From cyberwes@terragon.com Sat Apr  1 11:06:52 2000
From: Wes Molsberry <cyberwes@terragon.com>

As I get older, I'm finding that I have to interface with some folks in
the "Generation-X"  crowd (GenX for short). I'm hoping that the
following may provide some translation of new phrases into English.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Words You Need to Know in the Year 2000.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Prairie Dogging"
In companies where everyone has a cubicle, something happens and
everyone pops up to look.

"Generica"
Fast food joints, strip malls, sub-divisions... as in, "We were lost in
generica that I couldn't remember what city it was."

"Percussive Maintenance"
The fine art of whacking a device to get it working.

"Ping Me"
To get a hold of as in, "If I don't answer my phone, ping me with an
e-mail."

"Irritainment"
Annoying but you can't stop watching, e.g. Jerry Springer.

"High Dome"
Someone who is a scientist, has a PhD or is just really smart.

"Square Headed Girlfriend"
What else? A computer!

"Treeware"
Manuals and documentation.

"Yuppie Food Stamps"
Twenty dollar bills from an ATM.

"Batmobiling"
Putting up emotional shields as in, "She started talking marriage and
he started batmobiling."

"Meatspace"
The opposite of cyberspace, the real world.

"404"
Clueless as in, "I read the memo and I'm 404." Comes from an
Internet error message given when a page is not found.

"Vulcan Nerve Pinch"
 From Star Trek and is the act of hitting the Ctrl+Alt+Del keys
to reboot your computer. (this sounds like the ol' "three finger
salute")

"Blamestorming"
Sitting around in a group discussing why a deadline was missed or
a project failed, and who was responsible.

"Starter Marriage"
A short-lived first marriage that ends in divorce with no kids, no
property and no regrets.

"Zenned It"
To figure out something by a sudden flash of enlightenment as in,
"I don't know how I knew that, I just zenned it."

"Blow a Buffer"
Euphemism for spacing out or losing one's train of thought. "I blew
a buffer, and now I can't remember what I was gonna say."