Jargon, slang, lingo, and / or expressions I've picked along up the way.

Some additional backstory on some of this can be found here regarding some backstory on my interest in professional wrestling.  There's a lot more that I could have said there. There's a reasonable chance that I probably will say more in the future.  Today is about one specific thing that includes my interest in that and many other things.  That thing is "professional jargon" as well as other slang and lingo related to various fields and interests.

Over the years, I have had the fortune (and at times misfortune if I am being honest) of making some interesting acquaintances.  Some of those acquaintances have become friends or I have least remained friendly with, some have become folks who have fallen into the category of "someone that I use to know", and a few have been relegated to certain categories that are best summarized as "ways to ruin an otherwise decent day".  I'm not naming name to any of those as it is not the point.

My general rule of thumb has always been that I will do my best to try to support my friends in their various creative or sports endeavors.  Truthfully, I should say any endeavors but there are some places that I still will not shop at, eat at, or frequent simply because I have a friend who works there. (Most of those friends know it is nothing personal.)  Nevertheless, I have become more of a wine and mead fan in the past year or so than I ever thought I would be due to my best friend and his fiancée beginning to make their own homemade wine, mead and occasional home brewed beer. I've gone to pro-wrestling shows that I had no interest in more times than I can count so I could support friends who were on the card. Oh and I've gone to a few REALLY BAD indie film screening so I could support friends who involved as cast and crew.  So... I mean... stranger things have happened.

Part of that general process for me is trying to learn a little more about what the heck it is that they are doing.  I'm not saying that I try to become an expert on it but I do like to try to know enough that if my opinion were asked about a topic then I would know what they were talking about. At the very least, I like to know enough to be able to follow what is going on with what they are involved in doing.  To some extent, I like to be able to put things into terms that might be recognizable to them if I have to explain something that they are not familiar with or to be aware of terms that might have a different meaning for them than it would for someone in another field.  

For the most part, it is not uncommon for a lot or lingo, slang, and jargon from various professions to become part of the mainstream vernacular.  I'm quite aware of this and I'm also aware that it can be as much a good thing as a bad thing.  There is also some overlap at times where terms used in one profession might mean something different in another.   As I said, I've picked up stuff along the way over the years from working in restaurants, retail, and journalism as well as from other friends and their ventures.  There's also a lot of things that I have not fully picked up on that I probably should have by now.  For example, I have no idea if I use the "Kappa" emote correctly on Twitch. Half the time I just make the assumption that I am and hope for the best.  The other half of the time is where I generally don't care if I am using it right because "eff 'em if they can't take a joke".  The biggest problem for me is tech jargon and tech stuff in general.  I tried keeping up for a while but I kinda gave up on it about ten years or so ago.  I manage to pick up on stuff here and there to where I am not completely tech illiterate but I am by no means "on top of things" nor do I expect to be anytime soon.  Truthfully, I have no explicit desire to be on top of things tech wise either.  

I've by no means managed to keep all that knowledge inside my head over the years either.  I mean we are talking a few decades worth of stuff to be jumbled up in my old brain.  (I turn 45 in a few weeks so go figure. A few of my pro-wrestler friends and acquaintances remark how their memory isn't great due all the shots they have taken to the head.  I usually respond, "at least you all have an excuse".)  That said, I have picked up on various jargon, lingo, and even expressions over the years from various places.  Most of the jargon I use is related to either film and television production or journalism but there's a good bit of jargon that I use from professional wrestling (for better or worse). And that is relating to the stuff that I know I consciously use... I am quite sure that I use other stuff as well. 

Though here's the thing: As much as I know my rationale for my interest in jargon and lingo, etc, I am also quite aware that some folks might be a bit caught off guard with some of the lingo and even expressions that I regularly use in conversation. I may very few apologies for this but I wanted to make a post explaining a bit of the backstory on why things are that way with me. I encourage folks to ask if they don't get an expression I use and I will try to explain it the best I can.

Oh yeah!  I am planning a future post which will involve some of those expressions and jargon that I use regularly.  And that post will likely be edited over time as I know there will be new things that I get asked about or I feel necessary to add.  So yeah, stay tuned.  

Cheers.