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WASP WTF

Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 11:05 am
by alex.barylski
So in attempting to come up with a name for my security library, I decide that WASP is pretty cool, which stands for Web Application Security Protocol.

So I do a quick Google and discover it's already taken, but thats ok...

Then I google a little more and find this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WASP

WTF :lol:

White Anglo-Saxon Protestant

Cool...I'm white...and my mother is of Irish decent, although I've never even been baptised and I like it that way...I do speak English only...

So I guess that makes me a WASP...

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

I'm gonna get that tattooed on my neck...right beside my maple leaf :)

Cool...I've honestly never heard of that before...probably cuz I'm Canadian and the term seems to be more geared towards Yankees, rather than Canucks... :P

Anyone ever heard this before?

Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 11:09 am
by RobertGonzalez
Maybe its an American slang, but I thought everyone in the world knew what a WASP was. In fact, when I read the title of your post I thought "Oh man, where is this going...?".

Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 11:16 am
by Todd_Z
Yea... thats a derogatory term... not so sure you picked up on that

Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 11:33 am
by alex.barylski
Everah wrote:Maybe its an American slang, but I thought everyone in the world knew what a WASP was. In fact, when I read the title of your post I thought "Oh man, where is this going...?".
After reading that Wiki I got the impression it's American slang, as it refers to an elite society in the North East originally doesn't it?

Ivy leagus schools, etc...I don't know if Canada even has Ivy league schools :P

In any case I never heard of that term in my life and I've heard alot of terms...

Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 11:36 am
by RobertGonzalez
I haven't read the WIKI, but if I remember correctly, this was actually a descriptive term used to describe a sect of people early on in American culture. I could be wrong. Maybe I should read the WIKI. :lol:

Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 11:37 am
by alex.barylski
Todd_Z wrote:Yea... thats a derogatory term... not so sure you picked up on that
Meh...I don't take offense to that...

Call me cracker, white trash, whatever...I've never found any offensive...

It's personal attacks, in which I don't have an entire race to fall back on or support me that I take offense too...even those are loosing weight slowly...

Stick and stones may break my bones...yadda yadda... :P

Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 11:40 am
by Burrito
Hockey wrote:Call me cracker, white trash, whatever...I've never found any offensive...
apparently you did here viewtopic.php?t=48349&highlight= 8O

Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 11:46 am
by RobertGonzalez
There is something about the name AshraktheWhite that is making me crack up. I don't even know why. I am literally Laughing Out Loud (LOL). Whoo, I guess I needed that.

Yeah, WASP turned into a negative descriptive term along the lines of many other negative terms used around the USA (and I am guessing the world as a whole). It is something that I think is not in use much anymore, although I am sure there are some ignorant few that would use it just because.

Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 12:00 pm
by alex.barylski
Everah wrote:I haven't read the WIKI, but if I remember correctly, this was actually a descriptive term used to describe a sect of people early on in American culture. I could be wrong. Maybe I should read the WIKI. :lol:
No that pretty much sums it up...

Irish decent...elite society...typically Yankees...which I've always assumed meant North, whereas confederates were from the south...but it seems WASP's are north eastern...

Man that sucks...I wish my forefathers would have went south instead of North :P

Seriously...I'd probably be a lot better off...

It's really true in my case...

Werid story: I did a Google Fights comparison of my name a while back against my friends...

My name is Alex Barylski - Barylski isn't exactly like Smith or Anderson...it's a small family tree...any decedants are likely related to me somehow... (Barylski means barrel maker in Polish :P )

So when I do a google I get back waaaaay more results than I expect...some are mine but I find a few others...then I stumble across an Alexander S Barylski who is a lawyer from Harvard :twisted:

I'm like WTF...what hell is my name doing in a harvard law school...I dropped out in Gr. 10 :lol:

So I investigate...and turns out there is another Alexander S Barylski on the planet (we even share the same middle initial)...

Weird thing is...he even looks like me a little 8) naturally I'm slightly better looking...but still... :P

Anyways the point is...I contact him and say dude...we share the same name...and we look alike and he's only slightly older...so I could totally goto NY and pose as a lawyer... :P

I'm just kidding...I didn't say that...but I probalby could....

I can't remember the point of this story anymore :(

Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 12:04 pm
by alex.barylski
Burrito wrote:
Hockey wrote:Call me cracker, white trash, whatever...I've never found any offensive...
apparently you did here viewtopic.php?t=48349&highlight= 8O
Easy there buddy...I did say I was joking didn't I? :?

Besides there is a *real* difference in someone suggesting racial genocide or just making fun...ie: calling me a cracker or white trash, serious or not...doesn't strike me the same as someone suggesting racial cleansing...

Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 12:04 pm
by RobertGonzalez
Can't... stop... laughing...

Oh man that was some funny stuff. I would so not have any luck googling my name (Robert Gonzalez). It is some common around here (northern California) that there are three of us working at the same company. Wierd side note, one of those other guys used to live right around the corner from me when I was younger. I used to get called in to the principals office at school for a 'talking to' on more than one ocassion just to have the principal find out it was the other RG, not me.

Of course, he's no lawyer :cry: . But neither am I so I guess we're just stuck being common folk.

Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 12:11 pm
by alex.barylski
Everah wrote:Can't... stop... laughing...

Oh man that was some funny stuff. I would so not have any luck googling my name (Robert Gonzalez). It is some common around here (northern California) that there are three of us working at the same company. Wierd side note, one of those other guys used to live right around the corner from me when I was younger. I used to get called in to the principals office at school for a 'talking to' on more than one ocassion just to have the principal find out it was the other RG, not me.

Of course, he's no lawyer :cry: . But neither am I so I guess we're just stuck being common folk.
I never had that problem...although I did attend one school where there was another Barylski...

A 2nd cousin...but never knew him prior too going to that school...

He was the bad kid of the school...and occasionally I would get into sticky situations because our last names were similar...until I explained I was Alex..not Chad... :P

Re: WASP WTF

Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 12:24 pm
by Christopher
Hockey wrote:White Anglo-Saxon Protestant

Cool...I'm white...and my mother is of Irish decent, although I've never even been baptised and I like it that way...I do speak English only...
Interesting that you said Irish because that may be where the earliest distinction comes from: Irish Catholics vs English/Irish Protestants. But the term later took on a slightly more racial connotation meaning those of Northern European descent vs those of Southern European descent. It also points out a continuing cultural divide in America (and the world) between the more secular vs the more religious/traditional. That may be why the term has faded a little, because the WASPs of the Southern and Central US have proven to be quite different in that sense from the Northeastern WASP.

Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 1:19 pm
by Roja
Hockey wrote:Call me cracker, white trash, whatever...I've never found any offensive...
Just for clarification, its pretty much the opposite of that. The stereotype that goes with the term WASP is generally one of an upper-class, affluent, rich white person. Extending it a bit, in the political arena, the term is used to imply that a majority of their political decisions is based on their faith.

Like most derogatory terms, applying the term to a wide group of people makes the term inaccurate, exposes an unfair bias, and overgeneralizes. Plus, its just rude.

I'm surprised you haven't heard the term.. but, and I say this with no sarcasm, I really wish I could say that I hadn't heard a number of other derogatory terms. The world would be a much better place if far more people could say that.

Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 2:12 pm
by alex.barylski
Roja wrote:
Hockey wrote:Call me cracker, white trash, whatever...I've never found any offensive...
Just for clarification, its pretty much the opposite of that. The stereotype that goes with the term WASP is generally one of an upper-class, affluent, rich white person. Extending it a bit, in the political arena, the term is used to imply that a majority of their political decisions is based on their faith.

Like most derogatory terms, applying the term to a wide group of people makes the term inaccurate, exposes an unfair bias, and overgeneralizes. Plus, its just rude.

I'm surprised you haven't heard the term.. but, and I say this with no sarcasm, I really wish I could say that I hadn't heard a number of other derogatory terms. The world would be a much better place if far more people could say that.
I've never heard that term...I swear to you...

It's not like were secluded from the rest of the country or the world...

I have been exposed to pretty much the same TV any American has in addition to Canadian TV channels...and some british channels...

Some words I guess just don't apply in some areas...

For instance...not many people know what a "Gitch" is...but if you live in the city I do...you certainly do :)

I've been exposed to an enourmous amount of diversity living in this city...as Winnipeg is likely one of the most diverse places on the planet...going to the hospital here is like checking out a multi-cultural symposium...

I went a few months ago cuz of an accident I had...and I swear I was the only person that spoke english...to my right was like a Romanian family straight ahead was a Ukranian family...left of me Filipinos...I couldn't figure out what the others were... :P

Anyways my point is...I haven't exactly lived under a rock for the last 27 years...I've travelled a fare bit, having a father who worked for a major airline helped...but mostly in Canada only (but coast to coast) once to Florida when I was about 5 (don't remember) and 2-3 years ago to Texas for some client I was working with :P

I love Dallas...I'm moving to Dallas...one day...keep a home here...and one in Dallas...

Crazy cuz Winnipeg in only about 20 KM west of Dallas...but 2100 some miles North...I can't remember the numbers and I'm too lazy to lookup a map...

But the terrain and everything is very similar...only Winnipeg is safer...and much colder in Winter :)

Maybe thats why I like Dallas so much :)

That....and I could pretend to have a southern drawl...when I came back home...and get the ladies going on my "fake" accent :)