The Art of 'Texst-ing'

You know what- text messaging is kind of weird. Ok, for the sake of this column let's put aside the convenience that a text message can allow- it's practical purposes for work or business, arranging a meeting for example. Just focus on the weird-factor. It allows a person to communicate with another almost telepathically. One can share those everyday thoughts, laughs - whatever they happen to be- at any time of the day. Those things that would commonly go untold or be forgotten within a day's span can be immediately shared.

I've been 'texst-ing' a lot lately. I refer to text messages as a 'texsst.' Spoken in that moderately gay voice that so many youth of the mid to late-nineties were able to do. You know the voice of Kip, from 'Napoleon Dynamite?' Well, that's the voice- his entire character is satire of said era. Anyways, I do that, speak with the lisp, raising my voice like a dinner bell because it's just so bizarre, the text. An old roommate of mine in Missoula, Butt-rock, was quite good at the voice...

I used to be anti-text, but that changed last spring. It happened that I just sort of hopped on board. Plus it is almost a requirement of my job to be on team text. A few years back though I remember my girlfriend at the time getting so pissed off and crelling (crying+yelling) at me because I would never respond to her texts. They just seemed so stupid and I thought that whispering sweet nothings to someone had more merit than digital love messages. Plus something around .50 a pop at the time? Yeah right. She couldn't understand my unchanging rationale.

Speaking of Government Camp however, there are a few up here that keep it real. Preston Strout- HCSC camp director- is one of them. He told us in a staff meeting the other day that he's "...anti-text." He even whipped out a little semi-Kip, mid-nineties, gay tone with his usage of the word. That's just something that happens it seems, the voice. I've come to enjoy this medium of communication though, and the thing that sparked this entry was earlier, not ten minutes ago, when I laughed out loud. I was thinking of a story my friend had told me earlier in the day. She was describing a drawing that she had done when she was in the second-grade. Once while in trouble, an adult supervising her had asked her to express her feelings via paper and pencil. Well, needless to say that that guy freaked out when he saw a rendition of himself with a knife going into him that was drawn by an eight year-old. She did it just to elicit a reaction out of the guy, as she could have been out playing or something. It was a funny story, and I wanted to let her know that, again, via phone-typing. Now go text someone the link to this story- you sick bastards.