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Apr. 5th, 2006 09:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katsarisFunny thing happened Tuesday morning. Funny ha-ha, but also (and primarily) funny *weird*. And it did weird me out, but in a good way.
Was returning early morning to the camp from an overnight stay at home (dianyktereusi). Showed my ID as usual to the guy at the gate -- a cadet officer (I think that's what it's called in English, dokimos-δόκιμος in Greek) Instead of just waving me through he seemed to consider my name:
Him: KaTSAris. [wrongly stressing it on the second syllable, but thinking it over as if he wasn't sure I belonged].
Me: KatsaRIS. I'm at SAEP. [my unit]
Him: That's not it. Are you the known Aris Katsaris?
*blink* *blinkety-blink*. Once the moment of blankness has passed, I'm wondering whether he's either confusing me with (a) a well-known pianist with the last name Katsaris, but the first name is different, or (b) my cousin Aris, a chessplayer, but I immediately remembered that since he came from my mother's side of the family his last name is different. And he's not that well-known either for that matter, though probably more than me.
Me: Uh... no...? [look of utter confusion]
Him: You have a site, right?
Possibility (c) occurs to me, that I may have known him at college or highschool or something, and he may be just teasing me now for not recognizing him, but I glance at his nametag, and his name doesn't ring a bell at all, no more than his face did.
Me: [still doubting that he's really referring to me, or to my quite-for-a-long-time unupdated website] Uh... I do have a livejournal...
Him: You are involved with Interactive Fiction.
Me: ...Yes!
Him: Written some games, some reviews.
Me: [Laughing] Yes, I have.
Him: I told you you were famous. [hands the ID back].
----------
*g* I didn't have the time to stand and chat much more (I'd missed a bus that morning, and so I was almost running late returning to the camp), but the guy told me he was also involved in Interactive Fiction, attempting to write something in TADS (my own system of choice has been Inform) but not having completed anything yet.
Still. That was really weird for me. *Name recognition*? I get *name recognition*?
It'd not surprise me if a Rantburger remembered and recognized my name. I've achieved something of a notoriety there after all -- not many anti-Iraq-war, pro-same sex marriage, pro-EU people post in that forum. (I'd say that not too many *anti-torture* people post there either for that matter, but that may just be petty of me. Me, petty? Perish the thought. Why, I've only really longed to hunt down and murder a person *once*)
And it'd *perhaps* not surprise me if a Wikipedian recognized me. As my last post also indicates I've done some things with maps, and also contributed significantly in articles relating to international organizations and/or the Post-Soviet Space. A guy interested in these *might* remember seeing my name.
But interactive fiction?
In retrospect, I think that this would be pretty much how I'd react if I got to meet Emily Short (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
emilyshort) or Andrew Plotkin (zarf) or Adam Cadre (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
adamcadre) or Graham Nelson or several other people that are famous in the interactive fiction community, but are widely unknown to the world at large. And perhaps they might also react as confused at getting name recognition from a random stranger they met.
But still, there's a huge difference. Andrew Plotkin and Graham Nelson have created whole systems used by dozens/hundreds of interactive fiction writers. Emily Short and Adam Cadre have been writing game after game, year after year, that tend to receive best-of-the-year awards, they've done things that have redefined the medium in either its mechanics or its storytelling potential.
What have I done for Interactive Fiction? My contributions can all be seen here in a page *that has not been bloody updated since 2002*! A silly little parody of a game (playable in 15 mins or so) about a pet dino. Two reviews. *Two* for god's sake. And "Voices", which I admittedly like and am proud for - but still: that's only *one* real contribution in my mind.
*g* I think that the only real thing I did to make me recognized was uh... be Greek, and thus remembered by a fellow Greek involved. Four years after my last actual (for all intends and purposes) involvement in the community!
I'm not complaining. Trust me, I'm not. I'm just enjoying (in retrospect) my 1 minute of quite unexpected and largely undeserved fame. :-)
----------
... on a related note, I remember from some months back in Samos. Guys at the computer office were talking about what they got by googling their names -- a handful of links for some from lists of college graduates or dissertations and the like. Others, like the hundreds of thousands of finds for George Papadopoulos (which is the "John Smith" of Greece -- to the point where we had two George Papadopouloi working in the same office at the same time when we were in Samos and had to distinguish them by rank) were merely the result of similarly named individuals.
I remember mentioning "You'll get more than 10,000 finds for my name." "[surprised look]... and they are for you?" "...Yeah. I've been heavily involved in forums of all sorts".
*g* Still - I am definitely not expecting my name to get recognized anytime soon again though. :-)
Was returning early morning to the camp from an overnight stay at home (dianyktereusi). Showed my ID as usual to the guy at the gate -- a cadet officer (I think that's what it's called in English, dokimos-δόκιμος in Greek) Instead of just waving me through he seemed to consider my name:
Him: KaTSAris. [wrongly stressing it on the second syllable, but thinking it over as if he wasn't sure I belonged].
Me: KatsaRIS. I'm at SAEP. [my unit]
Him: That's not it. Are you the known Aris Katsaris?
*blink* *blinkety-blink*. Once the moment of blankness has passed, I'm wondering whether he's either confusing me with (a) a well-known pianist with the last name Katsaris, but the first name is different, or (b) my cousin Aris, a chessplayer, but I immediately remembered that since he came from my mother's side of the family his last name is different. And he's not that well-known either for that matter, though probably more than me.
Me: Uh... no...? [look of utter confusion]
Him: You have a site, right?
Possibility (c) occurs to me, that I may have known him at college or highschool or something, and he may be just teasing me now for not recognizing him, but I glance at his nametag, and his name doesn't ring a bell at all, no more than his face did.
Me: [still doubting that he's really referring to me, or to my quite-for-a-long-time unupdated website] Uh... I do have a livejournal...
Him: You are involved with Interactive Fiction.
Me: ...Yes!
Him: Written some games, some reviews.
Me: [Laughing] Yes, I have.
Him: I told you you were famous. [hands the ID back].
----------
*g* I didn't have the time to stand and chat much more (I'd missed a bus that morning, and so I was almost running late returning to the camp), but the guy told me he was also involved in Interactive Fiction, attempting to write something in TADS (my own system of choice has been Inform) but not having completed anything yet.
Still. That was really weird for me. *Name recognition*? I get *name recognition*?
It'd not surprise me if a Rantburger remembered and recognized my name. I've achieved something of a notoriety there after all -- not many anti-Iraq-war, pro-same sex marriage, pro-EU people post in that forum. (I'd say that not too many *anti-torture* people post there either for that matter, but that may just be petty of me. Me, petty? Perish the thought. Why, I've only really longed to hunt down and murder a person *once*)
And it'd *perhaps* not surprise me if a Wikipedian recognized me. As my last post also indicates I've done some things with maps, and also contributed significantly in articles relating to international organizations and/or the Post-Soviet Space. A guy interested in these *might* remember seeing my name.
But interactive fiction?
In retrospect, I think that this would be pretty much how I'd react if I got to meet Emily Short (
emilyshort) or Andrew Plotkin (zarf) or Adam Cadre (adamcadre) or Graham Nelson or several other people that are famous in the interactive fiction community, but are widely unknown to the world at large. And perhaps they might also react as confused at getting name recognition from a random stranger they met.But still, there's a huge difference. Andrew Plotkin and Graham Nelson have created whole systems used by dozens/hundreds of interactive fiction writers. Emily Short and Adam Cadre have been writing game after game, year after year, that tend to receive best-of-the-year awards, they've done things that have redefined the medium in either its mechanics or its storytelling potential.
What have I done for Interactive Fiction? My contributions can all be seen here in a page *that has not been bloody updated since 2002*! A silly little parody of a game (playable in 15 mins or so) about a pet dino. Two reviews. *Two* for god's sake. And "Voices", which I admittedly like and am proud for - but still: that's only *one* real contribution in my mind.
*g* I think that the only real thing I did to make me recognized was uh... be Greek, and thus remembered by a fellow Greek involved. Four years after my last actual (for all intends and purposes) involvement in the community!
I'm not complaining. Trust me, I'm not. I'm just enjoying (in retrospect) my 1 minute of quite unexpected and largely undeserved fame. :-)
----------
... on a related note, I remember from some months back in Samos. Guys at the computer office were talking about what they got by googling their names -- a handful of links for some from lists of college graduates or dissertations and the like. Others, like the hundreds of thousands of finds for George Papadopoulos (which is the "John Smith" of Greece -- to the point where we had two George Papadopouloi working in the same office at the same time when we were in Samos and had to distinguish them by rank) were merely the result of similarly named individuals.
I remember mentioning "You'll get more than 10,000 finds for my name." "[surprised look]... and they are for you?" "...Yeah. I've been heavily involved in forums of all sorts".
*g* Still - I am definitely not expecting my name to get recognized anytime soon again though. :-)
