h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

TXTSPK - I refuse to answer any texts my daughter sends me, unless they are written in English.
"But Dad, *everyone* does it!"
- "I don't."
"Yeah, but you don't count!"

Apparently there is a lad in her class who, if he finds something funny, will actually say "lol".

I despair!

Using "lol" in a conversation, hardly shakespeare is it?

Ahhh ... the joys of talking to children ... fortunately my seven year old hasn't got a phone yet ... but when her grammar and pronounciation fail (e.g firty or for-e) ... I go with "Sorry, what? I don't understand what you're saying." Sort of gets away from looking like you're being picky (which of course you are) and puts the onus on them to speak properly if they want anything ...

PH of the day: when there is just too much rain to drive without switching on the wipers, but not quite enough for using them even with the 'intermittent' setting.

Try driving at 120mph - the rain just blows off your windscreen then...

So I'm told...

I'll do that then



"But, Officer, Moonhogg told me it would help me keeping the rain off my windscreen!"

Perhaps the in your hand might not help your argument...

dont drink and drive!

you might spill your pint

Yup, text messages are still the same length they always were - it's just that some phones sneakily hide the fact that you're sending multiple texts, presumably to increase the chance you'll spend more. My oldish SonyErricson makes a noise and displays the fact that you've entered the 2ns/3rd text.
Don't think its obvious when you receive a text how many messages it's made up of though.

sorry, thought I was replying straight after Kelli's post- didn't notice the next page

My Nokia also shows if I'm going into the 2d or 3d message. It's actually quite fun reformulating it so as to go from just above the limit to just below.

And, for those who write in French, the c cedilla, and vowels endowed with a circumflex accent, count more than one character. Much, much more indeed - you end up sending 3 messages before you have time to write txtspk

Yeah I do that sometimes as well - reducing all the 'yours' to 'urs' and 'you' to 'U', 'See you' to 'CU' etc ... I always start off with all the words in full, but if I have the time and I'm short on my monthly text allocation I'll reduce words.

If on the other hand I just want to get a message across quickly I don't care how many texts it takes!

~*~On the same topic kids who say "innit" at the end of a sentence, and then the child's parents picking using it.~*~

Wait a minute. I thought "innit" was a common English way of saying "isn't it". Are you saying that this isn't the case, but it's really more like an annoying slang word? (All I have to go off of is a handful of old TV shows, remember.)

I hate text messages, plain and simple. Fortunately, my phone can't really do them - it only displays six characters at a time and doesn't allow capitalisation - so they aren't expected of me

Generally I hate mobile phones ...

"Innit" is, indeed, just how "isn't it" is pronounced by many people. The thing about it is that it's changed, and is used in places where "isn't it" doesn't make any sense.

Eg., "I did that yesterday, and now you want me to do it all over again, innit?"

Ah, I see.

Re: windscreen wipers. The old Ford Anglia was set up in such a way that driving faster made the wipers speed up. There was only one speed setting and I think they were linked to the dynamo.

PH - using the windscreen washer. A few years ago they brought in an annoying innovation. The washers will spray the window then the wipers give it 3 or 4 wipes leaving a crystal clear screen. Then there's a pause. Then the wipers make one more sweep across a mainly dry windscreen and cover it with smears and streaks again

In a similar vein - I have an estate car, and when I try to wash the rear windscreen, there is a pause of about 2 seconds between pulling the washer stick on the dash, to the water spraying the screen - during which time the wiper has been across the screen twice, dragging grit and grime across the glass...