The Origin of the Term “Thong Rig”

On the 28th of December 2010 a twitter conversation transpired between a number of people that resulted in the birth of a term. That term is “Thong Rig”. To be “Thong Rigged” is to have the auto correct change the spelling of a word resulting in you looking like an idiot.

We have all had that happen to us, especially those of us using Apple devices like iPhones and iPads. The auto correct can be somewhat unkind at the best of times. This conversation however was one of the funniest I have ever had on twitter. Making it funnier was the fact that my wife (@Kate_Gray) was sitting right next to me as it happened. She was laughing her head off.

This is an attempt by myself to reconstruct that conversation as best I can. It is unfortunate that the timeline in twitter will only go back 7 hours. So I had to construct this using links and trying to remember what happened. So it might not be 100% perfect. But what it does do is convey the general idea and I don’t think the meaning is lost.

Have a read and you’ll know what we are talking about when we say; “You’ve been thong rigged”. Thong rigging also has it’s own hash tag #thongrig so feel free to use it and spread the meme.

Many Thanks to:

• @Kate Gray
• @Jameswilliams90
• @Space_Cadet
• @Fifikins
• @BZB
• @Superspeechie

for the damn funny experience!

Back on the 28th of December 2010

The_Rooster: PLEASE follow @Kate_Gray she has so few followers she is checking up on what I tweeted like a freaking day ago!!!! Please save me….

space_cadet: My wife @Superspeechie has 4 followers, me, my brother, his wife, and Julia freakin’ Gillard…please follow my lovely wife 🙂

The_Rooster: @space_cadet: retreated in sympathy mate

The_Rooster: @space_cadet make that retweeted – stoopid auto correct

The_Rooster: Ok now she is covering up her iPhone not wanting me to see her tweets… Before they are tweeted geeze

BZB: @The_Rooster @Kate_Gray This is going to be fun *makes popcorn, gets comfy* ;D

Kate_Gray: @The_Rooster go bite me can’t keep up with those people i’m friends with

The_Rooster: @Kate_Gray but your quoting my bloody tweets!!! Not the interesting people

Fifikins: @The_Rooster @Kate_Gray Twitter is not a place for domestics 😉

Kate_Gray: The things that @The_Rooster talks me into

Fifikins: @BZB My money’s on@Kate_Gray (sorry @The_Rooster!)

BZB: @Fifikins I’m with you!

Kate_Gray: @The_Rooster I have better thongs to do and someone has to look after the lifs

jameswilliams90: @Kate_Gray @The_Rooster damn autothongy!

space_cadet: @Kate_gray btw, whats a “lif” 😉

The_Rooster: Shit a bloody brick now there is a book going on who the winner is going to be. She might wear the f^*%ing thong but I wear the pants baby!

space_cadet: @Kate_gray @the_rooster lol – thongs to do 😀

The_Rooster: @Kate_Gray ROFLMHO that’s gold and the old auto correct bit you rig on the arse!!!

BZB: @The_Rooster Bwahahahaha!

space_cadet: @the_rooster bit “rig” in the arse…wow – snapped!!

jameswilliams90: @Kate_Gray @The_Rooster damn autothongy!

jameswilliams90: @space_cadet @the_rooster @kate_gray don’t want to get your thong caught in the rig…

space_cadet: @jameswilliams90 for sure – getting anything stuck in a thong rig, arse or not, is gonna give you the shits. Especially if you have lifs!

space_cadet: @the_rooster @Superspeechie my rig never gets stuck 😉

superspeechie: @space_cadet pretty cool though. Julia is interested in my tweets lol

The_Rooster: @space_cadet @jameswilliams90 yeah byb gosh those lifs can be a pain in the rig

Fifikins: @The_Rooster do they fit you rig on the arse?

The_Rooster: @Fifikins the are no rigs on my arse just for the record….

Fifikins: @The_Rooster that’s what she said 😀

jameswilliams90: @The_Rooster @space_cadet @kate_gray *crying*

Kate_Gray: Laughing so much have tears in my eyes

The_Rooster: @jameswilliams90 @kate_gray she’s wetting herself….

Kate_Gray: @space_cadet kids

The_Rooster: @jameswilliams90 @space_cadet @kate_gray yeah it was that funny here as well

space_cadet: Bed time – night all.

jameswilliams90: @space_cadet night night, don’t let the rig thongys bit.

Kate_Gray: Going to have to watch that auto correct or fix up my typing on small keyboard

The_Rooster: @Kate_Gray excuses excuses…

I hope that goes some way to explaining Thong Rig…

Feel free to follow me on twitter @The_Rooster

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House Extensions Update 2

I got home this afternoon and I was excited to see that the frame has gone up on the ground floor. The dividing wall between the two rooms is missing but I am guessing that it will go in tomorrow.

I managed to get out before it got too dark and take some photos. I took the boys down as well and they had a great time walking around and getting a feel for what it will look like when it is finished.

Initially we were concerned about the size of the rooms. We had the plan revised before they started. But we were never 100% sure that we allowed enough and made the rooms large enough. Today I was pleased to have a look at what will be my study and actually visualize the room size and where things will go. The rooms are going to be great. No regrets so far as to design and sizing. Although we do have the upstairs floor to go yet. But things are looking good.

No doubt with the dividing frame tomorrow there will be yet another hole into some fixture. But I am getting used to that!

More images on flickr

Destroy Your Website Or Someone Else’s

Well temporarily at least. NetDisaster gives you the opportunity to create chaos on any website on the Internets.

When you arrive your greeted with few text fields to fill in. Web site URL, the type of disaster you would like to inflict there are many to choose from and include flood to “acid pee” and dinosaurs. Once the type of disaster is selected you can choose a few other options as well, like sound. Select if the process is self healing or “massive”. Then “GO”! Simple time waster, but then the best ones are simple.

The page loads with the website you entered and the mayhem starts in either automatic mode or mouse control mode. You’ll notice also that there is a toolbar at the top of the page. This allows you to change the type of disaster at any time without reloading the page. This is thanks to the fact that the page is rendered in flash. Because of that it is just an image and the links etc won’t work.

If you want to send the page and settings to a friend via email you can do that as well. Finally you can cancel the animations and the options and load the webpage as per usual. There are also some other options available via a pull down menu on the right hand side, it is all pretty self explanatory.

Great time waster and a bit of fun. The animations are well done and as I said, simple but heaps of fun. Go ahead and wreck your site. Heck aliens attacked mine! Although I liked the flooding one as well but due to my colour scheme it was a bit lost on it.

I suggest that you get to your workmates’ PC load up their current page and set to work invoking some disaster, timed right so that almost total destruction is complete on their return to their desk.

Skydiving in Second Life

Listeners of the podcast would know that I have been delving into Second Life recently. The GGP number 69 Special edition just came out also, recorded entirely in Second Life. I am really enjoying Second Life, the chatting and the interaction has been great. But this week I went looking for some excitement… I found it.

Second Life gives people the ability to do just about anything they want to. I am slowly discovering how far that can go. I have always wanted to go skydiving, when a Second Life (SL) friend offered to take me in SL I jumped at the opportunity, we had a blast!

First up I was given a free parachute. Now the free version is not that great but it works. It puts you into a freefall pose and stops you hitting the ground with an auto deploy. On your float down you can see the canopy wires and nothing else. There is also no control over flight direction. So we did a bit of jumping from high objects in SL. These came in the form of floating platforms that we flew up to. If you want to give this a try in SL you will need “The Flight Feather”. Without it you won’t be able to fly very high, you reach a ceiling and go no further, with it the ceiling is 4000 meters.

One thing worth noting is that the spatial awareness of the voice communication in SL really added to the experience. Imagine the diminishing volume coming from an avatar that just jumped off a building! Adds to the reality and the fun of it all.

Now while the jumping from objects was great, it was hard to find ones that were high enough and at great locations. So in our search for better locations, we found the jump pod. Wow! The pod is able to seat four people, it is powered and can get you up as high as 4000 meters in seconds. Before this we were jumping from, at most 500 meters. Woot! Ignore the funny pose of the avatar in the photo, some stupid faulty script about an hour earlier. Although I laughed every time I saw him…

Now we had the ability to get to a greater height we started to review our parachutes and figured that there had to be beter ones out there. For a small price there is. The Mark III chute is the next step up and we got ours for about 200 Linden (One US dollar will get you 269 Linden dollars, or there abouts). Now this chute gives you many more options:

• Visual chute
• Flight control
• Target
• Wind noise
• Plus it will keep track of your in world scores

There are a few other features, but can’t remember them 😛

So we did a few drops with our pods and our new chutes. I laughed so hard and so long I had tears running down my face. My jump buddy was likewise impressed with the experience, we got some awesome photos, especially since they were taken with the new beta version of the viewer; WindLight. Another day dawns on SL.

One of the absolute funniest things that happened during this time was that we found a great dropzone and went from the pod at 4000 M. In SL you can build in the sky, as long as you stay on the alloted area that defines your land. Seems we found a wayward building on this jump and smacked straight into it at Terminal Velocity.

You might see it in the photo, but yup that is a graveyard, it seems we were not the first to discover it. Note the structures in the back ground (you can’t see them at 4000 M!).

Yesterday, we found that there was a model up from ours and we went ahead and bought the “Pro” version for an extra 100 Lindens. Money well spent and we should have got this one in the first place since it was a bit over one US dollar!

Now as well as the features above we now have added stuff that really does make this an experience worth having:

• Deployment control
• Altimeter HUD
• Stunts
• Realistic controls like flaring; don’t do it and you fall over and get knocked for the “hard” landing
• Customizable textures (colours and look)
• Extra animations in the script like a pool of blood when things don’t go right

Using the new chutes we found that we were able to also do co-ordinated stunt work, have heaps more fun and even attempt some base jumping. Although the base jumping has it’s issues, note the above example. The closer you are to the ground the more sky junk there is, we discovered a lot of it. I have also base jumped from the new HQ of The Podcast Network in SL, I think that is a first. We are on the lookout for more sites to jump from so let us know if you find anything in SL that you think is worth a look.

There is a lot more to this than I have included here. It is damn fun though and if you would like some help getting started then look me up in SL. My name in Second Life is “Rooster Rubble”. Say hello and how you know me. Don’t forget to get the viewer and register first!

Finally this is the best photo that was taken by CannedTuna on our first dive into Skydiving in SL, impressive isn’t it? Also thanks to Gary for being by jump buddy and exploring skydiving in Second Life.

Image by CannedTuna

Twitter Poster, How Influential are You?

There is a bit of buzz on twitter about a new site called twitter poster. The sites purpose is to visually represent the degree of influence that twitter users have. The size of the image relates to the number of followers. I guess that would mean it is better to have fewer followers and more influence, not sure.

There are different editions of the site, a twitter poster (.com) but also versions for Australia and Mexico (?). I checked out the Aussie one and it turns out that I am in the poster, as well as characters like Michael Specht and Kodo. Yet Cam Reilly is on the .com. I think that the dot com might be a global poster, so I guess that is good. But Cam doesn’t rate a mention on the Aussie version. It might have something to do with your profile.

If you use twitter it is pretty interesting and might get you connected with some interesting people. Yet I am not sure what gets you on the poster, I am not a heavy user of twitter yet I am there. There are obvious ones on the poster like Scoble who tweets everything. So go hard and try and get on the list, if you find out how then let me know. Diversion finished.

.com version here