Ikkyg has come to be known for a few things on Buzznet: her obsession with LOLcats, picspamming, trolling trolls, and then knocking us out with a witty and wise editorial rant every so often. She braved some truly terrible music to christen Brokencyde as the worst musical act of all time, so she’s clearly willing to take one for the team. But we wanted to find out where this overt LMFAO-inducing sense of humor came from, why she started taking photographs, and how (or if) she fits in with a Buzznet community that’s so different than she is. –Mark Oshiro, Community Manager, panasonicyouth

Ikkyg: I'm ready. Well technically I’m in class, but this class has no final exam. Therefore, I don’t have to pay attention

Buzznet: What class are you in?

Ikkyg: It’s a class about assessing, managing and treating sexual and violent offenders. It’s very interesting, but a bit bludgy.

Buzznet: Is this for a degree?

Ikkyg: [It’s] towards a BA in criminology. I’m also doing the law degree. The way degrees are structured here makes it possible to study 2 degrees at once.

Buzznet: And, naturally, you're on AIM during class.

Ikkyg: Basically.

Buzznet: You are a TRUE SCHOLAR.

Ikkyg: The Internet has turned me into a compulsive multi-tasker. I have to be doing more than one thing at once or I implode.

Buzznet: So I have to ask you: What is "ikkyg" and what does it mean? I'm perplexed by your Buzznet username.

Ikkyg: When I was in 7th grade, I learned German and to annoy my parents I would come home and speak German, knowing full well they didn't understand a word of it. "I am" in German is "ich bin," which is pretty much how all my sentences started. So my parents and sister started calling me "ich bin" which got shortened to "Ikky." The G is tacked on the end for style I suppose. (It's [also] the first letter of my surname.)

Buzznet: At first I thought it was just a random letter.

Ikkyg: Usually I put a hyphen between the ikky and the g, but Buzznet doesn’t allow hyphens.

Buzznet: We're clearly fascists, which brings me to my worst interview segue of all time: On Buzznet, you're definitely known for doing all things that make me LOL. So, Ikky, do you do it for the lulz?

Ikkyg: Always. I'm not really a hugely serious person; it throws a lot of people in real life, because they don't get that I'm not being serious. I would rather make people laugh and then think about what I'm saying than write something that’s tl;dr [Editor’s note: tl:dr stands for “Too long; didn’t read.”—panasonicyouth] and get ignored.

I don't know. Maybe its because I'm Australian. Comedy is the only thing we're half decent at. I'm big enough to admit without the Internet I would probably die.

Buzznet: So where exactly does your sense of humor come from?

Ikkyg: Hmm. Good question. I'm not really sure. I guess part of the Australian culture is this kind of deadpan, dry wit. Otherwise known as "taking the piss.” Also, sometimes people just do really stupid things that practically mock themselves. All I need to do is bring it up. Such as Brokencyde.

Buzznet: It's like the comedy speaks for itself.

Ikkyg: Come on. Annotations for an Autopsy mocked itself.

Buzznet: Is there ever a time when you wish you could be more serious?

Ikkyg: Sometimes. Mostly in highly emotional situations where I just can't think of anything to say except for extremely inappropriate offensive things. It's hard to make light of the fact someone's Grandma died or whatever. Also, blogging and LOLspeak have killed my ability to write essays.

Buzznet: Story of my life. I was cracking jokes at my dad's wake.

Ikkyg: I hope people make jokes at my wake. Even if they're at my expense. I hate seeing people cry.

Buzznet: Since joining Buzznet you’ve regularly found yourself at the center of controversy. Or something along those lines. Y/N? Do you think the Internet and life in general needs to be shaken up from time to time?

Ikkyg: I guess a lot of this has been shaped by my studies, I have learned at University that so much of what we learn from the media and from our family and friends is not reality. People seem to have lots of opinions on things like the economy, crime, politics, but their beliefs are based on their gut instinct or media spin. It doesn't reflect how the real world is operating at all.

Even in the way we learn science and math, what we are taught in school is completely wrong, and when you get into the senior years of high school and university, you have to unlearn so much. So to answer your original question, I hope to one day be some kind of mover or shaker type person. I want to work either in the judiciary or for the law reform commission, trying to change the law.

Buzznet: So it's like you're training for that on Buzznet!

Ikkyg: Buzznet has actually refined a lot of my ideas and opinions on things. QOTD [Question of the Day] is very interesting, and provides me with a lot of food for thought. I do research on things to blog about, so I guess in that way, it has expanded my knowledge.

Ikkyg: For example, all of KasperObscene's blogs about transgender people came in SO HANDY for a debate I did at University the other day about whether or not gender reassignment surgery should be covered by the public health system.

Buzznet: You listen to a lot of different genres and a lot of music that, admittedly, the Buzznet community probably won't ever hear. Do you feel weird posting on a site where people worship Panic At The Disco?

Ikkyg: Sometimes it’s a bit annoying, the bands the site focuses on, I frankly could not care less about. But there are enough people around that I can talk about bands I like and find someone who shares my interest. I like sharing my niche/Aussie/weird bands with other Buzznetters. I hope some of them take to it. God only knows they could do with a little less Pete Wentz.

Buzznet: I think Kasper will take offense to that.

Ikkyg: I like Pete Wentz on an aesthetic level. But I'm willing to admit my fondness for Fall Out Boy is based entirely on Pete Wentz's appearance and has very little to do with their music.

Buzznet: I can't wait to publish that, just so you know.

Ikkyg: I'm just saying what all those fangirls are thinking, yo.

Buzznet: It's ok. Let's have another embarrassingly bad segue: What Canon do you have? Your finger is blocking the model name in your self-portrait.

Ikkyg: It’s a 1000D. My photos on it are a bit disappointing, to be honest. Although I think it has more to do with me than the camera.

Buzznet: I disagree! I think they're incredibly detailed. And I love the color schemes you shoot in. Why'd you end up getting the camera?

Ikkyg: I was feeling a bit limited by my old camera. I have a Fujifilm Finepix 5800, and it’s a great camera to learn with. But I was getting let down by its lack of manual settings, like aperture and shutter speed, and manual focus, as my skills/knowledge increased.

Buzznet: But why get into photography at all? Was it because of Buzznet or did you have an interest in it before?

Ikkyg: Actually, it was developed entirely through Buzznet. Before I joined Buzznet, I had little to no interest in taking photos. In fact, I used to call myself the world's worst photographer. It’s kind of a shame, because all of my teen years are unrecorded. Anything I've learned about taking photos is all through Buzznet, just looking at what other people are doing and trying to emulate it.