English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room - 2012-12-11 (page 1 of 3)

« first day (761 days earlier) ← previous day next day → last day (4144 days later) »

cornbread ninja

12:00 AM

Truth.

Grepping the OED does take measurable time, but grepping say Lord of the Rings does not.

cornbread ninja

It's the biggest file I have.

% ls -hl Books/Tolkien/J.R.R._Tolkien_-_The_Hobbit_and_The_Lord_of_the_Rings.txt oed/lib/2e
-rw-r--r--  2 tomchristiansen  staff   2.9M May  1  2012 Books/Tolkien/J.R.R._Tolkien_-_The_Hobbit_and_The_Lord_of_the_Rings.txt
-rw-r--r--  1 tomchristiansen  staff   546M Jul 21  2009 oed/lib/2e

How big is Alice?

cornbread ninja

logs back in

You can always run cat a a a a a a a a a a a a a a > b to make bigger ones.

cornbread ninja

12:03 AM

-rwxr-xr-x 1 kpanos students 159333 Dec 9 19:03 alice.txt*

Not sure why it's executable. :|

I must commute. BBL

Bye.

Muy pequeñito.

cornbread ninja

Bye!

howdy ln

2 hours later…

2:36 AM

1

A: Why isn't this word a verb?

The reason it's not a verb is as Robusto says. The reason you're confused is because you're using "Verb" in two senses. Robusto's answer deals with the correct use of the technical term "Verb", which is syntactic. You, on the other hand, appear to be using "Verb" to mean "Predicate", which i...

Who had the insufferable gall to downvote this answer?

1 hour later…

3:50 AM

@Robusto No idea. It’s not like they left any criticism behind, either.

1 hour later…

5:15 AM

@MετάEd Please don't add the '!' into NS posts now. He isn't around to roll it back and create a CW, and I don't think it's worth the edit war

@simchona A CW?

@MετάEd Community Wiki.

That's the original use of "!" in posts--to get him to edit war until it became a CW, since they were on his sockpuppets that weren't merged yet

Ah. I didn't know the connection between "!" and community wiki. I thought the point was just to bring these posts to the attention of editors.

@MετάEd Those questions you edited are already NS, so they don't need the '!'

6:03 AM

Time for me to mount the sleigh.

2 hours later…

8:19 AM

@tchrist Haha, now they downvoted me. No good deed goes unpunished ...

Matt Эллен

9:00 AM

gouraud morning

1 hour later…

10:22 AM

@Robusto wow, that's formatting to the max. Bold and italics and monospaced and in quotes. John has outlawlered himself.

user19161

11:00 AM

@MετάEd You noticed the sleigh!

user19161

@Robusto Not me, I don't waste 1 point to downvote an answer, I am stingy like that.

user19161

@RegDwighт I find this overformatting particularly common among Indian SE users, I wonder why...

user19161

@MattЭллен Boo! Are you having lunch now?

user19161

@Mahnax I think your avatar looks terrible, but it's OK if you like it.

Jasper is on a ping streak.

Matt Эллен

11:04 AM

@JasperLoy hello! No, it's only 11. I'm still waiting...

user19161

@RegDwighт I am also on a capping streak on Math. As you can see, my rep there is rising rapidly...

Oh wow. Indeed.

Matt Эллен

rapidly rising reps reveals recent retirement rescinding

Regularly.

user19161

@MattЭллен rescind

11:07 AM

No, Matt, please do not rescind.

user19161

How is ELL? Is it coming to fruition?

Matt Эллен

Will Jasper become a legend on Math.SE?

user19161

Nah, I intend to retire there when I attain 10k.

Matt Эллен

@JasperLoy we were at 144 committers yesterday

user19161

@MattЭллен That is the square of 12.

Matt Эллен

11:10 AM

indeed. a very divisible number

We are actually at 72% 101% 100%.

So now we just need 56 random people off the street.

user19161

Anyway, it would be very interesting to see what happens to both ELL and ELU when we have both.

I know what will happen. You will get to 10k on ELL and then retire. And then you will get to 20k on ELL and retire. And then...

Matt Эллен

SE will collapse in on itself, and the internet will cease to use English

user19161

Perhaps ELL will become the new ELU, and there will be no more of the current ELU.

11:11 AM

@MattЭллен Way to spoil the plot.

Matt Эллен

I thought everyone had read the movie by now!

ELL is scheduled to go live on December 21st. No further hints will be given.

user19161

@RegDwighт Wow, you belong to the Secret Service!

Not everyone can belong to the Not-So-Secret Service you are part of.

user19161

It will be a very merry Christmas to have both ELL and ELU.

11:16 AM

Hi

Everyone.

Matt Эллен

Hello

Noah

Hi, @MattЭллен

How are you?

Matt Эллен

pretty good. How are you?

Just fine.

Matt Эллен

Jolly good.

11:18 AM

What are you upto?

Matt Эллен

day dreaming at work. Yourself?

Day dreaming at home.

Where is @RegDwighт?

Not here.

Is he still in communism?

I didnt expect you to be here.

Can we change our habits?

I mean is it possible to change your natural habits and still be happy?

Matt Эллен

yes

if you want to change your habit, then by changing it doesn't that make you happy?

11:22 AM

Then why they say always be yourself.

Matt Эллен

Hollywood is full of jerks?

I think I read this in a book.

It might be.

Matt Эллен

"be yourself" really means "be confident that people will like you"

Okay. So it doesnt mean you shouldnt change your bad habits and turn them into good ones?

Matt Эллен

Exactly. If there are things you don't like about yourself, you should probably try to change them

11:26 AM

Okay, what if changing those things causes distress?

Matt Эллен

Like how?

Like being picky.

Some people dont like it.

Matt Эллен

A person changes themself and that has the side effect of making them picky?

Or someone is picky and they should change?

The second one.

Someone is picky adn they should change.

Matt Эллен

Well, it's up to them. They have to decide what is more important: people not thinking they are picky or them being able to be picky.

11:30 AM

Hi, can someone please give an example of the usage for back and forth ? Say A is the place where I start, go to B and then come back to A; and do this again and again, how do I use the idiom back and forth ?

Matt Эллен

if it's really important to them that people don't think they're picky then they should change

No they are picky but they want to change that habit of being picky.

Matt Эллен

@Sudhi e.g. I have been going back and forth between A and B all day

Into not being picky.

Matt Эллен

@Noah OK, so they should change.

11:31 AM

@MattЭллен between? I thought one is supposed to use to and from [ at least in the examples that I saw online ]

Matt Эллен

@Sudhi to and from wouldn't fit in my example

@MattЭллен Okay.

Matt Эллен

@Noah As Captain Dylan Hunt says "Nothing worth having is ever easy"

@MattЭллен okay, that makes it simpler and easy to use. Err, just to confirm, it's always back and forth and not forth and back , right?

@MattЭллен Which means? Sorry, I mean if you could elaborate on it a little bit.

Matt Эллен

11:36 AM

@Sudhi the idiom is back and forth, yes. forth and back is not impossible, but is probably used in poetry and other stylised text, not normal English.

@Noah changing a habit is difficult.

Thank God for Politics.SE. Now we can finally deal with such pressing questions as "Was Hitler's regime a right-wing regime?"

@MattЭллен thanks!

@MattЭллен Umm, I see.

Matt Эллен

@Sudhi no trouble :)

@Noah otherwise it wouldn't be a habit.

@RegDwighт Or why is Reg a member of communism:)

11:38 AM

I <3 SE sites :) Have a great time ye' all!

@MattЭллен Okay.

@Noah That question hasn't been asked just yet. I suppose they are saving it up for the public beta.

@RegDwighт Some one might be sleeping on it right now. So who knows? it might be in the process of getting there in time.

Matt Эллен

@RegDwighт And things as constructive as "Why are democrats such big commies?"

@MattЭллен I don't think they mingle very well.

Matt Эллен

11:49 AM

APists — people who worship the news

I thought apists worshipped bees.

Matt Эллен

:D

Apists ape bees.

Matt Эллен

the notorious monkey bees.

Which reminds me. I still can't log in and write a blog article.

Matt Эллен

11:53 AM

:(

I don't know why you're different WRT google login

It's a conspiracy.

@Robusto I dont know who they are/

Matt Эллен

Seems likely. What's the aim of the conspiracy?

Why, to conspire, of course.

Matt Эллен

ah! the worst kind of conspiracy.

11:56 AM

And the aim of a democracy is to demote.

Burn, stupid stove, burn!

You actually want the fuel to burn, not the stove.

Matt Эллен

feeling cold this morning, @KitFox?

@Robusto demote wall street.

@MattЭллен The stove went out last night.

Matt Эллен

11:57 AM

brrrrrrrrrrr

@MattЭллен What the hell, do you think she is sitting on a stove.

It's about fifty degrees in here.

If it's 50 degrees Celsius, that's pretty hot.

That like -90 celsius

Matt Эллен

@Noah yes. obviously Kit is sat on a stove.

11:57 AM

I am sitting on the stove.

@MattЭллен LOL

Matt Эллен

:D

But it is cold, so that's not helping.

@KitFox Go to the sun.

That's too far away to help.

11:59 AM

@KitFox I could carry you there. All you have to do is come on board.

I can't leave my boys until Gramma gets here.

Ah HA. Now it's started up.

Matt Эллен

it must've been above 12C when I got up this morning (that's what my thermostat is set at). I guess being on the 2nd (AmE 3rd) floor gives me insulation, because it was very frosty outside.

kicks stove

I lived in a top floor apartment once where I had no control over the heat. It was regularly 90 degrees.

Matt Эллен

woohoo! you'll be warm soon

@MattЭллен Why dont you guys move to a warm place.

Matt Эллен

12:01 PM

@Noah I like it here, apart from the cold

You could come work over here, though. We have cold too!

And we're sort of like England, only New.

Matt Эллен

lol

So I had two good nights of sleep finally, but I've been feeling like crap during the day still.

@MattЭллен Okay. I wanna go to Mars. I dont like it here— on earth.

@Noah You know it's a lot colder on Mars, right?

It just looks warm on account of all the rust.

12:04 PM

@KitFox No, I dont. But I just wanna go there. Far away from humans.

You can go far away from humans and be warm on Earth. It's more practical anyway.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox I didn't know you've not been sleeping. That sucks. Do you know what's causing it?

@MattЭллен I think I have some kind of illness. I've been feeling under the weather, but not anything I can really put my finger on.

Matt Эллен

@Noah you could live in a rain forest. that's warm (a bit wet) and until the loggers come there will be no humans for miles if you pick a good spot.

It might be caffeine withdrawal. I'm not sure.

Matt Эллен

12:06 PM

Have you cut out caffeine? That's a mighty big habit to break!

Not really intentionally, but I stopped drinking soda everyday.

Matt Эллен

ah

And I ran out of caffeinated coffee pods.

I only have decaf left.

@MattЭллен That's a possibility.

@MattЭллен And now I sort of feel like since I started, maybe I should just do it.

Matt Эллен

12:09 PM

@KitFox sounds like a plan. but I guess your adrenaline levels will plummet for a bit?

Then there's more room for pulled pork sandwiches.

Matt Эллен

yay!

@MattЭллен I'm not sure. I can't tell why I feel crappy.

My husband thinks it's just a virus.

But then. Pulled pork.

Matt Эллен

Could be. I hope you're feeling better soon.

Of course it could be that you're using a lot of energy staying warm over night, which tires you out more than sleeping energises you

Me too. I want to get back to revising the book. All I'm doing when I feel cruddy is w-rk.

@MattЭллен Haha. Except that I have that goose-down duvet to keep me cozy.

Matt Эллен

12:11 PM

ah :D I still feel cold with my decent tog duvet, though

11 tog I think

something like that

Oooh.

i really hate it when you don't know whether a women isn't responding to you because she's busy, or not interested

so many times I've regretted not being a mind reader

I wonder what goose down rates. It's effing hot.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox mmmmm. sounds good!

goose down. that'll get scratchy as the feathers come through the lining.

12:14 PM

Mine hasn't.

> Down clusters in the duvet create a fluffy air trap that keeps you warm inside the duvet, although your bedroom temperature may be cold.

Matt Эллен

I've avoided feather duvets and pillows since I was little because of allergies

anyway, i want technology that gives me a cool pillow

Mine must be in the 13.5 range. I guess they come lighter as well.

that needs to be invented

Matt Эллен

aye!

12:15 PM

@MattЭллен Awww. That's too bad. There's nothing snugger.

and not something that will melt, something that will last

@KitFox regular synthetic duvets are fine.

I thought they had cooling pillows.

if anything, i find even them too hot

so it's the company's christmas lunch today

Matt Эллен

ours is tomorrow!

my social anxiety is making me nervous about the whole thing

i HATE secret santa. so dumb. i didnt take part in that so i'll probably look like an idiot there

Matt Эллен

12:17 PM

hmmm. we don't have that here

we did it at the last place I worked. it was frustrating because I didn't really know the people

lucky. you haven't yet had a bright spark who thought it would "be a bit of fun"

How many words do we utter per day?

and frankly i dont talk much to ppl in the office. the food looks nice but the company...............

@Noah maybe.... 5000 an hour?

massively depends on what you're doing

if you're working on programming, 0.

except maybe "fucking thing, god damn it"

If environmentalists find out about this, we can be in a lot of troubles.

"Don't hit your brother with that."

Matt Эллен

12:20 PM

@Noah that's not really quantifiable. and average would be pretty meaningless, I think. I mean, some people say nothing for days, but others are paid to talk, so it really depends

or if you're Bill O'Reilly, "FUCKIN THING! SUCKS!!"

g2g bai!

Matt Эллен

CU

Stack Overflow is so helpful! two questions in one day! I didn't even have to ask them.

12:40 PM

@Jez Nah, if you're Bill O'Reilly you say "Christianity is a philosophy, not a religion."

1:16 PM

@JasperLoy Lovely.

@Robusto Then what is a religion?

> Belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe.

Matt Эллен

is it a religion if only one person believes?

Sure, why not?

Matt Эллен

Religion implies a group activity to me, that's all

1:20 PM

@Robusto he's just playing the clown, as is Silverman

Well, it is a social formation after all.

it's quite obviously just a performance now

@Robusto There you go.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

1:45 PM

user image

Matt Эллен

lol

that donkey wants a taste too!

Well, that's not my child. So clearly b).

That's my thought.

Matt Эллен

improve the gene pool in your favour!

See, I've infected you.

Matt Эллен

1:47 PM

:D

oh wait. you mean infected me with a virus that will make me infertile?

oh dear

Now if I can just revise the effing thing, it will be a masterwork of influential...something or other.

I'll be the next Ayn Rand.

Only with shorter novels.

user image

I still want to know what the right SE site is where that sort of thing is the right answer.

Linguistics? Depends on the question I guess.

I bet all of Cross Validated, ELU, Linguistics, and SO proper would chase it off.

Matt Эллен

we've had word tree answers before. Yours should be OK here.

We are offline!

1:53 PM

We’ll see. I had expected the question to be closed as Off Topic before I could finish typing.

We are?

Matt Эллен

apparently

It was being really slow, but is it down?

Matt Эллен

that's what the page told me

Just crawlingly slow.

Yep. Offline for maintenance.

Did you do the exercise, @Matt?

1:54 PM

I missed the memo.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox I don't think so. What was the exercise?

I do not get offline.

I get correct access. But glacially slow.

in The Overlook Hotel, Dec 4 at 18:15, by KitFox

For the December 11 chat, we'll talk about the story Monkey on my Back. The writing exercise is three paragraphs. In the first, describe an object. In the second, describe a person. In the third, describe the interaction between the person and the object.

You can skip the reading part.

Norton:

0

Q: Clean The Place All Up

What to do with 'all': He cleaned the place all up. He cleaned all the place up. He cleaned the place up all. Where should 'all' be put?

I posted here because the flag gives me errors.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox OK. I probably won't manage that today. I'll have to submit something tomorrow.

1:56 PM

@tchrist Because the site is offline.

@MattЭллен But...you'll come to chat right?

I get no indication that it is offline, though.

Can you see the link above, to get at later? I have to shower and commute.

http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/93995/clean-the-place-all-up

Matt Эллен

@KitFox for a bit, but I've got to get home, then there's band practice later (1st in over a month)

@tchrist Yeah, I'll get it later. Thanks.

You’re welcome.

@MattЭллен gasp!

1:58 PM

@KitFox I’ll try to remember to flag it from The Other Side if it is still there once I get there in a couple hours.

Matt Эллен

@KitFox I know! The drummer was writing a book or something.

Those drummers.

Regex Challenge, Week 15: match musical chord names

Matt Эллен

@KitFox getting airs above his station

@RegDwighт Wow. Ouch.

« first day (761 days earlier) ← previous day next day → last day (4144 days later) »

Transcript for

Dec '1211

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…

Not for the faint of heart or those easily triggered by Englis...

phrase-requests pronunciation single-word-requests synonyms

join this room
about this room

00:00

06:00

12:00

18:00

all times are UTC

site design / logo © 2024 Stack Exchange Inc; legal

mobile