mousewords

 

 

My Dad and I were discussing the latest drama in the “Luann” comic strip. Two characters are trying to figure out how a third character–who has no obvious means of employment–makes his money. They guessed that he engaged in illegal activities to support himself.

My Dad and I, as we are wont to do with the comics, began discussing the subject with a measure of seriousness.

“I bet he is Mafia,” my Dad postulated. “What do you think he does?”

I pondered the character for a moment, then said, “I think he monetizes his blog with affiliate content.”

[Raised eyebrows from Dad.]

“Ooookaaayy….”

Welcome to a new world, with a new vocabulary.

I don’t usually realize how unusual today’s online vernacular sounds until I speak it out loud to others.

Tweet.

Failwhaling.

I can haz.

Microblogging.

For that matter, blogging.

And a new kid on the grammatical block–plurk.

Each word, however strange and odd, seems to make perfect sense when used in context.

Tweet: Noun or verb. Referencing a status message on the site Twitter.com. As a verb, the act of posting such a message.

Failwhaling : Verb. To break down or fail, especially in reference to a failure to meet expectations. From the whale illustration on the error message that appears when the site Twitter.com temporarily breaks down.

I can haz : I am allowed to possess; or, when used as a question, “May I please have…” From “lolspeak,” originated on Icanhascheezburger.com.

Microblogging : Posting a running stream of thoughts in messages of 140 characters or less on a site such as Twitter.

Blogging : Writing a journal or series of articles on an internet web log site.

Plurk : Noun or verb. The name of a microblogging site, Plurk.com, and also the messages posted. As a verb, the act of posting messages on the site.

So in other words, I can tweet about my wi-fi failwhaling, and plead, “I can haz new router?” then plurk a link to my latest blog post about modern society’s dependence on technology.

Make sense? Kthanksbai.

 

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© 2008 Christine Taylor

Tags: Family, Humor, Internet, Social Media //