i can't even omg liek111

[lobelia321]

It is wonderful, wonderful, to come to a fandom late and be glutted with fic and pic glory.

It is also a danger! Because before one knows it, one is reading and drooling and feedbacking and trying to keep up with all the new people one must know in this new fandom (because only about two people overlap with any other fandoms one has been in before) and figuring out where everything goes (comms? memes? challenges?) and discovering the fanon and the fanart omg....

.... and what one is then not doing is continuing to write!

Which is Not So Good!!

Sometimes it's funnest just to jump in with a bit of canon attached to one's forelock and join the fray in blithe and blissful ignorance.

On the other hand, once the sweet fruit of fandom (and what a fandom is Inception) has been tasted, there's no turning back.

So it is a juggling act. A bit of droolery, a bit of fic readery, and then write, plz, write! (Also, argh, one must prepare one's lecture, feed one's family, go for a Sunday walk with one husband, and so forth... And my printer is broken so I am tethered to my laptop!!!) I am planning to go into the office early tomorrow and print out REAMS of fic which I will then have to stuff surreptitiously into my bag and hope nobody mistakes it for student essays.

Squee lingo has changed a tiny little bit since lotrips: linguistic observations.
Back in the day of entry fandom squee (2002), I seem to remember that the common things to type were:
• *falls off chair*
• Eeeeep!
• Ack!
• omg
• *is dead*
• *fans self*
• *cackles*
• kjdkjfaksd flkjdksjakj
• liek omg1111 [lotrips loved the ironic teenslasher quote]
Nobody in fandom wrote 'lol', as far as I recall. Everybody wrote *grins* or *smiles* or *laughs*.

This is how squee expresses itself these days:
• SQUEE!!
• omg
• I can't even...
• idek
• FTW
• I am excite.
• UNF
• kjfkdalksdl;fjkhg

Note how third-person verbs enclosed within asterisks have been replaced by a more first-person approach and by a variety of acronyms wot i had to look up on t'interwebs (idek=i don't even know; UNF = universal noise of f**ing, and the concept of 'the win' did not exist in 2002).

Also the word 'slash'? Practically gone from the vocabulary.

I have to say I love the diction "I can't even..." *flails*

Fanart! I can't even... NWSF

Comments

[themostepotente.livejournal.com]

Christ that was a lovely trip down the memory lane of Inception fan art. The artists in this fandom are fucking amazing.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

I remember entering HP and thinking "What the.... novel-length fic????!!!"

Then I remember entering SGA fandom and thinking "What the.... vids???!! omg"

And now I am flailing "What the.... fanart???!!!! Who knew??!!

[physicsxmagic.livejournal.com]

This is how squee expresses itself these days:
• SQUEE!!
• omg
• I can't even...
• idek
• FTW
• I am excite.
• UNF
• kjfkdalksdl;fjkhg


"OMG
WTAF (what the actual fuck)
IDEK
WHAT IS MY LIFE / SANITY / BREATHING / ..
UNF - do you mean like UniversalNoiseofF...? like as abbrev.? I JSUT SAY UNFFF OUT LOUD. same with
GUHHHHHH
I CAN'T EVEN
and the universally applicable KEYBOARD FUCKING SMASH aka lsjfhkaejhvkjnkjs"
this is how I express my feelings.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

See? 'Keyboard fucking smash' did not exist last time I looked. I didn't even know that the act of kjslkjfdlkaj had any kind of verbal phrase attached to it!

[physicsxmagic.livejournal.com]

KEYBOARD SMASH OF DOOM!
(aka reaction to naked Tom Hardy)
(or reaction to any kind of JGL)

[physicsxmagic.livejournal.com]

when I was 'new to the (German) internet' (9 years old, 10 years ago HOLY SHIT!) everyone used *g* and *grins* and *lach*. Some people used *lol* (really, everything with **s). Nobody knew what rofl or lmao was.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Yes, HOLY SHIT, I second all of it. For me, the internet was new longer than ten years ago but the day I discovered slash is really the one imprinted on my mind and soul. Nothing before that counts. And that was Jan (I can probably reconstruct the exact day; I memoried it somewhere; it wasn't on LJ) 2002. So I lost my webs virginity also just under ten years ago.

WHERE DID THE TIME GO????????

*third level*

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Oh and p.s. before I defected to slash for good, I dabbled in German chatrooms and noticed a different conventions for the verbs. In English, the third person singular is preferred: *laughs* but German uses a kind of truncated infinitive that I also remember from Disney comics: *lach*.

[physicsxmagic.livejournal.com]

What srsly made me go to the "DARK SIDE" in all ways of the internet, was Yahoo Chatrooms. I was 13. I told people I was 19. I HAD AWESOME TIME. I MET AWESOME PEOPLE. Then, they were closed down. It really makes me A SAD KITTEH.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

You were thirteen. You are different generation, truly, hahahah! Can't remember what I was on: AOL chatrooms, omg, *antediluvian*

[physicsxmagic.livejournal.com]

oh yes, AOL chatrooms. when AOL chatrooms still had PUBLIC USER MADE chatrooms and UK chatrooms available in Germany.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

I noticed I understood none of the acronyms on any popular memes, eg. those fandom secrets. OTOH, I had to google them all when I first came online, and only one thing had been used a lot then, the LOL. We typed it so much that I said it instead of smiling in real life. ROFLMAO, I recall as well, maybe different corner to your "laughs". *g* but not *grins*, too. I just noticed in your examples that an acceptance of the impossibility to adequately express ones feelings is now the norm (I'm just glad everyone*s ovaries have stopped exploding).

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

roflmao! I recall roflmao! Oh yes, and I thought *g* was still 'in'?? As I still use it but perhaps am dinosaur.

O and the exploding ovaries!!! I remember those! I like your diagnosis of the acceptance of impossibilty to express feelings adequately. One thing has not changed one iota: the hyperbole!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

You are probably right and *g* is still in use. Looking at old posts I have to notice that I used to laugh a lot so I just forgot what's still in!

Long live hyperboles. And non-sequiturs, aka derailed wagons on my trains of thought.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Totally long live hyperbole and the future ways of expressing itself that it will grow!

[minavox.livejournal.com]

I like this observations very much! Funny to see how this seemingly random phrases develope and change... *lols*

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

It is really interesting! And fandom now has a history for me, sort of ephemeral but notable.