English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

But people really like to have sharp lines between healthy and unhealthy. Also the like to think unhealthy is always unhealthy and not subject to context.

KitFox

I don't think it's right to blame her for that.

RegDwigнt

Helloes.

KitFox

Hi @Mr.Shiny

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

2:15 PM

Colorado baker faces complaint after refusing to write homophobic message on cake

Matt Эллен

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Hi

write?

KitFox

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I saw that. Pretty funny.

RegDwigнt

@KitFox I am not blaming her for her inate inability to connect with other people, just like I do not blame her for her inate ability to sing.

Matt Эллен

or correct?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@MattЭллен right

RegDwigнt

2:16 PM

I am blaming her for connecting with people, and all the wrong ones.

KitFox

@RegDwigнt Is that what you meant when you said she drove the bus over herself?

Matt Эллен

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 :D

Mitch

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 That's just teasing. Because you know we all want to know what the guy really wanted to put on the cake.

RegDwigнt

I am suffering from an inability to connect with other people myself, and have been all my life. Yet lo and behold, I am not taking drugs in a tub after Bobby Brown pulped my face.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

So @RegDwigнt I finally built the Turtles Shellraiser kit that I'd bought on clearance months ago. I've never been so confused about what I was building. In the end I looked it up online and saw that it did make sense, after all.

Mitch

2:18 PM

@RegDwigнt Bobby Brown pulped your face? sends authorities

Matt Эллен

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 what is a bedroom community?

Mitch

A community of bedrooms...duh

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@MattЭллен A town where people live but don't work, I think

Mitch

Where the bedrooms make connections with each other.

RegDwigнt

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 it's too many of the same pieces for me. Like, what do I need eight car hoods in olive green for?

Mitch

2:19 PM

They don't have the problems we do.

Matt Эллен

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 ah. OK. thanks :)

KitFox

@RegDwigнt I fail to see what that has to do with her situation.

RegDwigнt

Er.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@RegDwigнt yeah, well, it was cheap and all. But I thought that monstrosity was supposed to be a kind of van. Actually it's a subway car converted into a van.

RegDwigнt

Certainly her situation would have been much better without that psycho?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

2:20 PM

That explains why it's almost entirely symmetrical front-to-back, which I'd never seen in any car build.

KitFox

Are you a black woman who was raised in the ghetto and then went on to become a superstar singer with little or no authentic social support?

RegDwigнt

No. And so aren't you.

tchrist

@KitFox "Only in Colorado" ;-)

KitFox

Because I'm sure that if you were, you would understand why she'd stay with an abuser much better than you seem to right now.

RegDwigнt

It's not like my opinion is worth less because I'm not a black woman who's been abused.

Matt Эллен

2:22 PM

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 well, the way I see it, not writing something hateful is different to discriminating against people. maybe I'm just a left wing commie freak

KitFox

It's not that your opinion is worth less, it's that you're making a judgment based on your circumstance, and not hers.

RegDwigнt

No no no. I am making a judgment based on her circumstances.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@MattЭллен yeah you probably are.

tchrist

So you're a black sheik who HAS been abused?

RegDwigнt

I am not saying how I would behave in my circumstances.

Mitch

2:22 PM

@RegDwigнt Let's just say your opinion isn't less, just that others are more.

Matt Эллен

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 could be worse I suppoes

RegDwigнt

At any rate, my original question was how that article had anything to do with all this.

KitFox

@RegDwigнt Pretty sure you did. You said you had the same problem, but you weren't in an abusive relationship and doing drugs.

RegDwigнt

Instead we are now discussing my race.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@MattЭллен You could be a left-wing commie freak who doesn't know whether or not the moon is a planet.

RegDwigнt

2:23 PM

@KitFox yeah.

Mitch

@MattЭллен pinko troskyite treehugger!

and bottle recycler

Matt Эллен

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 lol. exactly.

@Mitch the smashig sound is theraputic

RegDwigнt

So an abusive relationship and doing drugs is a given now? That's where I have to start? In that case, that's precisely where we disagree. I think that's very much an effect, not a cause.

KitFox

And the point of the article was that addiction isn't something you do to yourself.

And that different people react differently to the same circumstance.

Mitch

@MattЭллен If I were 14 years old, I'd spend my Saturdays smashing bottles in the recycling bin.

RegDwigнt

2:25 PM

Addiction changes you. But you have to become addicted in the first place.

KitFox

Because social interaction is really important.

Mitch

When I was 14 years old, I wished I were doing that. But they didn't have bottles back then.

RegDwigнt

Nobody is born addicted.

KitFox

You're missing the point entirely.

Mitch

@KitFox Sincerely...to some people it is really important, but not as much to others.

RegDwigнt

2:26 PM

I am not sure why we have a point at all. We were just playing battle of Witneys.

Mitch

Like solitary confinement... it really messes up most people. But some (few) people aren't traumatized by it.

tchrist

Qvit's undies are no great prize.

RegDwigнt

But yes, just for the record: when someone smashes my face into pulp, that's the latest when I'd tell them to go fuck themselves, be they God or Elton John. Especially if I suck at connecting to people, then I suck at connecting to bad people even more.

Mitch

@tchrist If only Haynes gave them away for free.

RegDwigнt

And especially if I have millions upon millions in the bank, and millions upon millions of people looking up to me.

Mitch

2:29 PM

@RegDwigнt Even Elton John? Wow, that's serious.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@RegDwigнt That's easy for you to say. Yet if you know someone who is in an abusive relationship, you'll see that they see the world differently than you do, and are essentially unable to leave. Their brain won't let them.

Mitch

Did Whitney and Elton ever connect? I think not and I think that says it all.

RegDwigнt

I am more interested in figuring out people the likes of Philipp Seymour Hoffman, who had the millions and the fame but were not abused and still unhappy.

Mitch

I heard the other day about this guy who had locked-in syndrome (everyone thought he was in a coma but he could hear everything that people were saying around him)...

(this is a story)

and they'd put on TV Barney for hours on end and he really couldn't stand it...

and sometimes the nurses would have the radio on and he'd hear Whitney...

and the line from her song "no matter what they can't take away my dignity"...

A Beautiful Mind

Actually, all I meant to say when I said it is not Whitney's fault was that her severe problems drove her to kill herself, and we cannot blame her too much for that.

RegDwigнt

2:32 PM

@Mitch they both recorded songs to Tim Rice's lyrics. Who was with Kevin Bacon in Rashomon.

Mitch

and he thought "wow...no they really can"

See, his life sucked.

RegDwigнt

Yeah. First thing they did take away was her dignity.

Mitch

He pulled out of it and was able to eventually communicate all this.

A Beautiful Mind

@RegDwigнt I like that song too.

Mitch

He also married his nurse eventually.

Matt Эллен

2:34 PM

did she ask him to dress as Barney for their wedding?

Mitch

Stephen Hawking's nurse.

That's why Hawking went back to his first wife.

It's kind of sordid.

A Beautiful Mind

Stephen married twice and divorced twice.

Wait, did he remarry the first wife?

Mitch

@MattЭллен Zing!

RegDwigнt

He did the Liz Taylor.

Mitch

@ABeautifulMind maybe not remarried, but back together?

@RegDwigнt Yes, exactly, that's the dance they did at their wedding.

He did a Liz Taylor.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

2:36 PM

meeting time, gots ta go. byez

Matt Эллен

CU

☕

🍵_🍵

user116848

When you guys write "rimshot!"it means drum sound, right?

Matt Эллен

yes

usually

RegDwigнt

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 their brain is part of themselves. It is not some abstract entity floating around in space. Their brain, their fault.

@Farooq instantrimshot.com

Matt Эллен

that hardly makes sense. Most of your brain is not under conscious control

if any of it is

RegDwigнt

2:41 PM

You are precisely right. So?

user116848

@RegDwigнt :-)

RegDwigнt

You can't be saying nobody can ever be blamed for anything.

Everything I do my brain tells me to do. Everything at all. No exceptions.

Mitch

["In 2006 Hawking and Elaine quietly divorced,[97][98] following which Hawking resumed closer relationships with Jane, his children, and grandchildren"](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking#Marriages)

RegDwigнt

So where do you draw the line? And why is there a line?

Mitch

so no, he didn't do Liz Taylor.

RegDwigнt

2:43 PM

Why is it that if I run over you, that's my fault, but if I run over you while drunk, I get acquitted because I had no control over myself?

Matt Эллен

@RegDwigнt I'm saying that if you are seriously underestimating how difficult it is to be. You seem to be saying that because x y z that she should be happy, but noöne works like that.

RegDwigнt

I am not saying that she should be happy!

Never once did I say any such dumb thing.

Mitch

@Farooq It mostly means "An unexpected joke was just made"

RegDwigнt

I said she should not have taken measures to make herself unhappy.

Nobody should.

Mitch

@RegDwigнt reflexes. it's your spinal cord.

Matt Эллен

2:44 PM

@RegDwigнt and I'm saying that it's not that easy to be that way

if it were, I would be, we all would be.

Mitch

but I can't, so I won't?

RegDwigнt

But it's still not my fault, and not yours, and not something that couldn't have been averted. So I don't think it's sad.

Matt Эллен

@RegDwigнt right. I was fine with that. some people think it's sad, others don't.

RegDwigнt

I just don't like calling everything sad, or a catastophe, or a tragedy.

If everything's a tragedy, nothing is.

And perhaps everything is a tragedy.

Matt Эллен

clearly not everything is a tragedy, but some people think that suicide is a tragedy

KitFox

2:47 PM

It wasn't suicide. It was an accident.

Matt Эллен

ok

KitFox

Accidental drowning.

Matt Эллен

sorry

I don't know

Mitch

Still sad

Matt Эллен

still I find it sad

KitFox

2:47 PM

Because she was passed out.

Mitch

jinx

a sad jinx

or it could also be sad if she stayed in the same troubled relationship.

god that's sad.

RegDwigнt

Clap along if you feel like a house without a tub-a.

Matt Эллен

pourjour

Can someone help me to translate this
# j'étais là depuis environ une demi heure quand elle s'assit non loin de moi# To english

RegDwigнt

I had been there for approximately half an hour when she something something.

crl

2:50 PM

I was there since approximately half an hour when she sat not far from me

RegDwigнt

Sat down not far away from me?

Jinx.

Matt Эллен

@pourjour translated

tchrist

@Reg Why are you channelling Stalin of all monsters?

RegDwigнt

That is one strange sentence.

crl

"I was there for about half an hour when she sat not far from me" by google, oh nvm that's Matt's link

RegDwigнt

2:51 PM

@tchrist I'm done with all the other monsters, Stalin is the last level to unlock.

tchrist

"The death of one man is a tragedy; the death of millions is a statistic."

RegDwigнt

Yes I know.

And it is very true.

One particular Charlie Hebdo editor is a tragedy. 50 unnamed people on the same day in some African hole, who cares.

KitFox

@MattЭллен Aww.

Matt Эллен

@RegDwigнt stop killing all these people!

RegDwigнt

But I don't like tragedies and do like statistics.

Do you like tragedies instead?

KitFox

2:53 PM

That's because we could stop the death of one, but not millions.

RegDwigнt

Perhaps.

I don't think I could have stopped the death of any particular editor.

In fact he had police officers guarding him.

Guess who's dead now as well.

crl

loosely guarding him

RegDwigнt

And I'm not even a police officer.

KitFox

And I'm sure those 50 unnamed people were named to somebody and somebody felt it as a tragedy.

RegDwigнt

@crl he was behind a locked door with a code. One of their colleagues entered the code for the threat of her life. I don't want to be in her shoes. They'd all live now if not for her.

Matt Эллен

2:55 PM

@KitFox poor tenth doctor

RegDwigнt

@KitFox that's a very good point.

But in that case the question arises: why do we need reports on statistics at all?

crl

@RegDwigнt oh gosh they did it like in movies

KitFox

@RegDwigнt Did he kill her?

RegDwigнt

If we know in advance we couldn't care less about someone because they are not even a someone, then why report at all.

Mitch

@MattЭллен Is that.. Leonardo diCaprio?

RegDwigнt

2:56 PM

@KitFox I don't think he did. My understanding was that that's how we know that part of the story to begin with. But I could be mistaken. Or it could have been misreported.

KitFox

@Mitch That's David Tennant!

Mitch

I did not cry during Titanic. I thought it was cool how it sank.

I cried at the end of Babe when the pig... wait, can I give it away?

pourjour

Thanks

RegDwigнt

Holy crap, you sat through Titanic and Babe?

Achievement unlocked.

Mitch

@KitFox so which Rose is he pining for? One of his assistants?