What's an Owlmoose?: January Blogging Meme

[owlmoose]

pete_thomas asked me for the origins of my username. I think I may have told this story on LJ, many moons ago, but I can't easily find the link, and I've met many new people since then, so I don't mind telling it again.

The owl and the moose are two animals that were emblematic of my college years, a time I look back upon with great fondness. The owl is fairly easy to explain: Athena is the unofficial "patron goddess" of Bryn Mawr (being representative of wisdom), and the owl is one of her icons. So the owl is the closest thing we have to a mascot, and many Mawrters feel an affinity toward them. The moose part, well. That's a bit more random. The short version is that my friend JR came back from summer vacation our sophomore year with the habit of saying the word "moose" at random times. This habit turns out to be very contagious. Before winter break, we were all saying the word "moose" at random times -- it served as a greeting, a farewell, an exclamation, a nickname, an expression of affection....

Many years later, when I was looking for a new Internet username unconnected to previous ones, I hit upon combining the two animal names. Hence, owlmoose, which evolved into my fandom handle -- I use it everywhere fannish except for Twitter and Tumblr. As far as I know, I'm the only person who uses it, so if you come across an owlmoose, it is almost certainly me. :)

From the January Prompts meme (On DW / On LJ). Many slots remain open, especially in the latter half of the month!