Obnoxious But Telling

Crispus Attucks Day
Learn What Your Name Means Day
St. Piran's Day

 

You know those highly irritating AT&T ads about the texting girl who talks in abbreviations and her exasperated mother?  I just found something actually interesting in the latest one.

 

Text Girl and her Hilariously Hip texting grandmother are playing Scrabble with the exasperated Mom, and Text Girl writes in “ROTFL.” Her mother starts to read the letters aloud, then explodes*: “R-O-T-F-L—‘roffle’ isn’t English!”

 

Okay, maybe not, but I thought it was interesting that she pronounced it “roffle,” even with the “T” in there. (And of course the kid would probably have gone with “ROFL.” The “T” is Old School.)  She said it very naturally, too, once she realized what the not-word was.

 

Yes, I know it’s a commercial, but it still says something about how Netspeak is sneaking into our conversations.

 

 

*She doesn’t actually explode. That would have been cooler.

His Last Words Were "HUZZAH!"

Okay, I never actually have roleplayed, and don’t consider myself much of a gamer.* I have too much control freak in me for that—and anyway, I wrestle enough with my NPCs characters without having other people complicate it.

But I am a geek.

And as a proud geek, identifying with all the assorted geeks, gamers, nerds, comic book guys, and dorks out there in our little world, I must salute Gary Gygax. My only actual impression may have come from his guest star role on Futurama (“Either put the dice away, or I take them away!”), but by god the man influenced the hell out of me through so many indirect sources it’s rather alarming.

Thanks, Gary. You have aided geeks everywhere in embracing their geekdom. Well done.


*What with the peril to my immortal soul and all, you know.**

**Sorry. I can never resist that one, even in a eulogy. It's just so weird.

Call Me Observer

Observation #1

 

When I walked by the collection people’s trailer that’s making the campus rounds again today, it occurred to me that several of my college experiences can be summed up under the category of “finding new and inventive excuses to avoid giving blood.”

 

Observation #2

 

There’s an ad that someone’s been floating in our campus paper for egg donors.  They are seeking eggs from women who are “attractive, under the age of 29, high SAT, physically fit and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.” (sic on that missing Oxford comma)

 

Coincidentally, my scientific racism class* has been studying eugenics—and we found a couple of these criteria highly interesting.

 

*More on this fascinating and highly depressing class some other time.