Random
Source Code
Random
Noun. - A potentially world-ending event strongly hyped by the media during a short period of time, then forgotten by the public after the world, evidently, does not end. Soon enough it will be followed by a new catastrophe in-the-making. These events often resonate with the public due to widespread popular feelings, such as Nature getting back at Man, scientists going too far, a sign of the End Times, or simply terrorists.
The most successful example in recent times is Maya fever, which has snowballed into an international cultural phenomenon and lasted for several years.
Hey, wasn't the BP oil spill going to destroy the world because of the methane bubble ready to explode under the Gulf of Mexico? Oh, nevermind.
The current Apocalypse of the month is the new large hadron collider at CERN, which some believe may create a black hole. Of course, this is patently ridiculous.
9π 2π
Verb. - To choose one's friends based on their race in order to end up with a thoroughly multi-ethnic social circle, with the goal of appearing as a sensitive, varied individual who doesn't see color. This is normally carried out by white people. Named after Benetton clothing company ads from the nineties, which were multi-ethnic to a fault. The word is rarely used by those who do it.
An offshoot of quirk hunting.
Ever since I told April that I have an Inuit pen pal, she's been begging me to show her his Facebook. She's just Benettonning.
Wesley went to a black mass to try and Benetton his circle of friends a bit. I don't think it's working.
34π 14π
Noun. - A nerd who is only interested in a very well-defined sub-subset of nerd culture. While nerds are generally believed to like comics, video games, D&D, sci-fi, anime and astrophysics all at the same time, the niche nerd enjoys one or two things and tends to ignore or downright repudiate the rest.
As a niche nerd of extremely refined taste, I find your proposition of going to Comic-Con downright laughable.
Don't bother trying to buy Mick a video game for his birthday; he only likes Japanese RPG's for the Playstation One made during the first half of the nineties.
8π 4π
Noun. - A male (usually young, bourgeois) who considers himself removed from the mainstream, yet is actually rooted quite firmly in it. Prone to posting Bob Dylan lyrics as status updates on Facebook, owning several pairs of Converse shoes and swearing by his copy of "Fight Club".
An alternachick is a female version of an alternadude; the concept is the same but the symptoms may vary. Alternachicks like antique shopping, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" and 'photography'.
The terms are often used derisively and in a condescending manner. Often coupled with ironic remarks.
Oh, yeah, Jake's a real alternadude. Spent all lunch trying to impress me with his theories on "Donnie Darko".
Did you see Lois's latest Facebook pictures? They're just a bunch of empty chairs with all this filtering crap going on. She's such an alternachick, that one.
4π 5π
Noun. - The belief, with varying degrees of seriousness, that the world will end on December 21, 2012, based on a highly idiosyncratic interpretation of the ancient Mayan Long Count calendar, which pinpoints this precise date as the end of a 125-year long cycle.
Why are we planning on having kids, anyway? It's not like they'll live to see 2013.
Katrina has a serious case of Maya fever. I don't think the "2012" movie helped matters at all.
1π 4π
Verb. - To answer a question with "What?" not because you misheard, but because you need a moment to process the information or think of an answer while the person repeats themselves. May be done multiple times in succession. Often a knee-jerk reaction.
Noun. - The action of stall-whatting.
Jainy didn't know how to explain the broken vase; she had to stall-what Mom like three times in a row when she asked her.
When Lorraine asked me if we were going out, I was so shocked I did a reflex stall-what.
1π 3π
The practice of choosing one's friends based on any interesting quirks, hobbies or characteristics they may have, in hopes that having an interesting group of friends will result in oneself becoming interesting. Personality is hardly taken into account. Quirk hunters tend to treat their prizes like accessories and trade them like PokΓΒ©mon cards.
Vanessa's a real treasure, I tell you. She rides a Vespa to work and has a pet chinchilla.
After three solid months of quirk hunting, Rodrigo had friended a Renaissance fair-loving guido, a Venetian carnival mask-collecting stripper, and an Arts student who wears eighties band shirts unironically!
5π 2π