[Icon] Cyberknight

Unicorns and Technology, these two subjects have guided me ever. One gives me the fantasy, the freedom. The other gives me the knowledge, the hope. And both gives me the imagination, the inspiration. There will come the time...


Why "Cyberknight"?

[Kawata Masao] My birth name is Claudio Massao Kawata, but I chose the code-name "Cyberknight" when I was in high-school (it looked good in the high-score tables of computer games... okay, I confess, I liked it 'cause it was so "alien" as the names of all those Japanese TV series' heroes). It also begins with a "C", making my name's abbreviation the same, "C.M.K.", for both my real and artistic names.

Etymology: Cyberknight is the combination of two words. Cyber comes from the Greek téchne kybernetiké, which means "the art of the pilot"; Cybernetic Science studies the communication and control systems of living beings and machines. Knight is a... a knight, of course (from ancient English "cniht").

My parents and by my grandfather (from my father's family) chose my original name. Claudio is a Latin name, which origin is a bit confuse. It comes from the Roman Claudius, meaning "lame", "cripple", taken from the Greek Claudios, which came from Claudos, a greek island, which means "man with a weeping voice". Because crying was not considered suitable for men in Rome, they gave it its derrogatory meaning. Of course, I prefer the Greek meaning, not only because of its meaning, but because it is almost lost in time, now. Beside, its more likely to relate "Claudio" to "Claudios" than to "Claudius", but that's secondary...

Masao is a Japanese name, a combination of two kanji that means "administrator" (male). Kawata, my father's family name, means "river of the rice field". Funny...

Been born human, I have been dealing with all modern human troubles like school, "the meaning of life", money and so on.

My Family

My grandmothers and grandfathers came from Japan in the beginning of the Twentieth Century to Brazil. Today, my country is immersed in the same kind of troubles that almost all others are having to handle: a corrupt and incompetent government. You can say "my rulers are honest", but would you bet all your possessions on them? And your life? And the life of your family? I wouldn't. Trust no one of "them" and know well your own limits. You can be and do anything you want, but be careful. Don't remember to take a parachute after you have already jumped.

My father, Marcos Kawata, and my mother, Teruko Kawata (her original family name is Iwazawa, which means "Marsh Stone"; her name means "Child of The Rising Sun"), were living in Japan for about 8 years. I have a brother, about two years younger than I am (he's about ten years older than I am, mentally, and is getting smarter). His name is Marcio "Yuji" Kawata. He was also living in Japan, with my parents, and is back, though he plans to travel to Japan, once more.

Home, Sweet Home

I was born in Brazil, a country in South America. The official language is the Portuguese, although the Brazilian Portuguese variant has many differences, mainly in the accent, from the original one used in Portugal and other Portuguese ex-colonies. And by the way, Portuguese is not Spanish. The accent is absolutely different, and although many words are similar, due to their common Latin root, it's very difficult to a Brazilian to understand someone speaking Spanish (I suppose the contrary to be true, too), though many teachers I had didn't seem to realize that.

Trivia: there's a "legend" that the Portuguese is the only language to have a word to express the feeling of missing, the longing for something or someone. The word saudade (it's pronounced [saudade, sawdadji]) doesn't have a corresponding one in English, but I have found many in Japanese. The best fitting is natsukashii [natsukaxii] (longing for) and natsukashisa [natsukaxisa] (the feeling of missing). A good word, in any way.

Another trivia about a Brazilian word: there's an animal called "onça" (it's pronounced [onsa], scientific name Panthera [Jaguarius] onca) in Brazil, a feline of about 1.5 m long body, 60 cm long tail and 80 cm tall, which can also be found in all America, except in Chile and the Andes. The word "onça" is derived from the Italian name of a Northern Asian animal, "lonza" ([londza], derived from the Greek "lygx", from the Latin "luncea", scientific name Panthera uncia, about 1.3 m long body), similar to the Brazilian carnivore. The native word for the American feline is "ya'wara" [ia'wara] (it means "the one that can kill with a single stroke"), which resulted its internationally best known name, "jaguar" [jagwar, jaguar]. The word "jaguar" is generally also used to denote the Asian lonza. Summary: Brazilian people call the American jaguar (or yawara) as "onça", while most people in the world call the Asian lonza as "jaguar". But a rose is still a rose, isn't it?

Other things from Brazil: "piranha" ([piraña], from the native tupi-guarani language word "pi'ra~i", which means "cuts the skin") and "poraquê" ([porak'e], from the tupi-guarani word "pora'kê", which means "the one that makes sleep", scientific name Electrophorus electricus (L.)), best known as "electric eel", both Brazilian fishes that made themselves notorious around the world.

The Portuguese explorers said that they discovered Brazil by accident in A.D. 1500. The name "Brazil" is attributed to a species of tree, from which the Portuguese explorers extracted a deep red pigment, used to tinge textiles. However, this country was already known by the Portuguese government far before that year. The Portuguese Navy was one of the most powerful and skilled of its time, so they could never be carried "by accident" to this country. An old legend told about a very advanced country named Atlantis that sank in the ocean, the known Atlantic Ocean. Some versions of the legend say that all population of Atlantis died in the catastrophe, but other versions say that many people survived due to their technology, traveling eastward, founding legendary cities in Europe (like Avalon), Asia (like Xanadu and Ys), and Africa. They also traveled westward, founding the great country of Hi-Brazail (it's pronounced [hai brazi-w] or [hai brazaiw]) in a legendary continent of unbelievable wealth, a paradise on Earth, known today as America. Is all that just a great coincidence? Or did the Portuguese Navy know about Hi-Brazail and just took it before anyone else could do it first? And why the native people that lived here named a species of tree "brazil"? Every legend carries a truth inside. Where is this one's? I believe (it's far more interesting this way...)

Likes and Dislikes

Things I like:

Things I don't like:


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- from Imagine, by John Lennon. This page is dedicated to him, like me, a dreamer. I hope this dream will become true soon. I'm doing what I can. And you...?


Oh, yes, there is one more thing to say, about birthday. I have no problem about telling people about my birth day, but it is a special day for me, of course, so I decided to make it Enigma Zero, a riddle that can lead you to the correct day, month and year, if you are "smart" enough...


Page last modified on 2000-September-17 Sunday.

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