What’s in a name?

Everyone’s doing it (and I am nothing if not derivative), so I thought I would post an ‘about me’ entry for the benefit of the interested, stalkers and interested stalkers. This is by no means The Definitive Guide to Me, but it does contain all-new information. To test your faith, I am burying this one in the archives (it was actually posted on the 28th of July 2005) – so if you found it, you passed the test. Well done. You may now tattoo yourself with the Kanji character for ‘north’ that I use as my blog ID image.

Perhaps I should start there. Why north in particular? I could be fatuous and say, “Why not?”, but I won’t, because Japanese-speaking South Africans or Afrikaans-speaking Japanese would have an inkling of the real reason (and that wouldn’t be fair on the rest of you, would it?). You see, Kyknoord* comes from an old Afrikaans army expression: “Kyk noord en fok voort”. This translates directly as “Look north and fuck onwards”, but the saying actually means something more like “Grit your teeth and persevere”, although this lacks the poetry and lyricism of the original. It’s an outlook on life that I identify with quite strongly. So now you know where the whole ‘north’ thing fits in.

Why Kanji? That’s an easy one: Let’s face it, a great big Roman N wouldn’t be a very interesting blog ID pic and since I am very fond of manga, it made sense. To me, at any rate.

* The correct pronunciation isn’t all that important. Obviously nobody calls me that, so however you pronounce it in your head is just fine by me. If you absolutely, positively have to know, this is an approximate guide: CAKE NOO-hrt (the first part is pronounced like the thing with the all icing, calories and guilt. The last part is all squished into one syllable with the emphasis at the beginning) If this doesn’t make any sense, then I would suggest contacting your nearest South African consulate, where they may or may not be glad to help you.