Disruptive Conversations

Ever since I started using Twitter, I have often been quite amused (and annoyed) by the various images with kittens that appeared whenever there was a server error.  The typical image has a cat inside a computer with words like "IM IN UR SERVER".  I usually either laughed or cursed... but I didn't realize that I'd missed the larger meme of which these are a part - a meme called "LOLCats". The Wikipedia entry for LOLcats naturally has plenty of interesting links.  It seems that this began about the beginning of the year or late in 2006.  The premiere site really seems to be "I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?" which started with this eponymous entry.  Around April 2007 there seems to have been a big explosion in interest and coverage.

I missed it all.  If you did, too, here's some links to get caught up:  :-)

• Slate slide show: "You cannot resist lolcats"
• Houston Chronicle: "I'M IN UR NEWSPAPER WRITIN MAH COLUM"
• im in mai blog, postin’ bout cats: The Cuteness of Grammatical errors
• Anil Dash: "Cats Can Has Grammar"  (about the grammar and forms of writing in LOLcats)
• lolcatr.com: the lolcat community and social networking site
• Tech.Chick.Blog: Thunderkits (a collection of LOLcats)
• im in ur programmz, codin in ur dialect: LOLCode and Feline Dialectology  (about a computer programming language based on LOLcats!)

And of course, should you wish to create your own LOLcat images, you might want to first read:

• LOL-Kitteh as a Second Language (LKSL-101) in Five Easy Steps

and then visit the:

• LOLCat Buildr

The linguist and lover of languages in me finds this all rather amusing... yet another way to abuse the English language!  Yet I admit that many of the images are amusing and fun...  just another one of those curious things to emerge from this thing we call the Internet.