English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Alenanno

10:33

@RegDwight you there?

RegDwight

@Alenanno Ayup.

Alenanno

You know the package being sent to the Top Users? I was trying to understand the correspondence between U.S. t-shirt sizes and Europeans... Do you know of some reliable site? I have found the Ebay one for now

RegDwight

@Alenanno Um. Last time I got an SE T-shirt, Rebecca supplied this chart:

Alenanno

Thanks!

Mr. Disappointment

11:18

FYI: Large isn't really that large.

@Reg Ping!

RegDwight

@MrDisappointment Huh wha?

My last shirt was okay, though I had to translate those strange numbers into Centimetrese first.

Kit

11:55

giggle I can't believe people like this really exist.

endofgospel.org/marriage.html

Found him on the Writers site, asking for advice about why no one wanted his book.

Sounds like a real prize, ladies!

RegDwight

@Kit What makes you assume this ain't trolling?

Kit

It's an awful lot of effort for trolling.

RegDwight

How's that effort?

It's too obvious.

Kit

Did you look at the site? He's written a crappy book and discovered math stuff too!

portonvictor.org

He's got free software!

He's asking people to nominate him for the Abel Prize for Mathematics.

RegDwight

12:11

Okay, okay. That is effort.

Still not anywhere as much effort as I invest in trolling just this one site on any given day.

Jez

"(optionally) knowing Linux, knowing programming"

come on, that's not for real

RegDwight

Yeah, the "optionally" part gives it away.

Kit

This guy is a piece of work. Still, it's entertaining reading for a slow Wednesday.

I completely agree about the "no freckled, curly-haired redheads" though. Them bitches is crazy.

"I discovered Algebraic General Topology, a new field of math which will replace old General Topology. Mathematical Synthesis is how I call Algebraic General Topology applied to study of Mathematical Analysis."

I effin' love this stuff. Seriously, I have tears from laughing so hard.

I am in pain here!

"A child which does not play is a bad child."

Jez

i think redheads are sexy

Kit

@Jez I'll not deny that redheads are sexy. They are also f*cking crazy, therefore not good marriage material.

"From a fiancee we would expect herself to be attractive for the bride not her deals as she isn’t a cook or a bag of money but the object of love herself."

Take it from the man himself. He obviously knows what he's talking about.

@RegDwight You make a very cute bunny. I just want to snuggle-wuggle you, and rub your adorable widdle ears!

@RegDwight And then make earmuffs from your pelt.

Jez

12:28

►

RegDwight

I would have never expected that simply changing my gravatar would make me want to leave this place.

Robusto

@RegDwight — Dude. I hope you're not serious.

RegDwight

Well, what's with all this "let's kill bunnies" hatred lately?

Robusto

I like bunnies.

Kit

I like bunnies, too.

RegDwight

12:30

Just let me make myself clear: jokes about killing communists = funny. Jokes about killing animals = not cool.

Kit

They are soft and pretty.

Jez

what if the animal is a communist?

RegDwight

And it's not like we were running out of communist jokes. So let's stay focused.

Kit

@Jez Damn, beat me to it.

Jez

:-)

Robusto

12:30

How about jokes about killing communists using cute animals as a weapon?

Kit

@RegDwight Are you veggie?

Robusto

No animals were harmed making that joke, btw.

RegDwight

That is okay, as long as the animal only hurts the communist but not itself.

Kit

When bunnies attack...

@RegDwight Ok, I'll just snuggle-wuggle and stroke ears then. Maybe feed you some carrots. Do you like carrots?

Robusto

Here's a cute animal that absolutely kills Commies:

Apr 1 at 12:24, by Robusto

RegDwight

12:32

I am skeptical about carrots ever since F'x tried to kill me using one.

Robusto

Fighting the good fight since 1974.

RegDwight

Those sparkles could kill anyone, communist or not.

You misspelled 1917.

Robusto

Well, Hello Kitty is like a shotgun of cuteness. Great weapon if you don't mind collateral damage.

RegDwight

Collateral damage was a nice movie about killing communists.

Kit

You look really hot in drag though.

23 hours ago, by Robusto

45 mins ago, by Robusto

Jez

12:35

Kit

@Jez What's with the SE lolcat?

Jez

i like it

RegDwight

@Kit Yeah, much better than without drag.

Robusto

I think you need to find yourself a new meme. That one is so played.

Alenanno

Hello everyone

Kit

12:36

@RegDwight Is that Rasputin?

Robusto

Of course it's Rasputin.

Ham and Bacon

►

RegDwight

That is an old photo of mine Robusto found in his backyard.

Robusto

RasputinDwight

Kit

@Kit Naughty bunny!

Ham and Bacon

12:37

@Alenanno Hey Alenanno

RegDwight

@Robusto Careful, if you mess with Ras, you also mess with Vladimir.

Kit

I had a rat for an experiment once that we could not euthanize, despite our best attempts. We dubbed him "Ratsputin."

Robusto

VladDwight?

@Kit — Me, I opted out of bio and other pursuits where you had to kill things in the name of research.

Kit

@HamandBacon Is that Prince Harry?

Ham and Bacon

No....

Kit

12:39

@Robusto Are you veggie?

Ham and Bacon

Did that seriously look like Princess Kate?

Robusto

@Kit — Me? No. I didn't crawl to the top of the food chain to eat tofu. I just don't like killing things. Well, non-Communist things.

Alenanno

lol

Ham and Bacon

4 mins ago, by Kit

@Kit Naughty bunny!

Jez

►

RegDwight

12:42

Behind every great man there's a greater man.

Ham and Bacon

@Kit Did you finish the thing?

@RegDwight I don't know about that.

Jez

@RegDwight s/great/evil/

RegDwight

@Jez s/\/$/\/g/

Kit

@HamandBacon Yes. Cute. Why would Prince Harry have been flirting with Princess Kate?

Robusto

@RegDwight — I guess we know who's pitching and who's catching ...

Mr. Disappointment

12:45

@Reg Leave the regex for the fanatics on SO, please.

RegDwight

I didn't start the fire.

Ham and Bacon

@Kit I meant Chelsea or whoever.

Mr. Disappointment

But I beg you to stop fanning the flames.

Ham and Bacon

May 27 at 12:09, by Kit

@RegDwight Why fire?

RegDwight

Hm. But how can I not disappoint you, Mr. Disappointment?

Robusto

12:47

In Soviet Russia, Mr. Disappointment disappoints you!

RegDwight

Good times.

Mr. Disappointment

@Reg That reminds me of a Charlie Brown quote:

Robusto

Speaking of disappointment, I thought when I hit 40K rep there'd be, like, fruit baskets or Balloon-O-Grams or something. You know.

2

Mr. Disappointment

Linus: 'What would you say you want most out of life, Charlie Brown? To be happy?'

Charlie Brown: 'Oh, no. I don't expect that. I really don't. I just don't want to be unhappy!'

Formatting fail.

Alenanno

:D

RegDwight

12:49

@Robusto That was the best Charlie Brown quote ever. Duly starred.

Mr. Disappointment

Indeed.

@Robusto Or, some merchandise with a real-time rep counter from the SE store?

Ham and Bacon

@MrDisappointment Somehow I feel that you feel disappointed?

Robusto

@MrDisappointment — Hell, everyone who's anyone on EL&U gets a frickin' T-shirt.

Ham and Bacon

@Robusto Do you have a t-shirt?

Kit

@Robusto I'd rather get schwag than swag, though.

Ham and Bacon

12:51

Where is the store?

How can I access it?

RegDwight

shop.stackexchange.com

Robusto

Are they only doing top 2 pages on SO itself? If so, that's kinda chintzy. The highest I ever got there was page 25, which at the time was top 0.25%. Harder to get to page 25 there than page 1 anywhere else.

Mr. Disappointment

Nobody, or at least not many, liked my 'Branded Easy Button' suggestion for a product. :(

Ham and Bacon

Love the look of their pens

They should have caps as well

RegDwight

@Robusto I don't think they are doing any pages on SO itself.

The SE swag is new.

Kit

12:53

I think they should have underpants.

RegDwight

SO swag got distributed like two years ago.

Mr. Disappointment

@Green Eggs and Ham: I'm sure if you buy some pens, they'll send'em with their caps on. ;)

@Ham and Bacon*

Kit

@MrDisappointment Nice.

Ham and Bacon

@MrDisappointment What does green eggs mean?

Hahaha!

Kit

It is freezing in here. @RegDwight Can you bump the heat a bit?

Mr. Disappointment

12:55

Ask Dr. Suess.

Ham and Bacon

Do you read Dr. Seuss?

He's got some seriously wacky stories. Love it.

Robusto

Here's where an EL&U T-shirt may be worn:

Ham and Bacon

@Kit Sounds like trouble...

Robusto

Mr. Disappointment

Um.

WTF?

Kit

12:56

@Robusto Which one is you?

RegDwight

@Kit Sure. Have some Red Heat.

Ham and Bacon

@MrDisappointment They look like some nuts

Kit

@RegDwight Noooooo! I walked right into that!

Ham and Bacon

@RegDwight Looks totally photoshopped

Robusto

I'm just saying, an EL&U T-shirt could prevent displays like those.

RegDwight

12:57

@Robusto Server not found? And you're getting starred for that?

Ham and Bacon

@Robusto Good idea

Kit

@Robusto Well, it's good to see that some men still dress left.

Robusto

@RegDwight — Non-Communist Internetz can find the server.

RegDwight

@Robusto The www. is missing.

Kit

@Robusto An EL&U t-shirt could enhance displays like those.

RegDwight

12:58

There. Much better.

(Or not.)

Robusto

@RegDwight — Hey, I seem to recall you posting a buddy-pic in the recent past.

18 mins ago, by RegDwight

Ham and Bacon

It's getting too hot.

Kit

@Robusto Speaking of two dudes who could use EL&U t-shirts...

RegDwight

@Robusto Ping @Vitaly and he will put these fellas on top of that rainbow truck.

Ham and Bacon

2 mins ago, by Ham and Bacon

It's getting too hot.

Robusto

13:03

OK, gotta do some work now. Laterz.

MrHen

@HamandBacon Uh, did you just quote yourself from minutes earlier?

Ham and Bacon

Yeah.

so I don't repeat.

How are you, since I last met you here?

MrHen

Me? Tired. And off to find some breakfast :P

Ham and Bacon

@MrHen Weet-bix

Unreason

13:17

@Ham and Bacon Personal-value-dependent adaptation user of interface => Personal-value-dependent adaptation of user interface

Kit

@z7sg Wha--? Why are you dressed up like a blue @aedia?

z7sg

@Kit I went here: meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/37328/…

And something funny happened

Kit

That is AWESOME!

RegDwight

Kids these days.

z7sg

I am humbled before such genius.

Unreason

13:26

@z7sg, weren't you around for blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/03/reminder-its-april-1st ?

RegDwight

I was in the middle of typing that.

Stupid Ubuntu chat room keeps distracting me.

z7sg

No, I wasn't around... just started this year

Quickly tired of SO so now I'm here. How lucky you guys are.

Unreason

pure serendipity

z7sg

my unicorn looks slightly surprised/worried

at what i'm writing... keeps me in check

it's hard to write obscenities like this

Kit

Ok, stupid question: How do I get my unicorn to sub for my gravatar?

Unreason

13:30

@Kit, there should be full instructions in first link z7sg posted

Kit

@Unreason Nope, don't get it, but I'm sure I'll figure it out later. I have to get to a meeting right now. Tchuß. AFK.

RegDwight

14:29

Another complex question:

2

Q: What examples are there of a double positive conveying a negative meaning?

Generally, a double negative implies a positive. I'm not going nowhere (So I must be going somewhere) Although, in colloquial or illiterate circles it may not. We don't need no stinkin' badges. What examples are there of a double positive implying a negative?

What examples are there of cars going faster than 50000000 miles per second?

RegDwight

14:50

Ha, @Kosmonaut beats me to it with commenting, but not with closing.

Kosmonaut

Yay

aedia

15:09

@Kit make your unicorn then save the image and use it as your gravatar. I don't think there's an easier way.

@z7sg Poor little worried unicorn. You better not make any typos or your left eye looks like it will fall out from stress.

z7sg

im scared

@Kit nice unicorn!

RegDwight

Cool, now everyone can reverse-engineer your email addresses.

Robusto

0

Q: Are Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kinkaid Grade Level statistics meaningful?

I've been writing documentation (which will happen from time to time, even in the best-regulated households), and Word is calculating for me the Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level scores of my deathless prose. Are these values of any particular use? Is it worth my while rewriting...

writing-style

Better on Writers.SE?

RegDwight

I only know one Kinkaid, and her name is Austin.

Though Flesch doesn't seem totally inappropriate, either...

z7sg

@RegDwight i'd be impressed if someone could tell me my email address just by looking at the unicorn

RegDwight

15:22

I can! :P

z7sg

bah you cheated i'm sure!

a Communist trick

RegDwight

15:48

Yo dawg, we herd u liek to drive, so we put a car in ur car so u can drive while u drive...

spiegel.de/panorama/0,1518,768553-2,00.html

This reminds me: gotta commute. CU.

Kosmonaut

Kit

17:15

@Kosmonaut Pretty bunny, pretty bunny. Who's a nice little lagomorph? <nose wiggle> I want to stroke your pretty ears, happy bunny.

@RegDwight Is that actually a viscacha? If so, I will be very upset that you let me keep calling you a bunny.

RegDwight

17:59

@Kosmonaut Plagiarism!

yesterday, by RegDwight

Cerberus

Greetings!

Do you like etymology? Look no further!

etymologic.com/index.cgi

This etymological game is quite hard, at least for me.

aedia

@Kit I see your unicorn now! Yay. Quite the portrait shot there.

Cerberus

When you happen to know the alleged language of origin, it's usually easy to confirm or eliminate; otherwise it's a tough gamble.

Jez

loonicorn

Cerberus

I got 6/10 right.

aedia

18:01

Hi ~~monsters~~ I mean doggies!

Cerberus

end message

aedia

And Jez!

Cerberus

Hai!

@Reg: Attack battles have become incredibly tough now, don't you think? At least against good decks.

aedia

@Cerberus Waah, blocked at work.

Cerberus

Aww!

aedia

18:03

Which I should get back to anyway. This coffee won't drink itself.

Cerberus

That sucks...

Hehe.

OK... good luck on that overdue project!

Kit

@Cerberus 7/10

Cerberus

Nice!

I am proud.

Kit

@aedia I know, odd likeness to the real me. I may have to change it.

Cerberus

Now I'm going to try again...

Kit

18:05

Race you!

Cerberus

"Where did the word Buccaneer come from?"

C: From the Tupi mukem 'wooden frame', since the word originally meant 'someone who dried meat on a wooden frame over a fire'

That sounds so weird it must be true.

@Kit: I can't race... I need a lot of time to consider the questions! I don't look things up by the way.

etymologic.com/index.cgi

Kit

@Cerberus I don't look them up either. But I'm irritated now; first question was about the origin of "brass tacks," which is actually almost as contentious as the origin of "the whole nine yards."

Cerberus

Oh! Really? You seem to know more than the game...

I must say some of the Greek and Latin etymologies seem dubious as well...

Never have I seen "inch" in Latin, or any word like it.

Kit

I think Etymology game: Fail.

That's my pronouncement.

Cerberus

Ya, I got 8/10!

This game must be erudite.

Kit

18:14

@Cerberus Hmm.

Kosmonaut

@RegDwight I actually had that picture on my computer already, believe it or not!

Kit

18:31

@Kosmonaut So is it a viscacha or a rabbit?

Durn, just missed you.

Kosmonaut

18:45

@Kit Viscacha.

Kit

@Kosmonaut Damn it. Damn rodentia! Fie Not even a lagomorph! Now I'm ticked!

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…