About
Who is this “Rick Wilcox”/”Wormwood” character, anyway?
Some demographic info, first:
- “Rick Wilcox” is a pseudonym. Unsurprisingly, so is “Wormwood”.
- No, you can’t have my real name.
- I’m currently seeking my Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science with a focus in Pre-Law.
- Yes, I feel stupid for dropping out of college the first time.
- I’ve been a software developer for a small defense contractor, taught in a post-secondary school, and spent time on the “wrong” end of the phone (tech support).
- Even worse, the tech support was for lawyers. Now I want to get on the other side of the phone.
- I enjoy GeoCaching (even if my find count is pathetic), as well as just walking for the heck of it.
To steal a phrase from Patterico (who stole it from Harry Shearer), here are some Frequently Unasked Questions about me and my blog:
- Why “The Reaction Shot”?
- Because just saying “WTFM8″ is never enough. Well, that’s the tagline, site mission in a nut’s hell, what have you. What it means is that this blog is my way of putting forth my reaction to things I see in the news, on other blogs (mostly those in my blogroll), or in my daily life. Suffice it to say, there will not be a single entry made that consists merely of a link to another blog post or news article with a witty headline or one-liner from me.
- What, exactly, does “WTFM8″ mean?
- It’s short for “What The F***, Mate”. Said turn of phrase is inspired by this flash video (warning: language may not be work-safe, unless you work with people who have a sense of humor).
- So are you, like, Australian or something?
- Yes. I am “something”. That something is not Australian.
- So why the pseudonym “Rick Wilcox”?
- Well, I kind of thought about what name would go well with “Reaction Shot”, and I got to thinking about nuclear reactors. So I started poking around on Wikipedia. First name that came to my eyes was Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, “Father of the Nuclear Navy”. After poking around a bit more, I find that the generators used at Three Mile Island were supplied by Babcock and Wilcox. So, after mangling Adm. Rickover’s last name into a first name, I get “Rick Wilcox”.
- Okay. What about “Wormwood”?
- Common Wormwood (AKA Mugwort or Artemisia Vulgaris) is the namesake of the town “Chernobyl”.
- Why would you want to name yourself after two nuclear incidents?
- Because I’m prone to meltdown and explosion? I mean, why else?