Here’s how I chose the Quake gamer name “aBigHairySpider:”
When Quake came out in 1996, you had to choose a player name. I messed around with several.
When you got someone with a rocket, the game would tell everyone something like:
Bob almost dodged Joe’s rocket.
So I thought it would be funny to have the name, “a big hairy spider” and it would say something like:
Bob was fragged by a big hairy spider.
Then when id came out with later versions of Quake, you couldn’t use spaces in your name, hence, the genesis of “aBigHairySpider.”
Why this is funny.
When I was a teenager, my best friend, Ky Vargas, invented a temporary window repair for automobile “lights” (windows).
He was issued Patent US4889754.
Anyway, Ky took me along to the glass industry’s largest annual convention and trade show in San Francisco in, I think, 1989 or 90. I was his booth assistant. And I embarrassed him when I asked a guy what his company did.
The company was this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto
I’ll probably never live that one down. Oh, what am I saying. I’m not embarrassed about having being silly enough to use sketchy drugs.
Anyway, at the keynote address the speaker told us about “spiders” in Japan.
I’ll remind you that the United States was shocked into action when Japan kicked our butts in the automobile industry using their robotic assembly and teaming capabilities. We were recovering in the 80’s by paying close attention to the Japanese management styles.
The idea was to assimilate and conquer.
We had already conquered them once. We beat them into submission and then made friends. They deserved it, and we deserved and would accept no less than total surrender.
The whole story of the war in the Pacific is quite heartbreaking to my sensitive nature, but we did the right thing. It was terrible and glorious. We’ll never see that sort of nastiness on this planet again thanks to nuclear weapons.
And you know what? Japan is now one of our strongest allies and trading partners.
Now millions of American teenagers thrill to see anything Japanese. Those people are WAY WAY cool. And we still have lots to learn from each other.
Oh, the spiders!
A “spider” was a term applied to a person, usually a retired corporate leader, who had the trust of people in different industries. He (they were men, this is Japan) would be allowed to tour facilities and review confidential business plans of even competing corporations so that he could make suggestions of where synergy could be employed.
He was a “spider” like a spider on a web — touching everything and feeling vibrations.
Finally, the conclusion.
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| Genius, American Hero |
As it turns out, today has been a day of using my spidy senses and making suggestions between friends in different industries of where they could help each other out.
When enough people get what they want, I’ll get what I want.
That’s how the world works, according to Zig Ziglar.
I’m going to be the 50th President of the United States.
I invite you to live long enough to see my inauguration speech. I’ve been writing it since I was a child.
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