I am often asked, usually on some form of IM media; “are you busy?”. I often find this question hard to answer since I regard busy-ness (is that a real English word?) as more of a state with varying degrees. This has led me to the definition of BUSCON or BUSy CONdition, based on the well-known DEFCON or defense readiness condition used by the United States Armed Forces. At the current time BUSCON is defined like this:
| Busy condition | Busy-ness | Color |
| BUSCON 1 | Metaphysically busy (AKA “Leave-me-the-fuck-alone” busy)* | White |
| BUSCON 2 | Extremely busy | Red |
| BUSCON 3 | Really busy | Yellow |
| BUSCON 4 | Above normal busy-ness | Green |
| BUSCON 5 | Normal busy-ness | Blue |
As BUSCONs creator I reserve the right to change its definition at any time. Check back here for updates if you find the BUSCON definition useful.
* So you take offense by my use of profanity in this post? Here are a couple of quotes that sum up my views on that area:
Stephen Fry: “It’s now very common to hear people say “I’m rather offended by that”, as if that gives them certain rights. It’s actually no more than a whine. “I find that offensive”. It has no meaning, it has no purpose, it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. “I’m offended by that”, well so fucking what.” **
Salman Rushdie: “What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.”
** See first asterisk