Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Cutting Short the English Languagec(FUSS)

How many times have u been in a situation when,during a conversation,the person u r speaking to,suddenly unleashes his vocab skills on u,words that u have never even heard before ,coming into the conversation?.I have been "there" quite a few times.So what do u do?.Nod Along,Try not to betray your ignorance,Smile (do this if u r quite sure that something funny is being told),and try to steer the conversation away from the topic as fast as possible.Steer to a topic that u r comfortable with,and in my case,that would mean football.Trying to steer the conversation,ensure that u don't fall into a deeper puddle of ignorance(For eg,i never steer into a topic remotely related to world war,geography,tamil or telugu movie industry,current affairs,art,psychology,pottery..basically anything that does not involve points,goals, or runs).But in the virtual world,i am this complete encyclopedia (more accurately,en.wikipedia.org).I never shy away from any conversation,be it arts,the korean conflict,or the latest work of salman rushdie.That is the power of the internet
For eg:
A chat session
Mr X: Did u see the latest allu arjun flick
(Me frantically opening the wiki page,typing in "allu arjun".... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allu_Arjun.. Success)
Me: u mean Desamuduru
Mr X: yeah ...grody
(Me cursing myself for not opening the thesaurus tab..long delay)
Me:Sorry man,slow net connection. Yeah,truly abominable.

All is well...

Until FUSS (Frequent usage of shortform syndrome) strikes the session."for" becomes 4,ok becomes 'k'.All this is well and good,since the shortcuts have some kind of resemblance with the original word.I use them too.But things get ugly when shortcuts with no resemblence to any
word come up.This is a situation when i get truly stumped.I become in control no longer.Even wiki cannot help me.

I still remember the first FUSS attack i encountered.I was in the middle of a comfortable conversation when the syndrome hit me."Oh,"BTW",i am still in cochin".The only single word close to the shortform was 'between'.Between in cochin.I laughed out loud(a phrase that would trouble me in the days to come).I blamed it on his keyboard,and let it go.The next time,i blamed it on his very poor knowledge of basic english grammar.The third time,i felt i ought to correct it.
Being a friend,and obviously being "superior" to him in regards to english grammar,like a true ambassador of the language,i said.."Dude,ur grammar sucks,why do u use between in all the wrong places.?".....In reply i got a "LOL"

Only After the 'by the way' disaster did i come to realize that even long 3 line phrases can be converted to 3 letter shortforms.The 'LOL' attack became more and more frequent.I escaped with the help of inumerable smileys in offer.That was my escape route.
Finally after 3-4 sessions i came to the conclusion that it had something to do with jokes,and after a lot of permutation and brain racking,i found success.Little did i realize that this was just the tip of the iceberg.I was to be harassed and embarassed by more FUSS attacks.

I Scaled the LMAO peak ,and is now staring at the big blank wall named ROFL.Since I get this response after a particularly bad joke,i am guessing this to be some extreme form of laughing.Like the guy is trying desperately to be polite.
Some of my guesses include
Running Out For Laughing
Rubbing Ointment for laughing
Rambo of fullscale laughter
Really old fashioned laughter
I am only sure that it ends with laughter or laughing.ROFTL is the truly extreme form,i am guessing.The guy desperately wants to kick my ass for inflicting such a cruel joke on him.But he can't.So he grinds his teeth,and types this.The word does remind me of a sound made by a barking dog which is forced to do so.

Running out for the laughter
Right on for the laughter
Ring on for terrific laughter
Or is it ROTFL?

It is not like,i don't use them at all.But i use them only when i am forced to use them.From this post u may have guessed how jobless i am,so u will definitely not wonder a lot about the battered keyboard.My laptop relatively new is not prone to this kind of battering,but is still holding up.But the keyboard in my pc gave up after a 2 year long memorable stint.And it is not unusual that during that stint,some of the keys just don't listen.I have had to endure chat sessions without using certain alphabets like 'D'(Owe it to FIFA '09 ),'B',etc.Certainly fun.
In fact i sometimes pose challenges to friends to find the letter that is not working.
The problem is not limited to pc keyboards.After my phone fell down for the 398th time,i have started noticing some unusual behavior.For eg ,in its early stages,some keys worked too well.
Once 2 was pressed,i got 20-30 '2's in a stretch.The phone switches off when i press 5.And When i switch off ,the contacts folder is opened.But in the late stages,i have 'a','b','c' and '2' completely off.So i have had to replace 'da' with dudes and dudettes.The phone is still suffering,so don't expect any sms from me with the letters 'a','b' or 'c'.And those people who has a '2' in their mobile number,i wont be contacting u anytime soon.


PS:Long post...refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jobless
I did get 'OMG',"WTF',in the first glance though..:)

27 comments:

Gokul Jawahar said...

daaa......a small suggestion.....try changing the template...white text on black background also the text size......so much strain while reading...

Rahul said...

LMAOed. Nice work.
No, Seriously. Great article. Try typing in full sentences in chat Windows. You will get questionable replies.
I do :)

ullas said...

@ Gokul
Done..
@ Rahul
Thanx mate.:)

Varun said...

Really good one.. Had a nice laugh with the "between" in place of btw and LOL.. ( It has happened to me too.. :) And about your phone.. hehe.. remember.. at Nishad's house.. press key 8 and the phone status appears and press key 9 and *9* appeared!! All credit to ur art of keeping things 'safe'.

Maheswaran Moothiringode said...

U've been AFK for some time.

Well, dont sit idling there. TANSTAAFL.

Great post buddy. Couldn't miss my chance to show off.

And should i be saying UTFSE. But YAGNI.

L8r..

ullas said...

@ varun
the phone eppol normal aayeda..the number 2 key is no longer working..thats all...:)

@ mahesh
thanx buddy...btw i dint understand a thing

Hrishi Varma said...

perhaps a few words on the 7th Panzer Division would suffice :D

Maheswaran Moothiringode said...

HTH http://tr.im/tsBg

ullas said...

@ Hrishi
How did u get there this time?.

@ Mahesh
u r a lifesaver..:)

Hrishi Varma said...

long story mate, you dont want to know

Unknown said...

its hilarious....d btw thin especially....

ullas said...

@ anita

Thanks ..:)

San said...

Small incident... While newbies to chat my friends signed into yahoo chatroom.. Clicked on a lady name and started chatting... She typed ASL.. My genius best friend told me she just called us 'a**hole'.. Very humiliated we put in a flurry of all the english foul words we could think of... Some of them were even our-own creations.. Anyway she suddenly went offline.. Joyous at our victory we selected another lady name.. The same incident happened.. Now seriously confused and running out of foul words I finally asked, "what is ASL?"... After a brief pause, the reply came "it stands for Age Sex Location"!!!

chembz said...

dude... been followin u for sometym but seriously never thought somethin lyk dis'd come up... :D wunnerful man..

@ mahesh

don miss a chance to show off ur craziness eh?? :P

Maheswaran Moothiringode said...

SCNR

:-) :-P

Sorry Ullas, I had to make this comment list my playground..

ullas said...

@ chembz

thanks a lot da

@ mahesh

SCNR?..

Maheswaran Moothiringode said...

hahaha....


'S'orry 'C'ould 'N'ot 'R'esist

Consultant said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Consultant said...

good post da..me too have been in similar situations before..i still dunno what LMAO.. can anyone help me out ?

chembz said...

:D LMAO.....

@ mahesh,

YSD...

Durga Nandan said...

Great post "Dude!" :P
The situation where people baffle you with vocab, you can always pay them the same dollars. Just use far 'worse' words and stump them. :)
It works when I do use it.. :)
Cheerz!
DN

ullas said...

@ Durga..
haha..Will try that the next time..:)

Dreamer said...

I know, when i first started seeing all these LOLs and ROTFL's they made me really scratch my head, but luckily google came riding in to the rescue :)

Varun said...

@Sabith

"some" google searches?? haha..

Anonymous said...

True man :) Still remember googlin ROTF and LMAO...:)

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Varun said...

Talking about FUSS, I know one guy who, instead of greeting as 'Hi' or 'Hello' while starting a chat, used to say 'LOL'..
Say, "LOL, How are you" or "LOL, Long time"..!!
I asked him what he meant by LOL and he said its the way you "greet" people.. He thought 'LOL' was almost equal to "Hello"... :D

Now you know who's the 'friend' I was talking about.. :-)