The year was 199x. I was a newbie to the Internet and everything surrounding it. One of my housemates at that time had a dial-up account at 14k and was wise about the world (sort of) and was writing in ways that I had no idea about.

He was the very first person I ever met who was strictly anti-capitals and anti-punctuation. (I know that ee cummings could be classified in the same way, but unfortunately due to geographical and time constraints, I never met the illustrious poet in person).

“Who needs them? They’re useless.”

I was innocent to ways of the world, sheltered in a world in which paragraphs had to be indented exactly five spaces, every “t” had to be crossed, and being anti-establishment to me meant writing my “I’s” in a different cursive style.  Obviously, I was aghast at his suggestion.

He didn’t just suggest this form of writing to me; he actually used it. His e-mails read as if a third-grader from a developing nation had written them rather than a highly-educated sort of person. It was like texting before texting was even possible.

When I finally signed up for my first Rocketmail account, I daringly followed his lead. Or, at least, halfway. I did not use capitals, EVER. (Capitals here used for emphasis). I couldn’t find the courage within myself to go so far as to stop the use of punctuation- that would be akin to a written anarchy, wouldn’t it?

Now that texting is ubiquitous, I find myself once again behind the times. I am too slow, too unsure about the “new vernacular”, and am really not sure of all the abbreviations and when to use them and when not to. I am guessing that this is something that I will probably never really quite get the hang of.

A few years ago, Eats, Shoots, and Leaves was released to remind people the importance of punctuation, which some people take to be more important than others.

Today, I discovered a new punctuation mark (vias a vis Gawker) what is being termed an irony or sarcasm or irony mark. As someone who is not too afraid of the occasional use of sarcasm myself, I was pretty excited about this discovery and am pretty excited about passing this along. The software is Snarc Marc.