Gchat Rawks

Gchat has fundamentally changed the way we (Gchatters) communicate. Where once the distance that lies between two people was measured in miles, it is now measured in the time between simultaneous logins to Gmail. I see my friends every day, every time I log in and see their happy little round green faces (), and I get to chat away with them to my heart's content. Indeed I find myself in better touch with friends half-way across the country than friends half-way down the street, simply because of how well our gmailing schedules match.

What makes Gchat so great is its beautiful combination of simplicity (a bell-less, whistle-less, click, type, enter), convenience (I'm already logged in to Gmail), expedience (As opposed to that e-mail you sent me. I'll reply later. I will. Really. I promise. I mean I don't know when, just later...), and low-stress non-intrusiveness (cuz now that I just woke you up with this phone call, I'm way too distracted by how pissed off you sound to remember what it was I had to say. If only there were a little circle and status message telling me whether or not you were available, and a little box where I could organize my thoughts into words before sending them, without listening to an awkward silence over the scratchy phone line...).

And then, of course, there are emoticons. There is one school of thought that believes deep within its soul that emoticons give you a beautiful language of pictures and happiness to express yourself and connect with another person's inner spirit. There is another that says using emoticons makes a person seem gay. The two schools feed off each other in a symbiotic cycle of flamboyance and belligerence. But whatever the case may be, it is definitely true that when used appropriately, emoticons can capture some of the more elusive conversational nuance that was formerly the exclusive domain of face-to-face conversation. A fairly inclusive list of emoticons, including various less-known "easter egg" emoticons are available on this random blog.

My search for a more exhaustive list of emoticons has also led me to discover a fascinating new way to waste time. By holding alt, typing in a combination of numbers, and then releasing alt, you can access a whole host of special characters. (only works if you type on the num-pad, for those of you with full keyboards. This won't(?) work if you try using the numbers above your alphabet keys, sorry) Heres a sample of the first 40 or so:

1	☺
2	☻
3	♥
4	♦
5	♣
6	♠
7	•
8	◘
9	○
10	◙
11	♂
12	♀
13	♪
14	♫
15	☼
16	►
17	◄
18	↕

19	‼
20	¶
21	§
22	▬
23	↨
24	↑
25	↓
26	→
27	←
28	∟
29	↔
30	▲
31	▼
32
33	!
34	"
a few from 35-183	#$%&'()*+,-./012 FPZ[cdx}éá╛┤╡╢╢

This list goes up into the thousands (700 = '╝', 1000 = Φ)


Is fascinating no? No.

Anyway, gchat rocks.