English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

KitFox

12:24 AM

yawns

David Wallace

Good afternoon Kit.

KitFox

Evening, sir.

David Wallace

I am just reading the transcript, to help make sure I don't say anything stupid today.

KitFox

Did you just wake up? You were up late last night.

Oh, ding! Fries are done. brb

David Wallace

No, I've been up for a while, but I haven't done anything noteworthy today.

KitFox

12:29 AM

Oh FFS, the damn toaster oven was unplugged.

They should make them so that they don't tickety when they are unplugged.

Cerberus

@DavidWallace Why would you say anything stupid?

David Wallace

@KitFox I can see how that might be annoying.

Cerberus

Other than your usual stuff.

David Wallace

@Cerberus Oh, past record and all. I'm still embarrassed about the whole square/rectangle business. I feel I should go and visit the local University and give them back my mathematics degree.

KitFox

It was 2am local. I'm sure it all made sense at the time.

Cerberus

12:32 AM

@DavidWallace Oh. Well, I think I wasn't there, so you can pretend it never happened, whatever it was.

David Wallace

@Cerberus Yes, but about 10 of the regular users of this chat room were here. See this site has "reputation", and ''reputation''.

KitFox

Anyone up for a cuppa?

Cerberus

It was that bad, huh?

KitFox

puts kettle on

Cerberus

I already have some Earl Grey—want some?

David Wallace

12:35 AM

Speaking of which, I answered a question on SO recently, as did one other person. The other person admits that his answer was wrong and mine was right. And yet he got three upvotes and an acceptance, and I have zero.

People are silly.

@KitFox will you make me an ice tea?

Cerberus

Oh that sucks.

KitFox

@Cerberus Bergamot. blech

No thanks.

@DavidWallace Sure. ices tea

Shortbread cookies?

Cerberus

Oh, I remember.

David Wallace

And a mockito question at that, which is kind of my Stack Exchange raison d'etre.

Cerberus

Too bad.

David Wallace

12:38 AM

@KitFox If you're making them.

Cerberus

How do you feel about Lapsang Sooshong, or whatever you call it?

KitFox

@DavidWallace Not this time. From a box.

David Wallace

Lapsang Souchong.

@KitFox I'll try just one.

KitFox

proffers cookie

user19161

@DavidWallace Don't worry, we all say and do stupid things everyday.

user19161

12:40 AM

@KitFox takes cookies without asking

KitFox

@JasperLoy slaps hand

You may have cookies, but you must be polite or no cookies for you!

Want some tea?

user19161

No cookies in this chat!

user19161

I have stolen the entire pot of tea already, mwahaha!

KitFox

Ding! Fries are ready. hopefully for rilla this time.

David Wallace

There's a geometry question on Math.SE that I've been messing around with for a couple of weeks now, trying to get a solution to. It hasn't been fully answered yet. If I put in an hour or three of hard work, I might get a solution to it. I feel that this might redeem me somewhat for my mistaken understanding of rectangles.

user19161

12:43 AM

@DavidWallace Weren't we just talking about different definitions that day?

KitFox

You mean your revolutionary perspective on geometric naming conventions?

@Cerb What are you up to?

user19161

That's when evolution becomes revolution.

David Wallace

Whatever. I still feel some shame over the error of my ways. I am better than that.

Cerberus

@DavidWallace Now I'm curious. What grievous error did you commit?

user19161

That is the line before the bathroom scene in the movie snakes on a plane.

David Wallace

12:47 AM

@Cerberus I got into a long argument with the saner members of this community about whether it was correct to consider a square to be a type of rectangle.

KitFox

@Cerberus He merely argued that squares are not rectangles.

Cerberus

@KitFox I'm watching a documentary called "Holland from above" with lots of awesome views and statistics and stuff.

@KitFox Oh, haha.

That's funny.

user19161

@DavidWallace Well, I think there's no big deal there. Just different definitions. QED.

Cerberus

Even I know that they are.

Poor Dave.

KitFox

It was late at night.

And with the big guns here, I'm sure he felt cornered.

user19161

12:49 AM

In the same way some define the natural numbers to include zero, some to exclude it.

KitFox

Of course, he could always blame it on his son.

Cerberus

Which big guns? I only see tiny tea bags.

Okay, not funny.

user19161

And also for some people one of the subset notations becomes the proper subset notation.

Cerberus

And I meant all of us.

KitFox

looks sternly @Cerb

Cerberus

12:51 AM

Really. I mean, you know what I know.

What everyone knows.

KitFox

...about my son's reportedly HUGE penis?

...or @Matt's reportedly (as-yet-unconfirmed) HUGE penis?

David Wallace

I thought it was only big when he plays with it?

Cerberus

Haha, right.

KitFox

I have no idea.

David Wallace

not indicating whether I mean Matt or Kit's son

user19161

12:54 AM

@DavidWallace OMG!

user19161

This chat room is becoming a porn site!

KitFox

Smut != porn.

user19161

There there, full of justifications.

KitFox

looks sternly @JasperLoy

user19161

Is there anyone who thinks LibreOffice is better than Microsoft Office other than the price of course?

David Wallace

12:56 AM

Without a doubt.

user19161

And why?

David Wallace

I've never used MS Office 2010. Only 2007 and older. If I could choose Libre 3.3, MS Office 2007 or MS Office 2003; I would pick Libre first, then 2003, then 2007.

user19161

@DavidWallace I know why. You hate the ribbon UI.

Cerberus

I hardly notice any difference between 2003 and Libre except in some details that may or may not matter to you.

KitFox

I use MiKTeX.

Cerberus

12:58 AM

Everyone hates the ribbon.

David Wallace

Fuck, I was eating a bun over my laptop. I have dropped a sesame seed and somehow managed to push it below the levers under one of the keys.

Cerberus

My mother's secretary has to take a course in using the ribbon. How crazy is that?

KitFox

I hate whizzywhig word processors.

Cerberus

Nobody asked for it.

David Wallace

I might need a needle.

Cerberus

12:59 AM

Shake it out.

KitFox

Compressed air?

Cerberus

And use a desktop.

user19161

@KitFox I use TeX Live. It is cross-platform and maintained by more people.

David Wallace

@Cerberus The ribbon is like asaparagus. There are people who love it and people who hate it.

Cerberus

And buy a keyboard protector or a laptop with a built-in protector.

user19161

1:00 AM

@DavidWallace The sesame plant might grow from your laptop in a year. Congrats!

Cerberus

@DavidWallace Even if it is slightly "better", the trouble of changing your routine...but I am repeating myself.

KitFox

@DavidWallace And it makes your pee smell funny?

user19161

@DavidWallace I think asparagus is nice if cooked properly.

KitFox

I like it too.

user19161

But there are some things which are nice no matter how you cook it, like salmon.

user19161

1:02 AM

It can even be eaten uncooked.

KitFox

I like my asparagus like I like my men. Steamed, with butter.

user19161

Oh dear, I can understand if the man enters a steam room, but having butter over him is not a good idea!

user19161

Firstly butter makes him oily. This is not good for further activities!

KitFox

licks maw

David Wallace

And I need a new G spot.

KitFox

1:04 AM

Try rubbing it gently, then mashing it down hard.

user19161

I downvoted another Kris answer. I think I may get suspended soon for downvoting Kris.

user19161

I saw that he was downvoted five times within five minutes a day or two ago. I wonder what happened.

David Wallace

@KitFox but the surface of it is worn down through over-use. I can't get the needed friction.

KitFox

That is problematic.

user19161

Can't believe what you are talking about!

David Wallace

1:07 AM

One of the problems with the 2007 ribbon is that it doesn't play nicely if you have OLE-embeddings from pre-2007 apps. You get a kind of mixed menu that has stuff missing.

Libre Office 3.3 has an annoying bug to do with applying a style to a paragraph. Sometimes the font doesn't get applied, or some other attribute of the style. It's very annoying. Also, you can't click a TOC entry or index entry to go to the place that it refers to. Other than these things, it's just as functional as MS Office, and easier to use.

KitFox

I like TeX because it does what I tell it to where I tell it to do it.

And it doesn't automatically put spaces between paragraphs in my reply emails, no matter what I do to the normal template.

David Wallace

I like TeX too, but I often have to share documents with people who wouldn't cope very well with TeX.

KitFox

That's why you make them into pdfs.

user19161

In Soviet Russia, TeX likes you!

David Wallace

Yes, but the people that I share them with also have to edit them.

KitFox

1:13 AM

I had a TeX to Word conversion tool somewhere.

The problem is going the other way around.

David Wallace

But why bother. Word isn't BAD enough to make using TeX seriously worthwhile.

Unless you're typing sciencey mathsy stuff.

Which I don't.

user19161

@DavidWallace Even then I think it is 90 per cent as good.

KitFox

Meh. I use Word when I have to. Otherwise, I use TeX.

Documents written in Word look like shit.

David Wallace

Only to the trained eye. Most people are inured.

user19161

@KitFox I remember I said in this room that boobs and poop are beautiful.

KitFox

1:15 AM

When I make beautiful documents, it makes me try harder to produce good content.

@JasperLoy I remember.

user19161

@KitFox Just like when one sees a beautiful partner, one tries to become more beautiful as well.

David Wallace

@JasperLoy And you're complaining about this room becoming pornographic!

user19161

1

Q: "I run in the subway"

Is I run in the subway grammatical? Does it mean the action of running, done inside of a subway?

user19161

The OP accepted a lowly voted answer instead, sigh.

user19161

Sometimes it is out of sympathy I guess.

Cerberus

1:19 AM

Why does the sun look like this?

Why this strange shape?

Zoomed in on a setting sun.

user19161

@Cerberus Amazing!

KitFox

Atmospheric distortion.

Cerberus

From the documentary I'm watching.

By why this particular shape?

KitFox

That's how it was distorted.

Cerberus

I would expect a flattening oval shape.

Not a waist like this.

KitFox

1:21 AM

Probably the height of the local pollution.

Cerberus

The jagged edges could be due to the magnification/lens?

Hmm.

KitFox

Not all particulates settle at the same altitudes.

I'm not an expert though.

Cerberus

Right.

KitFox

Maybe God squished it a little when he was putting it to bed.

Cerberus

Still, the colour is pretty smooth.

KitFox

1:22 AM

I'm sure it will be round again tomorrow.

Cerberus

Really?

What if it isn't?

KitFox

Pretty sure.

Cerberus

Hmm.

KitFox

Then I will rounden it.

Cerberus

Oh!

Gee, thanks.

KitFox

1:23 AM

Could be temperature distortions.

Cerberus

Hmm yes.

It kind of looks like that.

David Wallace

The photographer was standing in a cave?

Cerberus

But I would expect either a smooth gradient or flickering with temperature distortions?

@DavidWallace No, I have seen this shape many times.

David Wallace

Weird. The sun above my planet is round.

KitFox

I am not an expert on image distortion. I don't know.

user19161

1:26 AM

I know why the sun looks like this: something big is gonna happen...

Cerberus

@DavidWallace That's what happens when you live on the wrong side.

user19161

@Cerberus I thought you lived underground in Hades.

David Wallace

Maybe Lower Hutt has less pollution than Cerberussia.

Cerberus

@JasperLoy I saw it in videos.

@DavidWallace Heh. That could very well be.

This part of the country is highly polluted.

user19161

@Cerberus Hmm Hades is not bad then, it even has videos!

Cerberus

1:29 AM

Only for staff.

user19161

LOL.

user19161

I think we are all officially nuts now. QED.

Cerberus

NOU

David Wallace

Although it's a bit sad that if you type Waiwhetu Stream into google with autocomplete, the first following word that appears is pollution.

Cerberus

Hehe.

user19161

1:33 AM

They usually show people boiling eggs in those hot streams.

Cerberus

Try typing Amsterdam and not getting drugs or sex.

David Wallace

It's not hot. It's a perfectly ordinary stream.

OK, I typed Amsterdam. I'm still waiting for my drugs and my sex.

user19161

@Cerberus I have tried neither.

Cerberus

Hey @Jasper, are you still part of a monarchy?

David is.

KitFox

9 hours ago, by KitFox

►

user19161

1:34 AM

@Cerberus No. We have a president and a cabinet of ministers.

Cerberus

No ties at all to England?

user19161

@Cerberus No.

Cerberus

OK.

KitFox

Good night, ladies.

user19161

@KitFox Thwack!

Cerberus

1:35 AM

Hey man, you too!

KitFox

I've finished my tea and it's me for bed.

user19161

@KitFox OK, you may go to sleep now.

Cerberus

Have fun, bed!

KitFox

hums Hominy, get on the plate, girl

Thanks!

poof

David Wallace

Good night. Thanks for the tea and cookies.

user19161

1:38 AM

Yeah I remember I stole the tea and the cookies.

user19161

I will bring out the leftovers for tomorrow.

user19161

I like David Schwartz's answers.

user19161

Over and out!

David Wallace

3:39 AM

Well, I don't know about pornographic, but one of our sister sites seems to have become a dating service.

-3

Q: Is there any Chinese programmers in San Francisco Bay Area

I'm looking for some partners. If you are Q me 44219991. Thx,

great-programmer

David Wallace

6:53 AM

0

Q: What does 'heart' mean?

In sentence, The heart's choice/desire. Does the 'heart' mean the organ the pumps blood? Does it think? How can it choose?

meaning vocabulary

This question has to be a joke, I think.

I'm tempted to answer "it's clearly a misprint, it was supposed to be 'hart', which is a type of deer".

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

7:33 AM

Closed as NARQ. We don't have enough server space to store questions about every metaphor ever.

Also,

-1

A: What does 'heart' mean?

In the sentence above heart has used in figurative sense. The sentence, however, is idiomatically. You must read 'heart' as oppose of 'mind', which makes reasonments befor to choice.

I feel rather strongly that people who can barely stick two words together should not be in the business of answering questions on this site.

David Wallace

Well, you can make your own reasonments befor to choice.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

I canned so I did.

But now I gotta run. Laters.

user19161

8:02 AM

@DavidWallace I don't know if you are joking about it, but if you are not, "partner" there could mean work partner and not sex partner.

user19161

@DavidWallace May be serious though. "Heart" might not be used metaphorically in other languages, though it is in Chinese.

Jez

hellllo

user19161

@Jez What is the quadruple l for?

Jez

ah, well it's my attempt of sort of indicating a half-sigh when saying it

maybe more like hhheeeeeeelllo

"hello, but I'm not exactly bright-eyed and bushy-tailed"

user19161

1

Q: Texted as past tense of text

If I sent someone a text on my mobile phone would I say I texted them? We say 'I'll text you' so now it's out there as a verb but the past tense sounds so clumsy.

past-tense

user19161

8:11 AM

I downvoted three answers there. \facepalmragequit

David Wallace

@JasperLoy I refuse to believe it, sorry.

user19161

I think Anglo Saxon should be suspended for a year.

user19161

They suspended Thursagen for three years and Webmaohist for three years, but Anglo Saxon is much worse than either of them in terms of linguistic skills.

David Wallace

I always parse that as face-palmra-gequit. The last bit seems very Germanic.

user19161

I commented to Anglo Saxon that most of his answers are not grammatical. This nonsense must stop.

user19161

8:19 AM

I've not commented something like that before, but this is too much for me.

David Wallace

They suspend people for three years? Seriously?

user19161

@DavidWallace Indeed.

David Wallace

Puts being suspended from a chat room for 30 minutes into a new light.

user19161

0

Q: how do you say the date of delivery correctly?

For a date of delivery, is it '4o days after receipt the deposit' or '40 days after the receipt of deposit?' Thanks!

grammaticality

user19161

NARQ

user19161

8:28 AM

-3

Q: What is the difference between 'flesh' and 'meat'?

What is the difference between 'flesh' and 'meat'? 'skin' and 'fur'? for example, human meat? or ... the needle will go into your flesh? or meat? There is an insect bite on the kitty's skin (or kitty's fur). Thanks!

word-choice word-usage

Meysam رها در بند

I downvoted one of his answers today too

user19161

GR

Meysam رها در بند

He is a new phenomenon

user19161

0

Q: What is the meaning of the word "this," all by itself?

I suppose this one might qualify as an internet meme, but I'm not sure. I recently have begun seeing people use the word "this" as a single word sentence, such as in response to someone else's post. It seems like it might be a way of expressing agreement, but I am struck by how awkward it seems ...

etymology meaning-in-context word-usage slang

user19161

NARQ

user19161

8:30 AM

2

Q: What is the Plural of "syntax"

Would it be syntacies? What rule would govern this kind of construction?

grammatical-number

user19161

GR

Matt Эллен

@KitFox I prefer to retain some mystique about myself ;)

user19161

@MattЭллен BOO! LOL!

Matt Эллен

Hi @Jasper :)

@JasperLoy I want to turn this into a real question...

it's just searching for this is difficult

user19161

Some of the above can be good questions but I want to cast more votes these days as the site is being filled with rubbish questions and rubbish answers (some of which are mine).

user19161

8:34 AM

Hello @eugene!

Eugene Seidel

Hi all!

Three years? What did Thrsagen do?

user19161

@EugeneSeidel Supposedly created other accounts to upvote himself.

Jez

being used as a scapegoat and fired sucks :-)

David Wallace

So what did banning him achieve?

Jez

upper management man. if they tell you you're responsible for something, try and get out of it :-)

your neck is on the line

for their mistakes

user19161

8:41 AM

Oh @eugene in future if you find a question that is unclear don't answer it. Wait for the asker to clarify his question first.

Matt Эллен

hi @Jez! How are you doing? Heard you got unemployed

Eugene Seidel

@JasperLoy Jasper thanks for the suggestion but I'll do it my way if you don't mind

Jez

yep

i was the fall guy, as well as the victim of some very infantile personalities (imho)

user19161

@EugeneSeidel OK sure.

Jez

as in, "you have a discussion about something where we disagree for more than 5 minutes, and i get in a tizzy and grumble"

Matt Эллен

8:43 AM

@Jez That sucks. Did they over promise and under deliver or something?

David Wallace

@JasperLoy Or better still, post a comment under the question, requesting clarification.

Jez

one aspect was that we didn't deliver the latest code to the client at the end of a month. I was responsible for deployment to the client. thing is, the boss who made me responsible didn't tell me it needed to be with them at the end of each month... until AFTER the client had complained

im pretty offended by that. i think i've been used as a scapegoat

he fucked up, and fired his subordinate

Matt Эллен

That's pretty shitty

Eugene Seidel

@DavidWallace THat's what I do usually, however, in this case, I chose to mix a provisional answer with a request for clarification because of space and formatting constraints

Jez

@Matt yeah. like that Gordon Brown quote: "I take full responsibility for what happened, so that's why the person who was responsible went immediately." :-)

►

user19161

8:47 AM

@EugeneSeidel Sure I do that sometimes too.

user19161

@Jez Is Brown a common last name in the UK?

Jez

yes, quite common

David Wallace

@Jez Do you have some kind of recourse? Like an employment tribunal? Sorry, I don't even know what country you're in.

Eugene Seidel

for the person asking about going one step at a time, i thought briefly of "getting one's ducks in order". however, that's about preparation, and only preparation, right?

Jez

@DavidWallace nah, i've not been working there for a year. i was on probation. frankly, had I been there longer than a year I might have had a go at unfair dismissal.

Matt Эллен

8:49 AM

@EugeneSeidel "get your ducks in a row" is about preparation, yeah

It's on this list of jargon words

Eugene Seidel

Where would I go to read about the history of stackexchange, especially the tech behind the scenes? Are there articles on Wired or ArsTechnica?

Matt Эллен

@EugeneSeidel there are the blogs

Eugene Seidel

@MattЭллен right, thanks. but my q is about 3rd-party write-ups

Matt Эллен

Joel or Jeff might have tweeted some, but I don't really know

user19161

@EugeneSeidel Have you tried Wikipedia and the references there?

Eugene Seidel

8:55 AM

@Jasper no but thanks for the suggestion

I must be stupid. english.stackexchange.com/questions/65577/…

user19161

0

Q: What is the difference between "something else" and "something extra"?

What is the difference between "something else" and "something extra"? The answer for this blank is "else", but is "extra" an alternative answer? If "EXTRA" IS WRONG, WHY IS IT WRONG? "A land free from destruction, plus wealth, natural resources, and labor supply – all these were important factor...

differences

user19161

GR

Eugene Seidel

How do you make excerpts from main show up in chat? I just pasted in a permalink, hoping to get something like Jasper just did

user19161

It also bugs me that this is an unregistered user who has asked many questions, and so cannot vote.

user19161

@EugeneSeidel It must be the only thing on a line, I said that yesterday. :-)

user19161

9:01 AM

Of course if you use the right arrow to reply and then type that it will still appear.

Eugene Seidel

+1 for being a gumshoe. "It's an example of the sort of thing of which it is an instance." Eh? — Eugene Seidel 31 mins ago

Yeah!

And now he changes it to "representative instance". It still looks bizarre to me

I'm seeing a number below my name, but it's not the same as my rep?

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

It's your combined rep from all sites you're registered on.

Eugene Seidel

Thanks

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

The idea is that if you have some rep on another site but not here, you should still be allowed to use this chat. So your rep from that other site is taken into account.

Eugene Seidel

So what about Kaz's sentence. Is it a tautology? Infinite regression? I'm too dumb to read?

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

9:14 AM

Looks fine from where I sit.

Let me check again.

[It's an example of [the sort of [thing of which it is a representative instance.]]]

Works.

Matt Эллен

@EugeneSeidel yeah, it makes sense but is tautological

since a representative instance is an example

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Ah that. Yeah.

It's an example of the thing it's an example of.

Eugene Seidel

Thanks Matt

Matt Эллен

No probs :)

Eugene Seidel

gotta go, nice chatting to you

Matt Эллен

9:18 AM

cya @EugeneSeidel

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

CUea's.

Oh damn, a typo. Should be CUae's.

Matt Эллен

you're slipping, Reg.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Born Slippy.

►

Matt Эллен

Shouting "lager!" as you exited your mother's womb

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

A true story.

Jez

9:21 AM

New Logitech mouse. Hope the middle-click doesn't die on this one.

user19161

10:10 AM

@Jez Congrats!

Jez

I'm testing between a Trust one and a Logitech one, you see

I'm not decided. The trust one has slightly 'clickier' buttons... but looks a bit uglier

user19161

My mouse emits colours. Blue red green.

user19161

The colours make me fly without wings.

KitFox

11:47 AM

Holla.

hi

hello!

How do ye?

Meh.

There was no sleep in the Fox household last night.

At least not for Mommy and Little Brother.

David Wallace

Oh dear!

KitFox

11:48 AM

must coffee brb

David Wallace

I have some chocolate biscuits that you are most welcome to.

but you mustn't let Jasper have one.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox nothing serious, I hope?

KitFox

@DavidWallace gratefully accepts

@MattЭллен I wish. At least then I would know what I was up against.

OK, I don't really wish that.

I think it was daycare.

Matt Эллен

so it's not serious

David Wallace

What did they do?

KitFox

11:54 AM

He kept waking up and crying. All frigging night.

Matt Эллен

ah.

KitFox

So I brought him into bed with me, which he hasn't even wanted since ever.

But it settled him a little.

Jez

I'd want it every night

KitFox

Anyway, I think he was having nightmares and separation anxiety.

Matt Эллен

I was going to ask if it was nightmares

David Wallace

11:55 AM

I hope it's not night terrors. Those can go on for years.

KitFox

He kept startling awake with a yell, then looking at me and going right back to sleep.

Matt Эллен

oh no, you must be so tired

KitFox

I didn't get longer than a half hour stretch at any one time.

I haven't had a night like that since the eldest had his six-week growth spurt.

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…