1) There is a way to make a PM (private message) to someone?

2) If someone is talking in spanish in a forum where it's supposed to talk in english (like this web), Can I talk with him in spanish (and leave a translation in english) or I shouldn't do that?

@EnderLook On Stack Exchange? No, there is not.

@DavidZ in the first or in the second question?

Note that I replied to the first one

@EnderLook That depends on the policies of the site, if there are any relevant policies. If it's happening in one of these chat rooms, that someone is posting messages in a different language from what everyone else in the room knows, then I think the best thing to do is to ask the person to post in the majority language, and don't respond in the language they are using.

@DavidZ Ok

Though other people might have different advice to offer

@DaaaahWhoosh Yeah, I actually spend ~90-95% of my time listening to classical music and film scores :P

Is there a graveyard for abandoned sandbox questions, such as chat?

(I'll wait at least 24 hours before deleting any sandbox questions I've asked)

@AndrewGrimm There are rules for keeping the Sandbox clean. If someone doesn't work on his question after some time they get a reminder comment indicating that their question might get deleted.

If you want to abandon your question please edit it to something like "Not posted: title" and delete it. If you want to post it edit the body to "Posted: [title](link)", delete it and add the link to the community wiki that is the accepted answer in the Sandbox.

There is no "graveyard". The graduated posts are visible via the community wiki post and the abandoned posts are visible to high-rep users who can see the deleted posts in the Sandbox.

Applying for jobs sucks.

if it makes you feel any better, I just had to miss about two hours of important client meetings for a not important company meeting where the CEO described us as literally the Borg

well, actually I guess the client meetings weren't important. But it's the client, and they already don't like me

it also really annoys me how people keep on talking about millennials. The next generation is already entering the workforce, GenZ kids are already up to 22 years old. It's time for the millennials to do the complaining.

millennials know about wall phones and floppy disks and grocery store checkouts. They remember them, and remember abandoning them forever. It's GenZ that never experienced any of it.

@DaaaahWhoosh YES, SAY IT BROTHER!

I guess it's just part of how we don't have decades any more. No one came up for a name for 2000-2009 or for 2010-2019, so they get lumped together

@DaaaahWhoosh Only a millennial would complain about that.

@James you probably are a millennial.

@DaaaahWhoosh I'd beat you with a dead mongoose, if I could remember who you are...or why I'm holding a dead mongoose.

just as long as it's not a regular goose.

the other day I was walking to my car and I saw about thirty of them waddling single-file across the parking lot. I just thought to myself "it must be to hide their numbers" and then I got the hell out of there.

@DaaaahWhoosh Clearly they are plotting the downfall of humanity.

I suggest napalm. It eliminates the problem and I am guessing flash cooked goose is probably tasty.

...So maybe napalm with garlic, salt and pepper mixed in.

it would be quite the morale boost if your soldiers could eat the enemy

@DaaaahWhoosh Soldiers do appreciate fresh food.

that'd make for a good short story. Fighting a race of cow-people, then your rations run out, and everyone makes a desperate push to the enemy trench before they starve

@DaaaahWhoosh I just got an incredible image of a cow in a kevlar helmet somehow holding a rocket launcher.

"Don't mess with us. It would be a big mis-steak."

@DaaaahWhoosh Many star, much funny.

You know, almost as good as not needing to sleep ever, a really cool super power would be that no time passes when you sleep. As in you go to sleep for 8 hours, and when you wake up it's exactly the same time as when you fell asleep.

it'd be nice if it also let you take as much time as you needed to think about things

@DaaaahWhoosh You mean in conversations when you have to think about what to respond?

@Secespitus yeah, among other things

I mean, that was my primary use case, but I assume it'd be useful elsewhere

I guess I've been wanting to learn to meditate, but don't want to waste time on it.

so if I could stop time, then meditate for a while, then start time again, that'd be cool

Yeah, that would be pretty cool.

but then that opens up the possibilities of all the other things I could do if I wasn't wasting time doing them

@DaaaahWhoosh I would stop time while I play video games...

imagine the marathons...

@James Depending on whether I would need sleep and food while gaming in that state the marathons would last until I have 100% on every game I own...

Just seems like you'd need external time to make a lot of things happen, like cpu processing, electricity flowing, etc.

@James But if you stopped time wouldn't the game's system clock pretty soon go out of line with the world and probably break stuff.

@AndyD273 but what is a mind but a biological CPU?

How big is the time stop effect. How are you breathing if there is no time?

Where as sleeping happens without any conscious thought (by definition) and so could happen without time flowing

@AndyD273 well, something happens when you sleep

It's kinda like the whole "you can't see me when my eyes are closed" thing

The brain cleans itself, and dreams.

@DaaaahWhoosh Yes, but that could be an internal time. Like subjective time

I dunno. I'd still be happier with not needing to ever sleep

That would be better

@Bellerophon This is the magical kind where what I want to work actually works.

@EnderLook see my edits on worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/84194/… In particular, no <br> codes. For English, I'm happy to discuss things here in chat (and other native speakers will chime in, too) if you want to talk about the edits I made.

@JDługosz I have already seen your edit. You have right, I haven't to use <br> code.

@JDługosz Why you delete my like? It's like use i.e, no?

@EnderLook You can also post your question in the Sandbox first and ask in chat if someone could have a look at your markdown and English if you want additional feedback. For future questions maybe

@Secespitus Ok, I'll try to remember this for the next time.

Like and i.e. are synonyms.

@EnderLook like before and etc. after say the same thing—that these are examples and the actual list is longer. Don’t use both.

@James Currently reading This book is full of spiders and one of the characters gets over a fence by walking on smoke while time has been stopped after he takes some soy sauce.

Well, gotta go get the kids. Adios.

@JDługosz ahh. But people would understand that they are examples? I didn't put for example:

@AndyD273 I don't even know how to respond to that

@AndyD273 Adios.

@EnderLook the etc. does that. It means “and the rest”.

Would walking on time stopped smoke work?

@EnderLook you can use i.e. before the list, or etc. after the list. Don’t use both at the samet time.

@Bellerophon If you can walk while the time is stopped anything is possible

@Bellerophon seems like it'd be the same as walking on time stopped air

@Bellerophon only if the air and dust didn’t have the same effect!

@Secespitus True.

@JDługosz Ok

In fact, walking in time stopped air would cause crashes with the particles and probably bad stuff.

@JDługosz I don't think it's necessarily wrong to use both, they don't mean exactly the same thing

@Bellerophon You wouldn't be able to move, air particule would be imposible to move (they don't have the time to move)

@DaaaahWhoosh yeah! ♫ I am not wrong ♫

@DaaaahWhoosh if you complete the list with “and the rest” then it's no longer (just) examples following the i.e..

uhh

@JDługosz yeah, but I don't think 'like' or 'i.e.' require the list to be incomplete

Can I make you a question @JDługosz? You are a normal person, a writer or an (english) language teacher? Because you know too much...

@DaaaahWhoosh right, like is more like e.g..

Like can be used for a list of just one item, many items or an incomplete list. I.e. I think does require an incomplete list.

@EnderLook see dlugosz.com/Magazine/index.mhtml (from my archives).

@Bellerophon blog.dictionary.com/whats-the-difference-between-ie-and-eg

seems like both like, i.e., and e.g. can feature a complete list

but I don't think it's really worth worrying about either way

@EnderLook after that, I was a technical editor and contributing editor for a couple small magazines for a while.

@JDługosz Awesome

@EnderLook as a software engineer, I have a good sense of grammar that applies to English as well. I learned to write well initially by posting to a pre-internet forum community that was filled with other writers for magazines. From publishing, I learned from my editors and feedback from people reading drafts how to make things clear.

Great

So basically, I've just been practicing twice as long as you've been alive.

@JDługosz 32 years? How much years do you have?

@EnderLook Remember if he is British, Australian, American, Canadian (mostly), New Zealendish or South African he has been practising most of his life.

There is any difference between somebody or someone? I don't know much but I feel like someone refers to living being, human alive and somebody refers to body, corpse, human not necessary alive or breathing.

No, somebody and someone are pretty much the same.

They probably used to have different meanings.

you could use 'somebody' to refer to a corpse only if you're trying to make a bad joke

@Bellerophon There is some preference?

@DaaaahWhoosh yes!!!

I usually use someone but it doesn't matter. Both are correct.

'someone' might be more formal than 'somebody'. At least that's my gut feeling

@DaaaahWhoosh I am not english but I also though that.

Anyone know what is the Universe Factory exactly?

Our blog I think.

@EnderLook That's the chat room for our blog

@EnderLook I'm 50 years old now.

@EnderLook no, “somebody” is not meant to give the same connotations as “some body”.

@JDługosz Wow, you have almost the age of my father (55).

@JDługosz ? When you read somebody didn't you split in your mind somebody to some and body?.

@EnderLook no. It's a distinct word.

for reference, 'already' and 'all ready' do not mean the same thing, and are never interchangeable

Right now I don't remember any example in spanish but: todopoderoso (all mighty) in my head I say todo (all) + poderoso (mighty). Well, I don't think that you read butter-fly or dragon-fly, this would be some confusing.

Or rain-bow, arm-chair, snow-man

one of the rules that seems standard for all languages is that no rule works 100% of the time

...I just realized I contradicted myself

@DaaaahWhoosh Paradox!

The OED says “someone” is equivalent to “somebody” but is much newer.

Another is “butterfly”

@JDługosz I said it before-

But “mailman” is arguably very much like “mail man”

I assume the first named butterfly somehow reminded the namer of butter

@DaaaahWhoosh perhaps

@JDługosz ooh, or maybe they drank from buttercups

@JDługosz Interesting

@EnderLook that’s elementary, my dear Watson.

@JDługosz Oh, ups

@JDługosz I was trying to say that I was in a magic school, we learn the control of fire, air, stone, etc. :)