New Gamertag

I finally decided to change my gamertag this morning.  My new XBL gamertag is AoW Natas 46. 

I still occasionally venture off into Timmie land and I can't handle the crap that I hear come out of these kids' mouths about my son, so I decided to drop his name from my gamertag altogether.  On every other site that I am a member, I am Natas46, so it made sense to bring my XBL account in line.  I couldn't use Natas46 because I used to have that account, but there is a bunch of info related to that account that I can't recall.  I got XBL as soon as it was released, but let it lapse and didn't play on Live for a good two years before I decided to get back on.  By that point, I couldn't remember any of the info related to my original account.  I am sure that I could get MS to let me have that gamertag again, but I am a proud member of Art of War and I decided to let it show in my gamer tag.

About the name, Natas is Satan backwards.  When I was younger, I used to skateboard and I came across a pro skater by the name of Natas Kaupas.  His "Natas spin" is featured in Tony Hawk's Project 8 (thanks AOW Elite Jack for reminding me of that).  Anyway, I thought that his name was very cool.  When I was a child, my family had a cat that was mean as hell.  He didn't like anyone or anything (except food).  Due to this, my Dad named him Satan.  As a young adult, I got a cat that is the exact opposite of Satan.  For some reason (I tend to think that it was fate), these two things from my past came into my mind at the same time, so I named him Natas.  Natas is now nearly 13 years old and he is still the most active of our three pets (my wife's cat, Sam, and our dog, Butters).

As for the 46, I am a die-hard Atlanta Braves fan.  In 1995, MLB was in a protracted strike (costing us the 1994 Worls Series).  Heading into the '95 season, there was no resolution of the strike.  The owners threatened to open the season with replacement players in an attempt to obtain leverage against the Union.  Anyway, I woke up one fateful morning and read the Sports section of the paper (as always) and saw a small ad that the Braves were holding try-outs for replacement players in Houston (where I lived at the time).  I knew that I didn't have the skill to make it, even as a replacement, but I decided that I had to give it a shot.  I called in sick to work and went to the try-out.  Everyone that attended was assigned a try-out number and mine was 46.