Today's adventure in novel writing a "period piece" (in 2008 lol) is the many terms and words we use now that did not exist (or were not in wide use) in 2008 and therefore I cannot use.

Today's entry: "polycule".

Today's entry: "misgender"

Today's entry: "dad bod"

Today's entry: "weird flex"

Today's entry: "wokescold"

Today's entry: "emoji"

Today's entry: "respectability politics"

Half the replies to this thread are variants on "that term existed in 2008, I heard a guy at my college say it/an obscure academic said it/etc". 1) it's just a fun thread on neologisms 2) I use google search trends to determine if a word/term was in common use or not

today's entry: "side hustle"

today’s entry: “Thanks, Obama”

This is a dumb neologisms thread, yes (so please stop giving me advice on other words I can use), but I do also enjoy people trying to figure out wtf this book is about and why I’d need to find alternatives to these neologisms in the first place. (Yes, it’s got aliens in it).