English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Mitch

1:13 AM

Beelzeblorp

@Robusto Cough? Ricola.

RegDwigнt

1:04 PM

Wer hat's erfunden? Die Schweizer.

Robusto

1:48 PM

Also hot chocolate, which I prefer to Ricola.

Robusto

3:13 PM

@RegDwigнt I thought it was weak, though necessary to the progression of the plot.

Mitch

4:24 PM

I mentioned Lynne Murphy's The Prodigal Tongue. Book length compendium of 'The say this in the US/UK but not in the UK/US, but more importantly those in the US/UK think it started in the UK/US but in fact started in the US/UK, was borrowed into the UK/US and then forgotten in the UK/US. And then borrowed back to the US/UK as a UKism/USism. Or at least people in the US/UK thinks so but they're wrong.

More importantly, she mentions Urban Dictionary more than once, but ELU never.

Cerberus

4:56 PM

> According to Henry Charles Lea[21] between 1540 and 1794 tribunals in Lisbon, Porto, Coimbra and Évora burned 1,175 persons, another 633 were burned in effigy and 29,590 were penanced.

This is a funny expression, if not a funny punishment

You shall rue the day you posted that disagreeable comment! I will burn you in effigy!

Mitch

5:17 PM

@Cerberus Or the much worse penance. Saying "I'm sorry" is the worst thing to live through of all.

Cerberus

@Mitch Penance to the Catholic Church is rarely free...

Robusto

7:47 PM

@Cerberus Only for want of a real body to roast.

But I suppose the lady's not for burning ...

Cerberus

8:20 PM

@Robusto Indeed.

While I understood what it meant, I did have to double-check whether I had read it right!

Robusto

8:48 PM

The Lady's Not for Burning

The Lady's Not for Burning is a 1948 play by Christopher Fry.A romantic comedy in three acts, in verse, it is set in the Middle Ages ("1400, either more or less exactly"). It reflects the world's "exhaustion and despair" following World War II, with a war-weary soldier who wants to die, and an accused witch who wants to live. In form, it resembles Shakespeare's pastoral comedies.It was performed at an Arts Theatre private club for two weeks in London in 1949 starring Alec Clunes, who had also commissioned it. Later that year John Gielgud took the play on a provincial tour followed by a successful...

Cerberus

@Robusto No, I was referring to "were burned in effigy".

I had already Googled that play.

The title sounded familiar, but I have not seen it.

Robusto

@Cerberus Surprised you've never heard that before.

RegDwigнt

@Robusto well the way I remember it, there was a budgetary reason for it, plain and simple. As is always the case for bottle episodes, mind.

Which is why I'm saying I'm glad they didn't put in more of those.

Cerberus

9:03 PM

@Robusto What is more, I had no idea this was done as an official punishment in Christian times.

@RegDwigнt What's a bottle episode?

RegDwigнt

So I corrected his correction right back. Pointed out how his points did not apply to the old standard that I'm rather obviously using, while according to the new standard, he missed a whole bunch of things that he should've also corrected.

And then he goes "meh, why so serious, just a joke, I'm out".

Fucking Kindergarten is what it is.

@Cerberus one filmed entirely in a single location.

Not sure if that's the official definition, but that's the gist of it.

You don't film a million things, you just have people sit in a room and talk for 40 minutes.

Saves a ton of money, as you can imagine.

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt Burn Facebook in effigy!

RegDwigнt

But is usually very easily identifiable as such. And doesn't sit well with some people, especially if the rest of the show is all different locations all the time every twenty seconds.

Cerberus

Noted.

What I hate is when the last episode of a series or season has no full plot.

They often do that.

It could be a repetition of old scenes, or just some daft epilogue.

(I do like good epilogues, but they shouldn't be announced as a full episode or chapter.)

RegDwigнt

These days way too many episodes of way too many shows, or indeed entire movies, are not "here's an interesting thing that happens", but "hey here's a teaser for an interesting thing that might happen in the next episode/movie". But then the next episode/movie is exactly like that. Nothing happening again, just some hints at things that might happen in the future but then never do.

Cerberus

9:12 PM

That sucks.

RegDwigнt

I swear there are entire shows that go like that for four seasons.

Cerberus

And it is indeed how I experienced much of Game of Thrones and Downton Abbey. I call that the soap-opera syndrome.

By contrast, Midsomer Murders has perfect closure each episode.

RegDwigнt

The Ranch with Ashton Kutcher was the worst offender back in its time. But since then they've only perfected the craft further still.

Cerberus

It is of course a mere detective story, but it's enjoyable.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus a "best-of" potpourri of old scenes has been out of fashion for quite some time now. Maybe a decade. Maybe two, even. But yeah it used to be rampant. Like, every show ever used to do it. And it was very very hard to get right.

Cerberus

9:16 PM

I'm glad.

I saw one recently.

It was in the second or so season of Star Trek, the Next Generation.

I've never seen such an episode that I liked.

RegDwigнt

Well. That's not one that's been filmed in the last two decades, dude.

Second season of TNG predates my puberty, like.

Cerberus

And, again, if they want to show us such a thing, it should not be described as a real episode, but rather as what it is.

I know.

RegDwigнt

Star Trek always tried to save money. They had their share of bottle episodes, too.

Cerberus

I know, they always reused décors, and they always went to the "holodeck" to use either some décor from a different series, or just walk around in a modern city.

Always hated the latter two options.

What with the current state of computer animations, I imagine such things are no longer necessary.

RegDwigнt

You wish.

You try and film a million trillion episodes.

You'll start cutting corners after like five.

Not five million trillion, just five.

Cerberus

9:22 PM

You will cut corners, but you won't be using physical décors.

RegDwigнt

Physical décors are a hundred times cheaper than CGI, to this day.

I'm not exactly sure why, but it is so.

You can take a $100 mil movie with like one CGI scene in it, and you'll find they still managed to blow two thirds of the budget on the CGI alone. And it looks horrible already, and will only look worse five years from now.

Cerberus

Only if you spend so much money on it.

You can make cheaper animations.

RegDwigнt

If your budget is less, your CGI will only look worse.

Cerberus

They are a lot cheaper now than twenty years ago, what with the advances of hardware and software in particular.

Yes, it will look worse.

RegDwigнt

I can make CGI on my phone. Doesn't mean filming a physical thing wouldn't look ten times better.

In fact filming the real thing with the same phone would look ten times better.

Cerberus

9:32 PM

But still not that much worse than the décors that Picard walks around in...

Have you seen Star Trek?

RegDwigнt

That was like thirty years ago. Cut people some slack.

Cerberus

And still it was expensive.

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus the father of my godsons has seen every episode several dozen times. And so believe you me when I say I have seen Star Trek alright.

Cerberus

The cost of building décors has not dropped nearly as fast as has the cost of creating animations.

The ship itself still looks fine, inside and outside; but everything else usually looks pretty bad.

Which is fine.

RegDwigнt

I think with Star Trek more than anything else the looks are part of the charm.

We really need to find a better example.

Cerberus

9:37 PM

I have never found the bad décors to be part of the charm.

Not that they bother me.

But they just look like a primary-school play.

RegDwigнt

Give it another thirty years.

Cerberus

Only some of the inside locations are OK.

Will do.

RegDwigнt

Meanwhile every actual Trekkie is onboard with it, so what do they care about the non-actual Trekkie you.

Cerberus

An actual Trekkie is like an Apple person.

They don't care about me, nor I about them.

RegDwigнt

Tell that to their face.

Tell me the date and venue first, I want to witness.

Cerberus

9:38 PM

They will idealise everything about the thing they love.

I burn them in effigy!

RegDwigнt

I don't think they do, that's kind of my whole point like.

Everyone sees the cheap cardboard furniture for what it is.

Cerberus

burns ugly effigy of the Enterprise

You don't have to like everything about a series to love it.

RegDwigнt

Like, have you seen those people dress for a convention? They look like shit themselves. And they know. That's the point.

Cerberus

I'm sure.

Mitch

@Cerberus ??? How is that? Cardboard has dropped in price considerably?

Cerberus

9:41 PM

But skilled labour hasn't!

Mitch

Are you suggesting penance?

RegDwigнt

@Cerberus I'm not saying they are liking it. Again. I'm sort of saying the opposite. I don't think they would mind if every episode looked ten times better and never aged.

Cerberus

No; burning!

RegDwigнt

But it doesn't, and they know that it does not.

Cerberus

Star Trek is one big cardboard effigy to burn.

RegDwigнt

9:41 PM

So as you say, they still love the thing despite being aware how parts of it suck.

Cerberus

Sure.

Mitch

That wouldn't be prudent. All the highly flammable paints and decorations also produce toxic fumes.

RegDwigнt

アマゾンのダンボールで包丁作り。煮たり、焼いたり、叩いたりして研ぐ

►

Cerberus

@Mitch They didn't know that, back then.

Mitch

I think penance is safer.

Also more lucrative.

Isn't there a fee involved?

RegDwigнt

9:42 PM

This guy makes specialty knives out of everything. The sharpest knife out of cardboard. The sharpest knife out of milk. Milk.

It's the weirdest channel on the planet.

Also completely in Japanese.

Cerberus

What the hell are you making me watch!

RegDwigнt

And every video is like 40 minutes long.

And all of it like POV.

Mitch

how about a shit knife?

RegDwigнt

With no commentary.

Cerberus

@Mitch Absolutions sure aren't free!

RegDwigнt

9:43 PM

But once you start watching, you can't stop.

@Mitch I wouldn't be surprised if he did that one.

Mitch

@Cerberus Ablutions are.

RegDwigнt

I've only watched the milk video so far.

Cerberus

@RegDwigнt Oh, not the ticking on the hard cardboard.

RegDwigнt

Again, nobody has that kind of time.

Mitch

@RegDwigнt It's more artistic that way

Cerberus

9:44 PM

It ASMRs me badly.

Mitch

I have a great idea for one of those ASMRs: film somebody watching ASMR and just turn up the volume to a thousand. So you can hear them breathe.

Cerberus

That might actually work!

RegDwigнt

The milk video was fucking weird. Someone from Costa Rica sent me it. And I started watching without seeing the timer. And that dude spent like 10 minutes mixing cocktails or something. It was not clear at all where the fuck any of it was going. Then I think he discovered a thing while mixing the cocktails, how the milk he added to them would sometimes flock.

So then he spent another 10 minutes frying to fry the flocked millk in a frying pan.

Then after that he spent 10 minutes trying to cast a cow in silicone.

I am not making this shit up.

Mitch

@Cerberus maybe have them sucking on a cough drop.

RegDwigнt

Then finally after 40 minutes you get a knife made out of milk. With a cow head for the grip.

And then you go, oh so that's what this is about.

Mitch

9:47 PM

Maybe it's for cutting cheese?

Cerberus

That sounds like your kind of genre!

Mitch

Or a very unkosher knife for gutting a cow?

That's the next 40 minute video

just watching someone trying to strangle a cow.

RegDwigнt

カルーアミルクを作っていたら牛乳から包丁が作れると思った

►

There. Here it is.

Mitch

Then the follow up is ... um... prepping it.

skinning, disembowelling. quartering.

RegDwigнt

Just watch the first five seconds of it and you'll see how you can't possibly see where the fuck any of it is going.

Mitch

9:49 PM

making steaks

mmm... steak

RegDwigнt

But yeah you get a milk knife that's sharper than any knife in my house I can tell you that.

He cuts paper with it and everything.

Mitch

@RegDwigнt Everybody walking down the street n Japan has some secret like this.

RegDwigнt

And look at the fucking views on that one.

Four million

Someone's got too much time.

Mitch

Making videos out of making knives out of milk.

The majority of Japanase are busy watching someone making videos out of making knives out of milk.

Whereas in the US everybody walking down the street has a secret about making videos about doing makeup that makes it look like if you pull back your skin there's a monster underneath.

RegDwigнt

I'm subscribed to an Australian concertmaster to watch her violin videos. A day in the life of a concertmaster. Interesting stuff. Problem is, 99% of her videos are about doing makeup or drinking tea.

Mitch

9:54 PM

In Germany, everybody's making videos about how to make sausage. Literally. Literally all the terrible things that go into it. knee joints. leftover hide. chips broken off from a bone saw.

RegDwigнt

Oh I chastised someone on YouTube just the other day just about that.

Mitch

@RegDwigнt THat's the 'making sausage' of violins

RegDwigнt

Because David Mitchell made some joke saying how Germany is all sausages and holocaust guilt.

Mitch

@RegDwigнt I'd watch it if I didn't have to pull out my own teeth.

RegDwigнt

So naturally some idiot German commented like, "sausages and holocaust guilt is the most accurate description of my country I ever heard".

So I commented right back at the idiot, "you need to hear more descriptions of your country, then. Vegetarianism is at an all-time high in Germany. And so is holocaust denial".

Mitch

9:56 PM

@RegDwigнt Germans (West Germans actually) are the only ones who have any Holocaust guilt.

RegDwigнt

No they do not. There are actual Nazis sitting in the Reichstag right now. Again.

You've not been paying any attention for the last five years, have you.

Mitch

@RegDwigнt I don't think you're following what I'm saying. I'm not saying that all Germans are holocaust-guilt-ridden (but most are). I'm saying there are lots of non (West) Germans, who should have Holocaust guilt.

RegDwigнt

That's the dangerous thing about clichés. You never check if they still apply. Because you always knew they never applied in the first place.

Mitch

like East Germans first

RegDwigнt

The current generation have no holocaust guilt whatsoever, and thank fuck they don't, that's what the whole country has been working towards for the last 70 years. They don't feel guilty because they are not.

And the generation before that, well these were the nazis, you know.

So of course they don't feel guilty about doing a thing that they liked doing.

Cerberus

10:00 PM

The other day, I read about how the Kristallnacht was immensely unpopular in Germany.

RegDwigнt

Kind of like with America and the blacks.

Cerberus

Even among most Nazis.

In 1938, most Nazis didn't want violence against Jews.

RegDwigнt

I'm not sure I'm following. The original night or the annual anniversary?

Oh the original night.

Cerberus

The original™.

Let's not copy it, shall we?

RegDwigнt

Well. For the amount of people that were against it, they sure fucked up a whole bunch of stuff on a huge-ass territory the size of 1938 Germany.

Just saying.

Cerberus

10:02 PM

Not sure I follow.

But that's what I read.

RegDwigнt

Look up how many buildings are no longer there just because of that one night alone.

Cerberus

I actually had no idea how popular it was at the time.

I know.

RegDwigнt

It takes more than a couple crazy people to do destruction on such a massive scale.

Cerberus

So?

RegDwigнt

So you can say "most people didn't want violence against Jews" all you want.

That's like saying "most people don't like coffee".

Cerberus

10:04 PM

I'm not sure I follow.

I wasn't making a statement, just repeating Wikipaedia.

While watching your weird milk video.

RegDwigнt

Oh in that case that's alright, because then I'm the one who wrote it.

So yes continue to watch my videos and read my shit that I write.

Don't take any of it seriously though. You've been warned.

Cerberus

Yay.

RegDwigнt

Actually now that you say it, I might as well go and make some cosmetic changes.

Cerberus

It's not that I thought it was the opposite; I just didn't know.

RegDwigнt

Next time you read up on the crystal night, you will find most Jews were killed by the Japanese using milk knives.

Cerberus

10:06 PM

I thought Hitler was only obfuscating the matter with a view to foreign relations, but not so.

@RegDwigнt I have placed a tag on the final section of the page.

Which sucks.

I'm talking about the English page, by the way.

RegDwigнt

Why did you place a tag that sucks?

I will remove it for you.

Cerberus

The relative pronoun referred to the last noun preceding it.

RegDwigнt

It don't matter. I'm on every Wikipedia and every Wiktionary. Even the ones in Chuvash and Nahuatl.

In fact you will be amazed to see how many articles I edited on the Dutch one.

Cerberus

I'm not surprised.

That explains all the errors on Vicipaedia.

RegDwigнt

Is what I'm saying yes.

Thank you for finally following.

Now like share and subscribe as well.

Cerberus

10:10 PM

He's just finished the handle.

Ah, I know why he is cutting the cucumber just that way!

Or gherkin, whatever.

RegDwigнt

So you are actually watching all of it.

I told you it would happen.

It's crazy is it not.

Cerberus

Quite.

I must admit I was also doing other things.

RegDwigнt

It's like a pure distilled non-sequitur.

Cerberus

Quite.

RegDwigнt

And by "distilled" I mean "going on forever and ever".

Cerberus

10:16 PM

Your favourite.

RegDwigнt

I am not non-sequituring to that.

Nice try tho.

Gherkins are the pickled ones. This one's a cucumber alright.

Well if you're actually watching that one, I might actually go watch the cardboard one.

Then I can tell you if it's any good.

Cerberus

It's much less circum—

RegDwigнt

Lol he's using the cow in that one as well.

Cerberus

Circum-something.

Circumlocutous?

RegDwigнt

It's much shorter, too.

Probably because of the circumcision.

Cerberus

10:20 PM

Oh, circumlocutory.

RegDwigнt

He puts the "cut" in circumlocutory.

Cerberus

Wonder what knife he used.

RegDwigнt

Whichever it was, it was sharper than anything in my house.

Cerberus

No doubt.

The hardness measurement was quite high.

RegDwigнt

So far the cardboard one is very different from what I imagined.

I thought he'd dissolve it all into cellulose, then build from that.

But that's not what he's doing.

Cerberus

10:23 PM

Indeed not.

RegDwigнt

As someone who's made like three and a half videos that are three and a half seconds long, I have to say that's insane amounts of work just filming all that.

Just setting up the camera for each and every shot.

It looks so easy precisely because it is not.

It takes a lot of care to appear carefree.

Cerberus

Quite.

He does seem to have expensive equipment.

Which helps.

RegDwigнt

He seems to have a lot of very different equipment, rather.

Cerberus

The two go hand in hand.

RegDwigнt

Some of the equipment he uses is not expensive, and a lot of it used creatively not for its actual purpose. But damn does he own a lot of things to pick from.

@Cerberus money is not an issue in Japan anywhere as much as free room is.

Cerberus

10:28 PM

I'm sure he has a very good camera, and the knowledge and materials to position it suitably.

RegDwigнt

Just owning a saw might mean you have to kick out one of your family members out of your flat.

Cerberus

Depends on where you live.

RegDwigнt

Japan. I said Japan.

He's not living on Mt Fuji.

And even on Mt Fuji there's no spare room for a saw.

Jesus Christ, he's baking the cardboard in an oven.

And just how many whetstones does he have?

He has more whetstones than I have LEGO bricks.

And I wrote that before he pulled out another one and then another one. And then another one.

Cerberus

Exactly.

Diamond whetstones aren't free.

RegDwigнt

11th is chocolate.

Jello is sharper than ice. Now I know everything.

Cerberus

10:41 PM

Hmm 100% polyester?

Færd

11:01 PM

Dec 22 '18 at 13:53, by Færd

What is the grade for a student's general performance (class activity, homework, etc) during the term called?

> Additionally, in the United States, progress reports may be issued to track a student's performance in between report cards. They are typically issued at the midpoint of a grading period, (for example: 4½ weeks into a nine-week grading period, or three weeks into a six-week grading period) and contain virtually the same information as the report card. These reports allow students and their parents to see if school performance is slipping and if intervention is required to bring up the grade.

If anyone was losing sleep on this. From here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Report_card#United_States

Cerberus

Do remember that this is about school and not university.