Wrong For Seconds, Ridicule for Hours

I am a failure to society. Don’t you hate it when you do something (like a tool) thinking things are right and good in the world, then you find evidence that you have actually been mentally handicapped for an entire conversation? You knew something but your mind crumbled. You know you’ve been gaming too long when elements of a game invade your brain and call to question everything you had built your life around. Suck.

This was the case today when my life around came crashing down in an IM battle with Cliff Pearson. The little bastard typed “w/” as an abbreviation for with and I claimed it was “/w.” Now, I’m not the stupidest person in the world…heck, I’ve known with is abbreviated with w/ for years and years. Needless to say I barked on how I was right for minutes until everyone around me said I was a tool. Still thinking I was right, I looked it up and oddly found an answer in Lesson 13 of the NLS: Instructional Manual for Braille Transcribing. Weird.

13.4b Slash (oblique stroke) with single letter abbreviations. Where context makes the
meaning clear, single letter abbreviations that are separated by a slash do not require a
letter sign. These expressions should not be divided between braille lines. Examples:

• c/o Sam Jones
• c/o ,s∙m ,j”os
• b/w TV set
• b/w ,,tv set

In situations where a single letter could be misread, as in (w/copy) where the w is an
abbreviation for with, not will, use a letter sign for clarity.

[Slashes between numbers will be studied in the next lesson. For diagonal slashes used in
poetry see Lesson 18.]

What could have caused this mix up? Especially when I use w/ so frequently. (Google Borkweb for w/).

Then Zach reminded me that I’ve been playing World of Warcraft and DotA for too long. My brain-damaged head decided to convince me that the command for whisper (/w) was the abbreviation for with (w/).

Oh God I hate games. I’m a dork.