All equally lovely!

Speaking of unicorns reminds me of an ex-boyfriend of mine... He was an incredibly smart astrophysicist, but wouldn't believe me what narwhals existed. Wouldn't even google it, that's how convinced he was that I was describing a make-believe animal.

@rumtscho Not really strange... avalanche effect.

@aedia Actually, now that I read that they are taking a hash of the complete string, it makes sense.

Yep.

But because they said "e-mail", I expected them to evaluate the part before the domain or something.

Still, funny to get the same color unicorn out of 65 mio possible colors.

@brachomonacho I've had fights over things that silly. Sometimes I just refuse to allow a preconceived notion to be challenged. Funny I manage to learn anything, actually.

@rumtscho Ah, didn't even think of that. I'm pretty sure it's just the whole string, yeah.

@brachomonacho That is extremely annoying and cute.

So are you a girl?

This so confusing... everyone with pink unicorns is male, but those ending on -o are female.

@Cerberus Either that, or a homosexual who somehow managed to date a homophobe.

Hmm... the homophobic is new information, so I'll go with that.

@Cerberus ?

@brachomonacho so your ex-bf 1) is too self-centered to believe he can be wrong, 2) a homophobe. What's next on the list?

I don't think you mentioned his being homophobic before, so I interpreted that as true, new information? I am confused...

@Cerberus Everyone? I am one of those things.

@aedia I might even doubt you, if this goes on long enough...

@Cerberus Oh I see.... (I'm a bit slow, this time of the morning).

Combine that with my permanent slowness, and...

Theory: could homophobia be related to a disbelief in Narwhals?

Things get really weird over the course of a home commute...

@Cerberus Sure. "Everything outside of my experience is either 1. bad or 2. non-existant".

Sounds plausible.

@Cerberus I can provide anecdotal evidence, in that my fiancé is definitely not homophobic, and believes in narwhals.

@GraceNote Do you work very close to home, or did I lose more time on the Internet than I intended to?

@rumtscho 17:35 is departure from room, 18:22 is right now.

I see. 12:22 AM right now :(

If that's considered "very close", you have my sympathies for your daily journey.

@Cerberus Peeks in underwear My property sheet reads sex=female, gender=androgynous/feminine, sexual identity=queer, status=married/unintentionally passing for straight.

@brachomonacho See? That proves it!

@aedia What compendia are you keeping down there?

@aedia Did you embroider this on your underwear?

Impressive.

Or an internet-connected phone?

@aedia Ooh, you've got a beard?

Oh, wait, unintentionally passing for straight. That's an interesting situation to be in.

@rumtscho People keep being confused. Oh, here, on the tag, it also says preferred pronoun=she.

A she-unicorn. Got it.

@brachomonacho But I wonder how homophibics could end up in homosexual affairs.

@Cerberus According to my fellow jurors, these days the youth really loves to experiment with that stuff secretly.

@Cerberus Never doubt the power of self-hatred and denial?

@aedia Well, that's at least one person clear!

@GraceNote My husband has.

@aedia I didn't mean the literal, "hair on face" beard.

I'd expect the stuff to remain casual or noncommital... but apparently not.

@Cerberus Cerberus I have read several works of fiction where being homophobic and homosexual at the same time created the needed internal conflict in the hero to explain his hate of the world. Don't know how common it is in real world, though.

But I don't really think your husband counts as a beard if you are unintentionally in this kind of relationship. I'd ask but that's getting way too nosy.

@GraceNote Oh, I didn't mean I am unintentionally married. I mean, I do not intend to pass, but it is inevitable.

@rumtscho I suppose it is possible, and I believe it; but those cases in which someone gets involved in a steady relationship with the same sex while talking down other homosexuals for their preferences would probably not be many? Or would they?

("Beard "is a term used to describe, among other things, a partner of the opposite physical sex who is used to purport an illusion of heterosexual relationship)

Really! Interesting.

It originates from homosexual males who have fake girlfriends to appear "manly". Much like a beard can be thought of as a symbol of manliness.

@GraceNote I didn't know that!

Me neither!

@JasperLoy My underwear is scared of people and will not show itself in public. But my unshaven-though-pathetically-unevenly-covered chin says male.

@GraceNote Ah, makes sense!

@Cerberus I have no idea about the frequency. If it is possible at all to measure it (the stereotype includes that they are in denial too).

@rumtscho Right. The denial part is what would lead me to expect that they wouldn't commit themselves too much emotionally; but I believe it happens. It is just rather odd.

Oh? Do most people confess their sexuality in high school, in Singapore?

I had no idea it was so easy there.

Good!

I'm thinking of what high school was like... and it's hard to tell, really.

Oop

@JasperLoy If I liked girls, all the more for me. If I liked guys, same.

@JasperLoy Oh, no! She couldn't even finish the s!

Is "oops!" the noise that people make when disappearing from the internet? (Like how Nightcrawler goes "Bamf!" when teleporting to/from the brimstone planet of our parallel universe?)

@JasperLoy I find the "oops" option nicer.

@JasperLoy I may be... but I think many people are to be found rather far from the centre?

@Cerberus Both is nice too. I didn't know I liked both at first. I didn't know it was an option.

@aedia You were with AT&T or something?

@JasperLoy That makes sense... I don't consider myself remotely bisexual, but I do find girls much more attractive (nice to look at) than guys. Especially Simone Simons.

But, yeah, both would seem the best thing. Huge choice...

@Cerberus Haha, yes, first, I tried to fit into one plan, then another...

@JasperLoy Shhh..... You'll get us in trouble with Jeff.

@brachomonacho More attractive? Then what are guys? Besides, she does have a sturdy jaw...

@Cerberus I just mean that I find more girls to be eye-candy than guys.

@Cerberus Wasn't there some well-known person who quipped "I couldn't imagine being bi, getting rejected by both men and women will kill me"? Maybe George Bernard Shaw.

@aedia ...if you want the safest plan, pick males, since they should be paying your drinks and meals...

@brachomonacho I suppose girls are often more polished...

@Cerberus People don't go Dutch there? :)

@JasperLoy You should see her sing, though... youtube.com/watch?v=iyDhK7B7MrU

Shaw, really? I didn't know such quips were publicly discussed at that time...

@aedia I'm not sure, I think some do, some don't.

@Cerberus I'm not sure it was him.

@JasperLoy I meant should probabilistically, not deontologically.

On the other hand, olden times aren't always as conservative as they are often presented.

Think of dear old Marlene Dietrich, for example.

My grandmother had a gay best friend in high school, before the war.

@JasperLoy True. But sexual attraction...

Her friend asked her, "what do you think; some say it is a disease?", but she replied, "poppycock!".

@JasperLoy That's the way I see it too... I wouldn't want to have sex with a woman, nor would I pursue a relationship with one, unless she was very tomboy-ish or guy-like in attitude. (I suck at being able to talk to other women; guys are just so much simpler, and more fun to converse with, usually. Well, at least for me.)

Other women?

Boys and girls can both be good talkers for me, but, yeah, they often have rather different styles.

You want to be like Bieber? I don't believe it.

Haha.

I see.

@rumtscho Or computer science heroes like Alan Turing and Lynn Conway.

Actually I barely know what Bieber looks like.

@aedia I thought they weren't in the open.

I find it funny that Russian often translitterates foreign words, even before they have become very current.

Like ermitazj or that praiming.

If I were Russian, I'd just use Latin letter at first. Just as we use accents with French words until they have become utterly worn out and common.

@Cerberus I'm really awkward around females I don't know, like women I meet at work, or friends of friends... I'm constantly terrified that I'll blurt something rude or disgusting, and they'll despise me forever. (Most of my friends are guys, and we talk about really gross things, and make off-colour jokes all the time.)

Эс как доллар…

@JasperLoy It isn't important indeed. Though almost everyone here is always married (except me).

@rumtscho I suppose that's a good point. I just meant, it's not as if important gay and transgender people didn't exist, despite hardships in the past.

@brachomonacho Hah, but many women have no problem with that, I think, and many men do...

@Cerberus I dunno, the current trend is exactly the opposite, and it grates on the eyes.

Oh, and why I mentioned "other women": other than who?

It started with company names (why the hell are people afraid of their company being called Филипс?) but now it spreads into other domains.

@JasperLoy Interestingly, my fiance's theory about Beiber fever is that adolescent and pre-teen females favour guys who are very effeminate, and look like girls.

@JasperLoy Yes, you could. But would it be fun?

@aedia Oh, sure they did exist. I think @Cerberus 's point was that at the time of GBS, nobody would have discussed sexual orientation openly.

@Cerberus Bracho is a girl! Maybe.

Es kak dollar?

С like the Russian С, E, Р like Я backwards, Б like a stick with a rightwards belly, E again, Р like Я backwards again, У like the Russian И, С like the dollar sign. Which means just “Cerberus.”

@rumtscho Yeah. I see now but I was having a hard time keeping up with this conversation!

Oh, so company names used to be written in Cyrillic more than now?

That's how well-versed Russians in general are in the Latin alphabet

@Cerberus Maybe it's different in Australia... I find women to be way more prudish than men.

@aedia Correct

@aedia Yes, it gets too philosophical for my 1 AM self too.

МакДоналдс is still written in Cyrilics. But others are not so bold.

Those idiots are afraid of Russian declensions.

Haha, that looks so silly.

But it is good to finally see your prescriptivist spirit awaken.

@Cerberus Um... Other than me. (I didn't really think that one through.)

They don't want people to drink Coca-Colu or go shopping for Coca-Coloy. They want it to always be Coca-Cola, come hell or high water.

The Greeks do the same.

That's not prescriptivism.

Strangely, this is one prescriptivist v. laisser-faire question on which I am undecided.

It's the opposite.

It is!

You don't like the new names, you would like them to be other than they are.

No. No native speaker would ever say "пей кока-кола!"

Pey?

Drink?

Related to Latin bibo?