first and foremost, let me sketch what triggered the desire to write this entry. it was a conversation (loosely applied term) with a former university-fellow of mine. she had been online before and reappeared. thus were the
... for lack of a better term
... "words":
re - wb - thx - np
my intuitive assumption was that among technicians, abbreviations seem to be fairly wide-spread. probably due to the fact that they tend to use the keyboard a lot and have to match their thinking with their writing, thus seeking shortest expressions.
next, it deemed to me that other, "normal" people frequently regard this type of abbreviations as threat to our speech, whereas most of their own - grammatical and therefore unjustified - shortcomings are of no significance to them. while the code of technical abbreviations, even in every-day language, is being strictly followed, it is despised by common people as killing the language, while the pure inability to apply proper traditional rules is simply neglected altogether.
but i am leaving the topic i intended to write about initially. so let's start.
Part I: Caffeine, The Source (tm)
Caffeine, in its purest, cristal-clearest form is seen as the bringer of live by many a people. it condenses in the form of a beautiful lake of magnificent black. the odor and heat of the sacred coffee have since ancient times given motivation, innovation and heart-attacks to their worshippers. and worthy worshippers at that!
low initiates start with the so-called caffee latte, which is nearly the negative of the holy, only-in-whispers-to-be-named coffee, in that it is white. large amounts of milk are used to dissuade the unique flavor of the black gold, to reserve its purest soul to those few worthy.
the effect of coffee is both stimulating and fatal. stimulating in the respect that it boosts the power of the mind, thereby producing surprising and often hard-to-forsee solutions for all kind of problems.
fatal on the other hand in that the increased speed with which the brain is able to operate is deduced from the accuracy of the hands (an exchange or transfer of mental and physical power often called "trembling" by those that stand outside the circle). thus, the enlighted worshipper is not able to translate his visions into reality. a bottleneck is created. the inherent assumption: a solution is needed!
and what can bring forth a solution? whoever is reading this text carefully, sees the answer as clearly as mount doom on a sun-shiny day in mordor: the black we all bow to in awe. so the highest member of the cult of caffeine (coc) - technicians - crafted a solution as beautiful as cryptic. all words had to be reduced to not more than 3 letters. the resulting code of tla is something widely used now and a sure means to recognize fellows-in-caffeine. there's no such thing as stupid secret handshakes (except the three-way-handshake), no need for hoods or masks (except the obnoxious ip-mask) and no need for secrecy (apart from gpg). members, friends and associates are identified by one single nominator: their commandment over the soc (speech of caffeine, how obvious!).
i just received my calling, so i will end this introductory part and will continue with Part II: Tea Is Probably Not The Answer on a dd, adp apaadp, or aladtz. whoever is asking wtf!? now is invited to comment. everyone else is incompetent :-D
good night!
