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Human Silhouette

Legend of StingRay

In old times, when I started taking interest in computers so much that I learnt as if “every computerman must have his own nickname, his own legend”, for the first time there came out the problem of choosing a nickname. Stingray TV-Series As far as I remember, that time Russian television just began showing various movies presented by Columbia Pictures, particularly on Saturdays there were usualy TV-series that I used to watch. And one day the really fascinating “Stingray” (handwritten title on black background, I recall) came. The series was founded in a unique concept: the main character named Ray is a mysterious man with unknown past and near-superhuman faculties; nobody knows who he is, where he is from, and why his mission is to help people, especially those who cannot call the police, or who has got an unordinary task. He never takes money for his help, he just says, “Someday I will return, and I will ask you to perform a favor, and you must do it”. Every “returning” help he uses to help the next. Exactly this idea I considered close to me that time, therefore I had chosen “Stingray” as my nickname.

ZX-Spectrum Besides, my then interest in “the best 8-bit PC” Sinclair ZX-Spectrum with its file system under 8.3 standard (8 characters for name, 3 for extension) also was saying “yes” because the newly acquired nickname fit exactly into 8 letters. As the file system was case-insensitive (later this led to the author's diseased upper-case addiction), the spelling of the nickname was changed to “STINGRAY”.

Stingray Fish Wasp The time was going on, likings were changing, and the nickname got a more gorgeous spelling “StingRay” (with stress on the first syllable; sometimes misspelled as “StinGray” or even as “StringArray”). Only now, when I have freshened my memories of the original TV-series, I realizes that I subconsciously accented the name of the main character – Ray – in my nickname. That time it was just a wish to point out that the nickname contains two words: “sting” and “ray”, giving something like “stinging ray” together. Stingray Coctail As a one word, “stingray” (like its synonyms “ray” and “skate”) always could be understood as a graceful primitive fish. But the whole notional likeness between me and a skate is that it has a poison spine at its tail, just like a scorpion Scorpio (my Zodiac sign) has a no less poison sting; besides, my initials form the word “OSA” which in Russian means wasp that has a sting too. The other relevant things are: paintball gun “Stingray”, tank “Stingray”, submarine “Stingray” from “Down Periscope” comedy, alcoholic coctail “Stingray” (I will not adduce its recipe due to “ideological” reasons 😊), singers Joanna Stingray and Sting. But neither these things, nor the biological meaning of the word “stingray” has more meaning than that came from the TV-series, “I will help you. But someday I will return, and I will ask you to perform a favor, and you must do it”, a peculiar handling of an old English proverb, “Pay what you owe and you will know what you are worth”.

In September of 2001 the agonized attempts to find my own logo eventuated at long last with the priceless help of my friend Maxim L., and now you can see the logo at the top left corner of every website's page. The author of the logo explains its conception, “Its abstract form and the specification of the logo is conditioned by generality of your activity, it is just a logo of a man. The circle shape has chosen as a basis because it is the most actual for your human characters: mildness and equability, as well as openness from every side (circle as is). And your nickname (sting ray) is reflected in peaks and other acute details”.

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