My Name

A former friend once asked me why I refer to myself as Cloudy or Captain Cloudy, so for those of you who think it is from an old Playstation game, I will explain the origin of the name 'cloudy'...

It all began one dark and stormy morning in 1997, when a new game was coming out. Thousands bought a game from a series they'd never heard of. Mighty warriors roamed the land, crushing evil lords below their mighty boots, boots that rocked the earth... The game was Final Fantasy VII, whose main characters name was called Cloud Strife, which somehow caused people to believe those fluffy white things up in the sky were named after the character. Well it might have happened.

I was walking down to the local bird and fish shop, $150 dollars clasped in my hand, off to get a lovable pet. I walked in and walked around until I spotted a group of cockatiels on top of a cage at the front counter for sale. So I waltzed up there and said "I say, shopkeep, how much are those little birdies in the window, those birdies, those birdies in the window there?". He told me $120. So I leaned down at the little birds, all fun and feathers and bright chirpie smiles. As I lean closer, one takes it into his head, his little red unfeathered head, to jump into my hair.

So I have all these cute, adorable birds to chose from, or the runty small one without feathers. Awesome cute 'tiels, or the naked crappy runt. I took the runt, and at that time he was named Razor for the cute way his claws ripped your skin to pieces, and bit clean through clothing. However, I tamed him, eventually, and after a week his feathers started to come in. His perfect yellow-white feathers. So I started calling him a cloud, playfully, and eventually the name stuck better than Razor did.

Now, sadly, he is dead. On the mortal plane. His yellow feathers came in, his crest grew, and he only rips up skin and clothes when he felt like it. He turned 6 last October, within a week of my birthday. So, since I spend time with him so often, he has become quite often my screenie.

So, even though he's gone, his memory lives on, in a weird and disturbing way.

To make this perfectly clear: I did not use the name from Cloud Strife. I hadn't heard about it till 2003, and hadn't played it till 2004.

Ironically, my newest cockatiel actually does look like a cloud. I was tempted to name him Sunny, which would be a much better name for Cloudy. Meh.