English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

12:17 AM

Two scoops!

Robusto

What could be better?

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Fresh raisins.

I'm looking at you, Raisin Bran.

Robusto

Of course they're fresh raisins.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Total raisin bran is pretty tasty.

Robusto

aye

Robusto

12:40 AM

@tchrist; Portuguese? Essa música é mesmo bem lá do fundo do baú, tive que revirar tudo mas consegui encontrar, acho que pouquíssimas pessoas vão se lembrar dela mas podem curtir que é um som bem maneiro e gostoso de se ouvir. Saudações gente querida.

tchrist

Yes certainly.

Robusto

Thought so. Some of it felt like Italian, but the cedillas made me think Portuguese.

tchrist

It's almost Spanish, you know. :)

Robusto

I know.

Encontrar, etc.

I suppose I would know Italian if I saw it. Certainly French isn't like anything else.

skill patrol

Division by zero jokes never seem to get old for some people.

tchrist

12:50 AM

> Esa música está muy bien ahí desde el suelo de [somebody], tuve que mover(?) todo pero conseguí encontrar, creo que poquísimas personas van a acordarse de ella, pero pueden apreciar que es un sonido fresco e agradable de escuchar. Saludos gente querida.

I dunno, the damned mismatches on ser/estar between Spanish and Portuguese are really annoying.

I think it means that it sounds good, so estar works better there in Spanish. I think.

The 10 Greatest Myths of the Portuguese Language.

Of which maybe half are more like screwups than myths.

Robusto

Well, BUT if William is named for his UNCLE rather than his FATHER, then he is the second, not Junior. — michelle 3 mins ago

This woman has her head where the moon don't shine.

tchrist

Oh gosh, I thought you were talking about the Portuguese lady!!!

Robusto

That's not true at all. Nobody but direct descendants and royal successors get the numbered identifiers. — Robusto 57 secs ago

tchrist

That's correct.

Robusto

@tchrist No, I've moved on.

tchrist

12:54 AM

Well.

She has spunk.

Robusto

If you like spunk.

tchrist

Pois.

I wonder whether you can understand her at all.

Robusto

Who? The Portuguese one or the other one?

tchrist

The Portuguese lady.

I won't try to teach you; I'm just curious.

Robusto

Well, I look at it and it feels like I should understand it.

Give me a hint. Is bem P. for ven?

tchrist

12:57 AM

bien

I meant the link I posted.

5 mins ago, by tchrist

The 10 Greatest Myths of the Portuguese Language.

Robusto

She makes me want to say LOL. Where's Jasper when we really need him.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

LOL

Robusto

Her Portuguese sounds like someone mixed a Frenchman and a Spaniard and a Russian in a blender.

tchrist

That was some O'Reilly conference, and I'll be damned if I can figure it out. I may have to ask someone.

@Robusto YES!!!

That's what Portuguese sounds like. And she's reasonably easy to understand. There are much much worse. The main trick is figuring out which word she said, not what the word means.

Robusto

I can get snatches of it, but only just.

tchrist

1:01 AM

When you just let it wash over you, once you're over the weird Russian sounds, you can hear the language so very close to Spanish that's almost completely hidden underneath all that.

I'm trying to figure out whether she was too miked or whether she's that plosive.

Sometimes it sounded like fireworks going off.

Once you're used to the Slavic sounds and the various sorts of French-like elisions, it makes a lot more sense.

Robusto

@tchrist Those are called P-pops in the audio business. It's from being close-miked with no screen.

tchrist

Ahah. I thought it was an audio issue of some sort.

Robusto

Professional voice recording is done with a big mic like a Neumann or EV and they have a special, very fine screen between the mouth of the talent and the mic, so that the screen absorbs the plosions.

Mitch

@Robusto Wow. That is messed up. You'd only pick that up by noticing carefully. Other than that there doesn't seem to be any rhyming

Robusto

Pop filter

A pop filter or pop shield is an anti-pop noise protection filter for microphones, typically used in a recording studio. It serves to reduce or eliminate 'popping' sounds caused by the mechanical impact of fast moving air on the microphone during recorded speech and singing. It also keeps moisture off the microphone which can cause mold growth. It can also protect against the accumulation of saliva on the microphone element. Salts in human saliva are corrosive and thus use of a pop filter may prolong the life of the microphone. A typical pop filter is composed of one or more layers of acoustically...

> Popping sounds occur particularly in the pronunciation of aspirated plosives (such as the first 'p' in the English word "popping"). Pop filters are designed to attenuate the energy of the plosive, which otherwise might exceed the design input capacity of the microphone, leading to clipping. Pop filters do not appreciably affect hissing sounds or sibilance, for which de-essing is used.

When I was in advertising I had to produce a lot of audio for commercials, so I am quite familiar with that stuff.

@Mitch You might notice it at the break.

...
Of fear, rage red, manalive,
Molten and mountainous to stream
Over the wound asleep
Sheep white hollow farms

To Wales in my arms.
Hoo, there, in castle keep,
You king singsong owls, who moonbeam
The flickering runs and dive
...

Mitch

1:09 AM

@Robusto But still, that's a weird set of constraints mostly because its effect is totally intellectual, you just could not hear it beyond maybe those two middle lines.

Robusto

Well, take it up with Dylan Thomas. He liked to play games like that.

He wrote one poem as a trapezoid shape.

Mitch

I'm going to call him now and tell him what I really think.

AFK

Robusto

If you've never read Fern Hill, I highly recommend it.

Mitch

Is there a key? ( a pattern other than the line length)

Robusto

1:40 AM

@Mitch For Fern Hill? Each line of each stanza has the same meter as the others. No rhyme, though.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

1:56 AM

@Rob I need you to tell me about bike chains.

Please.

How are they different for differently-geared bikes? The links are longer?

We are scheming to make a Sigma Derby machine.

Cerberus

Greetings.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Houdoe!

Cerberus

2:24 AM

Hoi!

You sound so very Dutch!

Robusto

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 Links are all the same. Chains are longer or shorter, depending on the length needed.

Longer chain, more links.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

2:49 AM

@Robusto oh yeah?

Can a person just buy lengths of chain somewhere? Survey says no so far.

By sheer serendipitous happenstance, a local bike shop is having a swap meet this weekend. We're going to look at existing gear and chain systems and figure some things out.

So a 10-speed bike chain is longer than an 8-speed chain.

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