We all went online. Sure our baud rate was 9600 at first and later we were speeding along with 14.4s and 28.8 but the internet was simple then. It met our needs.

Our primary need was to play Diablo, cards, backgammon etc. During my evening and the family's morning in the US we met online for several hours every day. [My old ICQ number was only 4 digits long, before it died around 02 numbers were 7-9 digits long]

Well, I needed a name, one that wouldn't require a multitude of numbers after it and one that would be fairly unique. In a tank next to my computer swam my axolotl. Hmm...switch the letters around = axollot. Used that name still to this day. FB, Twitter etc are all .com/axollot [I did want to be found] and because I'm a geek my mIRC channels guys [I was an OP aka operator or what would be called moderator now] would call me "Axie"

So, I joined WINM with the nickname of my nickname. The avatar I use is a picture of an axolotl. Exactly like the one that inspired the name in the first place.