Geek Speak – Lost In Translation

A couple of weeks ago, Jerry posted an Ask The Readers topic on Stogie Review which revolved around Cigar Geekiness. Jerry went on to explain that two of his preferred online games have characters that are named after the hobby of cigars.

Jerry From Stogie Review Says…

In City of Heroes I’m known as The Butane Flame and my warrior in World of Warcraft is simply known as Tatuaje. I know many of you are shaking your heads right now. Its probably bad enough that I play these games let alone being a total cheese ball and using cigar themed names for my toon/character

The topic of discussion today revolves around a similar sort of geekiness that gets lost in translation. Having spent a number of years actively using the internet and computers in general, I like to consider myself tech savvy at the least. My wife, on the other hand, is not so tech savvy when it comes to computers. This is where the lost in translation part comes in to play.

Being a bit of an online gamer for period of time, I’ve added a few words to my vocabulary that may seem strange to most. When these words come out in conversation, especially among friends, I get the lost in translation, “I can’t believe you just said that”, look from my wife.

This look can be brought on by the simple mention of Awesome Sauce when referring to how cool something is. Fortunately, Awesome Sauce is a saying that is pretty easy to pick apart and most people don’t find themselves completely lost when it is used in conversation.

While some words or phrases flow freely within my vocabulary, there are some that I inject into conversation purposely, because I know it bugs my wife just a bit. The occasional “lollerskates”, or “rofl-copter” are a couple of the words that instantly make my wife stop and shake her head.

In addition to having picked up computer and gaming slang words, I’ve also picked up a lot of cigar vocabulary over the years. While far less geeky, these words often get me a blank stare when used among the wrong crowd. On occasion, my wife will fire off some cigar vocabulary and give me a look that just screams “see how dumb it sounds?”.

While the words don’t necessarily sound dumb when coming out of her mouth, they lack the confidence it requires to pull off the use of such vocabulary.

Who am I kidding, even if used with confidence, the majority of my geek / cigar vocabulary probably sounds pretty dumb to anyone out of the know. Regardless of how cool I think it sounds, or how dumb it actually sounds, I get a kick out of using the odd phrase or internet buzz-word in conversation. Besides, even if all I get out of it is a look of confusion out of my wife, I get a smile on my face and it all becomes worth it.