English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

I think the discussion here completely misses the point! Because of the retardedness of IE, programmers that were required to support it had to constatly "feed" it "glue-code" to overcome everything in IE that does not work right — Radagast the Brown 14 mins ago

KitFox

I want to have sex right now...maybe I should stop drinking caffeine.

Robusto

Here's one from left field. ^

KitFox

haha

Robusto

That guy is finding the most complicated possible explanation for a simple illustration.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox I agree. I bet the increased level of stress hormones it induces prolongs periods of anxiety

Robusto

12:28 PM

Why doesn't someone post a comment about "gluons" and their effect on Microsoft browsers?

KitFox

I've only got paste.

Robusto

There are no pasteons. Only pasties.

But there are past eons. In which Microsoft browsers are firmly mired.

Matt Эллен

there are two types of pasty, I found out.

One you eat and the other burlesque dancers apply to their nipples

Robusto

At least.

KitFox

giggles @Matt's innocence

Matt Эллен

12:30 PM

:D

Robusto

@MattЭллен Both can make you chubby.

Matt Эллен

aye :D

KitFox

uhoh. I seem to be giggling at my desk a lot this morning.

Matt Эллен

sounds like having your feathers in place has done you good

KitFox

Maybe. Maybe it was all the red bricks and vehicles I bought in Batman 2 last night.

Matt Эллен

12:32 PM

The Lego Batman game?

KitFox

Yeah.

RegDwighт

I watched Avengers last night.

KitFox

The things I do for my kids. cough

@RegDwighт I saw that couple weeks ago. What did you think?

Matt Эллен

@RegDwighт dist thou enjoyest it?

RegDwighт

Meh. Ended up giving it a 5/10.

KitFox

12:34 PM

I was extremely disappointed that Black Widow was an American bimbo.

RegDwighт

I liked Loki the most, and that other guy I had never seen before, until it turned out that it was Hulk. Which was pretty much when I stopped liking him. Funny.

@KitFox oh don't get me started on that.

KitFox

@RegDwighт Haha. I thought the same thing.

RegDwighт

Don't they have a single Russian-speaking person in the US?

Matt Эллен

Marina Orlova

KitFox

And I agreed with the reviews that the final battle was Epic.

Maybe the next one will be better.

RegDwighт

12:35 PM

You're Whedon, you have $230 million, and you can't find a single. Russian-speaking. Person? Give me a fucking break, will you.

KitFox

I think they established her character in a different movie though, didn't they? He might not have had a choice.

Except it's really annoying because I always want that smoking-hot assassin, and this person was really not that.

RegDwighт

And I mean okay, say you absolutely must use Ms Johansson. But couldn't at least those three thugs beating her up be actual Russians? They are in for like a minute. You could pay them minimum wage.

BTW, what was Black Widow's superpower? Looks like everybody's asking themselves the same question.

KitFox

She doesn't have a superpower.

Matt Эллен

She didn't seem to take centre stage in the film. She was more muscle than mind. Worked for me, but I don't know the character outside the film.

RegDwighт

@KitFox That's a crappy superpower.

KitFox

12:38 PM

She's fucking fucking fucking hot. That's her superpower. Making everybody stupid with her hotness.

Matt Эллен

Thunderstorm! Yay!

RegDwighт

And I mean, she was a Russian woman by descent, why is her name that of a Russian man? Inacceptable. Inexcusable.

Robusto

@RegDwighт I thought you were living in my back yard.

KitFox

@RegDwighт Natalia Romanova is a man's name?

RegDwighт

@Robusto that's what I'm saying. They could've given the role to me. I'd've done it for free.

@KitFox her name is Romanoff.

At least in the movie. Don't know about the comics.

Robusto

12:40 PM

Yeah, but Scarlett Johansson is way hotter than you. Who cares if you speak Russiain? It's all about sex appeal.

KitFox

@RegDwighт Oh that's even lamer.

RegDwighт

@Robusto I dunno, they don't seem having trouble finding Germanic Gods from far-removed planets who are native speakers of contemporary American English.

Robusto

I gotta disagree on The Avengers, though. As far as superhero movies go, this was definitely in the top three.

RegDwighт

You can do it if you really want it.

KitFox

What?

RegDwighт

12:41 PM

@Robusto I never said it wasn't in the top three.

You gave it 5/10.

Yeah, so?

So nothing.

I liked it except for the Black Widow bit.

Robusto

And Mark Ruffalo definitely made the best Bruce Banner yet.

KitFox

12:42 PM

I liked Thor too, except that they screwed up the story really badly.

Robusto

See, there's the thing. Thor sucked balls, but in Joss Whedon's hands, The Avengers' Thor became a much more interesting character.

Matt Эллен

I didn't like the Thor film. It felt like it was missing stuff.

RegDwighт

Anyway. I like Loki. A lot. Though somehow he's not menacing enough. He's just pretty. Ebert said he was lacking charisma. I am not sure I'd go quite as far, but he's lacking something alright.

@Robusto that is 100% true. The direction was superb.

I loved the dialog, too.

The dialog was very strong, most of the time.

It was scripted very well. But. It all times it also felt scripted. Nobody talks this way.

This ain't Breaking Bad.

tchrist

It’s a comic book.

Robusto

@RegDwighт Well, nobody flies and has magic hammers and shit either.

tchrist

12:44 PM

Of course nobody talks that way.

KitFox

@MattЭллен It wasn't missing so much as screwed up. Jane was supposed to provide Thor's main motivation. She was his foil. In the movie, that's all gone, so it doesn't work.

RegDwighт

@Robusto that is a straw man, and you know it. Just because it's sci-fi doesn't mean it has to suck.

KitFox

But I liked it all the same, and mostly because of the Thor/Loki plot.

Robusto

I'm not saying that, and I content that it didn't suck.

KitFox

I was really hoping they would do the far more interesting part of the story when Loki actually succeeds and rules Asgard.

Matt Эллен

12:46 PM

@KitFox Yeah, I think that's what I felt. I didn't get why the three reserchers were there at all. Shield could have just taken their stuff and that would have been the end of their bit in the film.

KitFox

In the comic storyline, Jane is a paramedic. Thor meets her when she arrives to help people who are injured during some meta-human battle.

Robusto

I would put the top three in this order: 3: The Avengers, 2: The Dark Knight, 1: Serenity. Though Serenity is more space western than comic-book, I think it still qualifies.

In any case, The Avengers as an ensemble superhero movie blows the doors off any of that Fantastic Four crap.

KitFox

He is deeply impressed that she has no abilities, she's incredible vulnerable, and yet she rushes in, putting her own life in danger, so that she can help people.

RegDwighт

Yeah. I started off with a 10, as I always do. It went all the way down to a four in like half an hour. Then it picked up quite some momentum and went all the way up to 8 again. In no small part thanks to Robert Downey Jr, which was all the more surprising seeing how I thought Iron Man I was an insult to my intelligence. Whedon really knows how to direct. There is no denying that.

Anyway. With the final battle and all that nonsense, and dare I say some subpar special effects it went down all the way to 4 again. I gave it a 5 as a courtesy to Whedon.

KitFox

pfft I liked the battle.

RegDwighт

12:49 PM

@Robusto that's not hard. A grandma with a broomstick could blow the door off of Fantastic Four.

In which BTW this Captain America guy starred as well. He's everywhere.

Robusto

I liked Hellboy (the original) too, principally because of Ron Perlman's excellently grumpy portrayal.

KitFox

And anyway, it is because of Jane that Thor defends Midgard. It's kind of a really important plot point.

Robusto

Oh, oh! I forgot to mention Watchmen, which I thought should be up there in the top three. Maybe the four of them can fight it out.

KitFox

@Robusto Oh, yeah. Speaking of movies I thought I would hate.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox In the comic?

KitFox

12:51 PM

Yeah.

Matt Эллен

ah

KitFox

Like critically important.

Matt Эллен

Beause that didn't come across in the film

RegDwighт

@Robusto the Dark Knight is far, far above this in terms of plot. The plot here is thinner than the paper it's on. Nothing wrong with that per se, but now that we're comparing, that's how it is.

Robusto

Nothing came across in the film.

KitFox

12:52 PM

Because there's nothing to hang it on. Being a scientist is nothing like being a paramedic.

RegDwighт

@Robusto holy crap, really?

I hated that one with a passion.

It was a mess.

Robusto

Yeah, really.

RegDwighт

A complete and utter accident.

Well I reckon you've read the books, then.

KitFox

You haven't?

tch

judges

Robusto

@RegDwighт No no no no no. Watchmen was brilliant.

tchrist

12:53 PM

Alas:

Matt Эллен

It's was kinda dull

RegDwighт

I had not so much as heard of Watchmen prior to the movie. And now that I've seen the movie I'm sure as heck not reading that dreck.

tchrist

0

A: Why is there so much diversity in how English nouns are pluralized?

You might be interested in my book If Houses Why Not Mouses? It explains a lot of the apparent irregularity and diversity in English. Check it out on amazon. Best wishes Damian O'Brien

RegDwighт

The opening titles were kinda nice, and then it went straight downhill from there.

KitFox

@RegDwighт It's too late to read it now anyway. It'd be like reading V for Vendetta. Way to dated for you.

tchrist

12:53 PM

That’s at best a comment, not an answer. And it’s self-promotion in a way that doesn’t look good here, at least to me.

Matt Эллен

@tchrist at least it's not veiled self-promotion

O0oO0oOO0ooO

@DavidWallace Would he employ me in his KKK community centre as a janitor?

RegDwighт

@KitFox yeah but see, I still wouldn't mind reading V for Vendetta. The movie hasn't ruined it for me.

tchrist

@MattЭллен Well, yes.

RegDwighт

@KitFox I haven't read ten thousand books you have. You also haven't read ten thousand books I have. That's the way it goes. Yet somehow you don't need to read Anna Karenina prior to watching any of the movies, but without being familiar with Watchmen, the movie makes absolutely zero sense. It's a series of unconnected scenes that go absolutely nowhere.

From what I hear the book really is spectacular, but someone should've told me that before.

KitFox

12:58 PM

Oh, don't be like that. I was only teasing.

RegDwighт

For the record: I have not read Anna Karenina.

KitFox

I wouldn't say the book is spectacular, but it is very good. I recommend pretty much anything Alan Moore has every written.

RegDwighт

A buddy of mine has it. He thought the movie was an 11/10, too.

Oh well.

Some things are just fan service. Gotta live with that.

KitFox

Have you read any of Neil Gaiman's work?

RegDwighт

My point is merely, we should acknowledge them for being just that.

@KitFox who is Neil Gaiman?

KitFox

1:02 PM

He wrote Good Omens (with Terry Pratchett), American Gods, Neverwhere, and a bunch of other novels, and a lot of graphic novels, including The Sandman series, which is apparently going to start up again.

I don't know what you like, but you might like his stuff.

RegDwighт

BTW, that was another hilarious scene in The Avengers. When Loki goes to Germany and faces a crowd and shouts, "Neil! Neil! Neil!" Pro tip: you'd have more luck with "Down!" or "Sit!" There is not a single person in all of Germany who knows the verb kneel. But of course, needless to say, the crowd immediately kneels. Fuck that. No, seriously.

tchrist

He’s ok.

I do like him, but I think he’s a bit overhyped.

Matt Эллен

He's got an interesting face.

KitFox

He does his research, as does Alan Moore, from what I hear at least.

tchrist

But he seems like a decent enough guy. Which is something else.

Robusto

1:04 PM

Commute.

RegDwighт

Also, I never understood why the aircraft carrier had to fly itself. Cheap plot device. I understood even less why it had to be invisible. That wasn't even used as a plot device.

KitFox

The robot makes a joke about it in one of the Super Hero Squad episodes.

Matt Эллен

if it was visible then people could see it.

RegDwighт

And I mean, not understanding something in this movie is really quite a stunt. It's so linear and simple it hurts.

@MattЭллен which people? The sea people? Because it was over the sea all this time.

Matt Эллен

Aquaman?

KitFox

1:09 PM

Two-dimensional thinker.

What about the Skrulls, huh?

RegDwighт

@MattЭллен oh God yes. Thank you for making sense for once. Aquaman would've ruined everything.

Matt Эллен

Also, Disney owns Marvel — Little Mermaid crossover

RegDwighт

Okay okay.

KitFox

Aquaman is DC.

crosses arms, scowls

You frigging people.

Matt Эллен

Ha! oops.

KitFox

1:11 PM

What is that robot's name? Robbie? I think it's Robbie.

Matt Эллен

That's good, because I wouldn't want him turning up in the Marvel universe

KitFox

He makes a joke about being around so kids wouldn't set themselves on fire too.

They have quite a few good jokes in those cartoons.

Matt Эллен

On the otherhand, a Sealab 2021 crossover could have hilarious consequences

RegDwighт

I also liked how healing people from going mental was as simple as hitting them on the head (Hawkeye), or letting them slip and hit themselves on the head (that Skarsgård character; really they should've called him Skarsgård, that's like the best name in all of this, including all the origin movies).

KitFox

@MattЭллен rofl

@RegDwighт Huh? I don't remember that.

RegDwighт

1:13 PM

"You have blue eyes and are running amok? Here, have a slap." -- "Thank you kind sir. I shall fight on your side now."

Matt Эллен

@KitFox The actor's name is Skarsgård

KitFox

Oh, the doctor.

tchrist

@KitFox It’s like a — what is that term, category error — that betrays a lack of proper encoding of the Marvel–DC dichotomy in their DNA. I blame their parents.

KitFox

I blame DC for creating such a miserable universe.

Matt Эллен

I blame Aquaman for not being important enough to remember which universe he's from

tchrist

1:14 PM

@RegDwighт Is running amok like running a MUDD?

KitFox

Except that Vertigo is quite good.

tchrist

@KitFox It’s a Gene Roddenberry–type of universe.

RegDwighт

@tchrist in more than one way.

KitFox

It's yet another strike against the holy Christian woman that she only approves of superheroes like Superman.

That being my son's friend's mom.

tchrist

He’s clean.

Matt Эллен

1:15 PM

yeah. I prefer the J M Straczynski type universes

KitFox

He's black and white.

There is good and there is evil and they are clearly labeled.

tchrist

Don’t let her son read Demian.

KitFox

Although it is a lot more work to guide my sons through the morality of the Marvel characters.

I find it more instructive though.

tchrist

@KitFox Moral minefield? Hm, sure aren’t many priests who are superheroes, you’ll notice.

KitFox

Also, it makes me feel smug and superior when I compare my obviously superior, more thoughtful parenting to hers.

tchrist

1:19 PM

Go placidly. . . .

KitFox

@tchrist I have some Astro City.

tchrist

Do you really? Interesting.

KitFox

I liked The Authority as well, but I only associate the two because I obtained them at about the same time.

I think. I don't think they are connected.

Anyway, that's a Vertigo title. Like I said, Vertigo is quite good.

It was DC's attempt to win back some Marvel fans.

tchrist

Did you see what His Papal Majesty did today? Definitely outraged a lot of Catholics. I hope he doesn’t get martyred.

@KitFox That seems like a hopeless job.

I don’t know Vertigo.

KitFox

The collections are generally more thoughtful and more mature. That's the targeted audience. They wanted a grittier, darker line.

Sandman was published by Vertigo, and actually a lot of Gaiman's graphic novels.

I think. Black Orchid.

Um, pretty much anything DC that I like was Vertigo.

Kingdom Come might have been...it was a good book in any case.

Nope, guess that was Elseworlds.

Artwork by Alex Ross, though. I am a fan.

That's one that @Reg might like, if he's into that kind of stuff.

Kingdom Come (comics)

Kingdom Come is a four-issue comic book mini-series published in 1996 by DC Comics under their Elseworlds imprint. It was written by Alex Ross and Mark Waid and painted in gouache by Ross, who also developed the concept from an original idea. This Elseworlds story is set in a future that deals with a growing conflict between "traditional" superheroes, such as Superman, Wonder Woman, and the Justice League, and a growing population of largely amoral and dangerously irresponsible new vigilantes, in many cases the offspring of the traditional heroes. Between these two groups is Batman and h...

The artwork is pretty, and the story is good, but might require a familiarity with the DC universe to fully grasp.

RegDwighт

1:32 PM

I'm not sure I could ever read comics at all. I shudder at the thought of tainting glossy pages with my grease.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox If only Lex had created the Mankind Internation Liberation Front

KitFox

Hahaha

@RegDwighт Wear cotton gloves.

RegDwighт

Still better than the Girlkind Internation Liberation Front.

@KitFox yeah, that's the point, that's no longer reading. That breaks right through the fourth wall.