Eblo

Maath and Ratula, the Hounds of Hell

Ok, this is longer in coming than I expected it to be. The story is this. Amy and I joked about combining our last names when we got married. We came up with Maath and Ratula. Immediately we were struck with the notion that they sounded like names of hellhounds. So we further joked about applying those names to a pair of Great Danes we'd get to guard our domicile when we 'grew up.' It's not entirely likely, in reality, but it is still possible.

Anywho, one day I decided to register a domain name because I was getting tired of trying to explain 'charon.dnsalias.net' and 'tantalus.dnsalias.net' when I was giving out e-mail address. Don't get me wrong, DynDNS.org (owners of dnsalias.net, among several other domains) is a great service for free (and even better if you throw them a donation). It was just a convenience thing. And perhaps a little about vanity. So I looked for my last name - taken. A few of my (online and IRL) nicknames, taken. Then I tried one of our joke names - available. So ratula.net was registered. And sat. I mostly got around to converting the mail addresses over, but the fact of the matter is that ratula.net is just an alias for charon.dnsalias.net.

Anyway, a few months ago, I'd seen plenty of favicons cropping up and I got curious about how to set one up - just an academic exercise, really. But what image to use? I've never been an idol worshiper, so I wasn't really attached to a particular icon which said "Oblivion." Not being a graphical artist myself, I didn't have a hard drive full of original artwork sitting around to inspire me. But eventually, I came back to Ratula. So I hit google.images in search of a cool picture of a Great Dane. I was really after a harlequin, the kind I'd like to have one day in reality, but the ones I found at the time just wouldn't work.

Eventually, I found the great picture above. Originally, I just used the imaged without thinking about it. But when I looked at the full-size image again to do this writeup, I noticed the artist's attribution by the collar. I decided to be nice and ask the artist for permission to use the image - more out of respect than out of any fear of eventual legal retribution. After sharing some frustrations about the theft of art on the internet, which I believe are totally founded, she was kind enough to grant me permission. In exchange, I promised to properly credit Debbie Miller Stonebreaker as the original artist of the picture, and send you all to go look at her website and hopefully buy something.

So there you have it. I hope your curiosity is satisfied. If it hadn't died of starvation already. Now, are you wondering what this page's background image is??????

And yes, I rushed the ending. It seems to be a trend lately.

Posted by oblivion at July 30, 2003 12:03 AM