The Frying Pan

Jolenealaska

12:01 AM

It's not by law (that would be a constitutional violation), but it is de facto law, yes.

No ID? You don't get into the movie. The Shawshank Redemption being rated R causes me to see red.

2 utterances of "fuck" is an automatic R.

Cerberus

Ohh.

They actually have kids show their ID at a cinema?

Jolenealaska

Yep

Cerberus

Hmm I'm not sure, but I don't think we have that here.

At least I have never heard of it; I will ask my pupils.

Of course I agree with you that a few fucks and shits will not kill a child.

2

And, more importantly, I don't think this should be the cinema's business at all, unless it is about things like violence and children under 12 or so.

Jolenealaska

Massive, gory violence will often get a PG-13, which is only a recommendation, no ID required.

Cerberus

Really??

Jolenealaska

12:06 AM

Yep. Pisses me off no end.

Cerberus

I don't know what to say.

Hey, I have a question.

rumtscho

@Cerberus I am sooo tempted to star this

Cerberus

Do biology books show the entire human body and explain how sex and conception work in your countries?

@rumtscho Hahaha nooo...

Jolenealaska

Most schools, yes.

Cerberus

OK.

My kids were studying for a bio exam today.

I saw lots of photos of breasts and penes and vaginae.

rumtscho

12:08 AM

@Cerberus don't worry, I already made my decision, else you'd have seen the star instead of this line :) Some things are just too cruel out of context.

Cerberus

The book also talked about what menstruation was, incest, rape, etc.

@rumtscho Yeah, I mean, if someone read that the wrong way, in these times, I could be in actual trouble.

Jolenealaska

Again, we have the "fringe" that wants abstinence only education, but public schools at least tend to not have their heads that far up their ass.

Cerberus

Do they also have photographs?

rumtscho

@Jolenealaska I've read there are problems with the schoolbooks though

Jolenealaska

Mmm...probably no photos, but I haven't seen a sex ed textbook.

rumtscho

12:10 AM

Because Texas is the largest schoolbook market and the schools there tend to be more conservative than on the coasts. So publishers don't want to create a book which will be forbidden in Texas.

Cerberus

OK I was kind of giggling when I saw those 13-year-olds studying pictures of penises in school.

Jolenealaska

Yeah. I wish they'd succeed already.

Cerberus

@rumtscho Oh, that is unfortunate.

How are the books in Bulgaria?

rumtscho

So there were a few news stories where the publisher had to take out the numbers of help lines for gay teenagers under pressure from a bunch of Texas school boards

Cerberus

And have you voted yet, or is it not your turn yet?

@rumtscho Ugh!

rumtscho

12:12 AM

@Jolenealaska In Europe, there are genitalia in the regular biology book, not just in sex ed books

Cerberus

We didn't have any special sex-ed books in school.

rumtscho

@Cerberus bad quality, mostly. Not because of censorship, but because cares/is paid enough money/knows how to write good ones

Cerberus

*noöne cares?

rumtscho

I learned from German textbooks in highschool, I was at a German class. They were many times better than the Bulgarian ones.

Cerberus

Ahh OK.

rumtscho

12:14 AM

@Cerberus yes, sorry

Cerberus

So some schools in Bulgaria have classes in German?

Jolenealaska

I don't remember textbooks either for sex-ed.

rumtscho

@Cerberus Two schools in Bulgaria have this program, I think. Or maybe even just one.

Cerberus

Ah OK.

rumtscho

@Jolenealaska This is probably a wise way to do it. If there were textbooks, there would be many more uptight parents raising alarm after pawing through the books. Now, the teachers can say what they need to, and the parents aren't reminded of it during book buying or when they see the textbook lying around. And the children probably don't repeat everything word for word at home.

Also, there is probably not much need for textbooks for sex ed. This is a class where everybody is paying attention to what the teacher is saying, and committing it to memory. No need to re-read it at home :)

Cerberus

12:17 AM

I guess so, if parents are a serious issue.

Jolenealaska

@rumtscho, yep. Lord knows we don't need Bible-thumping parents up in arms.

rumtscho

At least the intercourse part is that way. You sure need a textbook to learn about the hormone concentration in different phases of the menstrual cycle and so on. I don't even know if this is part of sex ed or regular biology in the USA.

Cerberus

Did you learn about incest in school?

I don't remember doing so.

Jolenealaska

When I was a kid, we had a few weeks in Jr High of "sex-ed". Hormones in the menstrual cycle would be high school biology.

rumtscho

@Cerberus No, we didn't. Actually, we didn't have clear-cut sex ed. We had some classes in "developing a personality", where sex was a topic for one or two lessons, but on a rather superficial level. And then we learned the mechanics and the contraceptive methods in biology, but biology did not touch on the social side of it.

Jolenealaska

12:21 AM

Sex-ed would include a bit on incest, just to give the kids a lifeline.

rumtscho

@Jolenealaska it would probably come quite late for those who actually need it

Jolenealaska

Yes

Cerberus

@rumtscho Ah OK. I think the social aspects were discussed in biology classes and books, but also somewhat superficially.

Jolenealaska

I don't remember homosexuality ever being brought up, or the word "orgasm" now that I think of it. Contraception and disease prevention were covered.

rumtscho

In fact, our contraceptive lesson was rather late, I think we were 16 at the time. Luckily, a side effect of our contempt towards church and our everybody-for-himself mentality is that contraception is not a taboo topic, even with younger kids. Teenage pregnancies practically never happen, except in minorities.

Jolenealaska

12:27 AM

What about abortion rates?

Cerberus

@Jolenealaska Hmm I see. I'm sure those things were mentioned in our books. And giggled about.

@rumtscho Great!

rumtscho

@Jolenealaska They are high, I think. I don't think I have met a pro-life person in Bulgaria except for a few highly religious people (and we don't have many of those).

On the other hand, it can be that our overall rate of teenage pregnancy is high. It is mostly the minorities who are having babies anyway, and with them, teenage pregnancies are normal, both in marriage (traditionally, gypsies start marrying at 13) and without marriage.

Jolenealaska

It still would be a more painful choice than the pill.

Cerberus

Ah, at 13 still?

And "pro-life" is a bit of a silly term from, probably from political advertising...

Just call it anti-abortion, because that's what it really is about.

rumtscho

@Cerberus I don't know how many of them are still living by tradition. But they certainly have sexual relationships early, and seldom have the knowledge or inclination to take the pill. They live rather primitive lives, even when they have money, which many of them don't.

Cerberus

12:34 AM

Hmm that is unfortunate.

Jolenealaska

I don't like that term either. I'd prefer that a daughter of mine would never face an unwanted pregnancy. I'm very anti-abortion-restriction, but contraception is better.

If only for the girl.

It would hurt.

rumtscho

the physical hurt is the lesser evil, I think

One of the most melodramatic stories I have seen in real life included an unwanted pregnancy

Jolenealaska

I'm not thinking physical at all.

It would just hurt to make that choice.

rumtscho

she was planning to have an abortion, and she was really worn down by it. Even though (or maybe because) this wasn't her first pregnancy, she had a stillborn and two live kids.

Jolenealaska

?? triplets?

rumtscho

12:42 AM

Hah, Jared Leto was almost aborted. I didn't know it. Now I am reading too much on the topic, trying to find statistics.

No, not triplets. Several years between the kids. But she was still very young, 21 when I knew her.

Jolenealaska

Funny, I had to Google that name. American, you know him and I don't. :)

rumtscho

He played in Requiem for a Dream, one of my favorite movies.

I normally don't know actors, because I rarely watch movies.

Cerberus

@Jolenealaska Absolutely!

rumtscho

But when I do, it is less well known movies, so I guess my favorite actors are less well known too.

I think the best-known actor I saw in a great movie is Kirsten Dunst, in Melancholia. She is a known celebrity, right?

Cerberus

I wouldn't know.

rumtscho

12:46 AM

@Cerberus are you a weird-movie-fan too?

Jolenealaska

Yes, I know her mostly from Jumanji, she was a kid then. She's the love interest of Spider-Man too, but I haven't seen any of those.

Cerberus

@rumtscho I don't know what counts as weird?

But, when I watch a film, it is unlikely to be a blockbuster.

rumtscho

She was great in her Melancholia role. There were three main characters in Melancholia, two sisters and the husband of one of them. Each of them with a very specific way to look at life, one living by pure intellect, one pragmatic/emotional, and one sensual. She was the married sister. And she was the sensual of the tree.

Jolenealaska

Personally I only know her name because of Jumanji, how I knew she is the Spider-Man girlfriend is a bit a mystery.

rumtscho

@Cerberus Heavy dramas, non-Hollywood. Mostly European, but also some American indie films.

"Melancholia" I just mentioned is a film by Lars von Trier. By now I think he is my favorite director. Better known for Antichrist. Recently he also released Nymphomaniac. The (cut for cinema) version is 2 parts, 3 hours each.

I guess the most mainstream director I like is David Lynch.

Or Tim Burton, is Tim Burton more mainstream than David Lynch?

@Cerberus what kind of movies do you like? Or, what are some examples of concrete movies you like?

Cerberus

12:55 AM

@rumtscho I have heard of Von Trier.

Jolenealaska

Hmm. I've heard of Burton. I'm not sure I had heard of Lynch, but I am a bad source for what is "mainstream", so what do I know?

Cerberus

@rumtscho Oh, I don't know, I very rarely watch any films...

Let me think...

What film really amazed me?

I liked Driving Miss Daisy, which is American.

I think I mostly watch French films.

I kind of liked La Tourneuse de Pages...but that was ages ago.

rumtscho

@Cerberus Have you seen "Ricky", by Francois Ozone?

Cerberus

I also liked Un Prophète, you know it?

rumtscho

This is the one French film I liked enough to remember. I somehow haven't seen many French films.

Cerberus

12:57 AM

@rumtscho Nope, no idea.

I also like other European films, and South-American films, I think.

Jolenealaska

Driving Miss Daisy!:) I'd pay to listen to Morgan Freeman read the phone book! He's my fave.

Cerberus

Yay!

rumtscho

Ah, and Gaspar Noe counts as a French director, right?

Cerberus

I know 0 names of actors or directors.

@Jolenealaska Was that a Hollywood film, was it big?

rumtscho

I absolutely loved Irreversible. One of the most intriguing films I ever saw. And Monica Belucci probably tops my list for most beautiful woman.

Cerberus

12:59 AM

No idea.

rumtscho

It is a great film, but even more disturbing than the usual von Trier stuff.

Cerberus

I have also seen Gosford Park; but the problem was that the sound was very soft and low quality, and there was noise, so I could not understand much of what they were saying.

But I liked what I understood hehe.

@rumtscho I don't think I've ever seen any of his films, but I will consider them.

Jolenealaska

Yes, DMD was a big film, I'm pretty sure it was Hollywood. I think it was nominated for several Academy Awards. I watched it 'cause Morgan was in it.

Yes, it won Best Picture +3 more Oscars.

Cerberus

OK I guess not all Hollywood makes is superficial crap hehe.

Jolenealaska

Including best actress.

Cerberus

1:03 AM

I do wonder what an actual Bollywood film must be like.

They seem like...awful musicals.

rumtscho

@Cerberus I don't know if you should consider what I am saying here as a recommendation. As I said, they are somewhat weird. Certainly very brutal. They are think-along films, not entertaining ones, but provocative at the same time.

Cerberus

But who knows?

Jolenealaska

Only most. Morgan brings a certain class to everything he touches.

Cerberus

@rumtscho I may or may not like that.

Have either of you seen any Nollywood* films?

Jolenealaska

??Nollywood?

Cerberus

1:04 AM

*) The booming Nigerian film industry.

rumtscho

@Cerberus No, I haven't.

Cerberus

It is famous across Africa.

Neither have I.

But I'm curious.

Articles about it keep appearing.

rumtscho

I don't get the news from around the corner; I certainly don't know what is popular in Africa.

Jolenealaska

Nope, heehee. I only know the internet scams.

rumtscho

I wouldn't have known about the earthquake last weekend if I hadn't felt it

Cerberus

1:05 AM

@rumtscho Why no local news?

rumtscho

@Cerberus I guess I don't care enough to seek them out

Cerberus

@Jolenealaska Yay! But it turned out that many of the Nigerian scammers were actually in Amsterdam, I believe!

rumtscho

Grrr the film industry is so backwards!

Cerberus

@rumtscho So this implies that you do not care about any news?

Jolenealaska

That cracks me up :) You scammers you. Sucker born every minute.

rumtscho

1:08 AM

I decided to put un prophete and DMD on my watchlist, but there is of course no easy way to get them. Lovefilm can send me the French film on DVD, but I almost never use that. And they don't have the miss daisy film.

@Cerberus I guess so. I feel a bit bad about it, but in reality, I don't follow them.

Cerberus

Amsterdam is the centre of Nigerian spam network

@Jolenealaska We are!

rumtscho

I used to follow IT news. Now I have a backlog of two months' worth of my favorite IT magazine, and haven't opened a news site in months, if not years.

Cerberus

@rumtscho Have you tried Ebay?

@rumtscho Hmm I wonder why. News is like...easy reading fodder for me.

rumtscho

@Cerberus I guess I am aiming higher with my reading, especially in recent weeks.

I have been devouring books almost like the time I was in school.

Jolenealaska

He probably doesn't know this, but I beat SAJ last week in reputation gain. I'm ahead of him so far this week. I don't know why exactly, but that makes me smile.

Cerberus

1:12 AM

@rumtscho Wow cool, which books?

dailymotion.com/video/…

rumtscho

The Kindle books I have read so far this year are 24

Cerberus

Un Prophète is on Daily Motion.

English subtitles.

rumtscho

so probably 50 so far when you count non-kindle

Cerberus

@Jolenealaska Poor kitty...

That is quite a lot!

rumtscho

and somehow I have been heavily hitting non-fiction

mostly psychology and ux design stuff

yesterday I finished a very sweet teenie novel, Prep

Cerberus

1:17 AM

Haha.

I'm glad at least some of your reading was...like that.

rumtscho

Indeed. I can't maintain the highbrow reading all the time.

Cerberus

I should find something to read in bed again, preferably French or German.

rumtscho

I actually got out the novel when I was in the middle of Inside jokes. This is a really great book on the theory of humor. But the style is also really demanding. Probably my first social sciences book which is not intended as popular science.

Or, if it was intended this way, they missed their goal.

Cerberus

Heh.

What did you learn from it?

rumtscho

What must happen in order to feel mirth

and also quite a bit about epistemic emotions theory

the stuff about the epistemic emotions wasn't so new, but it had a good structured overview, because knowing it was a prerequisite for understanding the humor theory.

I am still not through with the book, just a bit after the middle.

Cerberus

1:22 AM

Anything interesting you could explain in a sentence or two?

rumtscho

I don't think so. As I said, it is densely written, and it really needs lots of knowledge of modern cognitive science.

Jolenealaska

@rumtscho I just read an answer you posted. Are you sure? I've made butter (intentionally and not-so-much) and I'm pretty sure that all cream here is homogenized.

rumtscho

OK, maybe one thing. For them, the evolutionary reason for mirth is to reward the brain for doing a very tedious but very necessary process: checking our heuristics for truthfulness.

@Jolenealaska Hmm, maybe homogenized cream also can make butter, but needs much more churning?

Now you mentioned it, I think I also have ended up with a bit of butter in ice cream

amazon.de/Inside-Jokes-Matthew-M-Hurley/dp/026201582X/…

This is the book itself. If you want to invest the time, it is a very worthy read. I am sure you will able to understand it, the necessary previous knowledge is included in the first chapters.

Jolenealaska

I think that's right. One time I was using a stand mixer to whip cream and the phone rang. A friend was distraught, so I ignored my cream a bit too long. Butter.

Cerberus

@rumtscho Hmm...

rumtscho

1:32 AM

@Cerberus Basically, they say that humor happens like that: you first start creating explanations about what you are perceiving. At some point, you commit to the explanation being true. Then the punchline of the joke shows you that your explanation was wrong. And if this happens with the right timing, and there aren't stronger emotions to displace or override the mirth, you feel mirth.

Theory of mind also plays much of a role: you also find it very funny - or even funnier than the first case - when it is another person's mental space collapsing.

Cerberus

@rumtscho What does that mean?

@rumtscho Is mirth defined as the joy one perceives when one is laughing about a joke, as opposed to other kinds of joy?

rumtscho

@Cerberus "Theory of mind" is what you assume that other people feel and think

the "mental space" (sorry, forgot that I didn't mention it in the first part) is a hypothetical reality you are creating in your head when thinking about some part of the world.

For example, when you are sitting in your room and perceiving it, you have one mental space about your room.

Jolenealaska

mirth=jocularity no joke need be involved

Cerberus

@rumtscho Oh, I know that, I have a BA in philosophy, almost, remember?

@rumtscho Ah OK, noted.

rumtscho

If you start watching a movie, you construct a second mental space, within which FTL exists, for example.

Jolenealaska

1:36 AM

That's an awesome line for a resume.

Cerberus

@Jolenealaska I have a feeling its meaning is normally slightly broader than in this context.

@Jolenealaska Yay!

I did everything except the thesis.

rumtscho

And if you hear a joke starting with "Bush, Reagan and Zhivkov [Bulgarian head of Politburo] are flying in a plane", you construct a mental space in which these three people are in a plane, even if you know that they never were in a plane together in reality

Cerberus

Right. This is all very Aristotelian...

rumtscho

"collapsing the mental space" happens when you learn that your mental space is wrong, and you scrap it.

Cerberus

Right.

Is it especially funny when someone else's mental space collapses?

Or is it just a form of the "surprise" part that is kind of essential in any joke?

rumtscho

1:39 AM

It is more likely to be funny when somebody else's mental space collapses, because when it is your own mental space, it is more likely to be overriden by other emotions

Jolenealaska

Aristotelian?? Big word for someone who hasn't finished the BA.

rumtscho

for example, if you slip on a patch of ice and fall, the natural reaction of other people is to laugh. Adults have usually learned to suppress it, but children or people who don't care to suppress it will laugh. And it is frequently used in comedies too.

But you probably won't laugh yourself, because being hurt supersedes the mirth occasion.

The others will have observed you walking, will have a theory of mind of you in which you believe that you are stepping on solid ground, and it will collapse when you fall.

Cerberus

@Jolenealaska Well, I do have BAs in classics and ancient history hehe.

rumtscho

And the intensity of fun is connected to how many mental spaces collapse at once.

Cerberus

(I have to brag about something, because I've never finished my master's thesis...)

Jolenealaska

1:43 AM

Oh OK. :)

rumtscho

So, if it is a stuffy old gentleman who falls this way, it is funnier for the onlookers. Because his mental space of his own dignity collapses at the same time his mental space of solid ground collapses.

@cerberus have you read The hundred year old man who got out of the window and dispappeared?

It is one of the novels I read recently.

Cerberus

@rumtscho But...that is only because of your physical collapse. Normally, you laugh when a joke collapses your mental space, right?

rumtscho

Now this is a book I can highly recommend. No weird-warnings there.

Cerberus

@rumtscho I don't know, I would probably phrase it differently.

rumtscho

@Cerberus There was an assumption that you will be stepping on solid ground. This assumption had its own mental space.

Jolenealaska

1:45 AM

@Cerberus So you're working working on your third degree? Really? We understand Rummy, she's a nerd. What's your excuse?

rumtscho

A mental space doesn't need to be very elaborate. You can have multiple not-so-connected mental spaces about the same situation.

Cerberus

@rumtscho Yes, I know what you mean, but I think the most common scenario is where you read a joke, and you laugh at the punchline, because the punchline destroys your own mental space. No other person is directly involved whose mental space you could be laughing at. Right?

@Jolenealaska Not really, I kind of put it all aside, doing other work.

rumtscho

And the question about where the limit is between too-far-under-consciousness-threshold-to-produce-humor is an important one. But this goes too far to explain it here.

@Cerberus This happens too. But you also laugh when the mental space of the jokes' heroes is destroyed.

Cerberus

Yes. But you said "mainly when someone else's space is destroyed" or something, which implied "not your own space".

Did I misinterpret that part?

rumtscho

For example, the joke about Bush, Reagan and Zhivkov goes on to say that first, Reagan sticks his hand out and says "We are flying over America. I just touched the top of the Empire state building".

Then the second person - and here I made a very dumb mistake, it is Miterand, not Bush, sorry - sticks his hand out and says "We are in France". When the others ask how did he know, he says he touched the Eiffel tower.

Cerberus

1:49 AM

About the stuffy old gentleman: I would explain it thus. When he stumbles, the incongruity between what you expect (calm, stiff, frumpy) and what happens (slips and falls, loses hat) is larger than with, say, a child. And the incongruity makes the surprise bigger for you, and so it is funnier, because big surprise → lots of fun.

Jolenealaska

Some of the best Q&A I have seen here are users on ELL trying to understand humor.

rumtscho

And at last, Zhivkov sticks out his arm. Then he says "We are over Bulgaria". The others wonder, "How did you know? You don't have high buildings here".

Zhivkov then says, "They stole my watch".

Cerberus

Lost his watch?

Haha I know that joke except the third guy is a Dutchman over Amsterdam.

@Jolenealaska Yeah, explaining humour is often complicated and informative!

rumtscho

So, here, it is the collapse not of your own mental space, but the mental spaces your theory of mind has ascribed to Reagan and Miterand

Jolenealaska

and fun!\

rumtscho

1:51 AM

Yes, of all the older theories they discuss, they say the incongruity theory was closest to getting it right

but they have multiple examples which incongruity theory predicts worse than their own theory

Cerberus

@rumtscho It is a possibility...I am still not sure.

rumtscho

both examples which should be funny by incongruity theory and aren't, and examples which shouldn't be funny by incongruity and are.

Cerberus

@rumtscho It is true that, in many cases, repetition is what makes things extra funny, which is the opposite of incongruity...

rumtscho

@Cerberus Get the book if you want to see the good arguments, they are too complicated for me to summarize them here

Cerberus

Of course.

I'm just trying to apply Occam's Razor on your / the book's theory about the importance of the collapse of other people's mental spaces.

Another feature of humour is that it is...a shortcut to finding out whether the world view of your interlocutor is aligned with yours.

rumtscho

1:54 AM

Occam's razor is a good thing, only there are some things which, if they were explainable by a simple explanation, they would have been unambiguously explained long ago.

Cerberus

I'm not a fan of that argument...

rumtscho

The mere fact that educated people have studied humor for many years and haven't come up with a single satisfying theory suggests that a good theory of humor will be more complicated than the ones considered until now

Cerberus

But this was only about a certain limited aspect of the theory.

rumtscho

Well, you don't have to believe the theory if you don't want to. I find it convincing enough.

But now I think I will go straight to bed without any reading, it is 4 AM.

Cerberus

@rumtscho I didn't say I didn't believe it!

I was just exploring counter-arguments to certain elements of it.

Good night.

Jolenealaska

2:01 AM

@Cerberus You pissed her off. See how you are?

Cerberus

Aww.

I'm sure I didn't.

rumtscho

@Jolenealaska I'm not pissed off, but I have much to do tomorrow and want to get some sleep.

Cerberus

To me, it was a friendly discussion. Right?

Jolenealaska

On that note, I too need to retire. @rumtscho of course I know! I was just funnin.

Cerberus

Tsk meanie!

Good night y'all.

rumtscho

2:03 AM

@Cerberus Yes, that's how I saw it too. It is the point of theories that they should be discussed and doubted before they are accepted.

so, now for real. Good night.

Cerberus

@rumtscho Haha exactly! Bonne nuit.

(And even acceptance need never be permanent...)

Jolenealaska

2:37 AM

too early to sleep :( I need to get up wicked early though.

Cerberus

Ouch.

The morning's a bitch.

What are you up to?

Jolenealaska

I need to welcome my landlord with a smile. I could get the place ready tonight, but I won't.

I might not get 'er done in the morning either. Fuck it.

Cerberus

Oh, dear.

That's annoying!

Mine never visits.

Jolenealaska

2:58 AM

My last one annoyed me endlessly. Apparently I brow-beat her into selling. I scared her. Really? At any rate, I need the landlord to fix a few issues, so I'll pretend to welcome her. Especially if she brings her puppy!

Cerberus

Haha oh, dear.

Jolenealaska

I find it difficult to imagine considering me scary. I'm one hell of a shot, but come on!

Cerberus

If you want us to judge, you'll have to show us a picture hehe...

Jolenealaska

Funny thing. I was just considering uploading a picture of my hair.

Cerberus

Yay!

Jolenealaska

3:11 AM

Ok, soon. I will black out my face though. For some reason it's creepy to imagine uploading a picture of myself otherwise.

Cerberus

Okay.

Or just upload a video hehe.

That's not a photo, right?

Jolenealaska

Bah!

I was actually approached by a woman a couple of years ago because she recognized me from a bit I did for the local PBS channel in Maryland over a decade prior. Wha??

Frisbee dogs on TV? Are you shitting me? That was a lifetime ago!

Cerberus

Wow.

You have made quite the impression.

Jolenealaska

I do that. For some strange reason, people seem to remember me.

Cerberus

4:06 AM

That's good.

Jolenealaska

Or not. Maybe I'm just weird.

ElendilTheTall

7:57 AM

@Jolenealaska Wanted posters will do that for you ;)

Jolenealaska

9:37 AM

@EledilTheTall That must be it, I keep forgetting about those. Mike and Ollie are back, great. Whatever they did to chat today - not a great answer. I don't like this.

ElendilTheTall

10:36 AM

@Jolenealaska don't like what?

Jolenealaska

12:28 PM

Is the chat room different for you today? It is for me and the changes aren't good. @(letter) isn't bringing up options and the show of present users is gone from the upper right hand corner.

AND starred messages are hidden now, you have to look for them instead of them being in your face where they belong.

AND the field I'm typing in is too small.

ElendilTheTall

@Jolenealaska yo, jo

no, working fine

it sounds like you have it in mobile mode

if you can see a menu button, click it and click 'full site'

should be bottom left

Jolenealaska

5:20 PM

@ElendilTheTall That's it! I wish I had seen your message before I bitched in meta.

@Jefromi Worse. It was operator error. I didn't even know there was a mobile mode.

At least it my rude comment only had 5 views before I deleted it.

Cerberus

5:54 PM

Hi!

@Jolenealaska This is hilarious, I'm sorry...

Jolenealaska

Laugh it up, Fuzzball :)\

Cerberus

laughs

coughs up hairball

presents hairball to Josie like a coveted prize

By the way, @SAJ14SAJ in case you wanted to know, I ate some raw herring today for you.

Jolenealaska

How special, my kitty used to do that too.

Is herring good raw?

This is interesting:

The People's Republic of China will not issue visas to Canadian passport holders whose place of birth is inscribed as being Hong Kong HKG, Macau MAC or (city name) TWN. Accordingly, passports issued to Canadians born in Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan now only list the place of birth, without an accompanying three-letter country code, unless upon request.

Cerberus

7:06 PM

@Jolenealaska Yes, it is great!

An fairly strong taste of salty fish, very pure.

@Jolenealaska Wow.

Stupid nationalist bureaucracy...

Jolenealaska

This is weird, but I don't think I have ever had herring.

Yes, stupid. We don't care if you were born there, just call it China and we're fine.

Cerberus

I don't know, it is hardly ever eaten non-raw here, so, if you're not used to raw herring, I imagine you might just rarely eat it.

@Jolenealaska The little people are crushed between the cogs of nationalist machinery.

Jolenealaska

I think I would like it. I looks to be strongly flavored, which is usually a plus for me.

Cerberus

Yes, it is.

The raw onions balance it out.

They are also very strong, but in a kind of opposite way.

And I prefer to eat it on toast, so you have fat + carbohydrates...

Jolenealaska

It's a very oily fish, right?

Cerberus

7:13 PM

Yes.

If I took a couple of pieces and rubbed them all over your walls, you'd have to move.

Because the oil is very fishy and very hard to remove to a degree that you don't smell it any more.

ElendilTheTall

@jolenealaska I recommend you check with me.before you make any further life decisions.

Jolenealaska

haha :)

ElendilTheTall

My consulting rates are reasonable

And can be partially paid in brioche

Jolenealaska

I've got TONS of brioche, I put some in the freezer since it's decidedly not on my diet.

ElendilTheTall

I stress partially - the rest will need to be cold hard cash, not cold hard brioche

Jolenealaska

7:23 PM

I'm suddenly very sleepy. I think I can afford a short nap. I've been pretty solid on my days and nights this week. So, cya guys later!

ElendilTheTall

You didn't consult me...

Permission denied

Cerberus

Happy napping!

@ElendilTheTall Which life decisions are those?

ElendilTheTall

Any and all

Cerberus

Which one were you referring to in particular?

I know you are comprehensive by nature...

ElendilTheTall

Moaning on meta about the chat when in fact she had just gone into mobile mode

So many of the world's problems could be avoided if everyone just consulted us frying panners first

2

Cerberus

7:31 PM

Ahhh OK that.

@ElendilTheTall But so much fun would have been lost!

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