I sppose yo're a bit crios abot the way I type. To be brtally honest, I'm a bit crios abot it myself. I know that something's nsal abot it, bt I can never qite seem to figre ot what it is. It's not that I'm confsed, yo nderstand. Well, not as yo wold se the word 'confsed', at least. Bt I jst...well, it's a bit of a long story, bt if yo don't mind a bit of atobiography, I cold tell it to yo. Yo see, it all started when I was in a chatroom one evening, and--
No, that's not qite tre. It actally started a long time before that. I sed to play on a hge assortment of online MDS, MSHes, and similar text-based games, and we sed to get qite serios abot spelling and grammar. Good spelling was sally considered to be a sign of intelligence; large nmbers of typos were eqivalent to talking like yo were developmentally disabled. (Sorry, I'm a high school English teacher. Yo get sed to sing the "politically correct" terms for mental deficiencies. And I've never liked sing the word "retarded". Bt I digress.)
Actally, I don't digress all that mch. Being an English teacher, I boght right into the whole idea that good spelling and good grammar were not jst polite to se on the Internet, they were rles that everyone shold adhere to. The abbreviations of modern texting tterly appalled me, and as for "leetspeak"...well, let's jst say that I cold be qite rde to anyone sing it in my presence. I was a self-appointed crsader for proper se of the English langage on the Internet, and woe betide anyone who sed "" when they meant "yo", or pt nmbers where letters shold be arond me.
Bt all that changed one evening when I was in a chatroom. We were talking abot the sal chatroom topics, things like movies and television and so forth, and one of the people in the room had terrible spelling. The absolte worst I'd ever seen. Clmsy typos, mistakes in grammar, repeated and random placement of apostrophes...it was driving me fcking nts, to be vlgar. And so I began to make fn of him for it. I'm not prod of my behavior, yo nderstand. Looking back, it was a downright crel thing to do to another hman being. Bt I'd done it plenty of times by then, and I'm afraid I didn't think too mch abot it. I jst did it. And within a few mintes, the person logged off. I smiled smgly and chalked p another minor victory to the great case of proper English sage everywhere.
As it trned ot, the person I was making fn of had a few friends in the chatroom already. They absoltely flamed me for what I'd done (and again, looking back, they were entirely right to do so. I make no excses for my behavior that night.) They told me that the friend who'd jst logged off had a genine learning disability, a form of dsylexia that made it difficlt for them to learn spelling and grammar.
Inside, of corse, I felt horrible for the crel thing I'd done. I cold feel it deep in the pit of my stomach, a sort of bbbling ache that made me feel terribly gilty. Bt like a lot of stpid people when they make a mistake, I started trying to jstify my bad behavior. I told them that if this friend of theirs had sch terrible problems expressing their opinions in text, then maybe they sholdn't come into pblic chatrooms where others had to pt p with their mistakes. I told them that I was a teacher, and I'd taght plenty of kids with learning disabilities to se proper English, and that maybe their friend shold pt jst a bit more effort into his langage skills. I said all sorts of stpid, crel things that night.
Of corse, they called me on all the stpid bllshit I was spoting, bt the more they pointed ot how wrong I was, the more defensive I got. I dg myself deeper and deeper into the hole I'd made, and stck my foot into my moth so far I think I kicked my own btt. Instead of being contrite, I was bond and determined to hold my grond.
And eventally, one of the friends of the yong man who I'd offended with my rde otbrsts told me that if I didn't send ot an apology via email immediately, he was going to make sre I never criticized anyone's spelling ever again. Of corse, I laghed off his words. Physical threats over the Internet are last refge of the pitifl, and I said as mch to him.
He told me he wasn't making a physical threat. He said that he was a professional hypnotist, and that he cold hypnotize me over text...and that he wold do it, if I didn't apologize to his yong friend.