I was talking to a friend of mine on ICQ not too long after having read an interesting column by The Miami Herald's Leonard Pitts (Which you too can read by going to http://www.herald.com and registering for free). What we were talking about was of the trend of abusing "net speak" in every day life, fueled by the popularity of text messaging on cell phones. The reason I'm thinking about this right now is because I've noticed an alarming number of posts here on Gamespot that use netspeak almost exclusively. You all know what I'm talking about. Even the simplest words in the language, such as "you" are abbreviated (to "u" in this example). An entire dictionary of phrases have been created out of our laziness. Shall I list a few of them? BBIAB = Be back in a bit. BRB = Be right back LOL = Laughing out loud ROFL = Rolling on the floor laughing a/s/l? = Age, sex, location? r u their = Are you there? I could probably go on for hours, but I'll spare you the trouble. The point is that with the convenience of the internet and of instant messaging, people have gotten profoundly lazy. Even typos such as "teh" (the) are not looked at. And I can't even begin to count the number of times that the wrong version of "there" "their" or "they're" has been used here on Gamespot. It's enough to drive me off the wall. I mean, is it impossible to look at what you're typing to make sure you're using English that a human being would be able to understand without a guide to internet abbreviation? I'll stop this rant right now, lest I lose my mind. However, I will leave with this parting note. 1f u c4n r34d th15, u n33d 2 g3t l41d