English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

@Mitch Heheh. My lego creations are in a sense related to my written creations: they are fragments of untold stories. But the problem is that I read too much and don't write/build enough :)

Mitch

RegDwight a few moments ago: "somehow it never occurred to me that now I could just take it off the shelf and buy it."

I have the same problem. "Oh you mean I can choose to do that now?"

RegDwighт

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 you could write using these.

Just an idea.

Mitch

My problem now...not having the patience to read.

Goddamn you iPhone!

RegDwighт

Mitch

1:41 PM

If you could make a self replicating lego machine, that would be nice.

bonus if it could spell things out to communicate with you.

Matt Эллен

what would the bonus be? After creating lego-life, what would people be able to offer?

RegDwighт

They have tiles for complete words, too.

Cerberus

Morning.

RegDwighт

Why so progressive?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

well, time for me to go to a meeting. bye

Cerberus

1:46 PM

Am I?

Bai.

Matt Эллен

CU

RegDwighт

@Cerberus Morning, evening... whatever happened to the good old morn and even?

Matt Эллен

Afternoon @Cerb

Cerberus

Why do [people who leave] so often drop out, then immediately return?

It's a conspiracy.

1:46 PM

That, too.

@RegDwighт Oh...well, it's Change!

@MattЭллен Ahm ah, naturally.

RegDwighт

Changing clothes you can believe in.

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus Morn is the future!

Cerberus

Yes!

Matt Эллен

1:48 PM

but presently it's afternoon

RegDwighт

At least now that Cerberus is here we can speak faux Dutch again.

Het afterlijkje speelplaats geëxporteerd stutje. Verschekeringen!

Cerberus

I don't think we have aft—that's German or English.

RegDwighт

Ik heb gezaagt "faux".

Cerberus

Haha.

Matt Эллен

der ananas dijk is gebroken

RegDwighт

1:52 PM

Oh mijn gottje!

Cerberus

I live on top of an old dike.

Matt Эллен

lol

RegDwighт

Your neighbor above you lives atop it. You live underneath.

Cerberus

You can still see how the alleys leading away from my street go down a bit.

I ain't no hobbit!

Matt Эллен

:D

Cerberus

1:54 PM

My street was above sea level, I think—at least above lake level—in the 1400s.

RegDwighт

Dann globale erwarming gepasseerd.

Cerberus

So Matt, I didn't know you had 130,000 surveillance cameras.

That's scary.

RegDwighт

And that's Matt alone!

Matt Эллен

best source of porn on the net!

RegDwighт

Now think of the other Britons.

Matt Эллен

1:56 PM

but, yeah, the UK is all big brother, all teh time

RegDwighт

Multiplikatje!

Cerberus

@RegDwighт You're speaking like a true Dutchman, using the Anglicism "globaal" to mean "global", while in fact it means just "general" or "in summary".

@RegDwighт Oh, I didn't know those were his alone...I should have known.

RegDwighт

Sorrie, mijn faux Nederlands is niet faux genug.

Cerberus

I can see you're working on it.

RegDwighт

For a long time I used to think that terug meant genug. Then I learned that the reality was even crazier. True story.

Cerberus

1:59 PM

Haha.

It is your word that sounds weird!

Rug = back.

RegDwighт

It does. I won't deny it.

Cerberus

Te = to.

Terug = to back.

RegDwighт

I know.

Cerberus

The same applies to zürück, I presume.

RegDwighт

The thing is, I read it on some vending machine where "enough" would have made just as much sense.

Cerberus

2:00 PM

Or is it zurück?

RegDwighт

Zurück, yes.

Cerberus

See, I can never remember all your silly top-scribblings.

RegDwighт

To = te = zu. Tu te tais !

Cerberus

@RegDwighт I think you misunderstand the essence of vending machine.

Matt Эллен

zut alors!

Cerberus

2:01 PM

It's never enough.

RegDwighт

@Cerberus I think you do. Vending machines are not there to give you anything back. They are there to steal money from you.

Matt Эллен

like encore?

Cerberus

@RegDwighт Oui, oui, mais les Allemands changent leur accents toujours! Comme Mann — Männer.

RegDwighт

That's a run-of-the-mill umlaut and you know it.

Like mice.

Or men, for that matter.

Cerberus

@RegDwighт They give you diabetes back, don't they?

RegDwighт

2:02 PM

So shut up and give me terug money terug.

Cerberus

No, no, there are so many weird umlauts.

RegDwighт

There are but not in your examples.

ẅ

Is it groß, größer?

Sure.

2:03 PM

Well, then.

RegDwighт

Again, standard procedure.

Cerberus

Not to me.

I only speak dog German.

RegDwighт

Yeah yeah we get it you're non-standard. rolls eyes

Cerberus

Non-educated, rather.

RegDwighт

Niet edukateerd.

Matt Эллен

2:04 PM

lekker

RegDwighт

no, bull

Cerberus

Haha.

I wish I could speak faux Russian.

Matt Эллен

too many ks

Cerberus

Yeah.

RegDwighт

@Cerberus you're into basketball?

Cerberus

2:06 PM

I could speak Dutch faux Russian, but not English faux Russian.

@RegDwighт Do I look like I am?

RegDwighт

Exactly.

Which is why I'm wondering why you said "haha" in reply to the laker-bull pun.

Cerberus

Faux Russian = basketball?

RegDwighт

You couldn't have possibly got it.

Cerberus

Indeed not.

RegDwighт

Then stop faux hahaing.

Cerberus

2:07 PM

I thought Matt had just misspelled lekker, which was funny to me.

RegDwighт

That he did. But it wasn't funny. Like, at all.

Cerberus

Because you have used the word at least 9000 times in this room.

RegDwighт

Actually I thought he meant "later".

Cerberus

By the way, I was on holiday with some friends, and this one girl had bought...a Linda.

Yes, it is what you fear it to be.

A magazine founded by Linda de Mol.

RegDwighт

A Linda? They come in several?

Cerberus

2:08 PM

Always with a huge picture of her on the cover.

And some of the other girls also liked reading it!

RegDwighт

Het is schrecklijk.

Cerberus

We, the others, were of course mocking and laughing and screaming.

Schriklich indeed.

RegDwighт

Especially you, without mentioning where you lived.

Een opportunistje!

Cerberus

What?

RegDwighт

You lived next to her. Almost.

Cerberus

2:10 PM

@RegDwighт Wow, you accidentally got it right.

@RegDwighт Oh, that.

RegDwighт

@Cerberus Weerd niet wieder passeeren.

Cerberus

Yes, well, I think my parents were there first.

@RegDwighт Indeed not.

tchrist

Hey @Reg, could you please merge and synomize the family-members tag I just oopsily created with the previously unknown-to-me kinship-relationships, or would you prefer that I just retag them myself? Is it worth a synonym? People think of the word “family” a lot more readily than they do “kinship”, although of course kinship is the nicer word.

RegDwighт

Do you mean kinship-terms?

tchrist

Yes, sorry.

I’ll clean up my own mess if you would like, but I was just thinking that a synonym might make sense here.

RegDwighт

2:13 PM

Done.

tchrist

Thank you, sir.

RegDwighт

Keen probleem.

Matt Эллен

bedrijfskolom

I would have trouble pronouncing that

jfsk

RegDwighт

John F. Stupid Kennedy?

Matt Эллен

that's what they called him in high school. It's why he was so sad all the time

@Cerberus - is there a reason one would choose pisang over banaan?

RegDwighт

2:22 PM

Choose ananas. Choose freedom.

Cerberus

@MattЭллен Ehm what?

Pisang is Indonesian.

Matt Эллен

oh

Cerberus

You would use it for bananaan used in Indonesian dishes.

Or drinks.

Matt Эллен

it was an option in Google Translate

Cerberus

Like pisang goreng (roasted banana) or pisang ambon (banana from the island of Ambon).

@MattЭллен Yeah, you would, hehe.

@MattЭллен Oh, cute.

So we have lots of fairly common Indonesian dishes.

Matt Эллен

2:24 PM

@Cerberus I see

Cerberus

But only people who have lived in Indonesia for a long time might call loose bananas pisang here.

Matt Эллен

ah

Cerberus

It is possible that a fruit merchant who was selling those small Indonesian bananas would mark them as "pisang", but I doubt it. Never seen that.

Perhaps you have some Indian names for fruit?

Matt Эллен

oh, probably!

I don't know any necessarily

Cerberus

Like praahaavaalaaa for some kind of coconut?

And you accuse us of vowel gluttony!

Matt Эллен

2:27 PM

never heard of that :D

Prahlada

Prahlada or Prahalad is a saintly character from the Puranic texts of Hinduism, wherein he is famed for his exclusive devotion (bhakti) to Vishnu, despite attempts in the story by his father, Hiranyakashipu, to turn him to the contrary. He is considered to be a mahājana, or great devotee, by followers of Vaishnava traditions and is of special importance to devotees of the avatār Narasimha (the Man-Lion). A philosophical treatise is accredited to him in the Bhagavata Purana wherein Prahlada describes the process of loving worship to his lord, Vishnu. The majority of stories in the Puranas ...

Mango is the only fruit I can think of

MετάEd

2:51 PM

If you call me by name, it is Neeklaws Veert, but if you call me by value, it is Nickle’s Worth.

JSBձոգչ

3:03 PM

i don't understand. why was Prahlada's father against his devotion to Vishnu?

MετάEd

@JSBձոգչ The prime directive.

(Never interfere with the plot.)

KitFox

@MετάEd Guitar.

MετάEd

@KitFox I like those.

KitFox

Me too.

MετάEd

And fiddling with them, I suppose.

KitFox

3:10 PM

You got a gitfiddle?

Matt Эллен

@JSBձոգչ his father is a demon (Asura) and proper hates Vishnu

MετάEd

@KitFox A few.

KitFox

@MετάEd Me too. Seven, I think.

MετάEd

You win.

KitFox

I haven't played in a dog's age.

MετάEd

3:14 PM

How old is the dog?

KitFox

Old enough to be dead.

MετάEd

Is it a lab?

Because they don't last as long.

Matt Эллен

I hear some are prone to explosion.

a particular breed

I think they're called meth labs

MετάEd

@MattЭллен And some tattle.

We call them lab rats.

Matt Эллен

lol

KitFox

3:16 PM

And some are electrified. We call them labials.

That's only funny in my dialect.

MετάEd

That's going to bother me until I figure it out.

KitFox

You want help?

crickets

Well, today is sucking.

Matt Эллен

does it require understanding of electricians?

KitFox

No.

You just need to read it "labeels."

Matt Эллен

oh! lol :D

KitFox

3:21 PM

My husband is really sick today. The house is torn apart. My project lead and big boss are freaking out over a relatively small issue that can wait until I return to work tomorrow.

Matt Эллен

how is the house torn apart?

KitFox

He was sanding the floors for the Big Weekend Project.

Matt Эллен

ah

I hope he gets better soon

KitFox

The only time that we have when we can live at my mother-in-law's house without her annoying-ass boyfriend there.

All of the furniture in half of the downstairs in in the other half and the sanding is nowhere close to being finished and I can't lift the effing sander to put it back in the truck.

I'm sitting on the back steps looking sad.

Matt Эллен

awwwww

KitFox

3:23 PM

I think it might help.

Matt Эллен

hugs

KitFox

Thanks.

I figured I'd check in here.

I'm really pissed that my project team chose last night to freak out and they expect me to drop everything and come in on my day off and fix this thing right away!!!!1!!

Matt Эллен

can you call a neighbour for help?

RegDwighт

0

Q: How to write 'till now' in resume

I am writing resume. I want to specify that I started my education in 2009 and as of now I am at the 4 grade ( in other words still learning), so how should I specify that in resume: 2009 - present 2009 till now Any suggestions?

grammar cv

I could swear this is a dupe, but I can't find it.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox bleh. I hate it when they do that

KitFox

3:25 PM

I have a friend coming over in a little bit. I'm just worried that it is going to rain any second.

@RegDwighт There was one about "current" or "present" on a resume I think?

RegDwighт

I don't remember the exact wording. That's the problem.

KitFox

@MattЭллен I would be happy to look at it and assess the situation, but I shouldn't have sent the very calm "I will take care of it by next week" email, because now they know that I'm actually checking email today.

So they expect that I have nothing better to do than figure out whether the site needs to be taken down or not.

Matt Эллен

oops.

tchrist

There are currently exactly 26 questions tagged with alphabet, which I find so precious as to inhibit me from tagging another.

Matt Эллен

:D

tchrist

3:31 PM

@RegDwighт It absolutely is.

@KitFox Is there a special kinship term for that? :)

Matt Эллен

@KitFox you could reply to any other emails with the exact same words, pretend it is an automated response

KitFox

@tchrist Yes, that's it.

tchrist

Not playful today, eh?

KitFox

@MattЭллен I sent a more assertive "I will look at it tomorrow" email.

Matt Эллен

2

Q: How to specify dates in a U.S. résumé?

What is the correct (or at least preferred) way of formatting dates in a résumé whenever you don't need to specify a day? For example, I am using the format “May 2011”, but I don’t know whether I should use “May, 2011” or “May ’11” (although this one doesn’t seem too appropriate for a résumé).

american-english date

tchrist

3:36 PM

I can’t even begin to rant about my own release-to-production woes.

KitFox

It's tough to take "the sky is falling" from two people who are supposed to be in charge of the project but just generally check their email during progress meetings.

Cerberus

@MattЭллен Smart!

But then you must take care to reply immediately.

KitFox

And the fact that the big boss has the balls to explain how I should troubleshoot the issue makes this little vein on my temple pop out.

@Cerberus No, you can make the spam filter argument.

Matt Эллен

I have a vein like that

it might have popped out at lunch when I was being ornary about the meaning of the word compression

KitFox

Hahaha.

Cerberus

3:40 PM

@KitFox Of course. Where would we be without that.

KitFox

I wanted to shoot back "Let's not forget that you don't have any idea how the system functions, so maybe you ought to shut your damn piehole about what you think is going on and let the professional handle it."

Cerberus

I think a personal message got stuck in my spam filter maybe once in my whole life.

@KitFox That would be an effective automated response.

KitFox

Well, if they send a bunch of emails in one day, you can make a good argument.

Cerberus

Hehe.

I agree, people shouldn't do that.

I do, however, fail to receive SMS messages several times a year, that I know of.

Very annoying.

KitFox

> Seeing students they should not be able to see would require us to take [the site] offline until it's fixed.

This is the one that really got me.

grinds teeth

Cerberus

3:42 PM

As if they knew better than you what would be "required".

KitFox

Yeah, no shit. I'm so glad you are here to tell me how to do my job.

Matt Эллен

well, I guess that's a legal problem

KitFox

It would never have occurred to me that violating FERPA would mean that I needed to shut down access.

Anyway, I calmly replied that the one issue had nothing to do with the permissions set, and that wasn't a possibility. And I will look at it tomorrow.

And everybody just needs to be cool, damn it.

Plus, I don't know what to do about the unsanded floors.

And I'm sitting here wasting time when I ought to be doing something.

Which is really funny, since that's what I do most days.

Matt Эллен

you're thinking! you're not doing nothing

KitFox

It's only annoying because it isn't my choice this time.

Matt Эллен

3:46 PM

I have cycling to do

KitFox

Bye!

tchrist

@tchrist Meta-question: SOS! Batch-editing is throwing my active list completely haywire. — Kris 9 mins ago

Can’t help that, sorry.

But I should be done with the kinship-terms retaggings now.

They may still be a few strays, but I got most of them.

There are like eight questions from people whose languages have dedicated, single words for kinship relationships that English has no single equivalent word for.

Most of them are not linked, duped, closed, or merged. But probably should be.

JSBձոգչ

this is clearly proof that english is inferior

KitFox

Every relationship has a designation in Chinese.

tchrist

Must have one word for everything you know. Spaces aren’t allowed in language.

KitFox

3:50 PM

It was the hardest vocabulary set for me to remember.

JSBձոգչ

my favorite is the one about the cousins

tchrist

Which of many?

JSBձոգչ

@tchrist what was your strategy for finding and retagging those?

tchrist

Looking for all the separate words, mostly, but sometime needing Google.

SE search sucks DD.

JSBձոգչ

2

Q: How can I know the exact meaning of “cousin” in a sentence?

How can I know the exact meaning of the word cousin in a sentence? How do English speakers distinguish between different kinds of cousins? (Arabic distinguishes both the sex of the cousin and the side of the family —Cindi/Google)

meaning kinship-terms

KitFox

3:51 PM

Dunkin Donuts?

tchrist

Still pissed me off that I can’t exclude tags properly. I am sure I used to be able to do that.

donkey dork. not.

The elder of two first cousins once removed is often referred to as uncle/aunt by the younger of the pair, especially when they are little.

JSBձոգչ

hmm. don't think that there's a way for me to avoid making this O(n * m)

fortunately n and m should be small, so i don't think it will matter

but it still rankles

tchrist

13

Q: Two children from/with/by my ex-husband

Are all of the following sentences OK? I have two children with my ex-husband. I have two children from my ex-husband. I have two children by my ex-husband. Do they mean the same thing? Is any of the variants to be preferred over the others?

word-choice prepositions

Didn’t retag that one.

RegDwighт

Ah there we go. Someone found the original.

8

Q: What is the correct abbreviation of "continued"?

Assume that I give my work information in my CV with the date (year) intervals. My last position started this year and is continued at the moment. Example Co. ABC Manager 2012 - cont. How should I abbreviate continued here? Is cont. correct?

abbreviations

tchrist

Yes, that’s right.

@JSBձոգչ Dunno what “this” is.

I’m thinking cuckold isn’t a kinship term, not exactly. :)

8

Q: Any idiom in English for a husband who has been betrayed by his wife?

Is there any idiom in English for a husband who has been betrayed by his wife? (I mean she slept and is occasionally still sleeping with her lover). Or maybe not an idiomatic expression, but just one word that is commonly used for such a person?

idioms

JSBձոգչ

3:59 PM

@tchrist never mind me, i'm just talking to myself.

(actually, there's an obvious way to turn the whole thing into O(n), which is to turn the array into a proper map... but given the size of n i think that doing so will actually be slower than just doing the n*m lookup)

RegDwighт

Poor JSBձոգչ, talking to people no one else wants to talk to.

tchrist

I’m sure I’ve just given somebody a Taxonomist badge, but I don’t know whom — yet. I don’t think it’s run yet.

RegDwighт

Probably him:

Paul Hildebrandt, Chino, CA

328 2 6

hypernyms kinship-terms names single-word-requests

JSBձոգչ

he looks like a monk

RegDwighт

Tchrist looks like a perlmonk.

tchrist

4:05 PM

Am.

Or abbot.

The chipabbot supervises the chipmonks.

RegDwighт

Chipmonks, Oo-oo! Tales of derring-do, bad and good cheap monks, oo-oo!

Spieleabend. AFK.

Cerberus

►

Australian guy called by a scammer who want shim to install viruses.

He plays dumb, and he opens a Dutch Windows 7 VM specially for the scammer.

"Can you do to your normal screen?"

"What is that?"

"Your desktop screen."

"Huh? I don't know."

"The screen with your icons and your start menu."

"Ohh the monitor cloud, yeah, sure."

Alenanno

4:23 PM

Hello everyone

I was wondering... is there a positive or neutral alternative for "so-called"... This one carries some negative meaning. I need something... without it. :P

tchrist

@Alenanno Neither so-called nor the fancier soi-disant (which means self-styled) is especially complimentary.

retreats away on up out into his chipabbey again

Alenanno

@tchrist So why are you suggesting them? :P

tchrist

I don’t know what you want. You’ve asked for something already negative.

Allegedly and all that jazz all have the same problem.

known as?

Alenanno

I actually asked for the opposite.

:)