The BIG BIG Contest: name Dio's new ship!

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As you will recall from my previous post (taking the thoroughly unreasonable leap of faith that you read this ridiculous swill-pot full of humbuggery I call a blog), I have utterly fallen in love with my Greek "Kyrenia" ship from the folks at Ars Navalis (please refer back to the aforementioned previous post for the Slurl). At the conclusion of my silly little essay, I mentioned that I needed an appropriate name for my beautiful little ship. Then Iggy suggested in his comment that we have a contest to name the pretty little thing. So let's have a go...

And yes, feel free to blame Iggy for this....

Let's start by setting some parameters:

I intend to use this ship in the harbor of the ancient Roman sim, Alsium, so I will give more points to someone who suggests a name that is fitting and acceptable for the Mediterranean world of the second century, AD.

So yes, you can submit silly names like "Sir Loin of Beef" or "Fast, Fun & Easy"--and I assure you we will share such submissions and smirk mightily--but they are unlikely to win. So think ancient, if you actually have a competitive bone in your body. Hey, you can enter as often as you like--submit all the entries you want--so if you want to toss out some silly ones as well as ones that might actually win this mashugenah contest, knocketh thyself out.


Perhaps you can derive some inspiration from the backstory I have developed for use in Second Life's ancient era roleplaying sims. As I pointed out to Iggy in my response to his comment, the character I have created for ancient rp is the greco-egyptian widow of a wine merchant from Alexandria, in the Roman province of Aegyptus. So a Greek or Egyptian name would be plausible. This 2nd century AD incarnation of Dio is only marginally romanized, so maybe she'd go for a latin name, ...or...maybe not. I should also mention that in her backstory, she traveled a lot with her husband the wine merchant Sinuhe, before he didst snuff it. They went all around the known world, buying and selling wine--so she might also consider a Phoenician or Persian name, as this Dio speaks some of both those languages. I hope you also note that like most of my characters, this Dio has some chutzpah, and enjoys her independence. It is also worth noting that she is a devout follower of the Cult of Isis.

As for the jolly little vessel herself, I think you can see that she has oodles of personality and charm. Her lines are very clean and slightly elegant, and there is a brightness to her overall look that just makes you want to hug the damn thing.

I have taken her out on the Blake Sea and even there, I find she handles relatively well for an SL sailing ship. She can move quickly and turn on a sesterse.

So what do you think? Give it your best shot or shots.

Or not. That's ok too. I will think of something sooner or later if you goobers can't come up with anything that ain't too terrible.

So what will you win? How about one of my Hudson's Bay trade blankets with the "sitting cross-legged" pose, and some boxes of my 19th century cigars, AND I will take you out for virtual drinks in all of my favorite drinking establishments in SL. How's that sound?

So let's give this a week. Post your entries here in the comments section, or send me an IM if you're really goddam shy, or hell, post it on twitter if you want (but I might miss them there). Submissions will be judged on various utterly subjective criteria, such as creativity, originality, appropriateness and whether or not you're somebody I actually would want to go have drinks with.

So good luck, have fun, and think how good you're gonna look sitting on that ratty trade blanket.

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