A mouse in the between the lines

In this day and age, everyone would have at least one handphone number, if not just a landline to be contacted. But with the introduction of the World Wide Web, everyone would have at least one email. Unless of course, you're Amish and deny computers from your life.

It wasn't until in 1999, when my friend Silas, who introduced me to the wonders of WWW and the cybercafe that i got myself an email address.

Being an email virgin then, i didn't know what to put. Silas then gave me a few tips on getting an email, like putting in your own name or nickname and throw in some digits into the address.

The first attempt was a flop, as someone had the email address "bernard84(at)*******.com". I choose the other choices they gave, which i totally forgot, as it somewhat incorporated my chinese name in it. Thus, i tried the second one.

I followed this formula:

Putting my name in it - bernard
Adding in digits - 84 (the year i was born)
And to make it a little special, i put it the term 'pika' behind it.

Hence, it became 'bernard84pika(at)*******.com'.

Why pika you asked? It was then i too darn engrossed with Pokemon (yes, the names of the 151 pokemons are still stuck somewhere in my head)!

Pikachu, the main character was one of the interesting pokemon, and decided to use 'pika' in my email address.


Pikachu from Pokemon.


And it stated like that for years, even after i applied for two other email addresses.

It wasn't until recently, when my colleague here pointed out about the abnormality in my email address, and asked why i put a 'rat' in my email address.

Puzzled about why she thought it was a (real) rodent, i told her how the email address came about. And to her surprise, she explained that pika is indeed a type of mouse.

After googling it up, i found it, and it was true. This is an extract from answers.com;

"A short-haired mammal related to rabbits and hares, also called mouse hare and rock rabbit. Pikas live above the timber line in the mountains of N Asia and W North America. The pika differs from the rabbit in that its body is smaller and the ears on its blunt head are shorter; also unlike the rabbit, the fore and hind limbs are about equal in length. The pika moves with a scampering gait. Its fur varies from red to gray and covers the soles of its feet. Pikas generally shelter in communities beneath rocks, although some Asian species burrow. Their diet consists primarily of green plants. Because food is difficult to obtain in winter in the harsh tundra environment, pikas cut, sun-dry, and store vegetation for winter use. Pikas are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Lagomorpha, family Ochotonidae."

Click HERE for more information.


A real McCoy


Then, it smacked me, it was some kind of 'fate', for the lack of better term, as i was born in the year of the mouse as well!

I just laughed finding out such revelation. What are the odds?

Everyday, you learn something new, yeah?

Love & Peace!~

BC?