WiTHDAoTFAMA?

Remember hooking up to the Internet on phone lines? The long wait, getting knocked offline in mid process, forgetting to turn off call waiting and getting knocked off again...yes, glory days. I had AOL. AOL had chat rooms! I LOOOOOVED chat rooms, especially the Book Shelf.

When I first started hopping into chat rooms, I was more of a silent watcher. I'd read the different conversations people were having, wonder why, if it were a book chat, weren't people chatting about books, and then eventually I began inserting my own bits of chatter. As I became a more involved chatter, I began noticing people typing LOL or BRB after certain things I would say. I wondered what was an Lohel? And why would people put BRB in response to what I was saying...are they burping? Is it a rude gesture? Was I sounding like an idiot in the chat room and no one liked me and no one wanted to be my friend and they were ALL OUT TO GET ME???

No...it was even worse. They were using acronyms. Yes, so here I was in the middle of the modern world trying to get computer savvy and being Internet cool while everyone else was using some secret code. They were LOL'ing and BRBing. Eventually I learned that it was ohkaaay when people LOL'd something you said because it meant that they thought you were quite clever. And BRB wasn't a burp or some secretly coded insult (good thing I caught on though because being the clueless chatter that I was I kept the conversation going without even knowing I was just talking to myself; Billy Idol had nothing on me). So here I was, keeping up with the best of the chatters, being cool, being modern. I was happening! Yeah, right.

Ever played an MMO? (I've been playing them for years and I still haven't a clue as to what that acronym stands for) Yes, I mean games like EQ, SWG, WoW. And I thought chat rooms were challenging. Enter a whole new world of acronyms. Yes, we have FTW, WTF, WTB, WTS, GTG, as well as the original LOL, BRB, and LMFAO. So, while trying your damnedest to defeat flesh eating zombies at Castle Mistmoore, healing the main tank, keeping the rest of your party members alive because you had to go ahead and make a healing class (boo on you), you also had to figure out what the clever using acronymist people in your group were tying to say. Can we say corpse run anyone?

Well, as the years passed, I became a fluent online gamespeaker. I am proud of my ability to understand auction chat, group chat, and general chat (I'm leaving lewt speak out of this...I won't even attempt that). However, as skilled as I have become in deciphering acronyms, I once again find myself entering into new acronym territory, blogspeak. And I thought the gaming world was rough. DH, FH, DW, SaHM, FIL, MIL, SMIL, SFIL, EW, and the list goes on and ON! I"m telling you. I was reading this one blog, and ran across the SaHM. I was killing myself trying to figure out what in the hell did SaHM mean??? By the time I decoded the meaning, I had to return to the top of the blog and start reading it over again. Wore me out!

I am getting better now though, I must admit. SaHM= Stay at home mom, although I'm sure you already knew this (I feel so ashamed). My skills at deciphering are being honed, although I'm sure that by the time I get to a professional level of blog acronyms, something new and trendy will rear it's ugly head...taunting and inviting me.

By the way, I don't text, so don't even go there.