INTRODUCING MYSELF THROUGH THE STEEMIT NAME CHALLENGE @palikari123

Yesterday, I had the privilege (?) of being nominated by @bifilarcoil for the steemit name challenge. I have never heard of this before, until I saw his post pop up (swishhhh-yes it went swishhhh) on my feed. Well let’s just say, that if I was nominated by anyone else, I probably wouldn’t have accepted the challenge. So why not take the opportunity of killing two birds with one stone. Now I’m probably going to find myself in hot water for using both tags at the same time…oh well:)

I knew of the existence early on, of the #introduceyourself tag and how everyone is encouraged to create a post to welcome new members into the steemit community. It is something I have avoided like the plague. Since I did not know anyone or nothing about how steemit worked, I wasn’t interested in introducing myself to random cyberspace strangers (no offense). It’s just not my thing…I have never had a social media account before this one…No Facebook or Twitter. When I heard some minor details about this platform and its’ potential (thanks to @corbettreport), I thought it was worth a look and decided to sign up after some consideration.

The main reason why I found this platform desirable was that I could follow and consume some of my favourite political analysts and journalists. I’m glad I did, as I have discovered other great journalists that I might never have come across, if I didn’t join steemit. Yes, you can find me spewing my shitty opinions all over the platform over different political spectrums. You can also find my lame political memes all over the place.

I prefer to keep my identity and online presence separate from each other. I will however mention a couple of my interests/hobbies. Apart from a keen interest in geo-political affairs, I really enjoy most sports and playing both backgammon and poker….love poker especially. I have in the past, spent countless hours and days on end glued to my computer screen, battling it out in a game of both skill and psychology with other players from around the world, thanks to the world of online gaming. I was obsessed at one stage; however that has subsided somewhat in the last few of years. A ban on online poker in the region I live in does not help the cause:)

So back to the steemit name challenge. The ‘list’ of rules for the challenge, is as follows:

1. Tell us in a post how you chose the current Steemit username you have and the story behind it.

2. Tell us your real name!

3. If you could change your current username, which name would you choose and why? If you have a possible usernames list, mention it!

4. Use the tag #steemitnamechallenge so that the creator of the challenge can track all the posts and check them out.

5. Nominate 5 people for this challenge

As far as my screen name is concerned, I didn’t put a whole lot of thought into it when signing up. I chose a name that was both spontaneous at that moment and easy to remember. There was of course a huge influence from my cultural background. The word palikari (παλικαρι) best translates into English, as a word meaning ‘brave’ or ‘strong’ lad in his prime (yeah, I got huge pecks like Zeus). This is a picture I took of myself just recently.

The word derives from the Greek soldiers, who fought for the Independence of Greece against the Ottoman Empire.

http://greekerthanthegreeks.blogspot.com.au/2016/11/lost-in-translation-word-of-day-palikari.html

If I could choose some other user names, they would also be heavily influenced from the Greek language. Possible user names would be:

52poutanes - (trigger warning) - This is a deck of playing cards that go completely against the player to the point of frustration and anger. The player would call the deck 52 poutanes as an insult and a way to take out their frustration on their bad luck. The plural word poutanes (πουτανες) translates into the word whores. In other words, the playing deck is like a pack of 52 whores.

kolosfouggi - This user name would be inspired from one of my most memorable and random moments from an overseas trip. After an enjoyable night out on the town and full of alcohol, my cousin and I kicked back to talk shit and enjoy some late night TV. It was about 4am, and we switched on the TV to watch one of the lamest C grade movies that I have ever come across. It was one of those martial arts/crime hit man movies from the 80’s. The only point of interest for me was in the subtitles, as I was always on the lookout for any new words that I could discover. I was so excited at the time, that I found myself in hysterical laughter for days to come, after hearing ‘asswipe’ and then seeing the word kolosfouggi (κωλοσφουγγι) flash across the screen. I hold that word in the highest of regard, and it would be a strong contender for a possible screen name. Alternatively, just call me asswipe.

mralphanumeric123456789 - There is no story or reason behind this one. It just has a nice ring to it:)

Thanks goodness, I got that out of the way...Now I can disappear back into my corner for a while.

My nominations are @cattledog @clarityofsignal @perceptualflaws @sift666 @thaishps

Just to finish off, I would like to encourage any new members of steemit to follow @newbieresteemday and visit their discord channel at https://discord.gg/2ZcAxsU. These amazing and selfless members do an unbelievable job at guiding and helping new users. I really had no idea about any of this until only recently.