Friday, May 8, 2009

A Brief History of Scud

I have a unique name. Part of it anyway. It is so unique that I almost always would need to spell it when I am introduced to someone. The person who I am introduced to, usually women, would ask how my name came about. I shrug my shoulders. Ask my ninang who has been MIA for more than 2 decades.

One common mistake when spelling my name is placing a single letter between the 3rd and 4th letter which does not make it more interesting but more jologs. I tell you. It is not amusing. Especially when I'm in a foul mood.

I also tell a white lie when strangers/baristas/salespersons would ask for my name. I blurt out the second syllable, never the first. That is how protective I am of my given name.

*****

In the era of the digital age, from MIRC to blogging, I started using the nick Scud. That was the name sports journalists coined for Mark Philippoussis. I am not a fan of the Aussie tennis player. I thought then that the name was cool. Little did I know that Scud has a couple of other meanings too.

According to wikipedia, Scud is a series of tactical ballistic missiles developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War and exported widely to other countries. The term comes from the NATO reporting name SS-1 Scud which was attached to the missile by Western intelligence agencies. The Russian names for the missile are the R-11 (the first version), R-17 and R-300 Elbrus (later developments). The name Scud has been widely used to refer to these missiles and the wide variety of derivative variants developed in other countries based on the Soviet design.

The second was shared by my good friend woogie. I am posting verbatim the first couple of paragraphs from the wiki site.

Scud: The Disposable Assassin (published from 1994 to 1998, and 2008) is a humorous, hyperkinetic science fiction comic by Rob Schrab about a world in which one can buy weapons out of vending machines, the most popular of which are intelligent robots that kill a specified target and then self-destruct.

The protagonist of the series is Scud, an average Heart Breaker Series 1373 model assassin. On his first mission, he is sent to kill Jeff, a rampaging female mutant with mousetraps for hands, an electrical plug for a head, and a squid for a belt.

Hmmm... My subconscious could be telling something when I first thought of using the name Scud. Perhaps I really am a war freak? A warmonger from a past life? A troublemaker?

8 comments:

Visual Velocity said...

If it will make you feel any better, my real name is Andres Ricardo. Nasty isn't it? :p

We called a former officemate of mine Sokie. Guess what her real name is. It's Socorro.

That's nothing compared to our ex-neighbor. His nickname is Circo, that's short for Circumsisio. Ehehehe.

Sonia said...

Nah, you're not a warfreak, although, to add to the war trivia, they DID use scuds then during Desert Storm.. hehe. Oh, and I remember, you used to use the second syllable in irc too.haha

gillboard said...

ayuko mag comment pagdating sa usapang pangalan... hehe

atticus said...

errr...welcome to my world? my first name is very rarely correctly read or pronounced.

hmmm. nag-enjoy lang mga oldies natin noong ipinanganak tayo. hamo na.

pero...wag ka padala scud missles are lugar ko pag nainis ka sa akin, ha? hehe.

Raft3r said...

galit si scud ke rafter
professional jealousy yata
buti na lang si blogger scud at blogger raft3r
always in good terms
hehe

The Scud said...

andy > Haha! Hindi naman ganyan kalala yung name ko. :p

I had a classmate in college whose first name was Paul Newman. Then another Honey Bee. Bleh!

The Scud said...

Sonia > Did I? Kwento mo when I'm in town soon. :D

gillboard > hehe. tinamaan ka ba?

atticus > i can control my anger. nyahaha. oo nga. hirap i-pronounce ung name mo. :D

The Scud said...

raft3r > mas magaling si patrick kay mark. sa tennis yan. sa blogging ibang usapan na. hehe.