About “Rindolf” - Shlomi Fish’s Nickname
“Rindolf” - Shlomi Fish’s Nickname ¶
Node LinkNextI, Shlomi Fish, have decided to allow people on and off IRC to call me “Rindolf”, due to the fact that some non-Hebrew inclined people have problems with my private name - “Shlomi”. Some common pet names for Rindolf include “Rin”, “Rinny”, “Rindy”, “Rinfold”, etc.
Rindolf the Dwarven Warrior ¶
PrevNode LinkNextRindolf was a dwarven warrior that I played in an AD&D 2nd edition session. I came up with this name as appropriate for a dwarf probably out of thinking of other common Germanic names such as Randolph (literally “Shield+Wolf” in Germanic) or Rudolph (literally “famous wolf”), and it had a nice ring to it. Rindolf ended up becoming my favourite tabletop Role playing games character of all time as a youth. However, he ended up dying in a battle with a Doppleganger, in what was the Broken Shaft Adventuring Company’s best adventure (but a deadly one), in part due to a misunderstanding between the game master and me. This death proved to be a big shock on me (= Shlomi), and part of me felt guilty about the death of my character which I felt was not real enough to warrant grieving on. I was wrong.
Later on, at Internet chat sessions, after first using the nickname “dori” and then switching to “gloin” (= two of the Dwarves from Tolkien’s The Hobbit) I settled on “rindolf”, which I felt was the most original nickname, and part of my individuality.
Rindolf the Evil Reindeer ¶
PrevNode LinkNextAfter I started talking intensively on IRC at around 2003 and 2004, especially on the Freenode network, which I can still recommend, a few people teased me for being one of Santa Claus’s red-nosed reindeer or his “reingeek” or whatever. This was done by reference to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and his oft-cited brother “Randolph”. At first, I found it annoying, but after a while decided to take it to my advantage.
As a result, the new Rindolf has become the Evil twin brother of Rudolph and Randolph, Santa’s goody-two-shoes reindeer, who are among his arch-enemies. He is also one of the cornerstones of the Evil Reindeer Evil World Domination Evil Conspiracy, which aims to spread Evil in general and Reindeer Evil in particular around the world.
Some of Rindolf the Evil Reindeer’s appearances on IRC include:
Gandalf’s Reindeer ¶
Node LinkNextSome people told me the name “Rindolf” reminds them of that of Gandalf from the Middle Earth world of J. R. R. Tolkien. I decided to take it to my advantage too, and became the former pet of Gandalf, who betrayed him and acquired a lot of evil magic using his EvilAntlers™.
The Rindolf Algorithm ¶
PrevNode LinkNextRindolf has devised The Rindolf Algorithm, which is a sophisticated encryption algorithm that protects you against everyone, including your government, with the sole exception of your 5 years old little sister. See Rijndael.
Rin Tin Tin + Dolf = Rindolf ¶
PrevNode LinkNextI came up with a different midrash during an extended Mania period, where as a boy I was asked to pick a nickname and said "What is the name of this dog? [answer: Rin Tin Tin] And of this dog? [answer: Dolf] 'Rin Tin Tin' plus 'Dolf': 'Rindolf!'. That sounds like the name of one of your dwarves, Giles! 'Rindolf the Bearded'!"
Rindolf “Aim Very High” Hitlower ¶
PrevNode LinkNot only is Rindolf an evil Reindeer, but he is also the notorious insane tyrant and mass-murderer, Rindolf “Aim Very High” Hitlower. As you may have guessed, people said that my nickname “Rindolf” reminded them of “Adolf Hitler”, and even though I was offended by it for a long time, I eventually decided to take it to my advantage, too. Recently (Late June, 2014) I’ve told people that I decided that in my personal and professional life, I will aim very high in the hope that I will hit the aim or perhaps a little lower, and so settled on this nickname.
The Hacker Monarch (= The Messiah) ¶
Node LinkNextI concluded that I was the hacker king/warrior king (or the Messiah) between roughly 2000 and up-to-and-until the publication of the informal screenplay “Summerschool at the NSA”. At that point, one of my “Galateas”, the lovely and real-life Summer Glau, became an “apple that completely supplanted the tree”.
I realised that she likely wants to be the hacker monarch even more badly than I have, throughout all the years I was the hacker king of the world. The hacker monarch is also known as “The Best of the Best of the Best” to paraphrase on the excellent film Men in Black. Despite whatever faults she or I had, we are both full of awesomeness.
From the Invisible to the Alpha Male ¶
PrevNode LinkNextMeanwhile, I’m glad I’m no longer playing The Invisible who is arguably the worst kind of hacker monarch, and plan on becoming the Alpha male, and won’t stop until or even after I appear on the cover of People magazine with the caption “Sexiest man alive”. This, in turn, is inspired a lot by a scene from the wonderful film Richie Rich, which echoes the fact that the main actor in the film, Macaulay Culkin, was the alpha male at the time, despite his youth.
At age 37 (I am 1977 born), I feel younger than ever, more and more enlightened, and with a huge burden off my chest, and can approach many years of wonder, fame, fortune, and especially - love, strength, sexiness, pluralism, joy and happiness.
Passing the Baton ¶
PrevNode LinkNextI hope I can meet Summer Glau at the upcoming Nine Worlds Convention or wherever and formally pass the baton. The latter will be officially passed in the form of a “ring”: a plain brown ten-sided role-playing game die (a 1d10), which I carry in my pencil case in my backpack
One of my friends at the time said I could take it and keep it, and it became my symbolic token. I’ve felt that it is blessed and cursed at the same time (which are two sides of the same coin). Now Summer will decide what to do with it.
Sic Transit Gloria ¶
PrevNode LinkNextI was the hacker king and it was a great honour, but I guess that Sic Transit Gloria Mundi, and if asked I would have known this day would come.
Looking into the Future ¶
PrevNode LinkNextIn the meanwhile: Summer Glau jehovah Qoheleth. So let me say: Carpe diem, motherfucker!!! Do you speak it?! And: hackers of the world - unite!!
Update: Long Live, us, [no-"the"!] Hacker Monarchs! ¶
PrevNode LinkNext(2014-Sep-07) Following the call for action for “Finishing Off The Open Content / Web 2.0 Revolution (#SummerNSA)”, I have become tired of remaining The Hacker monarch. As a result, I mentally decided to quit prematurely and let the whole world go to hell. This was done per advice of Larry Wall, who was the wonderful The Hacker King of the Open Source/Usenet revolution (~1983-1997), and quite The Invisible as well (by choice).
After feeling vindictive and resentful for a while (which I knew by experience was a transitional feeling and that I should not act upon it), I realised something. What I realised was that Summer Glau, being the legendary Bajoran profile, “The Sexiest Terminator Ever”, just terminated the whole obsession of me and other people with a small group being “The Hacker Monarch” and instead there are now more than one potential “Hacker Monarchs”. And to that I am grateful to her.
(FFFFUUUU Rainbow Dash -like people, who always think there should be one, and only one, winner in a competition.)
Therefore, I plan on remaining an awesome hacker monarch for the foreseeable future, and will be joined by Ms. Glau and by other people who are willing to play that role. Perhaps future historians will designate some people in particular as being that in the present, but such global superlatives probably ought to die for now.
(Also see how previously the fictional Selina Mandrake, being The Dispeller dispelled the whole ordeal with assigning superlative profiles.)
I still plan on passing that d10 die to Summer in person with much fanfare, because it's now her property. And I am still planning on becoming a successful, rich, and famous, writer/entertainer/philosopher and screenwriter. Remember the name: Shlomi “Rindolf” Fish!
Success in the Selinaverse; Living in a hell hole ¶
PrevNode LinkI suspect I lived in a mind-hell spawned by the "devils" (= gamemasters), and that in the Selinaverse, I was highly successful, rich, revered, famous and admired. I was a successful author, one of the film industry's biggest screenwriters, a world famous "blogger" (= Internet / social media content creator), and a remarkable entertainer / educator / amateur philosopher.
Aside from being "The-Messiah", I was:
Most people's favourite candidate for being The Terminal Terran Terminator (with the runner up likely being Kim Kardashian, who was The-Alpha-Female for a large part of the years between 2013-2021). See the definition of "Terran Terminators".
A blogger whose blogging and thoughts have caused many other terminators to ascend.
Together with two companions, we formed a trio:
Rindolf the Dwarf warrior/hacker from The Unforgettable Realms.
“We also joked that Rindolf the Dwarf plays Shlomi Fish in an Advanced 21st-Century Earth Adventures campaign.” - It is real and I'm okay with it: The Unforgettable Realms!
( Tweet. )
Having been "killed" in his RPG role, Rindolf accepted a software development job comaintaining the mostly-Perl code to the AI "Shlomi Fish".
Emma Watson, the award-winning and acclaimed creator / activist / actress / model. She is known for portraying Hermione in the Harry Potter films, for portraying Selina in "Selina Mandrake - The Slayer", and for other roles.
Each of the three of us has been playing or guiding the other two, and themselves and others, using various online and offline mediums. Self-reference, circular logic, circular feedback, etc. are common in Fantastecha™, and are part of what makes sentience and humour work:
Rindolfism ¶
PrevNode LinkNextSources of Inspiration ¶
Node LinkNextRindolfism is my own personal philosophy and idea system, based on many sources of influence - both more “serious” ones such as:
Judaism (= the philosophy, culture, and idea system, of the Jewish people, which is much more than just a religion).
The culture, history, and heritage of the modern state of Israel.
The open source and open content movements.
Ayn Rand’s Objectivism and Neo-Tech. (Note that I no longer find pure Classical Randian Objectivism usable in this day and age, and I am not a "randroid".)
As well as idea systems / franchises that don’t take themselves as seriously as those such as:
Sesame Street and the rest of The Muppets’ franchise.
The Star Trek franchise ( especially The Next Generation (TNG) and Deep Space Nine (DS9) series ).
The film The Princess Bride and other classic films such as:
The works of Monty Python.
Various popular Israeli T.V. shows and films.
The Greek mythology and other parts of Greek and Roman philosophy.
Online YouTube content, whether by YouTubers, by signed artists or official content owners, and bootleg content.
Web comics and blogs such as xkcd, "Joel on Software", or "Ozy and Millie".
These are just some of the major sources of influence on Rindolfism, but there are many, many more.
The Dynamic Nature of Rindolfism ¶
PrevNode LinkNextMoreover, Rindolfism is not static - it is dynamic and is constantly evolving. Since an early age, I have committed myself to be an idealist. However, my idealism has constantly changed, and my idealism today is very different from what it was even a year ago, which in turn is different from what it was two years ago, and so forth.
Furthermore, as great as philosophy is (including my own original, or mostly original, amateur philosophy), it just provides general guidelines for behaviour ( Reference ). A man or a woman eventually should use reason and judgement in leading their life. Making a bad decision and performing a wrong action, is often better than not doing anything at all.
How to help? ¶
PrevNode LinkNextFinally, Rindolfism does not need fans and followers as much as it needs people who will either:
Criticise it.
Build upon it - including mix and match it with other things.
Suggest improvements.
Try to compete with it. Don't try to be No. 2… try to be No. 1! But "make your own kind of music" and do it your way.
Contribute! Feel free to clone the GitHub repository (or one of its child repositories), and send me an improvement licensed under CC-by or the public domain (either as a pull request or as a patch). If I like it, I will merge it. If I don't, I'll tell you why, and I may have to say "No".
Fork! - you can create a derivative of Rindolfism / *.shlomifish.org, and carry it in your own direction. It may not still be easy to do from the programmatic aspect but merge requests or patches to facilitate forking are welcome.
Codifying Rindolfism ¶
PrevNode LinkNextI am also not planning to write a complete summary of Rindolfism any time soon, because like I said, it is constantly evolving, and because I don't see the point. If interested, you can read my essays (some of which are somewhat outdated), my works of humour and fiction (which are arguably both more serious, and not as funny as my essays), the posts on my blogs, my Twitter feed, and other Internet social media outlets where I have posted stuff.
For some attempts at codifying Rindolfism, see:
“The Eternal Jew” - an old essay, but still mostly pertinent.
“Putting all the Cards on the Table (2013)” - a newer essay - relevant for 2013, about which I received mixed opinions, may not be for everyone, and that may require a lot of revamping.
“Putting Cards on the Table (2019-*)” - an update.
Neo-Semitism ¶
PrevNode LinkNextA central tenant of Rindolfism is Neo-Semitism, which has been an attempt to create the same fusion of ideas, cultures, influences, and even blood, that took place in the Near East by the predominantly Semitic peoples , only this time world wide, with electronic and computer communication as a facilitator, and with faster land, sea, and air travel.
I originally documented the term in a scene from my screenplay Selina Mandrake:
Mosheh: The so-called New Age is finally arriving, and we are about to establish the worldwide Neo-Semitic culture, based on diversity, cross-pollination, acceptance, tolerance, rationality and life.
The Rindolfism’s Canon ¶
PrevNode LinkNextI noted in a tweet once that:
There’s too much different Anime. There’s only one My Little Pony canon.
And indeed there is the show that My Little Pony fans watched from its start up to an arbitrary number of seasons, and a lot of spin off official and fan/"bootleg" art and merchandise, which are less universally agreed upon by fans.
Other notable canons are the Hebrew Bible for Judaism, The Muppet Show (as opposed to the more chaotic and repetitive Sesame Street), and the xkcd.com's numbered strips.
So without further ado, Rindolfism's canon consists of these resources:
Chatroom guidelines ¶
PrevNode LinkVanity chat for the Rindolfism Philosophy ( https://www.shlomifish.org/humour/ ; https://www.shlomifish.org/philosophy/ ),
You can be a critical fan, but don't be a rindroid/xkcdroid/randroid etc. (= A professional zealot of an idea-system who cites old and legacy material as evidence for its official and contemporary opinion or capability.)
People/Collectives can change!
Criticism/forks/competitions, blasphemy, parody/comedy, and sexualised messages are encouraged. However, please invest time in delivery.
May be publicly logged.
Trivia ¶
PrevNode LinkNextRindolf the Dwarf’s cry of competence was “Me, Rindolf!” which is now also echoed in the URL of this page -
/me/rindolf/
.Rindolf the Dwarf was nicknamed “Woman-hands” because his hands were as delicate as those of a female dwarf.
Rindolf’s weapons of choice were the pick and the shortbow.
I later played Rindolf in a small game master+two players adventure, where he sported much better abilities than the original character. After going through the adventure and winning over all the enemies, Rindolf ended up wearing a Helm of Opposite Alignment which made him convert from a “Neutral Good” alignment to a Neutral Evil one, and he ended up killing his comrade for the adventure.
Rindolf the Evil Reindeer is Norwegian, but he speaks in a French accent, because I cannot emulate a Norwegian accent properly, and because French is the language of love and “Love is Evil, and Evil is Love”.
On a Freenode chat we joked that "shlomif" was Rindolf's MoreEvil™ twin brother.
We also joked that Rindolf the dwarf plays Shlomi Fish in an Advanced 21st-Century Earth Adventures campaign.
Rudolph, Randolph, and Rindolf, are not a triplet, but rather twins. I can't figure out how it works ( 😉 ).
See Also ¶
PrevNode LinkNext“All in an Atypical Day’s Work” - a screenplay featuring Rindolf the EvilReindeer and Shlomi Fish.
Credits ¶
PrevNode LinkDrawing of an evil reindeer taken from the "Inception" drawception page - found in a web search.
Picture of a dwarf with a pick taken from the Clockwork Gods Wiki "Dwarf" page.
Gandalf photo with caption provided by a Facebook friend of a friend.
Summer Glau photo taken from the English Wikipedia.