ELL's Cabin

user116848

15:00

I like donuts.

Anonymous

I ate a donut this year. Or was it last year?

Anonymous

I don't eat donuts very often.

Anonymous

I like the ones with sprinkles.

user116848

Yup! They are the best.

user116848

Donuts and coffee.

user116848

15:01

Or tea.

Anonymous

People think those things go together.

Anonymous

I wouldn't know since I don't drink coffee.

Anonymous

But I do love tea.

Anonymous

I stopped eating donuts before I started drinking tea on a regular basis, though.

user116848

I love tea too!

user116848

15:01

T2!

Anonymous

The tea said, "Come with me if you want tea leaves!"

Anonymous

That's the famous line from Tea Two.

user116848

ah

user116848

Never heard that line but it sure sounds nice.

Anonymous

Sorry, it was a joke :-)

Anonymous

15:03

T2 is Terminator 2

user116848

facepalm

user116848

:)

user116848

They owned it (Person of Interest finale) with this soundtrack:

user116848

♪ Person of Interest - 4x22 - ''Welcome To The Machine'' by Pink Floyd

►

user116848

It was a finale and I almost cried.

Anonymous

15:07

Oh, it has that guy in it!

Anonymous

I've never seen that show.

Anonymous

I recognize that guy, though.

Fantasier

It's good :-)

user116848

Yeah Jim Caviezel and others.

Fantasier

I've finished all the seasons.

user116848

15:08

Another great series. Very decent to watch.

user116848

@Fantasier Me too. I love it!

Fantasier

@Arrowfar Looking forward to Season 5! Although I think it's getting a little boring lately.

Anonymous

I wrote an answer and it got an upvote, but I had to delete it because on reflection it didn't actually make sense

Anonymous

It's hard to contextualize words when people ask about things without context! And I goofed :-)

user116848

@Fantasier I am forward to its next season too. I hope they make it fun :-)

user116848

15:11

I like the part where machine says to Finch "Sorry dad, I failed you"

user116848

In the last episode.

Fantasier

You just spoilt xD

user116848

Oh, no!

user116848

Sorry!!!

Fantasier

In case any other of us here plans to watch it :P

user116848

15:11

:)

user116848

I thought you watched it :-)

Fantasier

I did.

user116848

ah

Fantasier

Just not snailboat and Damkerng.

user116848

Yeah they are not into this show :)

Anonymous

15:12

It's okay. I'm probably never going to watch it.

user116848

I am crazy about POI.

user116848

@snailboat Your choice! :P

Fantasier

Well, I think it's a good show. But I'm not really a fan.

Actually I'm hardly ever a fan of, like, anything.

user116848

I am. Of Arrow and this one.

Fantasier

I heard Arrow is good too.

user116848

15:15

Yes it is pretty good.

Anonymous

15:38

@Arrowfar Well, I'm sure it's a good show.

Anonymous

It's just that we have to pick which things we want to spend time on, and a TV show is a major time investment :-)

Anonymous

88

A: Is there a Stack Exchange site for Law Questions? If not, why not?

I asked a question and was given legal advice by BigSchween03 on your website. Apparently his claim that it was perfectly legal to "take what's yours" wasn't based on current jurisprudence. I was subsequently arrested and jailed for over a year. During the term of my incarceration, I was bea...

user116848

@snailboat Yes they take lots of time.

user116848

I watch only a handful of them myself.

user116848

Good for English though :-)

user116848

15:43

I don't watch Urdu TV though. I mean like never.

Anonymous

202

Law

Proposed Q&A site for legal professionals, students and others with experience or interest in law

Currently in commitment.

Anonymous

> This proposal has reached 100% commitment. We are preparing for its launch and expect to create it soon.

Anonymous

Looks like Law Area's name will be changing soon...? :-)

user116848

I hope they make a good accounting SE too.

Anonymous

Accounting sounds like a better topic for an SE site than Law

user116848

15:48

heh

Anonymous

Then again, I know even less about accounting than I know about law

user116848

Yes I read you used to do legal writing.

user116848

nice

user116848

Here they teach us semi-legalese stuff too.

Anonymous

Oh, um, please don't assume that I know anything about legal writing :-)

user116848

15:50

But the problem is just like with law, accounting follows many rules and regulations (International and National).

user116848

I don't know how they can mange that in questions. I mean I study UK's accountancy, here we'll get American CPA's questions etc. I guess. I don't know.

Anonymous

Ah, I see

Anonymous

Well, think about Stack Overflow with all its different programming languages

Anonymous

Each one has its own set of rules

Anonymous

They just use different tags :-)

Anonymous

15:51

Something that's valid C may not be valid C++, and vice versa

Anonymous

The site manages okay despite that

user116848

Different tags makes sense.

Anonymous

But Stack Overflow is very big

Anonymous

It might not work as well on a smaller site

user116848

true

user116848

15:53

I like English SE sites. They change the mood :-)

user116848

I mean otherwise it would be all work, work, work all over again :p

Anonymous

Hmm, I don't really like them

Anonymous

Too much ignorance and hostility

Anonymous

We have some people who really know how to keep things positive, and some people who are pretty well informed or have good references to research and cite

Anonymous

Like J.R., for example. He really knows how to keep things running in a friendly way

Anonymous

15:57

But I do find myself frustrated by a lot of what I see on both sites

user116848

Yes, J.R is very friendly and polite.

user116848

I like him too.

Anonymous

He has to make a lot of decisions as moderator (note: bare role NP as complement of as), and I don't really agree with a lot of them

Anonymous

But it doesn't really matter whether I agree

Anonymous

Because he's doing a great job of keeping people happy and keeping the atmosphere positive

Anonymous

15:59

Which really contributes a lot to the site

Anonymous

So I'm glad he's the most active moderator here on ELL

Anonymous

I'm not really comfortable with the concept of ELU

Anonymous

It seems to have firmly entrenched attitudes toward non-native speakers that make me a little uncomfortable

Anonymous

I know it's not a "English discussion for native speakers only!" site. There are prominent users who are non-native speakers

Anonymous

But it's kind of like that. "Don't ask a question that a native speaker wouldn't ask!"

Anonymous

16:04

Doesn't that seem weird, somehow?

user116848

Yes it does, definitely

user116848

I saw a post by medica recently regarding this. It was a very good meta post. I am trying to find it.

Anonymous

Oh, I missed it!

Anonymous

I don't check ELU meta very often

user116848

Ah, it was an answer:

user116848

16:09

24

A: Bring back the Summer of Love (aka Make new users feel more welcome)

I have been wanting to ask this same question for 110 days now, give or take a few. When I first found EL&U, I was delighted. Since then, I've been dismayed many times by the lack of courtesy, kindness, and tolerance here. I have never even entertained inviting someone to the site (I know several...

user116848

I liked that answer.

Anonymous

Yeah, I wouldn't suggest someone post on ELU, either.

Anonymous

ELU doesn't really seem like a site for linguists.

Araucaria

16:50

Hallo peeps

user116848

Hallo!

Freddy

17:24

hola!

Anonymous

19:16

6

A: An appropriate term for an overly by-the-rules person

The correct and proper answer is, of course, a: pedantic martinet warning: that this is the correct answer does not preclude it from being utterly useless. I challenge you to ask 10 native speakers on the street what a "martinet" is ;)

Anonymous

I was pretty sure my Not An Answer flag would get declined before I flagged it, but I did it anyway since I don't think it's really attempting to answer the question

Anonymous

It's just making a joke. Which is fine, humor is okay... but I'd rather not have a joke answer voted to the top of the list

Anonymous

I guess it doesn't really matter, though :-)

Anonymous

The author did edit it to make it clear that it was a joke answer

Anonymous

(Originally it didn't say so, and I wasn't sure everyone would understand it wasn't intended as a useful answer)

Araucaria

19:19

@snailboat "ELU doesn't really seem like a site for linguists." <--- I agree. Doesn't seem very much like a place for friendly folks either .... :)

Anonymous

@Araucaria You know, I myself have not always been friendly, and I feel kind of bad about that. I've kind of tried to make an effort to be nicer overall

Anonymous

ELU does seem a little too hostile for me

Anonymous

Like, more so than ELL

Araucaria

I think that overall ELL's quite friendly, imo

Anonymous

Yeah, it just ... it varies. ELL is definitely a lot nicer

Anonymous

19:21

I think that having moderators like J.R. and WendiKidd helps a lot, because they help set a positive tone for the site

Anonymous

I also feel like on ELU, people look for excuses to close something, rather than looking for ways to keep a question open

Anonymous

Whereas on ELL, we try to save questions more often

Araucaria

Yes, I don't think they do too bad a job. Not easy being a mod I guess

Anonymous

No, I think they do a great job

Araucaria

Yes, absolutley definitely too much knee jerk closing on U

Anonymous

19:22

I wish WendiKidd could be around here more often, she's really nice :-)

Araucaria

Haven't got much experience of WK .. Will take your word for it:)

Anonymous

Ahh, well, she was here more in 2013.

Anonymous

When the site first launched, it was immediately populated by ELU regulars.

Anonymous

And those ELU regulars tried to bring the same sensibilities to ELL

Araucaria

That was before I was born so to speak ...

Anonymous

19:24

Including being quite close-happy

Anonymous

A lot of them fell off the map, but some are still around

Anonymous

StoneyB has been here since day one and he's great :-)

Araucaria

Aaaargh, that's not good. Yes, was about to say that Stoney seems very user-friendly . Erm, literally :)

Aren't you a mod?

Anonymous

I'm a moderator on Japanese.SE

Anonymous

I'm a regular user on ELL and ELU

Anonymous

19:26

I'm also a chat moderator, if the need arises...

Araucaria

Ah, I see. How good's your Japanese?

Anonymous

Ehh. It's, uh, ehh. :-)

Araucaria

:-)

Anonymous

I've been learning for 18 years, I can talk to people in Japanese, I can read novels or ling papers...

Anonymous

I feel like I have a fairly decent internal mental grammar

Anonymous

19:28

I wouldn't really say that I'm good at any language except English.

Iplodman

Hullo!

How are you, @snail? :)

Hullo @Araucaria!

Anonymous

I'm good! It's a Sunday and I've been practicing guitar

Iplodman

Oooh, what can you play?

Araucaria

That's much better than ost of my friends who've been learning for ten years or so ... :)

Anonymous

@Araucaria I was part of a comment discussion today (and yes, I know that this sort of lengthy discussion is discouraged :-) ), and I felt it was veering away from friendly in several spots

Araucaria

19:30

Hi @Iplodman!

Anonymous

My people skills were lacking, but I was trying to participate without things going off the rails...

Iplodman

@Araucaria And how are you?

Araucaria

@snailboat I'll take a look at that later, am being summonsed!

Anonymous

Ah, good luck with your summons!

Anonymous

@Iplodman Hmm, I dunno, I've been playing since I was eight

Anonymous

19:32

So that's about 25 years, and I practice every day

Anonymous

I guess I can play around a thousand songs or so

Araucaria

@Iplodman Good cheers! Hope you're good too! Ciao!

Iplodman

That's a long time (I'm assuming the lower bound on your age is at the very least 15.)

@snailboat Wow!

Anonymous

I'm thirty-three

Iplodman

That's awesome c:

@snailboat That's a lot of dedication :)

Anonymous

19:33

@Iplodman I guess, but it's relaxing :-)

Iplodman

@snailboat dedication != effort

Anonymous

So I mostly do it because I like to

Anonymous

It doesn't feel like work

Iplodman

I don't suppose anyone knows anything about simultaneous equations?

Anonymous

What about them?

Iplodman

19:34

@snailboat Of course. Hobbies are easy to work on.

Anonymous

It's been decades since I studied them in school, but I think I remember some stuff about them :-)

Iplodman

@snailboat Solving them, I'm a little stuck c:

@snailboat I've set a couple of 'em up to be:

> 3c + 2s = 19
4c + 5s = 30

I'm not sure what I should do to them to have equal coefficients.

Anonymous

@Iplodman It probably is best called a hobby, but it does make me money, so there's that :-)

Iplodman

@snailboat Ooh, you're a pro?

Anonymous

Uh, in a sense :-)

Iplodman

19:36

Congrats!

Anonymous

I don't mind if you call me a hobbyist :-)

Iplodman

Well, I think that all pros have to do their job as a hobby in a sense.

Apart from maybe things like data entry.

Anonymous

@Iplodman Try adding both of them together. What do you get?

Iplodman

Well, I still have to have two equations at the end of it.

So you do something to both sides of one equation (say, x2.)

Anonymous

Oh, what's your goal, then?

Anonymous

19:40

I thought we were going to find out what the values of c and s were.

Anonymous

That's what I did :-)

Iplodman

Yeah, but you have to have two equations right?

7c + 7s tells neither.

Anonymous

It's one step in the process.

Anonymous

7c + 7s = 49, so c + s = 7, right? That means s = 7 - c, and you can substitute that in to one of the original equations

Anonymous

So that you only have one variable, and you can solve for it

Anonymous

19:42

Then once you have that, you can solve for the other

Iplodman

I;m not sure how you'd use s = 7 - c to find s, because surely you'd need c, too?

Anonymous

Well, you know 3c + 2s = 19, right? So, substitute it in: 3c + 2(7-c) = 19.

Anonymous

Now you've only got one variable!

Anonymous

Did that get you close enough to solve the rest yourself? :-)

Iplodman

3c + 14 + 2c = 19
5c + 14 = 19
19 - 14 = 5
5c = 5
c = 1

Anonymous

19:48

Oh, I'm afraid you got your minus wrong when you expanded 2(7-c)

Iplodman

Ah, damn!

Anonymous

Good effort, though :-)

Iplodman

^ Classic example of multiline markup breaking.

I've never been good at maths :)

Anonymous

Here's the trick. Type in the stuff
on multiple lines
like this

Iplodman

Thanks!

Anonymous

19:49

Here's the trick.  Type in the stuff
on multiple lines
like this
and the "fixed font button appears at the right", so click that...

Anonymous

Voilà!

Iplodman

So
like
this?

Ah!

Anonymous

Precisely! :-)

Iplodman

Very nice :)

Thanks!

I'm guessing c= -1 then?

Anonymous

I'm afraid c is positive!

Iplodman

19:51

Damn, let me start from the top :)

Oh, c = 5?

Anonymous

Yes! Correct!

Anonymous

Now you should be able to solve for s as well.

Iplodman

Hells yeah!

I love maths when I'm not sucking at it! :)

Anonymous

And once you do, try plugging both numbers into the original formulas, just to make sure you got the right answer.

Iplodman

Yup, just used it to solve them :)

Cheers!

Anonymous

19:54

Yay!

Iplodman

And s = 2.

Anonymous

That's right! :-)

Iplodman

:))

Anonymous

It's easy to make little arithmetic errors, like putting a + instead of a -.

Anonymous

Everyone makes that sort of error, so you have to train yourself to be careful on each step and check your work!

Anonymous

19:56

When you get to calculus, you'll find that sometimes the actual calculus part isn't so hard, it's the little arithmetic errors you have to watch out for that get you the wrong answer! :-)

Anonymous

So if you can train yourself to catch those errors more often now, math'll be easier later on.

Anonymous

It helps if you show every step as you're writing things down.

Anonymous

Even if you can skip a step in your head.

Iplodman

Thanks for the help! :)

Anonymous

Any time!

Anonymous

19:59

I used to do math tutoring, so hopefully I can still remember how to do the math you need for your classes :-)

Anonymous

Although my own powers of arithmetic are clearly suspect!

Iplodman

20:37

Sorry, was away.

Anonymous

Hehe, welcome back!

Iplodman

:)

Hah!

I'm okay at mental maths.

One of the things I can do is keeping track of a few numbers at once.

Anonymous

Yeah, I was always good at doing math without showing any of the steps. I'd just do it in my head.

Anonymous

The thing is, eventually that habit will come back to bite you... :-)

Anonymous

That's why they try to make you show all of your work.

Anonymous

20:43

And you're like "But I don't need to! It's easy!"

Anonymous

Eventually it's not easy :-)

Anonymous

I actually credit chemistry class for finally getting that through my head, rather than math

Anonymous

'Cause in chemistry we had to be very careful with units

Anonymous

And I would always bungle those unless I wrote them down :-)

Anonymous

I'd end up with like, cubic Joules per hectare.

Iplodman

20:46

Hectare? googles furiously

Oh, that's big.

Anonymous

I was just being silly :-)

Anonymous

There are plenty of silly non-SI units.

Iplodman

:)

I always liked furlongs.

Anonymous

English wine cask units

Capacities of wine casks were formerly measured and standardised according to a specific system of English units. The various units were historically defined in terms of the wine gallon so varied according to the definition of the gallon until the adoption of the Queen Anne wine gallon in 1707. In the United Kingdom and its colonies the units were redefined with the introduction of the imperial system whilst the Queen Anne wine gallon was adopted as the standard US liquid gallon. The major wine producing countries use barrels extensively and have developed standards at variance with the traditional...

Anonymous

Thanks to English wine cask units, you can honestly say that a rundlet is one seventh of a butt

Iplodman

20:52

Hah!

Buttload is a actually a real term, by the way.

Anonymous

I did not know that!

Anonymous

I'm far too proper to use a term like that here in ELL chat. But when I'm elsewhere, I stop pretending to be proper and use terms like that all the time―usually with the word "metric" beforehand :-)

Iplodman

^ Me too!

test

Damn, gotta' message after someone to see if my username changed.

Anonymous

@Iplodman Hmm?

Iplodman

Don't worry about it :)

Just waiting for my username to change.

Anonymous

20:58

When you change profile stuff (name and avatar), give it 24 hours to update for everyone

Iplodman

Ah, thanks :)

Anonymous

People might see the old ones for a little bit.

Iplodman

I hope it updates soon c:

Damkerng T.

22:28

1

Q: future or present with when

I just would like to know if this sentence would be grammatically correct and in which cases should I use it: I don't know when he is back instead of he will be back . I know the rule with when "no will" in most cases but we can say" please let me know when it will be available or when it is ava...

grammar

"I told you, I don't know when he is back."
"Ah, right. So every time he's back you will become 'not know', right?"

:P

Anonymous

I don't actually think there's a problem with "I don't know when he's back"

Anonymous

But that's a very interesting interpretation I wouldn't've thought of myself :-)

Damkerng T.

Hee

Anonymous

> "One of the guys who knows the cemetery well is out of town," Volunteer Paula Sewell told families looking for lost graves. "I don't know when he's back in."

Damkerng T.

2

Q: I feel like to eat vs I feel like eating?

First, are these two expressions "I feel like to .." and "I feel like ..ing .." correct? So, What's the meaning of them? And what's the difference between them?

grammar meaning phrase-meaning comparison

Anonymous

22:35

I think that it's more usual to say "when he's coming back" or "when he gets back" or the like

Damkerng T.

Though I think it's possible I also think it must be very rare.

Ah, my browser is acting weird again!

Anonymous

Still, I can imagine hearing it the other way in informal speech

Damkerng T.

nods

Anonymous

5sauceimaginethat.tumblr.com/post/95126905754/…

Anonymous

Complete with there for they're! :-)

Anonymous

22:37

Oh, man.

Anonymous

Okay, I've got to close that.

Anonymous

I couldn't make it very far :-)

Anonymous

The vast majority of examples I'm finding have will come back or is coming back

Anonymous

Examples that don't are generally surrounded by, um, let's call them "defects"

Anonymous

I should come up with a more neutral term, but my brain is too tired.

Damkerng T.

22:41

Hi @Araucaria!

Araucaria

Hi @Dam!

Anonymous

I can imagine hearing "I don't know when he's back in" without thinking anything's ungrammatical, though.

Anonymous

Am I the only one? :-)

Damkerng T.

@Araucaria I just learned that cannae can mean "can't" last night. They say it's Scottish. :D

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Cannae?

Anonymous

22:44

Oh, you fixed it! :-)

Damkerng T.

Um, sorry for the typo. Its spelling is still new to me. :D

But I hadn't noticed that Scotty said cannae until last night!

(In Star Trek: Into the Darkness)

Anonymous

I was just googling for cannae and I found this:

Anonymous

theguardian.com/uk/2004/jan/09/scotland.highereducation

Damkerng T.

Oh, poor Russian student!

Anonymous

My brain hurts today. I can't words very well.

Anonymous

22:48

I think I need to go eat something.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Must be a little bit because of math coaching (above). :P

BTW, I like furlongs too!

(How long could fur be? A Furlong!)

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Haha, it's true, arithmetic may be beyond my ken... :-)

Damkerng T.

@snailboat I think you did a great job, in any case. :D

Hmm... It looks like I'm gonna need new eyeglasses real soon.

I've got two eyeglasses, now neither of them can give me a good focus.

Anonymous

Oh no! Two pairs of glasses, and neither of them lets you focus well!

Damkerng T.

Yes. (Thanks, BTW :)

I think it's still changing, little by little (my eyesight).

Anonymous

22:54

Mine too.

Damkerng T.

Hmm... Mine hadn't started to change until I was about 40.

Anonymous

Well, you're lucky then, eh? :-)

Damkerng T.

Dunno!

I think I don't feel like very lucky now. :P

Anonymous

Well, I'm 33, and you're a blurry blob if I take my glasses off.

Anonymous

Well, I can stick my head right up against the monitor.

Anonymous

22:57

Oh, no!

Anonymous

I started three consecutive sentences with "Well,"

Anonymous

I guess I really only have a few patterns, and I stick to those patterns :-)

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Oh, no! Please don't do that.

You could break your monitor. :P

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Or my head!

Damkerng T.

Hehe!

Anonymous

22:58

I was reflecting on the question about whether I was good at Japanese or not earlier

Anonymous

I think when I write technical answers on Japanese.SE, it might give people the impression that I'm good at Japanese

Anonymous

But it's a trick!

Damkerng T.

On the scale of 0 to 10, I think you're a 9. :-)

Anonymous

I can write technical answers without actually being good at the language myself :-)

Anonymous

I wrote a new one today!

Anonymous

22:59

9

A: How many unique on'yomi are there?

The on'yomi are of course morphemes borrowed from Middle Chinese, so in a sense the sounds of Japanese on'yomi are the sounds of Middle Chinese filtered through Japanese loanword phonology. Of course, the phonetics and phonotactics of Japanese changed over time, so describing the exact process by...

Anonymous

If you look carefully, you'll notice nothing in the answer actually requires any sort of capacity to speak Japanese

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Ah, people love stats!

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