SENT WITH A SMILEY FACE ?
July 17, 2021
Good Saturday morning. I'm author Richard V. Rupp, writing from sizzling Burbank, California. Welcome to Rupp's Notes/FBI Special Agent Hartman Series posts.
My challenge yesterday was getting the frozen foods I had bought at Cosco home before they thawed. Just the time it took to push the basket from the store to the car and then unload the groceries pretty well-heated everything up.
Just in case you missed it, today is WORLD EMOJI DAY!
I love doing my research on this. It is suggested that THE NEW YORK TIMES is responsible for the first use of an emoticon — ':)' — when they misprint a transcribed copy of President Abraham Lincoln's speech. I tried typing the above emoticon symbols into my computer, and an actual smiley face came up.???? Turns out my computer has the emoji keyboard program, which allows you to use keystrokes to produce different emojis. Who knew?
It is indicated that the first emoji was created in1999 by the Japanese artist Shigetaka Kurita.
Wait, what is the difference between an 'emoji' and an 'emoticon?'
You know me and words - An emoticon, short for "emotion icon," also known simply as an emote, is a pictorial representation of a facial expression using characters—usually punctuation marks, numbers, and letters—to express a person's feelings, mood or reaction, or as a time-saving. An emoji is "a small digital image or icon used to express an idea, emotion, etc.."
I had to get these definitions from an internet dictionary as the print edition of my 2000 'Webster's New World College Dictionary' does not have either term. The 'Oxford Dictionary' didn't include the word emoji until 2015.
I have learned that in today's world, words are not enough. Communications are now supplemented with smiley faces, flying hearts, avocados, unicorns, etc... To us old-timers, this may seem silly, but according to various psychologists and researchers, emoji plays a vital role in the way we communicate today.
Have you noticed in newspaper photos and media shows the length of people's hair these days? The buzz cut or at least short hair is in. I watched Jeopardy two nights ago, and all three contestants had buzz cuts. Of course, one of the contestants was a U.S. Marine Officer.
What climate change is bringing. The buzz cut. The 20-year-old model Iris Law has a new platinum buzzcut. She says it is both "liberating" and "revolutionary." "The day I shaved my head, I changed my life."
Then there is the new 'mirror' fabric. The fabric looks like an everyday T-shirt. But it can cool the body by nearly 5°C. The researchers who designed it say it's to help people protect themselves against rising temperatures caused by climate change.
For some reason, Facebook got in touch with me about my banned posts. I think we worked something out, but I'm not sure. Between their various departments that seem to like to pass the buck back and forth (all working from home) and their algorithms, who knows? As part of the solution, they sent me several emails that referred me to info on their website. I checked out the information, which consisted of a bunch of legalize and gobblygook recommendations that just further confused me. I remember that you don't want to set up departments that just send things back and forth from my business management day. Unless you're a civil servant in government, where it's expected.
Back to words. What are 'social networking companies?' Utilities? Broadcasters? Publishers? Are they discriminatory? What responsibilities do they have for editing or limiting content? Who controls them? Many elected officials, dictators, civil servants, and people, in general, are seeking the answers to these questions at the moment.
Back to working on my upcoming novel SKYWARD, and finishing my binge-watching of "The Man in the High Castle."
Cheers,
Richard V. Rupp, Author
Website – www.richardvrupp.com
Email – rupprisk@gmail.com
Copyright©2021 by Richard V. Rupp