Current location:	Bedroom
Current mood:	happy
Current music:	Gavin Castleton - Bugguts
Entry tags:	language, music and movies, neither here nor there

h r u
Call me old fashioned. My English teacher would kill me if I used an "&" for and. And to this day, even when I am taking notes and going berserk shorthand, and remains and. So when I see short forms, it bothers me. Yes, yes I use them too. But I do not go nuts. Like c u? How hard is it to say see you? It is so much more personal.

I am one of those who love the smell of books. Ah! They smell heavenly. The more they have been used, the more inviting they smell. The history of the book is as much in the physical book as in the words printed on the papers of that book. And while I know that languages are living beings that change with use, there is a major difference between evolution and degradation. And I think one reason I love reading so much is because they still use English the way I am used to. You know, the punctuation marks and all. And if y'all is used, it is not abbreviated further to yawl or something that I have to read twice, then the sentence and maybe the conversation to get the context of.

I am online most of the time. I like to chat. So yes, I will use some abbreviations. But kids these days - I have a hard time understanding what my little baby cousins are trying to tell me. Sigh, another sign I am growing old. Stop sniggering, it is not polite. The text messages are as good as encrypted. I mean you would need an Enigma to decipher half the things they type into human understandable language.

So tell me wise ether, when did f9 start meaning fine? When did it become ok to add multiple i after hi and eat vowels from other words? And while I also like leet, using it everywhere kinda makes me want to wrap my arm around my neck and strangle myself. I am one of the weirdos who sometimes cringe at wassup. Uh, yeah even Firefox accepts it and puts no red squiggly under it. But me seems to have frozen in some unknown time maybe five years ago. Sigh. My cousins do not go by their English names now, they go with Leet names. Me, I can't imagine ever not using good ole Queen's English for my name.  And saying LOL rather than actually laughing? Zombie dominion is close. I can read and hear it. Barf!

The world as I know is over. And even though I was part of it, I somehow missed the revolution. Time to play catchup. Maybe I will have to scrounge urban dictionary or pore over Google. But given the penchant of my baby brothers and sisters to talk shorthand, I don't think I will ever be on the same level as them. Time for me to go back and read me some Tom Perrota. English anyone?

Oh and on a totally unrelated note, if you haven't heard the SXSW artists, I suggest you go do so right now. Good music. Really good music. Go listen, come back and thank me. Thank you very much.