The story behind the name...

I built a 79 Toyota a while back and it was a mass of various pieces and parts from anything from a 79-87. Whilst trying to think of a screen name (and having a full blown wheeling habit) I came up with mine.
 
My screen name for a long time was BigRedBII after my big red bronco II. 5 or 7 broncos later, none of which being red, it seemed like a good time to change.

Plus, i felt using my real name was more personable. The off roading community is such a small world, and we interact in real life quite a bit, having an alias in here didnt seem fitting. if i say something offensive on here and some one sees my in public, they can call me out to my face. lol, keeps me in check that way!
 
Ron said:
A camp fire. Some chrome shocks and 44s (when that was inanely big) and a 90s paint job consisting of purple and neon green and edge flames and naming a vehicle in hot ash on the tailgate of said paint job and....a friendship that withstood that drunken atrocity

Oh wait...nevermind.
My magic Godmother named me Ron
Click to expand...

Ha, for those of us that remember the original name...

Me? Back in, oh, 94?, there was this snazzy new little-known program going into Beta called AOL Instant Messenger. (as an aside, a good test of computing age is to ask a kid what their IM name was). I jumped on the ship to try it out and needed a name.
At the time I was a senior at App, and had just started learning to do lab work in the (only) neurophys lab in the psych dept. They used rats as the primary "subjects". The Prof (Mark Zrull) hated it when we called it the Rat Lab but we did anyway.
I figured, hey, this is cool and unique, I'll just take on the name.
In grad school, started using the name for other forums, and just decided to keep the same thing for consistency.

Well so here we are 21+ years later. I haven't done any real rat-based work in 12+ years or any animal work in 10, but I'm still basically a professional nerd who considers himself a lab rat. So many people know me this way now I see no point in changing, even guys in my local club just call me RatLab when we're together.
 
In honor of my kids names Benjamin and Mackenzie.
 
My first jeep was a Wrangler with a weak 4 cylinder, so I swapped it out with a 4.3 Vortec, hence VortecJeep. Haven't had that jeep in years, but never could think of a new name.
 
First rig was my 77 CJ-7 Renegade, still parked in my driveway. I added T For Tony just for flair, maybe Renegade was taken. I think these were some of my past avatars...
ai51.photobucket.com_albums_f363_RenegadeT_IMGP0981.jpg

awww.gannett_cdn.com__mm__2d42e3d51377640b4c5a1c5238608d8404a438074979db9a9a8d720e35a39e804d12.jpg
 
First two initials and last name.

Started using it back at the beginning of the intrawebs when it was serious biznezz and didn't think to be creative with my handle.
 
Based on my first rig, old full size half ton Ford, short bed. Was green, big, heavy and didnt wheel it long before I got an XJ. Never bothered to change it, figure everyone knows me by it on here.
 
When I first joined I had bought a set of rockwells to put under an old rusty toyota I had. Had bought a 4bt and lots of other parts. But after figuring out thats not what I wanted I sold it all off to build the 85 I have now without all the rust and modded toyota driveline. I'm still building it too(5-6 years later). Work on it about 5 hrs a year it feels like now.

Never thought to change it since I'm still building a yota for the rocks.
 
I went with Jeepinmatt because JeepinBarack was already taken.
 
When I first got on the boards I was doin some mud racing,almost no trail ridin,in a short bed on tons.Having it to do over I would have come up w something a lil more clever.
 
My "weekend warrior" welding has stuck with me and is now my growing enterprise. But I'm not sure anymore why doing it on the weekends meant that much. I have been welding for some one or myself now for going on 22 years. And a lot of those weeks have been 6 days from 7am to 11 pm. I am starting to feel old...............
 
When I was a teenager I liked Jeeps (kind of still do). They were using that slogan "There's Only One Jeep" back then. So I took OnlyOne as a handle on AOL IM back in college. I bought my Nissan Frontier Desert Runner so I tacked on the "DR" when I found that OnlyOne was taken on some early forums. It propagated from there.
 
mine started with a Z 71
10131812d.jpg
and a 3v Z
10131814b.jpg
a Z 24
l_0cf80ed86d4703cb2e03054ff516d24a[1].jpg

then it turned into a 5v Z
2013-02-20 00.35.40.jpg
and a 3rZ
IMG_20140224_160735125.jpg
then another 5v Z
IMG_20140516_193436192.jpg
and another 3r Z...
IMG_20140516_193430509_HDR.jpg
and hopefully the last 5v Z
IMG_20150521_131357176.jpg
 
When I first joined my SN was d420Fazer, meaning the date I bought my favorite motorcycle. Later I realized the 420 part has a more known meaning that I didn't want to be associated with, so I changed to the present "Gotwood" after my business name and the way I make my living. Most people I meet on the trail will know Gotwood before they recognize my first name.
 
The first handgun I bought held 13 rounds in the magazine. I use this name on more than just this forum, or did at one time.
 
Hurley's one of my middle names, and was my grandfather's name. I've always thought it an interesting name (not to mention having a clothing line with the same name), so I started using it as a forum handle.

I've since lost any interest in the clothing line, but enjoy the family reference
 
Back
Top