My Jargon.

Everybody has their own jargon which is especially present while they're on the internet. So I figured I would highlight some of my own jargon that I use while I talk to people on the internet.

*nods* - I hate when people use "ic" and I hate having to use it. Something about it just irks me. The connotations of it come off a little bit negative to me and "whatever" is even worse. *nods* is a much more simple acknowledgment with no negative influence.

Of course there's "cool", "sweet", "I understand", and "I gotcha" also, but "cool" and "sweet" are reserved for things that you enjoy finding out about. "I understand" sounds too formal and "I gotcha"... well.. that one works pretty well, but I like *nods* best. To note, the double asterisks in google talk will make a word bold but I used it before google talk to indicate action. *Nods* is even more fun to say aloud when someone is talking to you in real time. Especially when there is No indication of a nod at all.

*shrugs* - "idk" is a more simple one to use, but there's no imagery involved and to me using it comes off as a sort of juvenile acronym tantamount to using "u" for "you", "4" for "for", and "2" for "too", "to" and "two". Wait... scratch "two".. I got carried away. *Shrugs* is another fun one to say aloud in the company of others with no indication of an actual shrug.

The next two terms are sort of how I have fun with language in public or with company. I enjoy trying to find shortcuts that when said don't register as shortcuts to others. I can't think of any other examples because I have to be in the moment but 'lo is a good example for now.

When you say "'lo" aloud to someone in passing, generally they just assume that they either didn't hear the "He" in "Hello" or don't even put any thought into it at all and just react as if there was nothing abnormal. I have even gone so far as omitting entire words from the beginning of a spoken sentence and getting away with it because they expected my answer. This principle is similar to that in which I used in "February 18th, 2008 REMIX", which was a "remix" of February 18th 2008 on Threadless. Seemingly a failure among my posts on Threadless.

hate - I try not to hate unforgivingly but some people really deserve it. I kid of course but mainly when I'm playing a game with other people online and they're better than me, I'll often spring "hate" on em. That's it, that's all I say "hate". It best describes my annoyance with their superior skills while minimizing the amount of whining I put on them. It's effective to use when you see something in public and you don't want everyone except the ones closest to you to know that you're not happy with something you've seen as well.

'lo - I don't know how other people are taking to this new term that I'm using. Generally when someone makes their presence known they say "Hi" of course. Well, I reply with "'lo" meaning "hello". I'm not trying to be a smartass by using it, but I do kind of enjoy the double entendre of it's usage. I thought about using " 'llo" as well, which could be pronounced "yo" if using the spanish principles of language i.e. "tortilla" but I think I'll stick with " 'lo".

'shop - The power of the apostrophe should be apparent by now. Sometimes I'll find myself using two in one word, such as "should'nt've". Well, in this case I use it to refer to photoshop without actually using the word photo, the apostrophe takes care of that. Usage: I just finished 'shopping our picture, wanna see?

b.r.b. - "BRB" is quite common meaning "be right back" but sometimes the person will catch you to say something else first before you leave when this is used. Sometimes a "brb" is much more urgent, like when you need to go to the bathroom. So I think the best way to really show that it's urgent is to use "b.r.b." which means "bathroom break". My friend started me saying "BURB" aloud when I have to go do something while in the company of others but I'm almost over that now.

:thumbsup: and (y) - This disappoints me regularly with chat programs. The only one with an actual emoticon is trillian, and I think it only works for ICQ. The text that you have to type for the thumbs up emoticon to show up is (y), but few people pickup on that in any other program unless they've used ICQ so I end up having to explain what it means. :thumbsup: is used in deviantart to call upon the emoticon equivalent, but I'm lazy and I don't want to have to type out :thumbsup: to convey a :thumbsup:. In fact I've done it too much already. If you type it out, you'll find your fingers jumping all over the place.

Blog - I try to keep this word out of my vocabulary. Blog is a horrid word. When I say "I have a new post on my blog," I immediately feel like a prude. I call it my "blarg" sometimes just to show my disdain for the word "blog" and I sometimes call a post a "blarticle" which is a portmanteau*3, but once I use it I feel like I've used a really offensive word. Probably because a "blart" is a blood fart and past this I never want to have to mention that again. So I guess ultimately saying "post" isn't so bad, and neither is "article".

Bye... - Sometimes goodbyes run a little long on chat programs. Some people combat this by simply closing the chat program immediately after saying bye. I use "Bye..." since I leave my chat programs on all the time. The "..." is supposed to hint to the other person that they should shut up in the nicest way possible.

I'd say by now, if you've made it this far, that you want to tell me "Bye..." so I guess I'll stop for now, this subject may require a revisit in the future when I feel I have enough information to further explain my quirkiness.

Taco Bell's Dog.

I am Taco Bell's Dog. The television was on in the other room, and aside from the fact that I could hear the somewhat recognizable voice and the saucy sounds of the wind instruments, at the very end of the commercial I heard the pæan of that bell and immediately thought, *Mmm I'd like some Taco Bell tomorrow.* Therefore, I am Taco Bell's dog.

New Sensations.

I recently took part in a flavor tripping party with some friends and it was very interesting. There's this fruit called the miracle fruit that a couple companies make into a concentrated tablet and sell on the internet. The point of this tablet is to change the way your tongue perceives tastes. It doesn't change the flavor of every palette, mainly sour flavors and some bitter flavors, but the affect on the bitter is slight from my experience. That may just be me as everyone has slightly different tastes.

I tried several different things during this experience: grape fruit, lemons, limes, vinegar, hot sauce, red bull, plain yogurt, Warhead Super Sour Spray, green olives, pickle juice, cream cheese, unsweetened tea, red and green tomatoes.

The first thing I grabbed was a slice of lemon, my eyes lit up! It tasted like candy, but at the end of the first nip I could feel a little bit of the acid sourness on the edges of my tongue. Red Bull was my favorite, generally Red Bull has quite the tang to it but with the miracle fruit it was almost as sweet as cream soda.

The dumbest thing I did during the party was to take a full tablespoon of vinegar. It did taste pretty good, but it kind of choked me up. Even though miracle fruit will change the flavor it doesn't change the harshness of any of the food. Because of that there is the danger that you could damage your tongue from having so many acidic foods, nothing that won't heal though.

Cream cheese, plain yogurt, hot sauce and green olives weren't the most pleasant however. Cream cheese mainly tasted bland, plain yogurt did get a little sweeter, but still just didn't taste too good. I like my yogurt with fruit. The miracle fruit just takes some of the edge off of the green olive, same goes for the hot sauce which also sort of choked me up.

If anyone has eaten macaroni and tomatoes with sugar that's essentially what I got from eating a tomato while tripping, the green tomato didn't taste as good as the red one but it still tasted pretty good as far as I was concerned.

A couple things I missed out on trying were cough syrup and sharp cheddar. Perhaps there will be a next time though.

The NY Times Article
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I know the question that is on everybody's mind is what would it be like to drink cold water while taking a warm shower?

I tried it recently. Although the results weren't as interesting as I expected it was still something new. Invigorating is not quite the word for drinking cold water while in the shower, but it is the word for letting the same cold water dribble down the chest while taking a shower. *shivers*

Of course if you decide you want to try to do the same, I would recommend a bottle. A glass of water would be hard to keep cold, especially if you let the shower water get in the drinking water. That scenario brings me to think of some pretty funny imagery though.

Inattention Theatre: Moon Landing

This is the beginning of an ongoing series of videos that we're planning to do. I hope you enjoy it.



Here's the website for the company I work for: Play Attention