling at me for wrecking his car! I am in pain, lying on the ground, with a broken pelvis, several crushed vertebrae and a broken leg, saying to myself, "you just run me down, how did I wreck your car". Anyway The lizard part came from my wife. She told me on one of my family prospecting trips, while it was 115 degrees in the shade, the only creatures working harder than I was, were the lizards chasing ants and locusts. So from that time on I have been known as "The Lizard".


P.S.
I am also an amateur Herpetologist!.... that may have played a part of my handle.
 
Well, the bav bit came from an inside joke with my friend... Neither of us actually know what it means, but that's what's funny. I've used bav in a lot of my usernames. And since this is the rocketry forum, I thought it would be fitting for my username to be bavspaceprogram!
 
grouch said:
One thing I can take from this thread is I'd never be able to speak Chinese.
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I've learned as long as someone says "I'll never be able..." they can't. I take it as a challenge, and I've had a lot of fun (and tasty meals) because I've learned about the language, people, and culture that began our hobby.
 
I used a random number generator, piped the results through a cryptographic cypher, and used the resulting values as the offsets to pick letters from a book of Icelandic Cajun recipes which were recorded in a Mayan saga, as interpreted by Maori tribesmen, and coincidentally, the result was the letters in my first name and the first letter of my last name. Since there are no such things as coincidences, I assumed any handle I picked would be the same, so used them as my handle.
 
grouch said:
One thing I can take from this thread is I'd never be able to speak Chinese.
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I'm currently serving in a Chinese church. For me, it was only a literary language and never spoken. I understood the tones conceptually but never had to actually pronounce them until a few months ago. That has led to plenty of... amusement!
 
JAL3 said:
I'm currently serving in a Chinese church. For me, it was only a literary language and never spoken. I understood the tones conceptually but never had to actually pronounce them until a few months ago. That has led to plenty of... amusement!
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A friend of mine got cussed out in China from an older woman who heard him attempting to compliment a younger woman's nose. Unfortunately, he used the wrong tone and complimented a different body part that men don't have. He once told me that "the tones don't matter because people will understand what you mean". Thankfully, I didn't listen to him and my tones are pretty accurate.
 
K'Tesh said:
I've learned as long as someone says "I'll never be able..." they can't. I take it as a challenge, and I've had a lot of fun (and tasty meals) because I've learned about the language, people, and culture that began our hobby.
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That's cute. I have a severe high frequency hearing loss that would make it impossible to detect tone in a foreign language. I could challenge my self till I am blue in the face, not going to happen.
 
grouch said:
That's cute. I have a severe high frequency hearing loss that would make it impossible to detect tone in a foreign language. I could challenge my self till I am blue in the face, not going to happen.
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Even though we talk about tone, it's not really accurate. Change (or lack of change) in pitch is more accurate. I have constant ringing in my ears and pretty poor hearing, probably due to playing in loud bands for too many years, but I can still hear change in pitch. If you enjoy listening to music, you can hear change in pitch.
 
I'll take a turn. I have been using Screaminhelo for years on various forums. I crew Blackhawks and it started out as something that sounded cool for a screen name. I continue to use it because it has always been available.

I get a kick out of some of the screen names out there. Some are fun to figure out, some make you laugh.
 
Tronman said:
A friend of mine got cussed out in China from an older woman who heard him attempting to compliment a younger woman's nose. Unfortunately, he used the wrong tone and complimented a different body part that men don't have. He once told me that "the tones don't matter because people will understand what you mean". Thankfully, I didn't listen to him and my tones are pretty accurate.
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One of the things that amazes me on a weekly basis is the degree to which they do matter. The indo-european and semetic languages I know can all stand the stress of bad pronounciation. When we hear something mis-pronounced, our minds look for close analogs and fill in the blanks. It doesn't work that way with Mandarin except with rare exception (ta - he and ta - she).

Korean doesn't work that way but has its own pitfalls.

When I introduced my Korean wife (fiance then) to some of my friends, one of them asked, "why John?" I has horrified by Carlayne's lack of confidence in me but I was even more horrified by Gracie's (SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED) answer.

She tried to say, "John is unique".

What came out is "John is eunuch!"

My "friends" love to tell that one to my churches!
 
JAL3 said:
One of the things that amazes me on a weekly basis is the degree to which they do matter. The indo-european and semetic languages I know can all stand the stress of bad pronounciation. When we hear something mis-pronounced, our minds look for close analogs and fill in the blanks. It doesn't work that way with Mandarin except with rare exception (ta - he and ta - she).

Korean doesn't work that way but has its own pitfalls.

When I introduced my Korean wife (fiance then) to some of my friends, one of them asked, "why John?" I has horrified by Carlayne's lack of confidence in me but I was even more horrified by Gracie's (SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED) answer.

She tried to say, "John is unique".

What came out is "John is eunuch!"

My "friends" love to tell that one to my churches!
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Talk about your cutting remarks! :y:
 
GregGleason said:
Mine, too.

View attachment 147089

Greg
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Nice "Super Beagle" Greg!

SS/EA- A Super Stock Class (Under NHRA) "E" Weight Class, Automatic Equipped.

6BBL- A Six Barrel (Plymouth) A Six Pack (Dodge).

71- Year 1971.

Cuda- A Plymouth Barracuda "Cuda".

Have i owned one? Nope...
Did i want too? Yep...

Surprisingly wound up owning/STILL owning a boatload of 1970 Dodge Coronet Superbees.....Mostly with multiple carburetion.....Bright Red, Forest Green, Black, Top Banana Yellow........Crap Brown....etc.
 
it was originaly because we built our new farm on a beutiful chunk of land only to find out after placing the flags for the house, barn, detached 3 car garage that in this exact area there was only about 4 inches of dirt over pure flat rock. after some handy work with a giant cat and a giant 7 way bucket loader we had some holes in the hill and it was dubbed the Rock Farm and I the Rock Farmer, I changed it up for TRF to Therocketfarmer.
 
Mine is pretty simple as well. NH4CLO4 is the chemical formula for Ammonium Perchlorate :)

The fun stuff.
 
grouch said:
One thing I can take from this thread is I'd never be able to speak Chinese.
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I might have thought that once, but that would have been before I went back to school (after 15 years) and started studying Greek and Hebrew. Two new alphabets. I never thought I was smart enough to pull it off. I had studied French in high school and German in college, but Greek and Hebrew, in part because they used different alphabets, seemed like they would be too difficult. I got A's in Hebrew and B's in Greek, I struggled in Greek not because of the alphabet, but because some of the more advanced nuances of Greek grammar just never seemed to penetrate my skull. In any case, I now believe that the obstacle to learning new things is your desire (or lack of it) to make the effort.

Having said that, I am probably included among those who couldn't hear the tonality well enough to learn Chinese. I have profound hearing loss in the high ranges (as in zero hearing above 2000 Hz) and am a candidate for a cochlear implant. Even the sales literature for cochlear implant say that with the newest technology it's "possible" for implant recipients to regain enough hearing to understand tonal languages.
 
I work as an estimator for a contractor. Occasionally someone will get nitpicky about something I worked on and I have to remind them that I'm an ESTIMATOR, not an EXACTIMATOR.

Well, now there's one little corner of the world where I can be an exactimator. Or at least call myself one.

Not exactly a childhood dream come true, but it works for a screen name.
 
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Exactimator said:
I work as an estimator for a contractor. Occasionally someone will get nitpicky about something I worked on and I have to remind then that I'm an ESTIMATOR, not an EXACTIMATOR.

Well, now there's one little corner of the world where I can be an exactimator. Or at least call myself one.

Not exactly a childhood dream come true, but it works for a screen name.
Click to expand...

Will have to call you the 'Super Exactimator' after your drag race win.. I am still hanging my head in shame...

Kenny
 

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