l33+ $p34k – OMFG I’m ROTFLMFAOTIPMP…

Our lovely (/ poor long suffering) grad student was up in Auckland yesterday and, harking from Wellington it seemed like a good idea to change her personal message on her IM client to “I LOVE Auckland”.

This provided us with some amusement, which compounded this morning when we noticed she’d not changed it back

Now whether Katy really does love Auckland isn’t the point of this blog entry. That is not to say that it would be unusual for her to love this region, I mean – who wouldn’t? – we are finally getting some roading funding (though 26% of the budget, even if it is $558 million, is still less than the share that 31% of the countries population who live in Auckland (in 2001) contributes (we’re still waiting for the 2006 census figures, can’t expect those too quick now can we – government deportment and all…).

But the Auckland bashing can wait for another entry when I care what the rest of the population thinks about us. The point of this entry is firstly to see who will bother reading through the tangent this far, and secondly to provide a commentary on how l33+ $p34k (or leet speak, for the uninitiated) has pervaded our (or at least my & my colleagues) vocabulary.
You see, when the IM tagline in all it’s Auckland lovin’ glory was pointed out to poor, sweet, innocent Katy ( ) she wanted to know what had happened.

Katy says:
how did you change my quote?
I am very curious…..
Rob says:
Evil internet pixies
Katy says:
or thinking about revenge

Of course, I felt compelled to explain how it was done, and what to do to change it

Rob says:
At the top of your Windows Live Messenger window, you’ll have a line which you can edit…
Katy says:
yeah, but I thought only I could do it
Rob says:
Feel free to change it to “Rob pwned me coz hez so l33t”
Katy says:
hes so ?
Rob says:
l33t!
Katy says:
what does that stand for?

And that conversation opened the floodgates to the world of leet-speak for Katy (whether she wanted to know or not). So, I thought I’d share the link I sent her, and once you (dear reader) have familiarised yourself with the parlance, you may find these ‘l33t’ versions of Shakespeares Romeo & Juliet and Hamlet somewhat amusing – I know I did, but then very few people accuse me of normality…

The interesting thing about these l33t renditions is they capture so well how people ‘talk’ in the online space and, given my immersion into the MMOG space , the whole thing was fantastically accurate to the point that, if we’d had a few references to Chuck Norris, I’d probably be excused to thinking I was watching the General (or more recently the Looking For Group) chat channel in-game. Much as txt-speak such as gr8 (great) and ne1 (anyone) have pervaded our advertising (and licence plates) for the general population, has l33t speak become the new ebonics of the techonology arena? Or is it just the weirdos that I work with?

Thanks to Karen for sending through the l33t Shakespeare.
Oh, by the way (or is that BTW) the title of this post translates to “Oh My F(*&#$ing Goodness I‘m Rolling On The Floor Laughing My F(*&#$ing Ass Off ‘Til I Piss My Pants…” – you can see why the abbreviation is easier aye?