I was reading other blogs, looking at the names on them. Of course, several of them are actually the blogger's name (Keith Snyder, John T. Schramm, Eric Mayer, SJ Rozan, etc) and some are first names, and some are nicknames of a sort, like mine. Except no one actually calls me "Rambler".

Why did I pick it? Well, actually there are two reasons: First, because most of my posts seem to be just ramblings, not terribly important, just a bunch of words that are coherent, perhaps, but without a purpose or a theme. (This doesn't seem all that unusual. A lot of blogs seem to be similar.)

The other reason I thought it would work for me is because that's my alma mater's nickname: Loyola (of Chicago) Ramblers. We had a lot of debate on what the heck a "Rambler" was, when I was in school, and I think the conclusion was that it was some sort of hobo. Our mascot was a hobo-looking humanoid thing.

I loved Loyola. I hung out with a great group of guys (my wing-mates, in the all-men's dorm of Campion Hall). Our campus was really quite nice. We had a lakefront campus with nice open area between the buildings. I was well prepared for dental school by my education there, and I was close enough to occasionally enjoy the city of Chicago.

It's changed a lot, and I'm not sure I'd go there if I had the opportunity today. The campus is much more crowded; they've been building in the open spaces, and acquiring more property around them, including small Mundelein College which was right next to us in those days. But I still count my experiences at LU of Chicago to be extremely positive ones.

So I picked "Rambler" as my journal handle.

My real name is Scott. Pleased to meet y'all...