The decline of civilization marches... onward?

I previously (Yes, I linked to my own blog. I'm such a self-important douche) mentioned my distaste for "text speak." Friday, I overheard parts of a conversation that made me snap.

I must pause here, first, to point out that I am a huge fan of the Oxhorn videos based on World of Warcraft. "ROFLMAO" is probably my favorite.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled bitching.

I was walking down the hall at SFCC, on the way to my English Comp class. About four doors from my destination, I walk past a group of students, and one says "ROFL is a real word." I stop dead. I am just stunned that a college student in the English wing of the Communication Studies building would say such a thing.

Travis and Sky will know that I wanted to tell her she hadn't thought things through. Before I can do that, though her friend comes to the defense of sanity and reason by saying "No, it's an acronym. All those video game words aren't words, just acronyms." He's on the right track, so I decide not to explain the different types of initialism to him. Besides, right now we seem to be on the same side of this argument.

Unfortunately, he caves in when she gives some half-assed explanation that language is defined by those who use it. I am quite confused. She just reasoned that her argument was correct, simply because she said so. I feel I must call her out on this insane twist of logic. I tell her that wishing really hard for something does not make it true. When she gives me the evil eye, I know that it is time to argue with her on her own level. Therefore, I say the following:

"OMG Noob, STFU. L2P. RTFM. ROFLMAO, PWN'D!"

At that point, having made a complete ass of myself, I continued down the hall, singing about how I was "UBER UBER L33T, So UBER UBER L33T." Looking back, I should have dropped a "Dairy Queen, BBQ" into the conversation.

I'm such a dork.

The Lady or the Tiger, but as Football

Oh, the torment of the NFC playoffs.

I am a huge fan of the New York Giants. I have been since the days of Lawrence Taylor, Mark Bavaro, and Phil Simms. Good times, those.

We-Evil is a Cheesehead, through and through. So is my mom. My brother claims to be, but that's mostly because his Lions haven't been any good since the time of Caesar, and he gave up on them.

This weekend, the Packers play the Seahawks. I've never been able to root for the Seahawks, so it's an easy choice. Go Pack! Also, my Giants play the Cowboys. I found out this week that this is the first post-season meeting between the two teams. More than 90 regular season games, and this is their first playoff match up. Given my attachment to the G-men, and a solid contempt for Dallas, this is another easy choice. Go Big Blue!

Now, if both of these games finish the way I want, I'm faced with a dilemma. My Giants will go to Lambeau Field and face off with Methuselah, himself. Brett Favre. I will admit that Favre is about as good as it gets. He's a great player, fun to watch, and seems to have the enthusiasm of a little kid when he's on the field. The problem is, he might be standing in the way of the Giants.

I know, I'm getting ahead of myself. Our teams have to win in order to make this an issue. Still, I worry about these things. How will We-Evil react to my exuberance over another sack of Favre by Strahan. One thing I don't think We-Evil has to worry about is Favre throwing picks to the Giants secondary. Those guys are... not too good.

Auld Lang Syne

Alas, the new year.

I'm not sure if it's been good or bad, overall, for me. There has been a number of things on both sides of the board.

For the good, I've gotten closer with Trevor. We'd grown apart the last several years, and it is great to be back as close as we used to be. Now if only I can get Jay to move back out here, we'll have the old band back together.

I quit my job at GameStop. I think that qualifies as a good thing. I've gotten back in school, and am actually enjoying it, and continuing. I'm sure there are more, but events aren't springing to mind right away.

The bad are a bit more prominent in my mind, at the moment. My hospital stay stands out as one of the larger personal negative events for me.

I've seen some of my friends' relationships disintegrate. It's tough seeing that happen, and not being able to do anything of consequence to lessen the impact. On the surface, though, they appear to be happier in the aftermath.

My grandfather passed away right before Christmas. That was rougher than I thought it would be. Understanding the inevitability of death doesn't make it much easier to deal with the passing of someone close to you.

I would suppose this year ended up more or less neutral when taken as a whole. Most years seem to be like that. Here's to hoping the upcoming year holds more absolute positives, and fewer absolute negatives. Here's to hoping.