Okay, so, you may have noticed a couple things by now. First, my journals tend to not be so much journals as places for me to say anything I darned well feel like. Second, I have some strange names floating around. So, this journal is going to be a list of most of the names I've gone by over the years throughout the internet, along with what they mean (if anything), and also, a few other names and acronyms I've come up with.

Astrognash - This name was born back in... Summer 2004. I was 9, I think. I had recently read the Redwall books by Brian Jacques, and had found a site online that centered around something I thought was a wonderful and novel idea: roleplay. The site, Dibbuns Against Bedtime, is still running today at the destination of this link. But, anyhow, the name. Astrognash was intended to be a more mysterious and "Less girly" version of the name "Starfire". You see, Astro is Latin for star, and Ghash is the Orcish word for fire. Combine that with a typo that replaced an h with an n, and you have Astrognash. My online identity was born.

I more or less went as Astrognash until a few years later, at which point I joined a Pokémon forum. I wanted to use a slightly different alias there, because I wasn't really all that into it. So, I created my next alias.

Bla(z/s)tro - This alias is unique for me, as it's not spelled consistently at all. I would switch at a whim from z to s on different places. It was, being invented on a Pokémon forum, a combination of Astro (the nickname Astrognash had earned) and Blastoise. The z came along when on one site I flubbed the registration, and had to change something to get in properly. The name has also seen use during my days on RuneScape, where I had (or it may be have. I don't know if they purge unused characters there.) a character who went by the silly moniker of Sir_Blastro.

Doc_Hammond - This name was born of Zoo Tycoon and Jurassic Park. You see, after getting Zoo Tycoon 2, I really, really wanted the expansion pack with the dinosaurs. So, when I joined a ZT2 forum, I expressed that to the world by naming myself Doc_Hammond, soon to be abbreviated as Doc_Ham, Doc_H, and to be corrupted on one forum to Dr. Ham, even including a signature that referenced a Ham and Cheese sandwich with mustard.

Those, I must say, are the major nicknames I've used. Now, here are some character names I've used in places where you're supposed to give your accounts the names you use for your characters.

Vulpine Imperium - The Vulpine Imperium was a non-canon Redwall-themed site which focused around the bad guys, Vermin, living in a port city. I went as a black fox (thinking I would be unique, but unfortunately a number of people had the same idea) named James Mandrake, which I (unknowingly at the time) stole from a book I'd read.

Redwall MUCK - Redwall also had a Multi User Character Kingdom, a sort of real-time text-based roleplaying... thing. I had far too many characters here to list, so I'll just list the ones I remember.
  Rockfire - A middle-aged otter who ran a village in the woods. He left for Camp Willow when trolls (well, vermin, but they were definitely trolling) invaded and it kind of died.
  Krunus - A stoat (vermin!) who lived as a slaver in the vermin city of Ruingate. He sort of disappeared after getting into a barfight and being arrested.
  Furgo - A mouse I was rather fond of who was a brother in the Order of Redwall Abbey, and aspired to be record-keeper. When I left and his character got purged, I decided to give him a proper end when I briefly came back. I decided he found love and moved off to a village in the woods, where he eventually died peacefully, loved by a large family.

Hogwarts Online - Hogwarts online is the only site of those listed which I frequent regularly, as I've only recently joined. My character there, Kyle Bennet, is a first year Gryffindor who is in many ways based on me (rough physical appearance, love of the arts) and is in many ways someone completely different.

Oh, yes, and about this SNAPU thing. It stands for Secret North American Penguin Underground, and was born in Creative Writing Class when we were collaborating on plays in groups. The fantasy group created a comedy/fantasy/mystery/holiday special entitled Who Killed Frosty the Snowman? featuring a female Santa in fishnets and on parole, two bickering sisters who happened to be an Angel and a Demon, an Elf, a Troll, and more. Well, when we finished, we decided not to be boring and just put our names on the things, so we came up with a name to call our little group. One of the other members said it needed to acronym to Snapu!, and, after much fighting on my part to remove the word "sparkly" from its name, it was finalized as the Secret North American Penguin Underground, which I picture as an organization based in Canada that bears many similarities to the penguins in Madagascar, except it would be the Canadian government's version of the CIA. I may write a short story about it someday, but, for now, I use it on all my stuff, and especially on any collaborative work I do.

Sincerely,
Astrognash