On A Mission
Posted: August 21st, 2007 | Author: saldarji | Filed under: stuff | 3 Comments »Novell has an interesting culture. Because we have a large campus in Provo, and because of our long history in Utah, a lot of people at Novell are either Mormon or former church members. One of my coworkers shared some church terminology that I think is interesting and useful.
The first extremely useful word is “trunky.”Homesick. Refers to the act of sitting on one’s packed trunk, eagerly looking forward to the day when one’s mission will end.Another word that can be used to refer to someone is “bucket.” My co-worker said that is a good term to use when referring to someone who is of little use. However, the reference I found online defines it as:
Calgary Canada Mission slang for a lazy missionary who habitually breaks the rules. Derivation uncertain.I have to give an accolade to William Shunn, sci-fi author, who has posted a dictionary of Mormonspeak. I think it may come in handy while I work at Novell. Not that I know what a mission is like, but I guess that my consulting gig at Wal-Mart probably resembles one in a few respects. We’re not in Bentonville to plant a church, but we are here to plant the seeds of Open Source. Let’s just hope it doesn’t turn into the “two best years of my life.” (That’s how many Mormons refer to their mission…read the dictionary.)
Hey Sal -
Interesting terminology there, and thanks for the link to the dictionary.
One thing though — you link to a wikipedia entry for Christian missions. I realize than LDS members consider their church “Christian”, but an LDS mission is a very unique beast, very unlike other more “mainstream” Christian missions. Even wiithin the Christian mainstream there is incredible variation between the objectives, structures, make-up of “missions”. Some are like the Peace Corps, some are literally called “crusades” with tent revivals, as just two examples.
None of which include “companions” wearing white shirts and riding bikes. B^)
-Bob
Bob,
Thanks for the reply! I have changed the link to refer specifically to Mormon Missionaires. The link I used before is here.
I wonder if some day someone will look back on all the different flavors of Open Source and do a comparison with the diversity of Christian beliefs. After all, there are a lot of people who already analogize open source to a religion.
Sal
Hi, Sal–
Thanks for the link to my Mormon dictionary. If you do want to know more about what a Mormon mission is like, you could try the memoir which I serialize in my podcast. Of course, in some important respects my experience was not necessarily typical….
Bill Shunn