Weekly Update - 164 (Patreon)

Oh hey, I'm getting older soon. Yeah, so anyway...

Riley comic #7 is still coming. It's almost done, the Gremlin side of the page just needs something extra to make it a little more up to my own standards of quality.  Probably be done/posted either late today or tomorrow.

I spoke to my publisher/best friend this week as well, he says that in order for me to get the book published in August, he needs me to get him all the finished pages in June. June's creeping up quick, so I'm going to probably just hammer on that after this week, get it done, and out the door, and that should be that! Final stretch? Final stretch, let's goooooo!!

Volume #1: 40/72 pages done.

Drawing: Riley #7, then MagentiumPRIME's character sheet.

Playing: Rimworld (while I wait for AoW4 still - 9 days!)

Ramble:

Of all things to spark the topic for a ramble... today's is brought to you by a brief discussion we had on Discord about the proper usage of "UwU" and "OwO."

It's the sort of thing where I apparently have a LOT to say about this topic, but because the discussion we were having on Discord was silly, it doesn't really feel appropriate for me to suddenly dump several deep-brain paragraphs of text into the chat. So doing might make the others in the chat uncomfortable with my spontaneous break from the social norms of an innocent and lighthearted discussion. So here you go. I'll do it here instead, HYUCK!

UwU and OwO are, at their core, nonsensical terms that are generally associated with the furry fandom. Originally meant to be emojis, due to their vague resemblance of faces, they've gained prominence and popularity on the internet largely because they are also pronounceable: OO-WOO and Oh-Woh, respectively, which gives them an almost "cute" vocalization and has landed them somewhere in the category of "baby-talk" (read: the sounds we humans generally like to make with our mouths when accosting babies of any species.) Terms that have a pronunciation, or from which pronunciation can be derived (ex. lol), often seem to proliferate far more broadly than those that don't, possibly due to being easier to remember simply because it is possible to say them aloud in conversation or while typing them.

To find comprehensive definitions for OwO and UwU, I've decided to ask ChatGPT. Here's its response:

/Start of AI Text.

"OwO" typically represents a face with large, wide eyes and a mouth forming an "O" shape, which is meant to convey a sense of surprise, innocence, or excitement. The "w" in "OwO" is often used to represent the animal's nose or snout.

"UwU," on the other hand, typically represents a face with closed eyes and a smiling mouth, with the "U" and "w" used to represent the eyes and the mouth, respectively. "UwU" is often used to convey a sense of happiness, contentment, or playfulness.

/End of AI Text.

Now, obviously that description of the terms only lightly scratches the surface, because they've appeared constantly over the years in various memes and other places that cause us to associate them with different and deeper meanings. Some of them NSFW, some not. But depending on where we've seen the terms and what we associate them with, their meanings change.... I'm getting ahead of myself though.

I might argue just from my own knowledge that OwO is actually the OG term, while UwU is a somewhat "newer" version: a modification of the original that has taken on its own meaning and pronunciation. That's something that ChatGPT also confirms for me, and as we all know, ChatGPT is NEVER WRONG. >.>

In any case, OwO and UwU are a part of the furry community's long-standing identity. Not all that long ago, the terms could be used to find or identify other furries in larger internet chat groups, almost like a secret code, as only other furries might recognize their meaning beyond just being a silly face emoji. However, they've since been adopted more broadly by internet culture as a whole, and while they are still strongly associated with furries, you see them everywhere now, being used both ironically and not. I suppose you might still be able to use them to find other furries in a chat, but it's no longer any form of secret code. The terms are known by all.

And now that I've taken time to DEFINE these terms and cover their origins, let's head back around to the part of language and words that fascinates me to no end: We can STILL have a long and thoughtful discussion about what these "words" mean and how or when they should be used. There's no definitive correct answer, and their meaning might yet be different or specific to you and the people you are closest to. Their meaning may also be different depending on context and their placement in any given sentence. In addition, that meaning may continue to change over time, because language is always evolving, and never faster than in this age of the internet.

Words of all kinds and from all languages are completely meaningless unless a meaning is assigned to them, but their meaning also needs to be agreed upon by all members of any given discussion. Two people cannot share a word or have a conversation unless they both understand the meanings of the words being used. And the meaning of any specific word might shift from person pair to person pair, slightly or even greatly. For example, when speaking about your parents, you might say that you love your parents. It's true, but it's a very different definition of love than when you say you love your friends. Or your SO. Or your favorite video game. The meaning of the word changes depending on who is involved in the conversation and what the conversation is about, because the very meaning of words depends upon the mutual agreement between participants.

In similar fashion, I've often stated that I hate words. And that's also true. I have all the frustration and annoyance and sometimes anger with words that can be associated with a feeling like "hatred." But I also have all the fascination and interest in words that comes from a term more closely associated with something like "love." So it may be more accurate to say that I have a love-hate relationship with words. But that's long and cumbersome to say, so it's easier for me to just tell you I hate words, and for you to derive my meaning based on the subtext that we both mutually understand. I hate words, but I am also a writer, so I voluntarily immerse myself in the object of my hatred on a regular basis. That's a choice I probably wouldn't be making if hatred was truly the only feeling I had towards words.

You might think that there's not a whole lot more to say about this topic, but you'd be wrong!  There's a whole 'nother discussion to be had about how words proliferate based on the value of their FUNCTION as well. I have to end this somewhere though and I'm choosing to end it here. This is largely why I ramble: sometimes I can talk about a topic for pages and still never comprehensively cover that topic. Because nothing is so simple that words can describe. Not even words. :P

Anyway, if you have anything more to add, anything to contest, further points to make, our Discord server is always open for friendly discussion about furries, writing, language, or just hanging out or lurking or whatever!
https://discord.gg/M9sefN4Stj