Help me fill in the vowels: BTQSTD

May 18, 2008 12:09 AM

I make a fairly large monthly to-do list, usually a few words per task. But I omit the vowels for each word and put a dash for spaces, example: "RFLL-CLLNG-CRD" would be "REFILL CALLING CARD", here's one I can't solve...

BTQSTD is one from a while ago. I can't remember what it is; just can't figure it out. Maybe I missed a dash or maybe the words are ones not found in a dictionary.

posted by querty to writing & language (54 comments total)

Could STD be the word standard? Does that help?

If not...perhaps you should see a doctor. ;)
posted by phunniemee at 12:18 AM on May 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

BAT QUESTED?
BEAT QUEST DAY?

May I humbly suggest that omitting all vowels may not be the best solution in the future?
posted by chrisamiller at 12:19 AM on May 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

boutique(s)? td <-- no idea what to do with those two, I'll keep working on it
posted by InsanePenguin at 12:27 AM on May 18, 2008

Boutiques today?
posted by ten pounds of inedita at 12:29 AM on May 18, 2008

Or... Botique Saturday?
posted by ormondsacker at 12:40 AM on May 18, 2008

You're killing me man, this is all you got? I was gonna crash, but now I a lert. cause everybody loves a lert
What does yr 'Q' usually represent? That's the uncommon letter here.
posted by dawson at 12:42 AM on May 18, 2008

queen? quest? quiet? quiche? quack?
posted by dawson at 12:44 AM on May 18, 2008

balance transfer quarterly tax day?
posted by citystalk at 12:57 AM on May 18, 2008

beef tacos toasted?
posted by citystalk at 12:57 AM on May 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

Begin to quit smoking today?
a little help here OP? not to be rude, but there are a number of people trying to worry this out..ou ot oe oe i?
posted by dawson at 1:04 AM on May 18, 2008

Be Tested Quick - STD!
posted by Justinian at 1:25 AM on May 18, 2008 [9 favorites]

eponysterical!

My guess is that QST stands for 'question', or 'coast'

or

B TQS TD - Buy Tacos Today?

Boutique To Do?

Do you write or type? Are you sure those are the letters?
posted by lysdexic at 1:46 AM on May 18, 2008

BiT QueaSy ToDay
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 2:00 AM on May 18, 2008

Bad Transcription Questionably Saves Time - Dumb.
posted by loiseau at 2:02 AM on May 18, 2008 [10 favorites]

Buy The Quick Strike Today?
posted by divabat at 2:02 AM on May 18, 2008

Do you consider "y" a vowel?
Is Q for queue?
posted by meerkatty at 2:15 AM on May 18, 2008

Beat the Queue - Saturday?
posted by cholly at 2:17 AM on May 18, 2008

Boat Queues Today?
posted by kiripin at 2:23 AM on May 18, 2008

i imagine given your method you wouldn't bother using a T for the in either case. what's your job?

beat the queue, send tax deductions?
posted by Dillonlikescookies at 2:30 AM on May 18, 2008

(Awww, hell, I'll play.)

BT is a British telecom company. STD, or Subscriber Trunk Dialling - not to be confused with the more commonly used Drunk Dialling - is apparently part of the UK telephone system. Is it possible that you were going to ask BT a question about STD or something like that?
posted by rjs at 2:34 AM on May 18, 2008

BeTa QueST iDea
BeTa QueST iD (identification)
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 2:36 AM on May 18, 2008

It would help to know what is usually on your TODO lists...

My in the dark guess is, Better/Best To Question Something Than...
posted by Mijo Bijo at 2:41 AM on May 18, 2008

'Buy that coat stand'

(you know, the one you've had your eye on for *ages*)
posted by freya_lamb at 2:58 AM on May 18, 2008

something "Studio"; Batique Studio, for example? Or "Study"?

Buy the Quest [C]D?

Is it handwritten, or typed?
posted by taz at 3:04 AM on May 18, 2008

Beat Quest: Dungeon
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 3:07 AM on May 18, 2008

BT(?) Quarterly Statement Due?
posted by bunglin jones at 3:16 AM on May 18, 2008

Boat Quest Day?

That sounds fun.
posted by saturnine at 3:43 AM on May 18, 2008

mullac's definitely got it. Nothing else could fit better

On preview: did the mods delete mullac's answer?
posted by orthogonality at 3:51 AM on May 18, 2008

rjs's answer sounds pretty good to me... STD means interstate or long-distance call, so it sounds reasonable that you might want to ring British Telecom and ask something about STD calls (changing call plans?). (Assuming of course you are in the UK. Your profile doesn't say).

Otherwise, is there a chance your letters are wrong? QSTN are all the consonants from the word question, so maybe you had a question to ask somebody about BT (beat, boat, bite?).

Flying pretty blind here, any more hints? :)
posted by ranglin at 4:50 AM on May 18, 2008

Re-reading the thread, it seems like a few people are misinterpreting the method here. The method he uses includes ALL the non-vowel letters from the word, not just the first letter of each word, so guesses like "Beat the Quest. Save the Date" don't really meet the criteria set out in the question.

It's more likely that these letters make up all the consonants in one or two words, based on the example the OP gives.
posted by ranglin at 4:54 AM on May 18, 2008

Buy Tequila Saturday.
posted by beagle at 5:10 AM on May 18, 2008

Is it possible that part of it is a normal abbreviation? BTQ in particular could be a company or database data. So "BTQ standard" maybe.

Looking at some of the other answers: Boutique stand? Beat Q:s ToDo?
posted by gemmy at 5:47 AM on May 18, 2008

Better QueStion my To-Do writing style?
posted by mpls2 at 6:31 AM on May 18, 2008

I don't have any good suggestions, but I'm dying to know why you keep your todo list this way. Is there a particular reason for it? Does it save a significant amount of time? Is it just for fun? Please tell us!
posted by Arbac at 6:37 AM on May 18, 2008

Perhaps the QSTD in the end comes from -quested like in the requested.
Are you looking to rent a boat from BoatQuest?
posted by Authorized User at 6:39 AM on May 18, 2008

There are no matches in the electronic references (New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus, technical documentation in eighteen languages) that come with Mac OS X.

The search involved a couple different non-case-sensitive Perl-ish regular expressions, along the lines of [aeiou]{0,4}B[aeiou]{0,4}T[aeiou]{0,4}Q[aeiou]{0,4}S[aeiou]{0,4}T[aeiou]{0,4}D[aeiou]{0,4}. It doesn't include spaces because word breaks would have been indicated with a dash, per the OP's rules of the game. This should even match inside words (for example

I call shenanigans.
posted by ardgedee at 6:42 AM on May 18, 2008

Whoops. Posted early. To complete the example, [aeiou]{0,4}B[aeiou]{0,4}T[aeiou]{0,4}Q[aeiou]{0,4}S[aeiou]{0,4} would match "Boutiques".
posted by ardgedee at 6:44 AM on May 18, 2008

All the time you have ever saved by omitting vowels (writing dashes instead of spaces actually ADDS to the time it takes to write your list) has now been burned by this.
posted by unSane at 6:57 AM on May 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

If you cannot remember what it was, and if it hasn't created a problem since then, forget about it and go on to the next issue.
posted by yclipse at 7:18 AM on May 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

Can I flag the question but favorite the thread?

Be The Quietest/Quickest/Queerest STuDent
posted by nax at 7:20 AM on May 18, 2008

Second yclipse, but before moving on, add this to your todo list:

STP-WRTNG-TDS-WTHT-VWLS
posted by rglasmann at 7:23 AM on May 18, 2008 [2 favorites]

ardgedee: It's probably not a single word.
posted by mendel at 7:42 AM on May 18, 2008

Where do you live? Is BT for BT telecom in the UK, or TD for TD bank in Canada? I'm sure there are a zillion other companies could fit.
posted by jamesonandwater at 9:25 AM on May 18, 2008

BeaT QueSTeD?
posted by amyms at 9:52 AM on May 18, 2008

or BooT QueSTeD?
posted by amyms at 9:54 AM on May 18, 2008

@Mijo Bijo / EVERYONE — Holy cow! This is my first ever question on this site. I didn't think it would get so many replies; should have provided more information. I'm involved in the music scene and work with bands. "STUDIO" is the quick obvious choice, but it has not triggered anything my memory.

@Arbac / rglasmann — This is carried over from a paper to-do list to save paper and space; from the school days and work. Without the vowels I can fit an amazing amount of tasks onto a little yellow sticky note (writing really tiny as well).
posted by querty at 10:47 AM on May 18, 2008

If your writing is really tiny or messy, maybe the first "T" is supposed to be "B"? In that case, it would be "BBQSTD" -- barbecue at the studio!
posted by footnote at 11:04 AM on May 18, 2008

> It's probably not a single word.

OP wrote that words are separated with hyphens, and BTQSTD has no hyphens, so that's what I was going with.

Broadening the scope to [aeiou]{0,4}B[aeiou ]{0,4}T[aeiou ]{0,4}Q[aeiou ]{0,4}S[aeiou ]{0,4}T[aeiou ]{0,4}D[aeiou]{0,4} provides no hits either, and it should even match on fragments such as rarebit queue studied. So if this is legit there are probably brand names involved, non-English words, specialist jargon or slang.
posted by ardgedee at 11:13 AM on May 18, 2008

Or, well, combinations of words my set of text isn't using. Okay, that was lame of me.

But the point was that the OP indicated strongly that this was a single word.
posted by ardgedee at 11:15 AM on May 18, 2008

bit torrent... something?
posted by 8dot3 at 11:21 AM on May 18, 2008

It's definitely NOT a single word. And I would never put somebody's name or reference a name/group. I keep things short and only put in the actual task and once I fill in the vowels, I would know who or what the task is for.

Maybe I had a typo in there. I've been doing this for years and this is the first task/item I cannot figure out; don't remember if I've actually completed it.
posted by querty at 11:23 AM on May 18, 2008

Unsolved. I'll just let it go and try to not let it get to me.

But I do like unSane's response. Yes, the dashes slows it down, but if one's been doing it long enough, typing w/o the vowels can be just as fast... or take out the vowel keys on a keyboard and remap the dash key.
posted by querty at 6:52 PM on May 18, 2008

Hm. If STD is studio, then BTQSTD ...

* Bring The [musical noun starting with Q?] Studio
* Beat Too Quick - Studio

Along the lines of item #2, perhaps the letters represent not a task but of a situation that needed to be rectified. For example, "unplug toilet" (task) might be a task, but it might also be described as "toilet overflowing" (condition).
posted by WCityMike at 10:43 PM on May 18, 2008

You Bet queso today?
posted by history is a weapon at 10:59 AM on May 19, 2008