I was discussing the pros and cons of circumcision with some women and the cost of hiring a moehl (sp?) was raised, to which I paranthetically responded-out loud-“insert obligatory tip joke here.” I got some blank looks.
I don’t post often enough [sub]right now[/sub]to be real regular or anything, but yep.
I have been known to corral wandering conversations with “Now back to the OP…what? Oh. Original Post…original topic. Yeh, message boards. The Straight Dope. No, not that kind. Back to the OP…”
And that username dropping thing. “Well, Scylla said…and then Odieman said…nevermind. You hadda be there.”
Let’s see here…
-I’ve dropped names of people here, and get the weirdest looks.
-I try to put smilies into my emails. Also, when I write little post-it notes at work, I’ll usually include smilies that are turned sideways, as if I’ve typed them.
-Just the other day, I typed up a Service Plan (a 14 page document outlining the services that one of our clients are receiving). After printing this thing, I noticed that in several sections, I had used vB code to try to make italics or to bold words. Also, I had tried to bold the client’s name every time I used it. Thank goodness I proofread it before sending it out.
-Sometimes, I’ll be in a discussion and I’ll think of a good topic, and blurt out, “Ooh, I should post that!” Again, I get weird looks.
It’s a good symbol… but I lke this one better
( o Y o )
or if you went to a cheap surgeon,
( [sub]o[/sub] Y [sup]o[sup] )
I think it’s hilarious those of you who invoke my name in your random emails… I think I’m gonna change my sig.
I’ve blurted out “LOL” and “ROFL” rather than laughing before… man talk about feeling like a dork… sigh sadly, the shoe fits just sooo well. It’s all soft and broken in and cozy… nonskid tread and everything.
- Who started that “Hi Opal” Thing anyway?
- Does Opal mind
- Hi Opal
I don’t mind. It started back on the AOL board because I’d start a list sometimes and then realize that I really only had two things to put on it… and technically if you only have two things, you use “and” rather than make a list. So I’d put in something like
- real item
- second real item
- I don’t like lists with only two items on them
or something similar. I guess I did this often enough that I got a sort of reputation, and eventually people caught on, except instead of putting in a “real” fake 3rd entry, they’d just give me the nod. Then it sort of got a life of its own.
A woman at the checkout counter and I were discussing the Largo RenFaire, and I casually mentioned I was going there for a “mini-Dopefest”.
Half a second later, I realized what I said sounded really damning out of context.
It took me a few moments to explain my way out of that one.
OpalCat, dear god that ‘cheap surgeon’ is too funny. I was laughing so hard I scared the cat.
God, this is embarassing as hell, but I work as a web designer. And now, thanks to the board, I occasionally use [ b ] [ /b ] instead of the good ol’ <b> </b>, and just kind of look at the screen wondering where my bold text is.
…and nobody understands! They think I’m weird when I say “there’s this guy I know that might know something about that. His name is Polycarp. Um, no, that’s not his real name. No, I don’t know what his real name is. Yes, he’s a real guy. He’s a real genius, in fact. What do you mean you won’t take an answer from somebody named after a fish? He’s not named after a fish! Oh, never mind! Go look it up yourself!”
And like screech-owl said, people do look at one a little oddly when one says “I’m going to a Dopefest.”
I work (in the IT Department, don’t blame ME for the Pepsi girl!) in a major ad company that pays huge forkfuls of bucks to have access to major online research resources when the ad-designers (or other folks, for that matter) need citable and accurate information fast. So I’m designing a database that tracks the billable deployments of these services, and among other things they want a button that launches the designated online research resource and tracks how many minutes they are tallying up doing the search.
During the early design stage I didn’t have the actual URLs and passwords and account names to play with, so I created a demo script that would call an URL and start counting seconds and generate a record. What URL, do you suppose? 
So the person who requested the database has given the beta a test drive and calls me up to ask “What IS this ‘Straight Dope Message Board’ anyway? Do we have a subscription to this service?”
“Um…it is a free service. It’s an initiative of the Chicago Reader and I think are trying to break in on the territory occupied by Lesix-Nexis and the others by offering free access.”
First of all, what the hell does YMMV mean? I’ve been trying to figure it out for ages now.
Anyway, I do the following:
[ul]
[li]Say IMHO, FWIW, and AFAICS regularly (the words, not the initials, but I never said them before I posted here).[/li][li]Mention that I’m going to a Dopefest. My friends compares me to the psycho character on MAD TV that meets women on the Internet all the time.[/li][li]Mention posters - “Well, Iampunha said…” and then I have to explain the whole deal. “No, it’s not that kind of message board!”[/li][li]Ask for cites. “Can you cite that please?”[/li][li]Say, “Thanks for the MPSIMS.” Although I found out at the last Dopefest that I pronounce it wrong: I say MIP-SISMS insteads of MIP-SIMS.[/li][li]Try to use smilies and code in e-mails.[/li][li]Say “Wrong forum” and “old thread” in conversation. “Wrong forum” if they change topic too quickly, and “old thread” when we’ve discussed it before.[/li][li]Call new people at work “newbies.” I even told my professor that I’m a “newbie” because I just transferred to UMBC.[/li][li]Spell check and double/triple check my spellings in e-mails.[/li][/ul]
It gets pretty weird when I have to go into the, “Um, it’s this message board I post to, it’s really great…Well, if you do register, just make sure you cite in GD. In fact, don’t even go into GD or the Pit for the first few weeks…Well, no, but they can be grumpy to newbies…Newbies? People that just registered…” yada yada yada.
Yep. This one caused a few problems for me at work. I’ve been talking about my upcoming vacation, and happened to mention that I was going to the DopeFest at RenFest and was going to finally get a chance to meet a bunch of the Dopers. I could see my supervisor thinking “How quickly can we get this girl in for a drug test???” So I had to calmly, and patiently, try to explain EXACTLY what I was talking about here… what the board was, why it’s called the Straight Dope… and I STILL think they’re confused on the whole scenario!
Your Mileage May Vary
1/Do you find your self casually talking about masturbation with co-workers?
2/Have you ever used Goat Felcher as a term of abuse?
3/Hi Opal
Oh yeah. All the time.
When someone says something funny, I think to myself LOL or ROFL when I’m laughing.
From spending too much time in chat: I tend to think of actions I’m performing as prefixed by an /me. At least I’m not referring to myself in the third person… yet.
I also do the ::little aside action thing:: in emails and sometimes think it to myself in everyday conversation.
Eek!
Well, I know Jester once did a very embarassing thing when he called a company asked for Jack Dean Tyler. I’ll let him elaborate one that one.
When I mentioned going to meet some internet friends with Jester (Pittsburgh Dopefest), some of our friends were placing bets on whether or not we were going to get sodomized.
Other than that, SDMB hasn’t effected my life. There was a period that whenever someone mentioned circumcision I’d mumble JDT’s name, but that’s in the past now.
New abbreviation: BCnSOMN (“Blew coke and skittles out my nose!”)
Or BMOMN (Blew Milk Out My Nose)
Some kid at my school recently put up a thing from McSweeney’s, with statistics on how few people are actually laughing out loud when they type LOL, and other abbrevations like that. It was pretty grim. Surprisingly, TTC (Trying to Concieve) got a whole 76%.
LOL…I do the same thing. I’ve even started doing /me in ICQ and AIM.
Rose
When you can squeeze it in? Oh my… Interesting choice of words there, poohpah!
I do the ::action:: thing on ICQ and email, too.
Don’t forget your futile attempts at summoning SDMB smileys in emails, Audrey. (Hey, at least I limit 'em to ICQs with you, okay?)
Hey, I used smilies before I found this board!
[sub]Though I find it hard to remember those days now, but really, I did!