[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Link at end of answer, username similar to website in answer (119): Can one correctly hyperbolize the "take with a grain of salt" idiom? by CertPro on english.SE

@Mitch I don't think that is a fair chart. Iran is marked blue?

runs away in shock

I wonder why they always picture Christmas with snow, the reality is different.

That, my friend, is Christmas.

runs away from Krampus

@Gigili Duolingo is not available in Farsi, so it doesn't have an English course for Farsi speakers.

If only something like Duo had been around when I was a kid.

I used to dream of calculator-looking electronic dictionaries... "Imagine punching in words and getting definitions! That'd be so awesome!". Pfft. Happy Christmas to everyone, by the way.

@Gigili The data is probably very accurate for what it measures which I think is use of Duolingo, one app out of many. It doesn't count the usual language teaching method, classes at school or tutors or ability or past speakers, just users who have signed on to any one of Duolingo's many language offerings. Or at least, that's what I think the article is reporting on.

@Færd Kids have it so easy nowadays.

@Gigili I think it's just false expectations from the existence of the popular song "White Christmas".

The reality is that it starts snowing in October in Moscow

Also, on that map, I can see your house from here.

...shrinking over time.

@Mitch But we had more snow to play with. Or you had whiter Christmases.

It has been an honor and pleasure working with you and I hope for more opportunities and work from you. I'd like to pay my gratitude and wish you the best for the upcoming years of success.

o.o

Do the above lines make good sense?

@YOU "I hope for . . . work from you"?

Crap, dinner

BBL

I am writing this for my boss

How that sound?

@YOU "And I look forward to working with you again" Commonly said to business associates and clients, I dunno how well it works with bosses

@Gigili yes I do it all the time actually. And no of course it's not unnoticeable, that's the whole point. If it were unnoticeable there'd be no point in doing it.

Spam will continue to exist for exactly as long as people read it.

@CowperKettle yeah I know that one of course.

Maybe I was involved in creating it. Alas, who knows of such things.

Also, Merry belated Christmas, everyone.

(Well everyone except the actual Christians who still observe the actual calendar.)

For some reason, this year on December 22nd the Holy Ghost decided to cut my entire street off the Internet for five days.

Only coming back on now. Glad to see I've not been missed.

Wow

Here in Yekaterinburg, I don't remember being cut off the Internet for more than maybe one day.

And even then it was possible to hook up to mobile Internet via a USB dongle and a mobile phone provider

Now it's even easier, I have two smartphones connected to two different mobile providers, and both smartphones can operate as WiFi access points

@RegDwigнt Five days? Oi.

I'm still recovering from the nation-wide internet loss for a whole week last month

Ah, yes, how terrible.

Khamenei was not amused.

@Cerberus tell me about it, sis.

Twas nice tho. Watched a lot of movies again.

I'm accidentally watching The Nanny.

Spent one full day with the godchildren, then two full days with the bro.

That is good, I suppose.

@Cerberus as you know, though don't remember, I've accidentally watched every single The Nanny episode several times.

I suppose Christmas could be the worst or the best period of time to be cut off the Internet.

Oh but now you're getting me ideas. I could've watched TV this whole time!

@RegDwigнt So have I. It was the only thing that was ever on public television, for years.

See, that's how much TV has disappeared from my life. It wasn't even an option. In the five days I didn't even remember once that I had it.

Good.

I don't remember having it either, because I don't have it.

@CowperKettle oh I could have done that. Just use the Internet on my mobile. But I'm lazy. And also a cheapskate.

My mobile phone contract ist like 22 years old by now. Things like "Internet" or "flat rate" were not even words back then.

So I can still make phone calls, and send like ten texts a months for free, but other than that, I'd have to buy an Internet package. Which is like 1 Euro a day. Fuck that. I could buy a cheap oboe off Amazon for that kind of money.

Most importantly, as I only half-joked earlier, you go missing for five days, and you come back up, nobody's even noticed you were gone.

So yeah. Just dust off an old hard drive and watch all the movies that you've been hoping to watch all these years and never did.

Or play one of them 300+ videogames that you've all bought for money, but never actually played even just once.

Or, you know, just drink with friends and family for three days straight. Make your own entertainment.

@Cerberus I'm so sorry.

Or just rehearse the Messiah. It's quite long. You could do that for five years and still not be done.

@Mitch no you are not.

@RegDwigнt Listening to the Messiah takes that long

First thing Mitch comes to this chat, he's instantly lying.

@RegDwigнt No pointing out lies in chat.

@RegDwigнt I'm just being honest about my lying.

@RegDwigнt ...because it was Christmas.

I think this shall be enough Internet for me for today. I'll just go watch YouTube now.

@Mitch I'm so happy you understand.

@RegDwigнt Will you download those from Steam or the Epic (...) Store?

@RegDwigнt There's never enough Internet

The next James Bond thriller

You could come to my town to listen to the Messiah for only two hours on January 4th.

@RegDwigнt I'm already yawning.

We've cut out four years of nonsense, got it down to only two hours.

@Mitch oh but there'll be free champagne.

If I wanted a two hour nap in an uncomfortable chair I'd have a nap in my own comfortable bed and then just tell you it was uncomfortable.

@Cerberus as we established, Steam won't even fucking work for me. And we established that five years ago. That's the length of one full Messiah.

I'm known for lying like that.

also laying.

@RegDwigнt Are you going to youtube it and mark the parts with your solos? Otherwise, I can add some seltzer to some white grape juice, let it sit out for a week, then pour it fown the sink and watch Billy on the Street.

@RegDwigнt Holy shit, is that the one where he dies at the end?

God what a downer.

@Mitch it's a concert not an episode of The Nanny. It won't be televised for you to lay in your armchair pouring whiskey over your naked body. You have to put on a tie and a suit and a pair of pants and physically show up to drink the free champagne.

@RegDwigнt Pants? Are you mad?

As Donald Rumsfeld once said, "that's old Europe".

And that in turn was so long ago, nobody even knows who the fuck Donald Rumsfeld was.

Anyway, nighty-night. I got to get up real early tomorrow.

And I still haven't even watched half of YouTube.

@RegDwigнt You keep repeating that name like it's somebody you didn't just make up.

@RegDwigнt Wait... you were gone?

Hold on, I'm working on some more soft ball insults. Like "Hey, you're dumb" or "Watch out, your socks are untied"

@Cerberus I'm sure there's worse.

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Few unique characters in answer, no whitespace in answer, repeating characters in answer (263): Having trouble with "and therefore". Is it a conjunction? by pppp on english.SE