I feel old.

[slemslempike]

My feelings about Wordscraper depend entirely on whether it is me or my opponent who scores 500+ points on the first go.


I really like buying a new diary for the academic year. Partly I like transferring all the scrappy notes from the end of the previous diary into their rightful dates, but also I like seeing what useful numbers and data they've provided for me at the front. This diary has made me slightly cross because I didn't realise until afterwards that it doesn't have a tube map, which is one of the few things I actually use.

I do have:

• Religious festivals.


• Notable dates.


• Numbers for LEAs etc.


• Travel information (including HOVERCRAFT, which still sound brilliantly exciting no matter how mundane the actualiy).


• National information, which has not only the public holidays and time difference for countries, but population and air miles from London. Yet not telephone prefix, which might be more useful.


• Conversion tables, which always seem a good inclusion, but I have never ever used.


• Sunrise and sunset times for London. I don't live in London, and I can't remember the last time I saw sunrise from either direction.

But the best thing of all is the list of Text Abbreviations. This is obviously an indispensable resource for the educators of our nation's youth trying desperately to get down wit da kidz.

It starts with the information that "1" is used in place of "One", and continues with things that aren't really specifically text abbreviations such as FAQ, AKA, ASAP, and one which I think is annoyin - WUCIWUG for WYSIWYG. And anyone who hasn't cottoned on that "x" is a kiss has probably got intimacy issues.

Then it has abbreviations that I have never seen used and frankly suspect them of having made up. Are these instantly understandable to you? Sorry, I mean RDSIU2U?

AAM
BYKT
CID
CMI
F2T
HAND
IAE
IYSS
NRN
PUKS

Comments

[serriadh.livejournal.com]

CID is what Morse and Lewis and all sorts of other detectives are in, but I suspect that's not what they mean by it...

The rest are complete gibberish to me. (GBRISH2M3?)

I must buy a new academic diary, even though I'm not an academic. I have stuff to put in for new year and january and stuff. (I usually fork out for those lovely moleskine ones, which have useful info and a week down one page and notepaper down the facing page)

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

That's what I thought - but it's not what the diary says it is.

I have been thinking that I might transition to a calendar year diary, as there are much prettier options to be had there. I don't like the moleskine ones because I find non-spiral bound diaries and notebooks highly irritating to use.

[serriadh.livejournal.com]

Ah, I don't like spiral-bound diaries, though I use spiral-bound notebooks for writing quite a bit. I find that if I keep the diary in my bag all sorts of crap accumulates in the spiral bit, but I can see why people find ones that won't lay flat particularly annoying.

[felinitykat]

HAND is have a nice day, and possibly NRN is 'no reply necessary'? That's the limit of my txt spk, though.

(Our MD nearly always signs off instant messages with 'NNTR' -- no need to reply -- which is infuriating because it is nearly always after a message I DO want to respond to.)

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Yep! I've never come across either. With NRN I couldn't get past "registered nurse" to work it out at first. HAND is one of the ones I think lessen the thing you're saying. I know that "have a nice day" is pretty insincere anyway most of the time, but I don't think that someone saying HAND could possibly mean it.

[(Anonymous)]

Um. *Boggle*. No, I have no idea what those mean. I don't understand the point of text abbreviations.

As an aside observation that may be of no interest whatsoever, I know very few teenagers, and those I do know, I never text. However, bad of me as it may be, I'm still surprised by the fact that of the many friends I text who are in their forties almost all of them use Text Abbreviation. All of the twenty-something's I know, on the otherhand, write in Real English. The only explanation I have for this is that forty-something year old parents are learning bad habits from their teenage children rather than correcting them, which sums up the ways of the world, really. And no, the forty-somethings I know who text properly, don't have children.

Sorry!

[metamorphosa.livejournal.com]

That was me. And I have no idea why LJ logged me out!

Re: Sorry!

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Ah, I wondered who I was talking to!

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Text abbreviations are good for saving space, which is important when you pay per text message (I don't, luckily). I have absolutely no objections to textspeak whatsoever, I think it's an interesting use of language, and use it myself from time to time. One of my supervisors and some of my students email me with textspeak, and as long as it's reasonably clear (and it's generally clearer than the long-winded Real English emails I get from certain other sources!) I don't mind in the slightest.

[serriadh.livejournal.com]

My mum uses 'textspeak' or some version thereof, because she's on an "old-fashioned" pay as you go tariff, rather than some sort of price plan with enormous amounts of free texts, which I think most 'young people' tend to have?

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

IYSS - If you say so
NRN - Not right now
BYKT - But you knew that

[all guesses]

I think PUKS is something to do with mobile phone unlocking.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Yep
Nope
Yep

(According to Blackwell's Academic Diary 08/09, that is.)

It's not. It's something that I don't think is a good idea to rely on an acronym to get the message across, if that's any clue...

[ex-humanfema327.livejournal.com]

NRN, Not a Real Number

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

No Rightous Nazis.

[ex-humanfema327.livejournal.com]

Heh, for IYSS i could only imagine the argumentative 'If you're so sure ..'

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I really like that! We should start using it.

[iliketea.livejournal.com]

None of them makes any sense! *weeps with inadequacy*

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I know! I am worried that this is all cutting edge stuff and I will be shown up for an old fogey when term starts next month and all my new first years use these acronyms constantly, undermining my "oh, we're all young things together" patronising approach.

(I am looking forward to teaching again, not least because of the reduced amount of preparation it will entail, but worry that none of my new lot will match up to the brilliance of my first first years.)

[iliketea.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, see, give it a few years and you can be completely sick of the material but have to do zero preparation, and have no hopes whatsoever for students because they'll never live up to the first bunch. ;) Yay for the new year and new students, though, you shall be fabulous, even if they do speak in strange acronyms.

[hafren.livejournal.com]

Apparently it's possible to configure the wordscraper board how you like, which is just why I can't stand it. I'm playing email scrabulous now.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Oh, I hadn't twigged that - I thought it was random. I don't think scrabulous works on campus for me, though if I can get it up again email's going to be an ideal (if ill-advised, work-wise) option.

[jekesta]

Air to air missile! I love that they gave you text speak for air to air missiles.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

That would be A2AM.

[jekesta]

Anti-aircraft missiles then. Since you seem to think teenagers are better than the army at acronyming. Hmph.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

EKTRATAS!

[whatsagirlgotta.livejournal.com]

IAE - In an Emergency?
BYKT - Bring your Kids too?
F2T - Failure to Try?

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I keep having to look these up in my diary as I can't remember! But it turns out that all of those are wrong, but actually your answers seem more likely.

[whatsagirlgotta.livejournal.com]

Boo, still glad I've made sense of a kind!

[alltheleaves.livejournal.com]

Oh you could have fun with those:

AAM - At a Magician's
BYKT - Bring Your Known Toxin
CID - Come in drag
CMI - Catch My Incense (Call Me Immediately?)
F2T - Foot-to-Toe
HAND - Help a New Dog
IAE - I am everything
IYSS - I'm Yours So Solidly
NRN - Now Really Nude (Not right Number?
PUKS - pick up knitted socks

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Ha, yours are great! I like Come In Drag and I'm Yours So Solidly. That might need to be my new sign off.

YSS, ssp

[sabethea.livejournal.com]

As I use a mobile about twice a year... I have no idea abouty any of these but it seemed like a necessary thing to make random guesses for them all (some more random than others)

AAM - An Annoying Moment. (Or After a.m. - though I guess p.m. might be quicker!)
BYKT - Bring your Kids' Toys (or Buy Your Kitchen Table)
CID - See you Indoors (or See, I did!)
CMI - Call me Idiot (or See My Imagination!)
F2T - Friends To Tea
HAND - Have a Nice Day
IAE - I Am Evil (Am I the only person who feels it would be necessary to have an acronym for this to make it quicker to type?)
IYSS - If you Say So
NRN - No reply Necessary
PUKS - Please Your Kind Self (or Purse Under Kids' Sofa)

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Oh, Friends to Tea is lovely! It's the kind of acronym the Abbey Girls might use, along with TIP (Twins in Peril) and TMA (Titled Man Alert).

[sabethea.livejournal.com]

*gurgles*

I love your other options ;)

How about CDN (Country Dance Night)?

or NMQ (Next May Queen)?

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Oh, write a fic with them in it!

FASP - Found another secret passage

NDMAP - Not dancing much at present (can't remember the exact phrasing they use).

WWHNLTLAFBAAGN - Woman who has no life to lead apart from being an Abbey Girl's Nanny

[sabethea.livejournal.com]

JBJHJ - "Joy's been Joy - help, Jen!"

STL - "Saved Twin's Life" (in other words, practically every person in the books!)

MIT - "Maidlin in Temper"

MTA - "More To Abbey"

On further thoughts, there's something vaguely Enid Blytonish about Friends to Tea

[sabethea.livejournal.com]

As to the fic... I am so tempted to have modern Abbey girls with mobiles ;) It needs to be done. Consider your Xmas present decided...