I Am Just Me

 I can't keep up with all these acronyms that are used these days.  I'm old school.  And I make no bones about it.  I won't go so far to say that I'm an old guy, but I'm old school.  I will read or hear various terms the younger generations use and find myself constantly looking things up.  A good example is OG, which stands for Original Gangster, but this just means someone had the Original idea or concept of something.  But that is just one example.  And I hear these terms during college football broadcasts, which often sends me to my phone to look up definitions.

I'm savvy enough on some things, but I fear misusing terms ideas or acronyms I know nothing about.  My wife is on Facebook a lot and I think she's less old school than I am.  But I try, just like a lot of "oldsters" who try to keep up.  I know that certain subjects have their own terms for things that only those who study such subjects would know.  I know a few theological terms that only a first year Bible student might know.  But it seems every discipline has its own language.

I am not an accountant, so there are terms only an accountant would know, but tech is the worst offender.  I remember the first time I heard about AI, I had to look it up.  Now I use it understanding what it is.  But AI has seeped into our every day language.  But really I can't keep up.  I signed into a pipe smoking forum and they had a link to a dictionary for acronyms used on the site.  I finally figured out that most I'll just figure out on my own.  And really that seems to be the way most anyone does it.

OMG and LOL were the first I learned, but often I'll come across something that I'll just guess at the meaning and move on.  I'm always just moving on and say to myself, "Whatever."  Even football announcers use acronyms I'll think about and often I can figure it out.  Some I've heard so often I just know what it means.  Some things just make sense.  There is no need to figure it out.  YAC, for example, is yard's after catch.  RPO is the run, pass option.  

But even with football, I know there are those who would be searching for the meaning of certain terms.  But like all of life learning just comes from listening.  Eventually it makes sense.  Or at least will begin to make sense, but football has its own understanding of terminology.  But just like other things we don't have to know this stuff to watch a game.  A guy either catches the ball or he doesn't.  A runner with the ball can either lose yardage or make a gain. 

Football can be as simple as one wants it to be or it can be like learning a language.  It just depends.  One can watch a game with the sound off and know just as much.  Sometimes a game is just background noise while doing something else, like house cleaning.  Sometimes all I care about is the final score.  I watched a lot of football this weekend and no announcer sent me to my phone in search of a meaning.  I know a lot about football.  I know soccer has little scoring.  Same with hockey.  But with hockey a viewer might be curious about all the fights in hockey.  

But social media is social media and I just don't use it enough to know all the terms.  But I try and that is my point.  I try.  Yes, pipe smoking has its jargon.  If I use a term and it's not self-explanatory, I might define it, but even then, I just try to keep it pretty simple.  There's nothing complex about pipe smoking, unless one joins a forum.  Today it is my Sherlock Holmes pipe with some Epiphany tobacco.  I'll smoke Rum and Maple after i finish this.  I thank you for your time.  Peace to each of you.

Dave