English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room - 2012-07-25 (page 4 of 5)

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3:00 PM

@Mitch Oh Jesus, don't even get me started on that. I worked on the last campaign and I swear it failed because they were so improperly organized.

oops sorrry. badmemories (which campaign)... um... finish your story before being distracted by my impertinent questions.

Anyway, he finally says "Well, I'm glad you feel that way. Do you know people who are gay and lesbian who want to get married?" (or something like that) I said, "I'm pretty sure they are out there."

He struggled through chatting with me for another couple of minutes until finally getting around to making the ask which was for volunteering to do phonebanks, of course.

OK, no I'm confused, he was calling from a phone bank to see if you wanted to join a phone bank?

kind of a phone bank pyramid scheme?

Then when I politely declined until the fall and asked for the name and number of the field organizer so I could contact her when I was ready to volunteer my time (which he gave me), he made a ridiculously high ask for a donation.

I did not laugh in his face, but I almost did.

Poor kid. Probably his first time phonebanking.

@Mitch Yes. Yes. That's pretty standard.

@KitFox note to self: plan fo world domination. step 1: start phone bank

3:05 PM

So the idea is that you call a bunch of former volunteers or other people who have somehow indicated that they are interested in helping the campaign, and you ask them to volunteer doing things like phonebanks where they recruit more volunteers.

step 2: take nap

Let's call it a day :) Bye all.

RegDwight АΑA

Who you call a day??

shit... step 2: have snack - then step 3 take nap

RegDwight АΑA

Step three is profit, duh.

3:06 PM

So in the last campaign, they spent most of their time doing just this and calling people who said they would support the cause to nag them about casting their votes. Some people were called nine or ten times before the election.

step 4: world is yours. enjoy benefits...of more naps

Now getting volunteers is critical, but you really have to do something with them once you've got them.

Plus, their call scripts were awful.

Paragraphs long.

shit shit shit...phone calling is antithetical to nap taking. abandon world taking over plans

This is why I never answer the phone unless it's from someone I know and want to talk to.

but continue plans to say everything sotto voce

3:08 PM

@Cerberus You want to have a moderator in your back pocket, eh?

And every time someone pointed this out, we were told "they've been vetted by [some company that does this sort of thing]"

I ignored the script and burned through calls like nobody's business.

@KitFox Gah ..exactly. Shut the front door and get to the point. Money? fine, the answer is no. Thanks bye!

@Mitch Well, and that's it. We weren't calling for money. Just "Do you support marriage equality?" and if yes, "Did you know that you can vote early?"

That's it.

Oh...you're against killing puppies? Excellent. Are you for keeping people from eating dinner? I think that's obvious too. But I humbly disagree with you.

The annoying thing was, we were supposed to call back and ask them if they had voted yet.

Matt Эллен

3:11 PM

@KitFox "your pies taste awful!" "They have been checked and carry no toxic viruses"

@KitFox I think voting early is kinda weird. It takes the fun out of slightly messing up your schedule to go visit an empty school gym with some very old people who ask you your address a bunch of times.

@Mitch Puppies are a menace. Just like baby seals.

So people were getting weekly calls with identical scripts.

Weekly!

@Robusto vectors of nefarious cuteness. and probably viruses.

Because the campaign didn't mark whether someone had been contacted already. No, they marked if that person had voted yet.

Matt Эллен

3:12 PM

that way we can keep weekly stats of how many votes there have been

@KitFox "I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that."

@KitFox yeah that's dumb. somebody should think ahead about things like that.

@Robusto Exactly.

@KitFox what if they said they were against marriage equality?

"I have voted against it. I could vote against it again, if you'd like."

"[Long tedious speech] Do you support marriage equality?"
"I said I did last week."

3:14 PM

@Robusto three? what are you some kinda strange polygamist cult?

Oh.

@JSBձոգչ They got an X in the Yes box.

-those- three.

And they didn't get called every week.

@Mitch The discrepancy is statistically insignificant.

exactly.

Did they have phones back then?

3:14 PM

Lunchtime. bbl

Matt Эллен

CU

The response to use in all such situations is: "Sorry, we don't take telemarketing or polling calls. Please take us off your list."

An even better response is to get a Google number to put on forms, then you can screen callers and flush those who are basically spam.

"I was in favor of whatever you're pushing, but now I've changed my mind!"

2

Matt Эллен

Answer the phone every time and tell them you've not voted, even if you have. When the campaign is over call them up and ask why they've stopped calling, keep calling once a week, begging them to call you back. When they don't call you back, find the name of the person who ran the campaign and stand outside their house one day a week shouting "WHY DON'T YOU EVER CALL?"

@Robusto the difference between statistical significance and not is not statistically significant.

except for the difference beteen 0 and 1. That's pretty significant.

3:24 PM

it's only a difference of 1

how significant can that be?

RegDwight АΑA

It's less than seven significant.

i demand OVER 9000 significant

As different as that between left and right. I mean really. it's just the other direction, otherwise -exactly- the same.

RegDwight АΑA

@JSBձոգչ you can only demand things after manding them, duh.

Matt Эллен

if you walk far enough, you end up at the same point

RegDwight АΑA

3:26 PM

@MattЭллен you end up at the bottom of the ocean.

well, you certainly started at the same point. good enough for me.

Matt Эллен

@RegDwightАΑA and who wouldn't want that?

RegDwight АΑA

Not the mafia.

@JSBձոգչ Oh yeah? "Would you give a guy a foot massage?"

@MattЭллен the pressure. to succeed.

Matt Эллен

3:28 PM

Nay Constructive

0

Q: Online Grammar checker

I often find myself debating about the correct use of English grammar in many situations. Some of them are obvious and silly. It would be nice to know a tool like spell checker for grammatical errors. There are many websites that I find useful but not effective. I would like to collect some onli...

grammar online-resources

@Robusto don't understand

@MattЭллен asked already...isn't there an official term for that?

@JSBձոգչ cultural reference.

Viewed 13 times and already closed by five people.

@JSBձոգչ Pulp Fiction reference.

oh, right. except i hate tarantino and have purged most of his films from my memory

RegDwight АΑA

3:29 PM

0

Q: Other, Nicer ways to say "Daily Routine"

I'm looking for other, Nicer ways to say "Daily Routine". It's on the tip of my tongue...

Kill Bill was ok, i guess

RegDwight АΑA

Why does this get not one, but two comments posted as answers? Sheesh, people.

@JSBձոգչ Wow. And I almost voted for you.

RegDwight АΑA

An answer that begins with a "Can you clarify what you mean?" is not an answer.

8

Unless it follows by explaining what the answer would be in both possible cases

which almost never happens

RegDwight АΑA

3:31 PM

@mmyers both? Out of over 9000?

This is ELU. Our questions are about words, not boolean variables.

"both" is shorthand for "both, or all three or four, or every one of the infinitely possible cases, depending on how well you are able to narrow it down without further information".

I love shorthand.

RegDwight АΑA

I know, I know. She told me.

From the autocollider..er multicollider (why do they call it that)...

2

Q: Avoid weird action when playing difficult chords

When I'm playing(learning) difficult chords on guitar (ex: F,B7) my facial mussles(basically lips) form a weird action (I felt it and I saw in mirror).I feel I'll get used to it as I go and I have seen some good players also do that (may be they can't help it) .You may also have faced this experi...

guitar practice performing

needs pix

RegDwight АΑA

@JSBձոգչ Kill Bill was okay, yes. Kill Bill 2 is where it's at.

@RegDwightАΑA Um, "boolean" and "variables" are both words, unless I'm much mistaken. In English, no less.

3:34 PM

@RegDwightАΑA right, i meant the whole duology. agree that 2 was better than 1

Pulp Fiction was forgettable

RegDwight АΑA

@Robusto So are use and mention. Look them up. Especially where it says "this is the difference between them".

0

Q: "Love don't care"

I've heard a number of songs that have such a line in the lyrics. Most notably, a band Firehouse has a song that is actually named "love don't care". So my question is: why not "love doesn't care"? Is this used just to make lines rhyme in a song, or is it proper to say so in some speccial circum...

@RegDwightАΑA Love don't care.

This must be a dupe, btw.

Matt Эллен

I doesn't care

1

Q: ”She’s got a ticket to ride, but she don’t care” — why?

Possible Duplicate: The grammaticality of “that don't impress me much” In the famous Beatles song Ticket to ride, it is said of the protagonist that “she don’t care”. Why isn’t that “she doesn’t care”? Is it 1960s slang, Liverpool slang, something specific to music? I w...

@RegDwightАΑA 'mention' always gives me the impression that a use is going on. kinda like at the toll both where it says 'manual' or 'automatic'. I use my hands to do the automatic one.

Matt Эллен

but it is closed as dupe

3:36 PM

These pineapples. They don't know nothin' and they don't wanna learn nothin'.

Aaaaand no further work required. @Reg brought the hammer down all by hisself.

Song Lyric Stackexchange? Every question is 'what does this mean'. And there is no 'close as Not Constructive'. I would visit that site.

It's all constructive.

Matt Эллен

there are plenty of sites like that

RegDwight АΑA

@Mitch well did you support it when it was getting created?

Matt Эллен

www.songmeanings.net/

ha hA. ... what?

Matt Эллен

3:39 PM

www.songfacts.com/

rapgenius.com/

RegDwight АΑA

No, not that crap.

yes, and they all suck because they don't agree with what I expected tehy would answer.

Matt Эллен

www.lyricinterpretations.com/

I also think we need a Hipper Than Thou.SE — where people try to ask questions about coolness but are put down by the answers. Best putdown wins.

2

RegDwight АΑA

I mean the One and Only Genuine Area51 proposal.

3:40 PM

Don't songs have there own meaning for different people?

@skullpatrol Duh. No.

Matt Эллен

no, they all mean exactly the same thing to everyone

@skullpatrol No. All songs have the same meaning for everyone. One's sighs fit all.

Matt Эллен

just like paintings

Jinx.

3:41 PM

why

Matt Эллен

becasue troll

RegDwight АΑA

I think JLU summed it up best, songs don't mean a thing.

It's just that way.

People might right they're answers really badly, and you might interpret the anser as differnt, but no, pretty much theirs one answer.

@RegDwightАΑA Or maybe they mean ... everything.

3:42 PM

I guess they could be different from song to song though. Therefore an SE site.

RegDwight АΑA

Herething, therething, and everything.

songs are about feelings

RegDwight АΑA

No, not mine.

bloody hell! the assholes closed the conlang proposal!

Matt Эллен

what are your songs about, Reg?

RegDwight АΑA

3:42 PM

Mine are about asphalt. Exclusively.

throws things around the room

Matt Эллен

lol

But what if you have feelings about songs? Does that make musical enjoyment a meta recursion?

RegDwight АΑA

You wouldn't believe how many songs about asphalt can, and must, be written.

@Robusto are we really talking about sex?

Matt Эллен

3:43 PM

@JSBձոգչ what is it subsumed into?

@RegDwightАΑA Funny, I would have figured you for a macadam man.

@Mitch Have we ever stopped?

@MattЭллен nothing. it's just closed.

RegDwight АΑA

@JSBձոգչ closed, or let die of natural causes?

yep.. now we are.

Matt Эллен

@JSBձոգչ oh. I think you can ask questions about conlangs at linguistics, to some extent

3:44 PM

65

Planned and Constructed Languages

Proposed Q&A site for questions about auxiliary, constructed, planned, and artificial languages, including Esperanto, Na'vi, Klingon, Ido, Lojban, Sindarin, Láadan, Toki Pona, etc. Also field linguistics questions, such as how to document a new language.

Currently in commitment.

@RegDwightАΑA hold on...who the hell is JLU?

RegDwight АΑA

Ouch. Anna Lear.

She speaks over 9000 languages herself.

@Mitch Japanese Language and Lopez.

songs are suppose to make you think about how you feel

user image

Matt Эллен

12

Q: Closing Two-Year+ Proposals

On occasion, we have to uproot and close a proposal which has been painfully slow at gaining support. Typically, there is nothing inherently wrong with the subject… but at 2+ years and counting, you have to determine if the proposal still has the support it once had. If you still believe ...

area51-meta closed-proposals

3:45 PM

@RegDwightАΑA She even has her own phylum, ferchrissakes. Oh wait, that's Anna Lidae.

@skullpatrol I'm feeling you're wrong.

RegDwight АΑA

@Robusto don't get me started on Anna Lyzer.

rage, rage against the dying of the light

I think

RegDwight АΑA

@JSBձոգչ try machine instead.

3:45 PM

burns Anna Lear in effigy

@JSBձոգչ though I sang in my chains like the sea.

@Mitch write a song about it

who the hell is Anna...oh fine.

Matt Эллен

toodles

Anna Toodles?

RegDwight АΑA

3:47 PM

A native speaker of Russian, and a mod on like 19 sites.

blog.stackoverflow.com/2012/01/…

@skullpatrol done. 7 chords. all the same. played at the same time. using lyrics from...

@RegDwightАΑA Anna Karennina?

RegDwight АΑA

Too many Ns.

@Robusto no, that one ends. badly.

@RegDwightАΑA Wevs. Not responsible for faulty transliterations.

3:48 PM

OK lyrics frm the song of Anna Karennina. Played on the train whistle

RegDwight АΑA

Use more sharp bees.

@Mitch They all end. As Walter White says, "Each life comes with a death sentence."

Annnnnna Karennnnnnnnnnnninnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnna

RegDwight АΑA

Sharper!

b#?

RegDwight АΑA

3:49 PM

That's more like it.

Just b natural.

RegDwight АΑA

Or, in the words of a Danish prince, B♭ or not B♭?

@RegDwightАΑA A cheesy danish.

RegDwight АΑA

How does one play A cheesy?

What, you've never played a cheesy?

RegDwight АΑA

3:51 PM

a cheesy I played. Just not A cheesy.

Majors are not my domain.

You're too choosy to be cheesy then.

easier than the clarinet.

RegDwight АΑA

Why did you do that to the bun?

@Mitch "The clarinet is an ill woodwind that nobody blows good."

@skullpatrol I saw that. But I've forgotten already.

RegDwight АΑA

3:53 PM

Sexophone is the best wood instrument anyway.

4

too easy. that pun was no better than a C+

Mar 17 at 12:21, by Robusto

There is too much sax and violins on TV these days.

RegDwight АΑA

@JSBձոգչ it was not a pun, you incognoscento. Saxophone is a wood instrument.

No, it's a woodwind.

RegDwight АΑA

Shorthands. I learned using them from Michael.

3:55 PM

Not Michael Learned.

Michael Learned

Michael Learned (born April 9, 1939) is an American actress known for her role as Olivia Walton on The Waltons. Personal life Learned was born in Washington, D.C., the daughter of Elizabeth Duane "Betti" (née Hooper) and Bruce Learned, a diplomat. Her maternal grandfather was an attaché for the United States Embassy in Rome. She lived on a Connecticut farm with her five sisters for the first ten years of her life. She was named Michael because her father, a diplomat, had wanted and expected to have a boy and had selected the name Michael in advance. When it was clear he had a daughter r...

RegDwight АΑA

Actress? Daughter? Michael? Where's she from, the Weirdo Italian Antipode World?

The article explains everything.

RegDwight АΑA

Frankly, go to Hollywood.

That's like so 1985.

RegDwight АΑA

The year we ended the war with Oceania!

3:58 PM

But started the one with Eastasia.

RegDwight АΑA

user image

Not sure what you're going for, but ...

RegDwight АΑA

I just posted a picture of Eastasia.

i had no idea that eastasia was so comely

I thought that was you having a ball.

RegDwight АΑA

4:01 PM

Don't get me started on youth in Asia.

I thought you already had.

RegDwight АΑA

Famous last words.

Actually I must be going.

We must put up a clock in this room.

Hautbois!

Cor Anglais!

@RegDwightАΑA dude...what do the words in the picture say? 'Holly, Bell, something something wild something else'

The last something else is "melody.com"

4:22 PM

@Mitch (C) Holly Bell

www.wild-melody.com

Which she seems to have moved to hollybell.deviantart.com/gallery

4:35 PM

OK I get it now. Lesson learned: don't use light-yellow type on yellow background

also, the genre (or personal style) looks like Disney characters with Kim Kardashian faces.

maybe it's the (special flavor of) cartoon makeup.

I think they might be made up to look like the artist.

Oh. That's weird in a different way.

@KitFox For some reason I always read that site's name as "devian tart"

(of the myriad weird ways there are)

missholly.fr

I'm guessing that she's drawn herself there anyway...

What ever she's done, she seems to put the same face on all of her female characters.

4:40 PM

those are some adorable drawings

I agree. I think it is interesting that she's drawn herself as a Disney heroine over and over and over again.

It makes me wonder if she's conscious of it.

0

Q: Should I use period pronunciation when reading poetry aloud?

I find that when I read older poetry, the rhyme scheme is sometimes broken and I assume that the problem comes from changes in pronunciation over time. For example, Poe keeps up a pretty impressive rhyme scheme throughout the Raven but it breaks on the lines: "Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil...

pronunciation poetry

I'm not convinced this is on topic. Thoughts?

enh..it's OK. sorta about pronunciation/rhyming.

@simchona Not constructive. There isn't a right answer.

The title is sorta not what the question seems to be about.

the title question is NC.

'should' = anything goes.

@KitFox If you're an 8 year old girl, it's totally the thing to do. as an older (presumably >= 18) artist with a blog. consciously or not, that's weird. She only has one model, herself? maybe. She thinks she's the best model? weird.

4:51 PM

Mornin’.

user image

@Mitch She does look a bit like Snow White

that's certainly... something

Matt Эллен

5:05 PM

@Mitch I have a lyrics question: In the song "One Week" by Bare Naked Ladies they sing "I'm the kinda guy who laughs at a funeral/Can't understand what I mean?/you soon will". Is that a threat?

Can't be, can it? If it were your funeral, you wouldn't hear him.

@MattЭллен you should ask that on the main site. couch it as a semantics question so it will be on topic.

Matt Эллен

5:23 PM

@KitFox maybe they believe in the afterlife?

@JSBձոգչ Stop trying to post gayer stuff than @Reg. You'll lose, trust me.

@MattЭллен Maybe they're offering to get you baked before the next funeral.

Matt Эллен

lol

user image

5:47 PM

@MattЭллен How could there be a heaven without lesbians?

i don't believe in lesbians

@simchona i changed my mind to join the bandwagon. off-topic. 'should' has only one answer and it is the answer to 'Do I care?'

Don't worry, @JSB. Lesbians believe in you.

user19161

This chat has lots of believing lately.

6:04 PM

@JasperLoy Belief is cheap. That's why.

Unbelief is also cheap. Therein lies the rub.

user19161

There are also different types of believing. It's not necessarily of the religious kind.

if enough lesbians believe in me, i get to go to lesbian heaven

at least i think that's how it works

user19161

For example, Beliebers believe that Justin Bieber can do all things.

@JSBձոգչ The problem is, you wouldn't do well in lesbian heaven.

@Robusto oh, i'm sure i'll find some way to amuse myself

6:11 PM

I think Sartre pretty much covered this topic in No Exit.

cornbread ninja

0_0

user19161

I find it weird that sometimes I get a few upvotes on the same old answer in a day. I think it's because the question is linked somewhere from a new question so people visit it.

@MattЭллен Not a threat.

wth? The Hobbit is going to be THREE movies?

man, it's days like today that make me wish i didn't have the internet

user19161

6:27 PM

@JSBձոգչ Please explain.

@JSBձոգչ Oh god that's stupid.

yeah the internet thing, not the three movie thing; that's obvious.

user19161

@KitFox Don't you like that?

@JasperLoy today the internet is only giving me stupid things. i would have been better off leaving it off.

user19161

@JSBձոգչ So you wanted Hobbit to be only one movie?

6:30 PM

@KitFox They're being made by a Tolkien fan. It's not like he can cut any of it.

Why would it be more than one?

It doesn't make any sense.

user19161

It's not a long story like LOTR?

user19161

I quite enjoyed all three movies of LOTR.

user19161

But HP is too much for me. I gave up after the third instalment. Same goes for Twilight.

user19161

I think three is the magic number, one should not exceed that.

6:32 PM

The Hobbit is one book which is shorter than any of the books in LotR

Well LotR was three books. The Hobbit was just one.

Jinx.

but it still needs to be three movies?

For the monies, silly pants.

user image

user19161

@KitFox Is he wearing any now?

6:33 PM

Monies? I don't know.

user19161

@JSBձոգչ Definitely my type.

@JSBձոգչ Is that your sister-in-law? Cherry.

user19161

But I prefer Pepsi. Someone should photoshop that and change it to a Pepsi.

@KitFox what? no. it's some random chick from the internetz

user19161

jwpat is interrogating tecbrat on election.

6:37 PM

@JSBձոգչ I was just kidding.

user19161

Please edit your post and add: 3 examples of closed questions you wouldn't have closed; some examples of not-closed questions you would close; and closed questions you'd delete. – jwpat7 1 hour ago

Yeah, I found that unnecessary.

user19161

Maybe jwpat is on the interviewer board of some big company...

@JSBձոգչ Wha??? I heard two at first and I thought that was one too many. Now they're changing it to three?

OK, I need some jQuery help. Any jQuery helpers available?

6:40 PM

Whaddya need?

$('#KitFox').help();

I have a datepicker. I enter "23" and it should not validate, but it does validate.

It's causing me all sorts of headaches.

Can you be more specific?

Um. onClose the datepicker checks to see if the date (getDate) is between the maxDate and the minDate.

OK.

These are currently 2012-07-25 and 2012-01-01.

If they are not, it highlights the box and displays the error message in a div.

6:43 PM

OK.

I enter 23 in the box and blur. Nothing happens.

I submit the page, which forces validation, I get a big yellow error.

Don't you have a calendar datepicker associated with that field?

Yes.

OK, then just add an event handler for blur which calls getDate().

I have that. Or maybe I am misunderstanding you?

Blur also calls the validation function.

6:45 PM

You have that on the field itself?

Is it your hand-rolled validation function or the one from the jQuery datepicker?

I'm checking to make sure that's what I did.

@Robusto hand rolled.

Post code?

OK, I have the textbox with a cssclass of "calendar."

$(".calendar").blur(function () { validateDateRange(this); });

And what does validateDateRange() look like?

Hang on, I'm getting it.

    function validateDateRange(elem) {
    var valid_entry = true;
    var dateMin = $(elem).datepicker("option", "minDate");
    var dateMax = $(elem).datepicker("option", "maxDate");
    var selectedDate = $(elem).datepicker("getDate");
    if (selectedDate < dateMin || selectedDate > dateMax) {
        valid_entry = thisisnotvalid(elem, 'Date is outside acceptable range.');
    } else {
        valid_entry = thisisvalid(elem);
    };
    return valid_entry;
};

The thisisnotvalid function just does the formatting part.

So I figure that "23" must just not evaluate as a date.

That doesn't make sense to me, but I think that's the only way this would fail like that.

6:52 PM

What does var selectedDate = $(elem).datepicker("getDate") return when you enter 23?

I bet it returns "today" ... meaning today's date. It's not grabbing the input's text.

Try var selectedDate = $(elem).attr('value') instead and see what happens.

Let me see.

You might have to convert the value to a date object.

Well, it works for 23, but doesn't catch "12/12" I'll try the date conversion.

Was $(elem).datepicker("getDate"); returning the default datepicker date (i.e., today) like I thought?

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