English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Don't forget it's not just the direct sunlight, but also the soil, the sand, the rocks, the stones, the bricks, having been heated up and radiating heat at you because of the sun. You should add that to the subjective increase in temperature caused by sunshine.

@tchrist Right, right. Not for you. For posterity.

tchrist

12:34 AM

@Robusto He’s been cavorting with the scullery tramps again.

Cerberus

12:50 AM

Always the scullery.

Don't even think about the kitchen.

tchrist

Either the kitchen or cutting capers in the streets. I don’t know your preferred venue for disporting yourself.

Cerberus

1:08 AM

Gosh, I had forgotten all about sport etymology, but it all made sense when I saw your spelling.

Cerberus

1:40 AM

> I wish many of the early release games ended like Armello, I have buyed some of this games and most of the time I have ended feeling disappointed of the final release (Planetary A recently) or plainly cheated (Godus breaked my heart), but Armello was a different history, I fell in love just by seeing the early art concept and videos, I purchased the early access for that... and... wow... Armello never stopped getting better while being developed, and the final release felt complete and well done, I concur that a hotseat option would be great, but the single player and multiplayer are alre…

This is an interesting mixture of competence and...a lack thereof.

The irregular verbs and demonstratives are mostly wrong, and yet the rest of the idiom is mostly right.

tchrist

Needs editing.

Also, commas wrong.

Cerberus

Naturally.

But it is only a comment on a game.

You have to admit there is an odd discrepancy.

Cerberus

2:04 AM

Real Life First Person Shooter (Chatroulette version)

►

Imagine you are on Chat Roulette, and you run into...this.

The coolest thing ever! And I don't even like shooters!

tchrist

Scared to watch.

Cerberus

It's not scary.

Imagine you are on chat roulette and you get to play a game.

Telling a "protagonist", your interlocutor, what to do.

In the protagonist's house, there are zombies.

And weapons that he has to find and use.

The protagonist is a real person reacting live to your commands.

Dressed up, of course.

The zombies are actors.

tchrist

2:19 AM

I don't know what chat roulette is.

Cerberus

It is a website where you can get connected to a random person to chat with him.

Using video if desired.

tchrist

Ew.

Cerberus

No nudity allowed.

There isn't any in this project, at any rate.

> Reynolds says it was just a fun project that they did in a weekend, with "one practice run, with a member of our team on a Skype call... to check that the system was working, and then straight into finding strangers on the internet." They ended up doing about 50 runs, with the few players who completed the whole "level" taking about 20 minutes.

Damkerng T.

@Cerberus It was the place I first learned what ASL means.

Cerberus

Hi!

Damkerng T.

2:25 AM

Hi!

Cerberus

To your satisfaction?

Damkerng T.

To my dismay, I'd say!

Cerberus

I understand.

Damkerng T.

Two video chat friends playing an RPG game together could be fun, though.

Hello, @tchrist!

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@Robusto What do I win?

I hate the fuckin' Eagles, man.

Robusto

2:41 AM

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 You win the Duderlicious Award.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Nice.

That should really tie the room together.

tchrist

2:59 AM

Duderlicity is only one key away from dudderlicity.

@DamkerngT. Hi. I was outside watering and catherding.

Not cathetering. :)

Damkerng T.

@tchrist Gardening is nice! I think I can never do cat herding successfully.

tchrist

@DamkerngT. Pretty sure nobody can.

Damkerng T.

@tchrist My cat nods in agreement. :D

tchrist

I found one on his perch on a rock out in the back field maybe 100 yards away towards dusk. The other came to the door like three or four minutes after I later called for him.

Damkerng T.

@tchrist Nice! Not all of my callings for stray cats turned out well. :P Apparently, this cat liked you.

tchrist

3:12 AM

He isn't a stray. He mine. He was just out playing (read: hunting).

Damkerng T.

Oops! Sorry! :-)

tchrist

They roam between 100 and 300 yards away in all directions. I often do not know where they are. I bring them in at night because of lions and coyotes -- when I can.

Speaking of lions, a pride of youngsters has taken up llama-hunting on the other side of the mountains. Not sure what they plan to do about that.

Damkerng T.

Huh? Lions and coyotes? Around your place?

tchrist

Of course.

Damkerng T.

Now I'm trying to imagine what your place looks like. :-)

tchrist

3:16 AM

Pumas seldom form gangs or packs or prides, but the ones out in Mesa County have. Ruffians.

I just live in Colodado, that's all. Very normal in the American West. They deported 5 bears from town a couple days ago. And a moose earlier this summer.

If the bears come back they will be killed. The moose they'll just deport again. Unless it kills somebody.

Damkerng T.

Cool! I don't know how I would feel seeing bears, moose, pumas, lions, coyotes walking in the town or knowing that they're somewhere near.

tchrist

Sorry! Pumas are lions: mountain lions. Puma concolor not Panthera leo.

Damkerng T.

A-ha! Silly me. I've never seen pumas up close.

And I think it wasn't very close with lions.

tchrist

My next door neighbbor met a bear by our mailbox at dawn taking out the trash a few weeks ago.

A puma is the same size as a leopard.

But I don't think you even have leopards anymore, do you?

Damkerng T.

Just a little smaller than a Bengal tiger, I think.

@tchrist Nope. I'm more familiar with tigers.

I think I've seen leopards only in photos.

Oh, and documentaries.

tchrist

3:25 AM

Tigers are biggest, then lions, then jaguars, then leopards and pumas together, then cheetahs. Then it doesn't count because they aren't likely able to eat you.

But a liger is twice the size of a tiger even. Half a ton.

Damkerng T.

Eww... I think it could be lethal with just them sitting on me.

tchrist

You have tigers???

Damkerng T.

Definitely not! :-)

I was imagining what if one of those sat on me.

Catija

... They were talking about a pair of leopard cubs on the news yesterday... I wanted one but my husband said I wasn't allowed.

tchrist

Yes, that's right: a 1,000-pound beast could kill you by accident simply by sitting on you. Moose and bigger elk fall into that category and larger.

It is very hard to keep a big cat. But many people with pumas whom they bottle-fed have had a very satisfying relationship.

The ex-mayer of the town just over the Divide from me was killed by a moose, but that was no accident.

A mountain lion in captivity has the same(ish) lifespan as a house cat. And any cat that's feral/wild lives only about half as long.

Damkerng T.

3:32 AM

Was there something that provoked the moose?

tchrist

Well, the moose thought there was.

They are ornery.

A friend of mine was very nearly killed by one when he came around the trail on his bike and spilled it right under one. Big bull. Very angry.

Damkerng T.

nods -- I'm pretty sure that bulls aren't quite like buffaloes, I mean water buffaloes.

tchrist

A bull moose can be up to 1500 pounds. They are immense, not fat.

Damkerng T.

Oh, I see. It was a bull moose.

tchrist

Yes. Adult male, with huge shovel-horned antlers.

A bison can also kill you easily enough, but they don't wander so much. Penned in.

Water buffalo are dangerous, right?

Damkerng T.

3:38 AM

@tchrist Water buffaloes are quite tame.

tchrist

What is the most terrifying thing to encounter in the wilderness here? Can you guess?

Damkerng T.

Even though, theoretically, they could be pretty dangerous too.

@tchrist I guess snakes!

tchrist

No, although I have encountered poison snakes here. The answer is baby lion cubs.

Damkerng T.

Baby?

Because of the mother nearby?

tchrist

Followed closely by baby bear cubs.

@DamkerngT. Exactly.

Damkerng T.

3:40 AM

Ahh

tchrist

You see the babies but not the mother. You may die before you do.

With a bear mother you would at least see her first. :)

Damkerng T.

What kind of bear is the most common one over there?

tchrist

I have come upon a small bear in the forest. Yearling, first time alone. I was still pretty nervous about his mom, but he was on his own. And terrified of me.

We only have Ursus americanus left in Colorado, although they are plentiful.

Damkerng T.

Ahh, the black bears.

tchrist

Yes.

Damkerng T.

3:44 AM

I don't know what bears eat. Fish, perhaps?

tchrist

Although they are not always black. They are sometimes brown in color. But they are the same species. The real brown bears are the grizzlies.

@DamkerngT. Anything. But not enough fish here for that. You're thinking of the Kodiak bears in the Pacific Northwest, with the salmon runs. They grow to 2x the size because of that.

A black bear is perfectly able to kill you if he feels like it. He just isn't as prone to it as grizzlies/brown bears.

Beware the baby bears.

Damkerng T.

But they don't allow people to come too close either, I guess?

@tchrist nods

tchrist

Well, for certain values of allow.

Hopefully he will flee.

He may not.

We have bear sitters here.

Damkerng T.

Oh, like some kind of adoption?

Or watchers?

tchrist

People who come to hang out with a bear that isn't where it is supposed to be, warn other people away and keep an eye on the bear until it leaves the area.

Damkerng T.

3:50 AM

I see.

tchrist

They did that with the huge mother and her two cubs up in the big cottonwood behind my house once.

Damkerng T.

For some people, they go out to get in touch with the nature on vacation, but for you, the nature comes to you. :)

I'm not very good at trekking in the woods. Mostly, I use only safe trails.

tchrist

What would an unsafe trail be? I don't know your hazards.

Damkerng T.

@tchrist It could be snakes, or even tigers, though there aren't many.

Another kind of unsafe in my idea is the one I had to walk on, following a group of hill tribe folks in the north.

tchrist

What was unsafe about it?

Damkerng T.

4:01 AM

They could walk on a 60-degree slope quite comfortably, but it was quite dangerous for me!

And it looked steeper than 60 degrees in real life.

tchrist

I see what you mean.

The most common form of death by outdoor mishap is perishing from cold or sometimes heat. Then falling. Then lightening. Wild animals are not even in the running, although it does happen.

I've never much been too afraid of coyotes -- they are small, although prairie wolves is still apt. But some people are. I don't now that they have ever killed a human.

I only worry for my cats. Does your cat venture outdoors?

Damkerng T.

@tchrist I chose not to let him play outside after trying a few times.

@tchrist In documentaries, coyotes look like bad guys, cunning, stealing, and all.

tchrist

They are clever, and wary.

If you live in a city it can be impossible for cats. I live in a secluded little area that abuts public land, so they roam a long ways with no cars.

A coyote came right up to my fence and was eyeing one of my cats on my porch last fall. I have never before felt an urge to hurt a living thing. Nor since.

Damkerng T.

@tchrist I don't worry much about cars. (I live in a village, and inside the village, we don't always have cars driving on the street.) But every time I let him out or he made an escape by himself, he would come back with fight wounds.

tchrist

This was in the daylight, which is very rare.

Damkerng T.

4:14 AM

@tchrist I thought coyotes are nocturnal .

tchrist

Oh you have other cats in the area. For whatever reason mine are the only adventuring ones here now. My next door neighbor has a little one but she never ventures out of their front porch and garden.

Damkerng T.

Ahh... from Coyotes 101: When living in close proximity to humans, coyotes tend to be nocturnal but may also be active in the early morning and at sunset.

@tchrist Sometimes I wasn't even sure that he fought with only cats!

tchrist

@DamkerngT. Because of people, yes, they usually hide by day. Not always.

@DamkerngT. That would be bad. Raccoons here will ckill cats if they can catch them.

Damkerng T.

Aww... I think we don't have raccoons here, but we do have some squirrels and rats and dogs.

tchrist

No, you have no coons. That group is New World.

My cats sometimes chase squirrels but only have once caught a little chipmunk. Lots of mice and voles.

Once a magpie.

Damkerng T.

4:20 AM

Hey, chipmunks always look cute to me. :D

I'm more concerned about dogs (for my cat), though.

In my village, folks keep various kinds of dogs. A dog of a neighbor attacked a baby of another neighbor once. Not a pretty sight, or what followed.

tchrist

That is terrible.

Dogs are not allowed to roam here. But people walking them happens. My cats have always escaped when chased.

Damkerng T.

Indeed! There was a long argument and the committee had to call for a meeting. Every one knew that it was an accident, but it shouldn't have happened.

tchrist

A cat will outrun a dog on a short sprint but lose for anything sustained.

Damkerng T.

I think my village is long enough that a dog will outrun a cat.

tchrist

Dogs, being wolves, are like humans cursorial hunters. It is a rare thing.

They just have to find a tree or wall or fence.

Cursorial means distance running here.

Damkerng T.

4:25 AM

I learned a new word. Thanks!

tchrist

Sure. I figured you might not know it. It's related to the same root that gives us race courses.

And cursors. :)

Damkerng T.

Oh, I didn't see that they're related at first!

tchrist

Cursor Mundi

Cursor Mundi (Latin for "Runner of the World") is an anonymous Middle-English historical and religious poem of nearly 30,000 lines written around 1300 AD. The poem summarizes the history of the world as described in the Christian Bible and other sources, with additional legendary material drawn primarily from the Historia scholastica. It was extremely popular in its time, as the large number of manuscripts in which it is preserved proves. The Cursor Mundi is divided in accordance to the seven ages of salvation history. It was originally written, as certain peculiarities of construction and vocabulary...

With a cursory glance, you just run your eyes over something.

Cursor meaning runner in Latin.

You can also connect these words to current and its cousins.

More running things.

Damkerng T.

Hmm... current, too?

tchrist

Yes.

From they you can branch to occur and others, but that was a long time ago.

Damkerng T.

4:32 AM

Ahh, it's from Latin currere.

tchrist

Yep.

Look up course.

There is even a course verb, but it is now uncommon.

Damkerng T.

Hah, the same root!

tchrist

Didn't I say that? :)

Damkerng T.

Exactly! :)

tchrist

You spend your life learning how English fits together.

Or you don't, but then things don't make as much sense.

Damkerng T.

4:36 AM

I think I'll need a lifetime for that.

tchrist

We all do.

I know I've asked you this before and have forgotten the answer, but why was it again that your English is so good? :)

Damkerng T.

Is it good already? I'm so glad to hear that!

tchrist

French parents and English school or something exotic like that?

Yes, it is very good.

Damkerng T.

Nothing like that.

tchrist

Just hard work then, not some gift of lucky birth or station?

Damkerng T.

4:40 AM

I think so.

tchrist

It's the only thing we really value in the long run.

Damkerng T.

I think my English was about the same as an average Thai when I graduated. Then I had to use English as a lingua franca. Then, I tried to listen more. Then, I found ELL.

tchrist

Why did you have to use it as a lingua franca? Internationals?

Damkerng T.

Yes, some of my projects were outsourced from Europe.

Some from Hong Kong, Singapore, and India

tchrist

Oh, you're that guy. :)

Damkerng T.

4:44 AM

Eh? That guy?

tchrist

The one we send all our projects to. You must be very busy. :)

Damkerng T.

LOL

I used to be very busy, yes, but probably not because of the projects you sent over here. :P

tchrist

So we send them to India who sends the to Thailand or China. So funny.

Damkerng T.

Hehe! Life is funny at times. :D

tchrist

Try not to ruin your English by reading their docs.

Damkerng T.

4:48 AM

Thanks for the tip!

tchrist

I used to have to wade through them. It was terrible.

Damkerng T.

I tried to think of it as a short note when I had to read that sort of stuff. I mean, all the keywords were there.

tchrist

They just aren't put together right.

Kitties are mobbing me for bed.

Damkerng T.

Ah, I have to go out for lunch too.

It was a nice chat. See you soon! And, oh, thanks for new words and tips!

tchrist

You have a good tomorrow then, and I shall have a good night!

Damkerng T.

4:53 AM

Good night!

SmokeDetector

8:19 AM

[ SmokeDetector ] Offensive answer detected: Why does "love child" imply "out of wedlock"? by user136365 on english.stackexchange.com

RegDwigнt

11:49 AM

Hands are hard. Let's go shopping!

Robusto

@RegDwigнt The point being that women do not belong in the armed forces?

I presume the second one's title means "Mother Russia <*something*>"

RegDwigнt

The point being that good artists copy, bad artists steal.

@Robusto is calling.

Robusto

ah

RegDwigнt

The history of Photoshop before there was Photoshop, or before there was history, is quite fascinating.

Been meaning to get that book for a while. Then again, most pics from it are online anyway.

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector ] Offensive body detected: What is currently the most obscene word in British English? by chaos on english.stackexchange.com

Robusto

11:54 AM

Back when I was in advertising, art directors had their own set of rules: 1. Don't draw it if you can trace it. 2. Don't trace it if you can copy it. 3. Don't copy it if you can steal it.

@SmokeDetector You just woke up, Smokey? That's been around for four frickin' years. Ease up.

RegDwigнt

Hey, cut it some slack. It wasn't sure if the most offensive word was offensive. That's called stack overflow.

@Robusto so just to make sure we're on the same page, is that what the "art" part refers to, or does that run under "directing"?

@Robusto oh and actually, not mother Russia, but mother Homeland.

Robusto

@RegDwigнt "Art director" is, confusingly enough, a term of art that has no real relationship to art except to describe employees of advertising agencies who attach themselves to projects where others do the actual production of the art.

@RegDwigнt I know that, but in English it would fit better in the larger, roomier "Mother Russia" slot. Even though that is not accurate, it's what people understand.

RegDwigнt

Yes, yes, and the managers do the managing, and the accountants do the accounting, and the telephonists make the calls, and the interns make the coffee. All that's left for art directors is cashing their checks in-between posting their penises on Twitter.

Robusto

Why do people insist on sending me emails to attend meetings I have no intention of attending?

RegDwigнt

@Robusto which, I presume, is why I didn't even notice it when you first said it.

@Robusto Instructions unclear. Do you want them to send you emails to attend meetings you will be attending anyway? Or do you want them to send you emails to attend meetings you have long attended?

Robusto

12:01 PM

A lifetime of seeing bad movies where Russians refer to "Mother Russia" is what does it.

@RegDwigнt I want them to eat shit and die.

RegDwigнt

Now that is some good instructions.

Robusto

Very specific.

RegDwigнt

I wish all instructions would be like that.

Like, literally. All instructions would say "Eat shit and die".

Right now only logos of select fast food companies accomplish the job.

We need moar.

Robusto

Oh, forgot one other rule for art directors: 4. Don't steal it if you can fob the job off on someone else entirely.

@RegDwigнt O brave new world that hath such creatures in it!

RegDwigнt

No time for fobbing the job off. Too busy tweeting my penis from the 4162491st angle.

Robusto

12:06 PM

You might even say that the job of art director should really be called buyer or procurer, since that is what they mostly do, except when someone else actually performs that function.

Not only do these cretins email me instead of eating shit and dying, they change the meeting time four or five times before settling on one that is truly inconvenient. Thereby generating multiple emails.

RegDwigнt

Come on, finding the most inconvenient time for everyone is quite an art. Requires an art director or five.

Robusto

Yeah, but where is the mystery then? Everyone can see you thrashing about like a dog trying to fuck a goat. What would be truly impressive would be just to produce the goat-dog puppy-kid and then take a bow.

RegDwigнt

Spoken like a true art director.

Robusto

Art detector, please.

RegDwigнt

You are the walrus.

I am the Kiev Rus.

Robusto

12:12 PM

You are Chicken Kiev.

Or is that the Hut of Baba Yaga? I get them confused.

RegDwigнt

Kiev for nothing, Chicken for free.

Robusto

0

Q: What is the difference between these two sentences?

What is the difference between these two sentences in meaning? "When going to school I wore necklaces with starfish pendants." "When I went to school I wore necklaces with starfish pendants."

I don't know. I don't care enough even to read the stupid question.

RegDwigнt

> I am the Great Mighty Poo,
And I'm going to throw my shit at you!
A huge supply of tish comes from my chocolate starfish.
How about some scat, you little twat?