Monday, May 21, 2007

SMS lah :P

Coincidentally my brother went home last weekend - meaning he bunked over at my place. Since I haven't been back in a while, I sent a long-winded, convoluted message about various mundane household reminders such as picking up the bills, checking up on the phone lines, dusting a little... etc. Seriously boring. Really. Still talented, verbose me managed to cram a whole lot of angst, pathos and homesickness into one single sms.

I was to be easily outdone by my succinct, laconic brother.

Brother : Done.

Really, does he think it's an ancient telegram? Does he think that he pays messages by the alphabet? I am not expecting a whole gush of sentimentality with little snippets of drama, tragedy and comedy inserted but surely a little hello would have been nice. Anything rather than a grunted monosyllable :P

It's done? What?! The freaking roast chicken in the oven?

Then again I'm not the only one breaking SMS rules here since I've been guilty of sending my little neverending essays over the phone. Although I do have the occasional short messages, I tend to lean towards extremely lengthy, descriptive diatribes on whatever situation I'm in. And it's all in perfect grammar without the snazzy acronyms and abbreviations favoured by the youthful masses. Perhaps it's old fashioned of me but I actually like to see the entire word rather than txtspk. Knw ppl r starting to use SMS abbrev since some r gr8 but otoh not evryone understands.

Doubt it would seriously destroy the English language as we know it - as the raging language purists have hysterically claimed - since the language actually evolves with time. Bet even Shakespeare would have enjoyed a remix of 2 b or not 2 b!

Confessions
Uhh. How do I send sms thru tis?!

Somehow or rather though I am one of the few who absolutely abhors predictive text. Irritates me as hell especially when it comes out with surreal words that I never actually intended! Fortunately along with my fast feet, I've actually acquired some pretty quick thumbs. :) Wonder what Charming Calvin would say if I sent him something like this...

hi m8 u k? sry 4gt 2 cal u lst nyt. Y dnt we go c flm 2moz?

Short and succinct they may be but certainly not sweet, don'tcha think?

11 comments:

nyonyapenang said...

no nid so cheong hei...sms lah!

but there are some older generation phones that cannot take too long messages.

Anonymous said...

I do understand that weird line of abbrv. But don't do it so often. I prefer to read normal English. ;-p

Janvier said...

We'd use the predictive text to type words out in full, even take the trouble to insert paragraph breaks...unless we're just a couple of letters over the mark :s

cleo weiland said...

I h8 predictiv txt! Its so trblsome,I dunno hw ppl actually use it.

Btw I know sum ppl who just reply "k" when I ask em for sumthg.Just 1 letter.

Kudos 2 u 4 keepng up wt d grammar! :P

Purring Tiger said...

lol! my friend also used to reply with just a 'k'. what's the point in that? i don't know..

but i guess it's better than getting an sms from your parents which goes something like "hd ur din yt?". my friend gets so frustrated whenever her mum sends her an sms just like that. she takes a very long time to decipher the message lol :p

Matt. K. said...

Got'cha back on this one, paul! Certainly not sweet! The most, keep the abbreviations amongst friends.

William said...

Proper English SMS. Long live T9!!!

pepe M. said...

hahaha!
maybe we're just too old really!hahaha!

pepe M

quicksilverlining said...

me, i just like to use up all the letters. but i noticed most of the time, people ignore my intricately detailed messages, so i just stick to NOT writing anything unless deathly necessary.

Cyclohelix said...

For mua, as eloquent, passionately full, extensive and long as possible... ^^ Short-cuts, hmm, at least a short voice call la...

nemesis-on-fire said...

hey!! i absolutely abhor predictive text as well. annoys the hell out of me. and also because i'm one of those who is guilty of using abbrv. :P then again, i'm long-winded, so i try to squeeze as much into a text message as i possibly can. hence the abbreviations :P