Nom de Plume

I've had some inquiries about my nom de plume "Fundy Blue."

"Nom de plume" sounds so much better than "username!"

Bay of Fundy

Out of Westport, 

Brier Island, Nova Scotia

I have been using Fundy Blue as a computer identity or username
since the mid to late 1990s,
well before the AOL Time Warner Merger.
I can't remember the exact year, but the occasion was joining AOL,
before Facebook, before Blogger, heck before Google!

 
                           Wharf, Westport                                            Fishing Boat, Bay of Fundy



I followed the instructions to create a username
which used the example of someone named "Major Tom."
He was somebody big at AOL, but I can't track down who he was.

A naked Major Tom.
No numbers, symbols, or extraneous letters.
Clean and Cool!

Ducks, Clean and Cool, Bay of Fundy

The instructions said that you might have to try several usernames
before you found one that was available; or,
that you might have to add numbers, symbols, and/or letters to your username
to distinguish it from someone else's using the same name.

NOT!

Not me!
I was going to find a unique username,
and it was going to be clean and cool -
no numbers, no symbols, no extra letters!

Humpback, Bay of Fundy

Not only that, but
it was going to be mine the first time I entered my username choice.
No second or third choice for me!

Fishing Boat, Westport

Anal, I know!
It was the challenge for me.
The fun of the chase.

Not only that, but
my username had to reflect the essence of me!
(Whatever that meant.)
And it had to resonate in my soul!
(I wasn't sure what that meant either,
but I knew what it would feel like.)

Fundy Blue

So for a whole weekend I racked my brain searching
for the name that would reflect the essence of me and would resonate in my soul,
while I cleaned and dusted and scrubbed.
My house never looked so good!

And then suddenly,
while vacuuming the living room,
right in front of the stereo that was blasting Celtic Mass for the Sea,
Fundy Blue hopped into my mind.
Major resonance!

Humpback, Bay of Fundy

I ran to my Macintosh LC,
logged on to AOL,
typed in Fundy Blue
and, voilà!
The username was mine on the first try.
Take that Major Tom!

Memories Are Made of This!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_LC

I was born in Wolfville, Nova Scotia,
in a hospital overlooking Cape Blomidon and the Minas Basin.
The Minas Basin is the eastern inlet on the upper reaches of the Bay of Fundy.

Cape Blomidon (Home of Glooscap)
Minas Basin

Sara, Louise, and Donald MacBeath

My mother's mother's people have lived on and around the Bay of Fundy 

for over three hundred years.

A Section of the Mitchell Map

Depicting Southern Nova Scotia and the Bay of Fundy

1750s, Published 1774

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MitchellMap-SouthernNovaScotia.jpg

I spent many summers and the odd winter or two  on the shores of the Annapolis Basin,  like generations before me. Digby Gut spoke to me even in my earliest memories. And the waters of the Bay of Fundy beckoned through Digby Gut. Digby Gut Oh Lovely Mudflats!   Compliments of the Some of the Highest Tides in the World!              Fundy Shore on the Rocks at Point Prim Our Family Even Brings Along Members Who Couldn't Make It -  Like My Brother-In-Law Flat Peter! What can I say? I was meant to be Fundy Blue! Beautiful Cove on Bay of Fundy Long Island, Nova Scotia Many of these photographs were taken on August 1, 2010, during a trip "down on the Islands" when my family and I went whaling with Mariner Cruises Whale and Seabird Tours. This excellent cruise company was founded and is operated by high school friends of our family. To hear a clip or two from the Celtic Mass for the Sea CD that I love so much, you can click on this link or the duplicate one a few paragraphs above. To hear a clip accompanied by guitar only,  you can click on this video. It's not the gorgeous version with string orchestra and Celtic ensemble,  but it's so deliciously Nova Scotian, I couldn't resist! A long answer for a short question, "How did you get the name, "Fundy Blue?" But now you know.