of course, i don't let myself post just to post (which is why i didn't respond to anna's accusation before, unlike some rats i know... ).
Snork. (Hey, we need a snork graemlin <G>) Embarrassingly enough, I didn't actually think I'd posted that often yesterday.
So I reckon Paul's been hacking into the forum and artificially raising my post counter.
There ain't no way I made it to 30 yesterday all by myself. Coz that would mean I was addicted and I'd have to go seek help....
So HackerPaul seems a much more logical reason to me.
Okay, let's see....how I got my nick. Reprise:
Well, first of all, I come from a tradition of people using nicks just because they're fun. Started with the old CB radio culture, I guess (used to use the handle Whisper - because I had a sore throat and a cold the day I first went on the air <g> Hey, two explanations for the price of one!).
The Doc Klein's LabRat nick was, strangely enough, initially chosen for a forum that had nothing to do with Lois and Clark. The Paramount Comedy channel, here in the UK, used to have/still might have a little forum on its teletext service which had developed into something of a thriving and fun community, with a lot of regulars who mailed in letters about everything from Paramount shows to events in their lives - and other things. <g> There was a whole 'thread' at one point about someone having a phobia about gnus. <g>
Which was more hilarious than it sounds.
Anyway, I had a question I wanted to ask about a particular Frasier episode at the time and wanted to mail and ask for the answer. Everyone in the forum used nicks as a matter of course. As I'd just discovered LNC I decided I needed a nick to reflect my interest. I have no real idea why Doc Klein's LabRat popped into my head. I have no memory that I'd watched a Klein heavy episode shortly beforehand. But the fourth season was halfway through its first run on UK TV at that particular time, so it's always possible that I did. Besides I'd always enjoyed the Klein character, so it was probably a combination of elements that brought it to mind. There is, of course, an indication in the show itself that Bernie belonged to the LabRats Motorcycle Club, so that could have worked its way into the mix too.
For whatever reason, I thought of it, I liked it, I used it when I mailed my question to the forum. Later, when I got hooked up to the net and found FoLCdom, the first postings I made were to post nfic to the original mbs. For various reasons - even longer and even more boring story, so won't go into that - this spooked me enormously, so there was no way I was doing it under my own name. So I shifted the DKL nick over to this fandom and used that. Made life easier and was less taxing on the brain to think up another.
Over time, of course, it got shortened to LabRat (or Lab or Labby or just plain Rat <g>). There was a time when I had problems with that and got lots of email asking me if I was a/ a scientist or b/ making a philosophical statement on the nature of the futility of life and I'd have to explain it was actually attached to Doc. Klein. <g> But haven't had any of those for some years now.
LabRat
