Blog: Claudia Imhoff

« A Little BI For the Felonious Crowd, Please | Main | Get Your BI Expert Right Here -- in This Box »

Western Union Ain't Dead -- It Lives in Teenage Girls

I wrote a blog on the demise of Western Union recently. If you remember, they charged by the letter for their telegrams. This lead to some interesting if not cryptic forms of communication. The best example I can think of was a farmer who sent a telegram to a fellow farmer that the bull he purchased was ready to be picked up. To save money, he sent the purchaser a telegram with a single word on it -- "Comfortable"... Think about, it will come to you.

Little did I know that this form of cryptic messaging would be rebirthed in an unusual and unpredictable fashion...

I just got back from Spring Break vacation with my family. I was amused that my daughter could not wait to get back in the US after a week out of the country. Why, I asked? "Because I need to talk to my friends", she responded. Huh?

OK -- I know instant messaging is popular. I use it all the time but I use my computer not my cell phone. Therefore I have access to a full keyboard and use English to communicate -- how outdated. Turns out that teenage girls in particular love using their cell phones to "chat". They have a language all to themselves due to the limited keypad. It mostly consists of consonants, abbreviations, shortened slang, etc. I peeked over my daughter's shoulder at her (now flattened) thumbs rapidly moving over her phone's keyboard as she communicated with her best buddy. The "conversation" went something like this:

My daughter: RU home?
Response: No - CJs
Daughter: LOL UR 2 good
Response: U talk

And on it went until the end:

Daughter: CU LTR
Response: TTFN

So -- how good is your IM talk? Here are the translations plus some of the more interesting abbreviations:

U -- You
R -- are
UR -- Your or You're depending on context
2 - too, two or too depending...
TTFN -- Ta ta for now
LTR -- Later

Less obvious ones:

ROFL -- rolling on the floor laughing
JK -- just kidding
GAG -- get a grip
ER -- eye roll

You get the idea...

So, I propose that we come up with a set of BI-related IM messages. I welcome your input on these. Come up with your own and post them... The funnier -- the better! As an incentive, I will send the person who comes up with the funniest or most unusual IM message one of our books for free. I, of course, will decide who the winner is -- blog prerogative. Here are a few of my own to get you started:

AH -- Analytics hack
DD -- DBA demigod
PH -- Performance hog
CQ -- Clueless query

I await your responses with great expectations.

TTYL and YIBIS.

Claudia

Share: