English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

12:00 AM

@JohanLarsson You mean some mor^h^h^hconcerned citizens have petitioned the President to do something about Bieber?

Wow. Maybe he can send a drone.

Doncha love the Internet. I put up a new server yesterday night. By the time I completed the security lockdown tonight, the system log had accumulated over 9,000 lines having to do with failed breakin attempts.

That's an average breakin attempt of one every ten seconds.

Although I suppose there are three or four lines per attempt, but that's several times per minute.

tchrist

12:21 AM

Aw, come on guys!

That's verging on being too depressingly high to even start.

Johan Larsson

@MετάEd :)

RegDwigнt

12:40 AM

This is why I hate all this modern Android shebang with over seven passions.

Everything has to be made available on it. Nothing ever just is available.

I thought SE was a website. If your droid can't display websites, screw your droid, I am staying with my "unsmart" phone from the nineties that can.

Anonymous

@RegDwigнt Why seven passions?

RegDwigнt

@Anonymous because I tried hating it with just six passions, and as you can see, to no avail.

So I have to hate it harder faster and uncutter.

Anonymous

@RegDwigнt Why six passions? What do you mean by 'passion' in this context?

RegDwigнt

It is a pun.

!!urban hate with a passion

KitSox

@RegDwigнt hate with a passion To hate <something> with a passion is to really hate it fully, as opposed to greatly disliking it.

RegDwigнt

12:45 AM

It is a widespread idiom on top of which I am building a wordplay using a meme from this chat that involves the number seven.

Anonymous

@RegDwigнt The proper term is called a feature phone.

@KitSox Where does the number come from?

RegDwigнt

I think you either mean "the thing is called" or "the term is". "The term is called" is not right.

@Anonymous she is a bot.

You can't talk to her like that.

You have to use weirdo language.

Like, more weirdo than you'd use to talk to others here.

Anonymous

@RegDwigнt Typo.

RegDwigнt

@Anonymous Yeah I guessed as much, but wasn't sure. What with you not knowing hating with a passion and all.

Anonymous

@RegDwigнt How do you know it's a female bot?

RegDwigнt

12:47 AM

Just wanted to cover all bases.

@Anonymous because I do.

It's a stupid answer.

But it is the actual answer.

Anonymous

@RegDwigнt I was more concerned with the number.

RegDwigнt

And now you know it, too.

So when others ask you how you'd know it, you can just shrug and say, tis how it is.

But anyway. Back in the nineties my phone was called a smartphone, so I'm not stopping calling it that now just because it can display websites modern phones can't.

Anonymous

KitSox must be a highly developed artificially intelligent bot then.

RegDwigнt

I dunno, I actually forget how to greet her properly.

Anonymous

I wonder who her developer is.

RegDwigнt

12:51 AM

I could tell you that for three million dollars.

Or you just stick around and soon enough you'll overhear it.

Or just notice it all by yourself.

tchrist

@RegDwigнt Don’t you miss having to wind it up to make a call?

RegDwigнt

It's sort of obvious.

@tchrist that actually was before my times. I still got to make heavy use of the rotary dial, though.

tchrist

@RegDwigнt Oh, wrong 90s.

RegDwigнt

Actually I think both our phones back at home sweet home are still rotary dials.

But here's the thing: they are just as good at displaying SE as Android is.

Well, okay, not anymore.

But up until recently they were.

Anonymous

@RegDwigнt I think you're pulling my leg.

tchrist

12:54 AM

RegDwigнt

@Anonymous not sure why it'd be yours. Did you write up that advertistement?

tchrist

RegDwigнt

@tchrist yeah no not quite as old-fashioned.

This model.

Except in a darker green.

tchrist

That looks very modern.

RegDwigнt

I'd guess it was from the sixties.

Certainly from the seventies, which is where I am from.

And the phone predated me.

tchrist

12:56 AM

That was the version my grandparents had well into the new millennium, save that theirs was black.

RegDwigнt

Nais.

tchrist

But theirs didn’t take a SIM card.

Anonymous

@tchrist That phone can only transmit sound, not images.

tchrist

@Anonymous That is why it’s called a phone.

RegDwigнt

@tchrist Not even the original credit-card sized SIM card?

tchrist

12:57 AM

It is not a television.

RegDwigнt

@Anonymous technically, it transmits electrons, which can represent anything you want.

Theoretically it could teleport your nanny.

Stack Exchange

Limerick Machine: Tired and in need of some sleep A man was awake for to keep His demons at bay They would not go...

posted on January 31, 2014 by sgdi

Tired and in need of some sleep A man was awake for to keep His demons at bay They would not go away They’d got him in trouble so deep

RegDwigнt

I just misread transmit as transport, but wevs, I'm sticking to my story now.

Being wrong never stopped me from being wrong.

@tchrist is still two edits short of a nice three kilo.

That's just one edit today. I am not impressed!

tchrist

But lots of close votes.

RegDwigнt

Oh yeah.

I was wondering about that.

Cuz I went away at 60, and came back to see 47 left.

Someone's been busy.

tchrist

1:01 AM

You’re welcome.

RegDwigнt

Thanks.

tchrist

Silly timestamps.

RegDwigнt

Anyway. I'll be logging off now, but when I come back I trust you to be approaching 4000.

Anonymous

@tchrist Then, how do you view the Stack Exchange then? RegDwight said something about using an older phone to view the SE.

tchrist

@Anonymous Your what hurts?

Anonymous

1:03 AM

@tchrist Huh?

RegDwigнt

I checked the top editors on SO the other day and was baffled. There are like dozens of people with 30k+ edits each.

They really have no life.

tchrist

Weird.

RegDwigнt

I mean, it's not hard to arrive at these numbers just by making a couple edits a day, that's not my problem. My problem is that when you do that, SO will eat your soul.

It'd actually be easier to make them all in one session and never come back.

Anonymous

@RegDwigнt What do you mean?

RegDwigнt

Which is sort of what I did, except I only got to 3k I think.

@Anonymous have you ever edited anything on SO?

Honest question, too lazy to look up.

Anonymous

1:05 AM

@RegDwigнt No.

RegDwigнt

Ah well.

That'd explain it.

Anonymous

@RegDwigнt So, how will it eat away your soul?

RegDwigнt

Basically the moment you start editing SO is the precise moment you realize that your life is short, and your entire family will die, and the Sun will eat the Earth alive.

Anonymous

What if you don't have a soul or believe that you don't have a soul?

RegDwigнt

That is how much in vain it is, and that is how clearly you realize it.

tchrist

1:08 AM

Ecclesiastes.

Anonymous

@RegDwigнt So?

@RegDwigнt So, how will it eat away your soul?

RegDwigнt

@Anonymous at that precise moment you also start believing. Because you realize that that's your only way out of this misery: fooling yourself.

@Anonymous slowly and steadily and hurtfully.

Anonymous

@tchrist What does that have to do with anything? Eh?

tchrist

@RegDwigнt Do you recall at what age you figured that one out?

@Anonymous Do try to keep up.

Anonymous

@RegDwigнt Fooling yourself by believing in a soul is the only way out of the SO misery?

RegDwigнt

1:10 AM

@tchrist I truly believe that God spoke to me at the age of sixteen I think. It was night and I was not asleep and some presence was hovering in a corner of my room and it spoke to me.

Anonymous

@tchrist Huh?

tchrist

@RegDwigнt Same here.

RegDwigнt

It was really weird because I wasn't even drunk, nor a child, nor an adult for that matter.

Anonymous

@RegDwigнt What did it say?

@RegDwigнt Was it male or female or non-sexual?

RegDwigнt

It said wise things, and they were so wise I couldn't put them in words, and neither could it.

tchrist

1:11 AM

Voices have no sex.

Only phones do.

RegDwigнt

@Anonymous there was exactly nothing in that corner. It looked exactly just like always. It was not a visible presence, and it had no sex.

Anonymous

@RegDwigнt How often do you speak to God? How do you know it's God?

RegDwigнt

Anyway, that was the first and last encounter of that kind, I understand that now and I understood it then as it was happening.

@Anonymous I have to call it something. It's a label.

I could have called it Susan, but then you wouldn't have quite understood, would you.

tchrist

Calling things things is libel.

RegDwigнt

I prefer slander, yes.

tchrist

1:14 AM

I’m not very good at fooling myself. I really must work on it more.

Because it would be less miserable, per your observation.

Anonymous

@RegDwigнt Actually, if you had called it Susan, then I would have understood that the 'voice' belongs to your imaginary girlfriend named 'Susan'.

RegDwigнt

@tchrist I'm approaching nirvana-like mastery.

Which is to say, even if I am not, I can fool myself that I am.

Anonymous

@RegDwigнt Calling it 'God' will give a different impression.

RegDwigнt

@Anonymous which wouldn't be quite the same thing. QED.

tchrist

Hold on to that one.

RegDwigнt

1:17 AM

I never had a girlfriend named Susan, real or imaginary, of any sex.

tchrist

Most imaginary girlfriends named Susan are of a particular sex.

Anonymous

@RegDwigнt OK... and so you label it 'God'? Why not fjkdla;jfkdls;ajfdksl;?

tchrist

But your mileage may vary.

RegDwigнt

Actually, I keep using that precise name, Susan, throughout my comments on the main site and in chat alike.

Some regulars may have even noticed.

tchrist

Kidlins.

RegDwigнt

1:19 AM

So it's a nice homework assingment for y'all.

glares

Why Susan.

"Oh, my Susan!"

I know why.

I will give you a hint: it's from a movie. And a recent one.

tchrist

1:20 AM

It’s the most common password.

RegDwigнt

And I think I actually sort of disclosed it here in chat on one occasion.

By linking to the bit in question on YouTube.

Or perhaps I dreamt that one up.

@tchrist lies.

tchrist

’Twas.

RegDwigнt

The most common one is 12345, and the second most common one is hunter2.

@tchrist then you're giving me way too much credit. Just because I mentioned elm and pine once.

tchrist

Nice wood.

RegDwigнt

Yeah.

That's easily the biggest full circle we have completed in this chat so far.

And with that achievement under my belt, I shall take my leave as has been my promise for quite some time now.

tchrist

1:22 AM

It is snowing here.

RegDwigнt

CU tomorrow, hey Frank can I borrow etc.

tchrist

And I want to sleep.

RegDwigнt

@tchrist wow.

Still no snow here.

Not a single snowflake this year.

tchrist

Really? What’s wrong with your country?

RegDwigнt

And seeing how it's February already, there probably won't be one.

tchrist

1:23 AM

I had more than two fathoms of it last year.

RegDwigнt

@tchrist very good question.

tchrist

Unfathomable.

RegDwigнt

Less fathomable still as in my my country, February was the coldest and the snowiest.

tchrist

Well, here it may be the coldest, but April is the snowiest.

RegDwigнt

Alas, most of Western Europe is one large mediterranean wasteland.

tchrist

1:25 AM

Still, we get more moisture now than December, which tends to be dry.

It makes people weak.

They need to be properly brutalized by the weather.

I believe there are Russians who have had that pleasure.

RegDwigнt

It's not like it ain't bat shit cold right now. We are well below zero here. Just no snow.

And the grass is green everywhere.

Insanity.

tchrist

Weird.

And you only mean below freezing, but still.

We keep oscillating.

I wore shorts two days ago.

RegDwigнt

Well it's Celsius here.

tchrist

I shall wear a snow parka tomorrow.

RegDwigнt

I tried converting in my head, but gave up.

@tchrist that, too.

We had like plus ten just the other week.

tchrist

1:27 AM

We’re a couple of degrees above freezing right now, but it is precipitating.

RegDwigнt

And like minus ten the week before that.

tchrist

And spitty.

RegDwigнt

Now it's around zero.

tchrist

Mostly above freezing.

Kinda weird.

RegDwigнt

I can't remember the last time I saw rain. Well, not counting the rain in Twilight Princess we were playing today.

And even there it was weird.

tchrist

1:28 AM

I know. It started raining this afternoon and I said WTF?

RegDwigнt

Because it pretty much never rains in the game.

Yet, over the course of the last ten days or so it did rain on three occasions.

Today there was actually a distant thunderstorm.

tchrist

Have you have ever had a thundersnowstorm?

I have.

But not here, back home.

RegDwigнt

And my wife and I were like WTF is that thing, we never saw that before, and we really meant like IRL that's how far back it really is.

tchrist

Are you in one of those places no lightning falls?

RegDwigнt

@tchrist we had all kinds of snow storms back in childhood, with fifty different names for them, but no, nothing with thunder.

tchrist

1:30 AM

It was very strange. Only a few times in my life. Thunder and snow.

Rather low fire risk though. :)

RegDwigнt

I am still looking for an English, or really any-language, word for posyomka.

tchrist

A kind of snowstorm?

RegDwigнt

Not really.

Or arguably the weakest of them all.

tchrist

A weather event?

RegDwigнt

Yes.

tchrist

1:32 AM

Sleet?

Ice fog?

RegDwigнt

When there's snow, and it's dry, and there's little of it in powder form, basically mostly ice underneath, and then there's wind. Can be strong wind, but a gust will do. Basically wind of any strength.

tchrist

Ice pellets them, mostly.

RegDwigнt

What happens then is that you see the gusts of air walk close to earth and take some snow with them.

tchrist

Oh that.

RegDwigнt

Some snow is being swept over the ground.

tchrist

1:34 AM

Little sprites of snow.

In swirls.

Has to be dry.

RegDwigнt

Hence the name, posyomka, "on-the-earth".

Female noun from that.

This stupid language has nothing of that kind.

tchrist

So it’s breezes kicking up light snow on the ground a little?

RegDwigнt

Yup.

And travelling with it for any distance.

And it might well be a precursor to a storm, or one of the effects during a storm.

tchrist

It has a dream quality to it.

RegDwigнt

Bah now I'm getting flags from rooms I could never imagine existed.

tchrist

1:36 AM

Yeah.

And lots of them.

RegDwigнt

Really time to go now, I think. A wink from Susan.

tchrist

About nonsense.

Go.

RegDwigнt

Yeah.

What am I supposed to do with them. I can't choose "shut up".

tchrist

OFFS somebody needs to kick them.

RegDwigнt

They'll come right back.

tchrist

1:37 AM

Somebody is abusing the flagging system.

I know.

RegDwigнt

The other day someone wanted me to kick Adolf Hitler.

tchrist

I wasn’t talking about metaphors.

RegDwigнt

I refused, they were all up in arms about that.

Well guess what.

Someone else kicked him and then he started misbehaving.

tchrist

For having a bad name?

RegDwigнt

Yeah. For having a bad name.

tchrist

1:38 AM

What is this, France?

RegDwigнt

He did nothing.

tchrist

Sticks and stones. . . .

RegDwigнt

His gravatar was completely transparent already.

@tchrist yeah I used the one with "not waking up sleeping dogs".

tchrist

Well, most dogs don’t like being kicked.

RegDwigнt

Alas, twas too late.

And then all of a sudden there was two of him.

And when I left there were three.

tchrist

1:39 AM

Ewe

Just a sea of troubles.

Must fool yourself away.

RegDwigнt

Identical users, all with Adolf and a swastika on the gravatar, all with the same name, all pointing to the same deleted account on the main site.

tchrist

Pleasant dreams.

RegDwigнt

And all of them kicked and banned from chatting by a mod.

tchrist

And back again?

RegDwigнt

Yup.

The funniest thing, of course, he was still not posting anything.

That guy was a pro.

He just kept coming back, is all.

tchrist

1:40 AM

Violence gives birth to itself.

RegDwigнt

Yeah.

So anyway. I am fooling myself out of this chat for tonight.

tchrist

Just coming back and being “offensively named”.

RegDwigнt

And so should you.

CU tomorrow.

tchrist

Yeah, sleepy.

Byebye

Jasper Loy

2:01 AM

@tchrist Are you still in chat? You should be sleeping now, lol.

MετάEd

4:05 AM

@tchrist I ma Dee a start earlier. I'll hit it again tomorrow if work permits.

@RegDwigнt the client does not support chat and crashed thirty seconds out of the box.

On the other hand, the browser chat client sucks except in a big screen browser with a keyboard.

Also sixteen it's exactly when you are supposed to have your religious experience. Thankfully it doesn't keep happening to most people. I pity the ones who never stop.

skullpatrol

5:08 AM

!!wiki Chinese New year of the horse

KitSox

@skullpatrol No result found

skullpatrol

!!wiki Chinese New year

KitSox

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is an important traditional Chinese holiday celebrated at the turn of the Chinese calendar. In China, it is also known as the Spring Festival, the literal translation of the modern Chinese name. Chinese New Year celebrations traditionally run from Chinese New Year's Eve, the last day of the last month of the Chinese calendar, to the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first month, making the festival the longest in the Chinese calendar. Because the Chinese calendar is lunisolar, the Chinese New Year is often referred to as the "Lunar New Year". The source of ...