Monday, October 24, 2005

BTW, IMHO, Chat-speak is OTT

Sup, faithful readers?

My name is Megan, and I am an Internet Addict. I cruise several message boards, I have a blog, I email, I have my own space at myspace.com.

I understand that in our email- and text-obsessed culture, that cutting corners is sometimes necessary. I use LOL (laughing out loud) often enough in emails and on message boards to let the reader know I am being silly, funny, sarcastic, etc. You might also see me use BTW (by the way), OTT (over the top), TMI (too much information), OMG (Oh, my God) and a couple of others...like LMAO (laughing my ass off) if something is really funny. But it has to be really funny for me to use LMAO. And who doesn't use ASAP, FAQ, and FYI? Those were around before chat and texting became all the rage.

In my forays into message boards (2 for Dale Earnhardt Jr., one for Kevin Spacey, a yahoo group for Viggo Mortensen), I see a lot of this chat-speak. It often boggles and occasionally annoys me. I can't stand people using "ne1" (anyone) and "prolly." It strikes me as pure laziness, rather than a whole movement in language. Maybe I'm just being too hard-nosed. Not everyone took typing in Summer School like I did, so they don't type as quickly as I have learned to, and without looking at their fingers (much). And, thanks to teaching middle school-aged children for four years running, I'm really not a fan of 4-eva.

On a little tangent--IMO (in my opinion) and IMHO (in my humble opinion) in a post almost always mean I'm going to disagree with that person, therefore, they annoy me, too. LOL

Now, SED. Don't know what that stands for? Wonder no more.

In other news...

Retail.

I had a five-hour shift yesterday. Not too long in reality but in my poor mind it was a life-sentence. After 1 hour, I nearly cried when I realized I still had four hours to go.

After 2 hours, my left foot was sore. My right foot was fine.

After 3 hours, I had pain going up my left leg and my back was twinging (heaviest thing I lifted all day was towels so who knows what was going on there).

After 4 hours, my brain was fried. I could not speak coherently. I was telling people about the online survey in the following manner (I'm not kidding, this really happened):

"At the bottom there's a web site. On your receipt, that is." Pause. "Go there, do the survey and you'll be put in for...that is, put in a drawing we have for a $1000 gift card. For Mervyn's. Once a month." Receive confused look. Deep breath. "Right. Take the survey and it automatically enters you into a monthly drawing for a $1000 gift card for our store." Comprehension dawns.

I was giving people the wrong receipts and forgetting to bag things.

After 5 hours, I was so ready to go home. And I had to stay an extra 20 minutes because the gal who was supposed to relieve me at 5:30 didn't show up...the store knew hours earlier that she wouldn't be there but decided not to fix the situation (even after I told them, "No, I can't stay 'till 9:30") until it was actually time for me to leave. Of course, I can't leave Home Fashions unmanned.

By the time I clocked out at 5:50 I was almost speaking gibberish.

I have a blessed reprieve until Thursday evening.

You know, it's not the customers so much. It's the pure tedium of rearranging the same bunch of towels or bed linens over and over again that makes my head implode. People think I have masochistic tendencies because I enjoy teaching pubescent 'tweens. But let me tell ya...that job is never boring.

Moving on...

I have to shout out a big, huge congratulations to my friend Teresa (also known as T-Bird Soprano) in Sacramento. Last Tuesday she gave birth to a healthy, beautiful baby boy, Ian Michael. I haven't seen pictures, but I know he must be beautiful. And I am happy for Teresa and her husband...she sounded ecstatic.

That's all for today. : )

Cheers,

Meg

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