Savor the Success

Experts say that mental challenges keep our brains young. If that's really true, I figure I've subtracted at least 7 years off my brain's biological age during the past 4 months that I've been blogging.


How could I not have? Not a day goes by that I don't confront some word, expression, or abbreviation that completely stumps me. For instance, a few months ago, I was surfing around a mom's networking site. I'm a mom. The other women on the site are moms. I figured we'd all speak one another's language.


Yet, all of the other moms seemed to be talking in a language I didn't know. In particular, they were using two capital letters over and over again: DH.


"What the heck is a DH?" I thought as I read one post after another.


Through context, I was able to guess that the H stood for "husband." The D part, however, stumped me for a good, long while.


Doofus?


Dingbat?


Deranged?


A D word that isn't fit for print?


Finally, I decided that it stood for "Dear" when the writer was happy with her hubby, and The D Word That Isn't Fit For Print when she was not.


Here are some other abbreviations that have made me smarter.


SAHM= Stay At Home Mom


WAHM = Work At Home Mom


LOL = I'm smiling slightly, so I'll write that I'm Laughing Out Loud-but I really am NLAA (Not Laughing At All) because I just told you something incredibly mundane. For instance, "My name is Alisa. LOL!"


ROTFL = This translates to "Rolling On The Floor Laughing" but it usually really means that the writer is LOL.


LMAO = Laughing My Ass Off. See ROTFL for the true meaning of this Internet expression.


LMFAO = Related to LMAO with a not for print word thrown into the mix. Let's just say that the writer could be said to be laughing hysterically while copulating acrobatically.


SEO = Search Engine Optimization a.k.a Google Really Digs Your Site. Your site is Search Engine Optimized when it comes up as one of the first few pages of search results when someone types, "Cool website" into Google.


Tag = A word that describes something on the Internet. Once known as a game young children played outdoors.


FB = Facebook a.k.a. a place many office workers go to fritter away the workday.


DM = Direct Message a.k.a. Something people do on Twitter.


IM = Instant Message a.k.a. something people do on Facebook.


Friend = Someone you sort of know on Facebook.


Friend me = Something you do on Facebook.


Followers = People who think you are Twitter's version of the Messiah.


LOI = Letter Of Introduction.


K? = OK? Also once known as, "okay?"


Stuff = Your written material.


Like it! = Something you do on StumbleUpon.


StumbleUpon = A place you go to Like websites.


User Generated Content = All of the stuff you read on Facebook and every site just like it. Facebook and other websites make money off poor schmucks like us who are perfectly content to create all sorts of content for free. We have so much fun in the process that we don't even realize we're being taken advantage of.


Email = An outdated method of correspondence. See DM and IM.


Podcast = A radio broadcast done over the Internet and without a radio.


Blog = An online diary that the rest of the world can read. This was once known as a Web Log.


VLOG = Video Blog.


Skype = A form of communication I will never ever use because I like to sit at my computer while wearing sweats, a pony, and no makeup a.k.a. A phone conversation over the Internet using your Webcam.


Webcam = The little device the government has installed in your computer so they can watch your every move.


Web Brain Freeze (WBF) = What happens when you dose yourself with too much Internet at once. For instance, "Can't type anything intelligent right now. Suffering from WBF."


Urban Dictionary = A place you can go to look up all of this lingo, with the exception of Web Brain Freeze, because I just made that one up, k? 

If you LOL at this blog, then there's lots of ROTFL to be had by reading I'm Famous By Association, and you can be, too!

Alisa Bowman blogs about the ups and downs of marriage at www.projecthappilyeverafter.com. DM her on Twitter if you are ROTFL.