For this Weekend Assignment, I ventured to a website I had successfully avoided for years. In order to fulfill Karen‘s instructions, I had to enter the wild world of I Can Haz Cheezburger.
Weekend Assignment: #281: Create a LOLcat (or a LOLdog, or a LOLpig, a LOLhorse or whatever). If you can do it with your own pet photo, great, but alternatively you can just describe what it would look like. Don’t forget the humorous caption!
Extra Credit: Do you like “lolspeak” and other Internet slang, or mostly find it annoying?
OK, I short-cutted this a bit by using pictures of Gypsy that I already have, rather than staging any new ones. One was taken on a vacation at my in-laws’ cabin, and the other is an example of the indignity we subject her to every Christmas.
moar funny pictures
is because I am NOT a fan of “lolspeak” – I think this assignment is one of the few times I’ve actually used it. I’ll admit to being guilty of emoticon abuse; I generally stay away from them in my posts, but in comments, e-mails, and Twitter tweets from me, they show up all the time. In some respects, it’s just my preference – I think 🙂 and LOL basically say the same thing, but I like 🙂 better. I think the emoticons actually can be useful in helping to convey a tone of voice that sometimes isn’t as clear in casual writing, but I rarely use textspeak abbreviations like LOL (although BRB is useful at times). One thing that’s pleased me for years is that my son, who’s been online since middle school, rarely uses textspeak either, even though he texts a lot. He’s just a ridiculously fast phone typist.
“Lolspeak” is problematic for me, though. It’s amusing in small doses, but it seems to be making its way into the mainstream, largely by adults who really should know better. I think they actually do know better, and they’re just having fun or trying to keep up with “those kids today.” But given the state of education these days, I’m a little worried that the kids may not know better, and that if this language does become generally accepted, they won’t know better. Also, I have an old-fashioned fondness for proper spelling and grammar, and the writing that appeals to me usually makes use of both.
I may be trying to find high-minded justifications to support my feelings about it, and I probably do sound like a stick-in-the-mud here, but part of me really is a little nervous that the lol-ers are taking over. Having said that, though, this was a fun little change of pace. However, it will most likely be Gypsy’s only appearance as a LOLdog.
For those of you who might like to LOL along this time, Karen has included the rulz rules for the Weekend Assignment:
- Please post your entry no later than Friday, September 4th at 6 PM. (You can also post your response in the comments thread, but a blog entry is better. )
- Please mention the Weekend Assignment in your blog post, and include a link back to this entry.
- Please come back here after you’ve posted, and leave a link to your entry in the comments below.
- Visiting other participants’ entries is strongly encouraged!
- I’m always looking for topic ideas. Please email me at mavarin2 AT gmail.com if there’s a Weekend Assignment theme you’d like to see. If I use your idea, you will be credited as that week’s “guest professor.”
Picture your critter and join the fun!
