Acronyms: "Mom, Nobody Uses Those Anymore!"

My writing chops are a little rusty.  I can feel it. 

Apparently, my knowledge of acronyms is terribly dated as well.  I can feel that, too—especially when my daughter, upon reading my text, exclaims, “Mom! LOL? Nobody uses that anymore!”

No worries.  I am a Lady in the Know at Ladies Holiday.  I am honored to take up a little room at their space, so check it out.

Now what about those acronyms which just happen to be today’s theme at Monday Listicles? 

Well, for that, I had to ask my daughters (who are 12 and 14, arguably more in the know than I) for input.  The consensus was that really, no one uses them at all anymore.  They are a thing of the past. 

I didn't believe it. 

With a little prodding, I got my girls to help me compile a list.  Here’s what we came up with:

10 Acronyms We Still Use 

(even though nobody really uses them anymore)

LOL – According to my 14 year old this acronym for laugh out loud is no longer used as a way to express the fact that one is laughing.  She said it is used to make a statement less awkward, like, “I saw you at the store, LOL.”

LAWLZ – Apparently this is the new LOL.  What each letter stands for is unknown to anyone in this household.  I would guess the L’s stand for laugh and loud.  The rest is up for interpretation.

HBU – 14yo still uses this one for how ‘bout you, confirming the fact that teenagers exaggerate (see title).

SMH – I have seen this one in my 14yo’s Instagram feed.  I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what it meant and had been dying to ask her.  I hesitated for weeks because I was afraid it was something wacky and inappropriate.  Nope.  It’s harmless: shake my head.

TBT – Another one from Instagram: Throwback Thursday

IDK – Oldie but goodie: I don’t know

BRB – Be right back, respectively submitted by my 12yo.

JK – Just kidding, respectively submitted by my 12yo.

CSA – I usually use it with a hashtag in front of it and the word 'survivor' behind it: child sexual abuse.  (Uncomfortable?  Statistics point to CSA being an epidemic.  Do something).

HALT – I love that this was the first acronym my girls reminded me of upon asking them for help with this list.  It’s one I learned in recovery and have taught them to use to discern their moods: hungry, angry, lonely, tired.  If they seem annoyed or down, I’ll ask “How many letters do you have in HALT?  How can you take care of it?”

Here’s to HALT and here’s to you, LOL. (Yes, I’m trying to end this post with as little awkwardness as possible.)

photo credit: See-ming Lee 李思明 SML via photopin cc

Save It for Later: 3 Things April

In Save It for Later you’re getting a brief run-down of each week's stand-outs from things I've bookmarked to "read later" either from my Diigo "Read Later" list, Pulse News, Twitter, and/or Pinterest.

I haven’t blogged for a month, so my read later list is quite extensive.  I’ll spare you the lot of it and share with you what I think is most important.  All happen to be relating to April.

April is National Poetry Month.  This week BlogHer gave us 6 Amazing Last-Minute Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month.  I really like #5 which is an online app called That Can Be My Next Tweet that mashes up your own Twitter stream to create tweets that are somewhat poetic.  I tried the app.  Here are some of my mashed up tweets:

I Want and comment. I Want and the lights go. Do I pay my friend, Anna Mahler....

Linking up with a great info you've been posting here and doing nothing.

Couldn't be happier to one's courage. - I am now a difference in the great women making history?

Number 7 on the BlogHer list, spine poetry, is also fun.  Stack up a few books, take a photo of their spines, and voila, their titles make poetry.  Here’s one that I attempted:

You can share yours on Twitter with the hashtag #spinepoetry.

For more ideas on last minute National Poetry Month celebrations check out the BlogHer article or Poets.org

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month.  As a survivor of child sexual abuse this is an awareness campaign close to my heart.  Like most of these month-long campaigns, I feel it is one that should be at the forefront of our awareness all year.

In the pursuit to eradicate child abuse the most important tool is prevention.  Prevention can only happen through education, answering the question of “how do we stop this from happening?”  The Child Welfare Information Gateway has a wealth of information on prevention geared towards parents, professionals and educators.  I also have been curating information on prevention on Pinterest for over a year.  There are several organizations working towards the prevention of child abuse.  The video below is from one such organization, Darkness to Light.

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month.  In light of the Steubenville rape case getting so much media attention, this campaign couldn’t be more timely.  I have been gathering information on preventing sexual assault at Pinterest and you can check out some very informative links by clicking here.  The National Sexual Violence Resource Center is always my first stop for solid, accessible information.  Their current campaign is "Talk early, talk often. Prevent sexual violence"  

Also, check out the newly launched NO MORE, “The first unifying symbol to express support for ending domestic violence and sexual assault,” which provides tools for individuals to get involved locally and on social media in order to shed light on the invisible problems of sexual assault and domestic violence.  I downloaded their free toolkit containing sample social media posts, email templates, and more.  I think it's great and you should download and use it, too:   Activate NO MORE

April is just about to turn into May but don't expect this to be the last you read here about the prevention of child abuse and the awareness/prevention of sexual assault.  Beware, I just may subject you to the torture of my own poetry, too!