So I've retired, and I spend most of my time on my own personal writing which you are welcome to explore. As part of retiring I got all the genealogical files and I've been going through them, which means that some of the writing is mostly for family, mostly about old puritans and homesteaders and pioneers.

So I don't have much to say about chat these days except that 1) I think it has evolved somewhat and people are using chat as a medium in all kinds of places, and all kinds of ways; 2) I still think we should study it and give it the kind of respect we give written language and its evolution, in general, in linguistics; 3) in fact you could call this the golden age of chat, since it just became a thing what, maybe fifteen years ago, and people are using it so actively, and starting up on it, and by nature it's going to simplify itself and become more useful. And you see things like lol popping up everywhere; people are even saying it, which shows it doesn't always start with the oral and move to the written, i.e. not all written language comes from oral language.

It turns out, I have a lot to say, and I am busy chatting or txtng on my phone just like everyone else is. I am guilty of developing my own system and then kind of watching myself from above as I do whatever I can get away with in the chat universe. I will repeat that it does deserve respect, it does need to be studied, and I'm glad I put this blog here, even though I don't quite know what to do with it now; I certainly won't shut it down as deep within it, it documents the beginning of this era. It's actually a quite incredible phenomenon, as I said, and it's not going anywhere.