What Is A Lookaside?
6/12/26
Why Lookaside? The question that ones of people have clamored to know. My hopes are that when one day someone actually
looks up this question on the internet, they will be able to find this blog post, and go “huh! okay.”
It all began in a sophomore year Computer Hardware class. Well, it all actually began when I was seven years old,
homeschooled, and introduced to the Alice
drag-n-drop language by my dad, but that’s too far of a flashback for this blog post. At the much later time of being
a 19-year-old computer science major, I was years into making music and games but had no online username to brand
myself with. I had gone by a few aliases online but none stuck, so I was actively looking for one.
My professor chose on that fateful day to teach us about the
Translation Lookaside Buffer, a thoroughly uninteresting but well-named piece of computer architecture
that stores a cache of virtual memory addresses mapped to physical memory addresses. That might not mean anything
to you, and if not, don’t worry. The TLB is not by any means my favorite piece of computer architecture (I don’t
think I have one) but it contained a word in it that immediately caught my ear and met all my admittedly
utilitarian and SEO-based criteria: very unique, but very easy to hear and remember– and know how to spell.
Anyone looking for a good name out there, remember that people will be hearing you say your username and then
trying to look it up or type it somewhere later and they might not remember that you took out all the vowels
or used a number instead of an E or borrowed a niche word from another language.
So “lookaside” started as a very boring word chosen for also boring reasons, but the more I turned it around in
my head the more I realized it was a triple-bordering-on-quadruple entendre. Anyone who knows me in person knows
that I have a facial tic of blinking then looking to the left. I’ve had it since middle school and hardly notice
anymore, but I certainly look aside very often as a result. The first two syllables of the name are also a near homophone for my name (Luca), which has led me to
jokingly also sometimes putting my first name as Looka on some platforms. In my head, the little character I draw
looking to the left is named Looka. He’s just like me, but the cartoon digital version. “Lookaside” is a very
computer-y word, which matches my very digitally driven creative output, and on top of all of that I like that
“look aside” sort of nods to pivoting to something different or unexpected, which a lot of my art can be. Yes,
those entendres became more of a stretch the more they went on, but you have to admit at least two of them are
pretty strong. :)
I'm very happy with my username now and have had lots of fun drawing my two eyes looking left. Remember: if you're
looking for something, look aside.
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