Still SAC...

A lot of people new to the blog might not be hip to all of my lingo, so I thought I'd post a couple updates before we got on the road to bring everyone up to speed. SAC is a concept I developed two years ago and has spread throughout Europe and much of Asia. It has been referenced across pop culture platforms, almost making its way into dozens of Hollywood movies and hit TV shows. And to be perfectly honest, with the growth of smart-phones and everyone's dangerous habit of texting while driving a Vespa one handed while balancing a small child on your lap (sorry - that's maybe only in Catania), SAC is as relevant and perfect today as when I first thought it up. So without further ado, let's start the show! SAC.

SAC: The New LOL

THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2008

We all have pet peeves. For some, it's bad drivers. For others (such as my wife), it's chewing with your mouth open, talking too loudly, or being against the socializing of healthcare. Or so I've been told. Oh yeah - one that really ticks me off is showers that have two knobs for water temperature -- hot & cold water knobs -- instead of just one! How many times have you been forced to dance around the slippery shower while getting scalded because you made a mistake on the ratio of hot and cold! But my own personal pet peeve is perhaps a little more far reaching -- touching all members of the growing community of text messengers that span the globe. I'm talking about a little acronym called LOL.

For those of you still "using CD's," "setting your VCR," or "unnecessarily using quotation marks," let me explain (although you do get bonus points for reading a blog.) LOL is an internet / text-message acronym that stands for 'LAUGHING OUT LOUD' and is commonly used as a response to a joke or witty comment. Let me give you an example:

FRIEND1: Yo, whattup?

FRIEND2: Leaving 4 Italy in 3 dayz... cr8zy

FRIEND1: Sweet - eat lots of meatballs

FRIEND2: LOL. Fo' sho'

Now, is the 'meatball' comment witty? Yes. Is it funny? Yes. But is it LAUGH OUT LOUD funny? NO. And that my friends, is where my beef lies.

Comedians - or people like me who just tell lots of jokes - live for that LOL moment. We work for it. We strive for it. We are rewarded by it. Because let's be perfectly honest, it takes a LOT to make someone actually LOL. I'm talking hit-in-the-groin-with-a-ground-ball funny. I'm talking Bambulance or Felching funny. (Please Google both and LOL!) That's LOL... not meatballs. I mean, all it's doing is giving a bunch of mediocre comedians or not funny people a false sense of confidence. There are some very boring people out there that maintain a 58% LOL ratio. In fact -- LOL is the digital equivalent of the adult courtesy laugh (the one all people over the age of 18 give at cocktail parties and office water coolers after any joke/story told, regardless of its merit.)

And thus we come to SAC. SAC simply means SMILING AT COMPUTER. As you read this sentence, you are probably SAC. SAC is what happens 95% of the time – and that's ok. It's good. It preserves the authenticity of the LOL... while at the same time acknowledging the witty-ness of the sender. We all need to use SAC more often.* Here’s a good example:

FRIEND1: Hey thanks for the ride last night

FRIEND2: Don't be silly - it was no prob. What r u doing?

FRIEND1: Just gonna sit around and use Google Maps all day to look at my house, my parents house, and where I work.

FRIEND2: SAC. Holla at me later. And check out the Grand Canyon too.

Please -- do your part. Please help spread SAC worldwide.

KEY POINT: LOL is not a term to be thrown around lightly. When most of you say LOL, you really mean SAC.

And for those of you saying OMG or WTF, I know this chapter had nothing to do with Italy. SAC.

* SAC also applies to phone text messages or books as well... simply because to use different acronyms such as SAP or SAB for each instance is not as LOL. By the way, the 2nd most underrated punctuation mark is the asterisk. It's as under-used as LOL is overused... but don't EVEN get me started on that!