English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

Mahnax

02:00

@KitFox Not too much. I know that Emily wrote Wuthering Heights, and that Jane Eyre was written with the pseudonym "Currer Bell".

The other sister wrote some poetry, I think.

KitFox

You might read a little on Wiki. There were four of them, one brother, and they used to make up stories together as children.

They were a very close family.

Mahnax

Aww.

Cute kids.

KitFox

Charlotte, Emily, Anne, and ... I can never remember the brother's name. There was something that happened to him though.

I can't remember.

Branwell.

Mahnax

Branwell.

Jinx.

Odd name, Branwell.

KitFox

Oh, that's right. Branwell, Emily, and Anne all died of tuberculosis within a few months of each other.

Mahnax

02:05

Oh my.

KitFox

Charlotte lived another several years.

She was pretty grief-stricken, as you might imagine.

Mitch

really...Jane Eyre is ... respectable as literature?

Mahnax

@Mitch There's the door, friend.

cracks knuckles

Mitch

Ha ha. ouch that door is hard

KitFox

Classic Victorian drama at its best.

Mitch

02:07

but..

isn't it ...

KitFox

raises eyebrow

Mahnax

Isn't it what, Mitch?

Mitch

pretty much what Northanger Abbey was making fun of, 20 years before?

(er...Jane Austen, one of her lesser novels, about a teenage girl who gets...caught up in worying about some dude she likes is maybe in some gothic romance...or something.

ya know, kinda like Twilight but with out all the magic.

KitFox

Kinda like Twilight except well-written.

And interesting.

And good.

Mitch

that is she was thinking, the girl in the novel, that the dude was some sort of Twilight character

I can't judge cause I only saw the movie.

KitFox

02:11

No. No. I can't even...Just no.

Mitch

so is the attraction the soap opera plot or is it the complex social situation or is it the writing? (but the writing has to be about setting up the psychology right?)

Mahnax

@Mitch …no.

Mitch

Jane Eyre is the one with Rochester right?

KitFox

Well, it depends on how much you think Dickens has soap opera plots.

@Mitch Yes.

Mitch

what are my choices? If I think yes soap opera plots for Dickens, then also for Bronte(s)?

KitFox

02:13

Yes, and you also display a lack of context.

Mitch

Rochester just seems like a jerk.

KitFox

He's properly reserved.

And anyway, who cares? It's about Jane's shocking personality.

Mitch

@KitFox I think I'm displaying quite little context no mattter what given that I'm not writing an essay.

Yeah she seems to be... anyway not making good choices.

also I'm mixing up with Wuthering heights where also, Heathcliff is a total jerk and the woman is also making bad choices.

Also, Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary, bad choices. They should have picked up a hobby like gardening or bees or ...

what's so shocking about Jane's personality?

Mahnax

@Mitch "I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh: it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal — as we are!"

(To a man!)

Mitch

@Mahnax I'm not convinced. You don't need to send me your essay though. just something that'll convince me that it's more than just a soap opera.

Mahnax

02:17

@Mitch Essay?

Mitch

@Mahnax people don't talk like that.

Mahnax

@Mitch checks publication date

Mitch

20 mins ago, by Mahnax

I chose it over Oedipus for this presentation.

Mahnax

1847, I'll be!

Essay ≠ presentation.

Mitch

OK. you're producing something for others to be judged by your teacher for a grade.

Mahnax

02:19

I have to go ramble on in front of my classmates and teacher for a quarter of an hour.

Mitch

interpretive dance... diorama... whatever

@Mahnax that's substantive...

Mahnax

@Mitch I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not, unfortunately.

Mitch

@Mahnax ah... even longer after Austen than I thought.

@Mahnax I have a very superficial knowledge of the Bronte's, and my superficial opinion was how I presented it above, but I am definitely interested in having my opinion reassessed with reasonable evidence.

Mahnax

@Mitch Unfortunately, I don't have time to provide any such evidence at present, as I'm trying to get this done, but maybe some other time?

I should go and get to work anyways.

Bye!

Mitch

@Mahnax no pressure. when's the presentation going to be given?

sorry, scared him away with seriousness.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

02:25

throws candy, kisses

Mitch

Also, if it helps you dismiss me as a philistine, I think for the most part that poetry is a load of pretentious twaddle, if by twaddle I mean horse shit.

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 ow... that hit me in the eye.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

kisses eye

they caught sonofabitch #2, and doctors neither killed nor paralyzed my mother today.

Mitch

sulks in corner. embarrassed to acknowledge kindness

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 yay!

Mitch

forget the bastard #2...so is your mom OK?

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

02:27

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 indeed. She had two discs removed and vertebrae fused.

Journeyman Geek

@Mitch: I could beat you with a sausage if it makes you feel better?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 wow. that sounds fun. And by fun I mean not fun.

Mitch

oh...as serious as that sounds...I'm pretty sure it is routine.(if that helps with your fears retroactively)

@JourneymanGeek no. no thanks. I'm OK without that.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

hopefully she'll feel better afterwards though. Was she injured, or was this a degenerative thing?

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@Mitch yeah, but like, spine stuff.

Mitch

02:28

if you -cooked-, added mustard, and put it on a bun, that would be OK.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

She's already had two lower back surgeries. :S

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 degenerative, with arthritis.

Her hands are numb all the time, and she walked all wobbly and ran into walls and furniture. :(

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 wow, that sucks.

Mitch

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 yes, kind of dicey, and sounds worrisome, but it is the 21st century and they have fancy tools and stuff.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 my dad has diabetic neuropathy and his hands are numb a lot of the time. his feet too.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 and some sort of genetic narrowing-of-the-spine that I sincerely hope I do not have.

Mitch

02:30

doctors can't do everything but the technology is advancing constantly.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 yag :(

Okay, I'm being lazy. People say ________ is addicting, but it sounds wrong to me. Is it ever right, or should it always be addictive?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 and it really just started right before he retired. But at least he is controlling it with meds and diet, no need for spinal surgery.

Mitch

I was going to say 'addictive' is better.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 mom likes crap food and pills.

and doing nothing with her spare time but watching tv. :(

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 I'd say addictive.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

02:32

Yay!

Down with people.

Mitch

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 psychological drug

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@Mitch yeah. :(

Mitch

depends on what kind of tv

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

Mostly HGTV.

Mitch

hmm... maybe not.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

02:33

people. Ruining everything since 13,000 BCE.

3

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

but also dramas.

Mitch

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 "I love humanity. It's people I can't stand."

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

ok, it's time for vidya games. Thanks for being here. :)

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@cornbreadninja麵包忍者 what are you going to play

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

team fortress 2

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

02:34

hm, I think I have that

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

I have 723 hours or so

looks at floor

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I've never played it

Mitch

is that accumulated or what's left to go?

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

@Mitch accumulated

Mitch

if only they made video games that translate to ... say fighting actual bad people.

except all those drone pilots have psych problems.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

02:36

@Mitch I read a book where they did that

Mitch

ender's game.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Reamde

they hooked up a MMORPG to a real-life monitoring station, and made it so that certain events in real-life triggered actions in the game. This would essentially crowd-source the monitoring of the station by rewarding in-game players with in-game rewards

but I think I am going to play some video games too. Maybe bioshock 2

Mitch

oh wow that's Neal Stephenson? I'm still half way through Quicksilver..so much work!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

@Mitch yeah. Well, Reamde is SO EXCITING that my library e-book copy expired and I wasn't done reading it and I haven't bothered to check it out again.

Mitch

hm... reading a book... good memories....I have to get back in to that.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 so you didn't read it all in one sitting?

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

02:38

ha

I could maybe read snow crash in one sitting.

but not his other stuff. he's too wordy.

Mitch

they're so ...long. not unnecessarily, but it is a task.

you learn a lot.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I used to really like him but more and more I am just annoyed with his writing.

Mitch

about history

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

yeah. there is lots to learn.

Well, in the Baroque Cycle anyway.

Mitch

exactly.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

02:40

I did enjoy reading that series even though it goes nowhere and keeps going there. And it's so over-the-top.

And it's also Forrest Gump in the 1600s.

Mitch

Cryptonomicon is very entertaining all the way through a 1000 pages. hard to put down, so very much an interruption for too long (like a week of reading late into the night)

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

Cryptonomicon was a fun ride but where was the friggin' ending? It has no plot.

Mitch

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 ha ha. yeah. too coincidentally touching on absolutely every important historical event.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 plot? its all plot. that intertiwines and then ends up at a big explosion. after you learn how to send codes with a pack of cards!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I was very pleased that Anathem at least had a sort of plot and sort of ending.

Mitch

that's on my want to read list.

which is getting longer on one side, but nothing is getting taken off of it.

I still have books from xmas that I really want to read that I've barely opened.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

02:43

Anyway I enjoyed Cryptonomicon but it had major issues.

Mitch

one's even a comic book history...how lame is that, that I cant just glance at it for 1/2 an hour and be done!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

At least it was overall more fun than Diamond Age, which had the same kinds of issues.

Mitch

re Crypt... if you followed the thread above, you can maybe tell I don't need depth to be entertained. I very much liked it.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I used to read TONS. then I bought a car and stopped taking the subway and my reading plummeted. Now I work from home.

@Mitch It isn't that it lacks depth. It lacks a cohesive plot. Typically a novel has a story arc. This one doesn't exactly. I wanted a big conflict at the end. Instead there was a Chinese military guy who turned out to have been behind it all along, and some guy from Randy's past shows up in a swamp in asia with a bow and arrow and tries to kill him. WTF?

Mitch

haha! I have no memory of that...

but I'm not going to read it again!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

02:47

heheh

And the Baroque books take essentially the same characters and set them in the 1600s

Mitch

I just remember Turing riding his bike and then the gold in the Philippines at the end either in the mountain or in the ocean and a big explosion and then basically the idea of bitcoin but not called that and somebody dies or something.

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

yeah

Mitch

Yeah... I think Stephenson must read a lot and then immediately regurgitates it with his own characters.

Holy crap! just like Asimov!

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

anyway enjoy quicksilver. it's a fun read. I found the 2nd and 3rd books a little tedious.

Mitch

argh...that's what I'm working towards..ok maybe replaced by anathem and readme (or reamde)

There's only so much time in the world.

considers writing sci fi novel about a time creation process, where it backfires and just makes people die earlier

Journeyman Geek

02:55

lol

I couldn't manage quicksilver and that series

the rest were awesome

@Mitch: not quite bitcoin, basically a gold backed currency

Mr. Shiny and New 安宇

I'm going to log off. see you all later.

Mitch

03:08

later and bye myself (@JourneymanGeek: oh...I don't understand bitcoin either or the gold backed currency!)

Mahnax

@Mitch Wednesday the 24th.

cornbread ninja 麵包忍者

03:28

Presentation?

Johan Larsson

09:40

O'Sullivan on Eurosport

tchrist

12:31

The Persian Twat is at it again. Nutjob.

-1

Q: Reporting a serial downvoting!

There are clear serial downvotes against all my questions and answers. I have find out it times and times but I tried to ignore it and consider it as a right of reader to decide upvote or downvote a question or answer but now it is a different situation: You see after being about 3 months here, ...

discussion

Somebody gave her two downvotes, and she cries foul. What a whiner! And no, it wasn’t even me doing it.

Johan Larsson

that thread might also attract downvotes

tchrist

Exactly.

Because it causes people to look at her postings, and find them lacking.

This is not some conspiracy.

She always thinks there is some man-based conspiracy against her.

Classic paranoia.

And God’s teeth can she babble on!

Johan Larsson

man as in not female or human?

tchrist

male.

She has a perpetual feminist chip on her shoulder. It is kinda weird.

@tchrist And about people! Surely there are people who like my questions and answers if you let them see them open and do not close them or delete them or suspend me for nothing to not send any question or answer which only YOU do not like! If people didn't like them I didn't had 253 votes after one two months suspension and many closed and deleted posts! So please talk for yourself not for people. — Persian Cat 57 secs ago

So she is now complaining that she has “a suspension and many closed and deleted posts”.

Whose fault is that, eh?

Johan Larsson

When faced with an angry feminist I think I default to maximizing the distance between me and her.

tchrist

12:39

Good instinct.

-5

Q: What does " Rape someone's mind" mean?

Can we use of it to express violence by words and talks against another one or trying to impress him/her by advertisement against his/her own willing? Is it formal or informal? For example: Mona hates spiders and her ex boy friend sends her e mails of spiders' photos everyday. Or when som...

phrases formality

-3

Q: Is it acceptable to use "womyn" or "womin" instead of "women"?

I have often seen/heard these two terms in many articles and speeches about Feminism or women's rights issues. I couldn't find them in any online dictionary except for the Oxford Dictionary which describes it as non-standard spelling of ‘women’ adopted by some feminists in order to avoid the ...

orthography semantics variants

Those are the two questions she bitched at getting a downvote each to in short order.

I see nothing improper here.

I’m sorely tempted. :)

Johan Larsson

12:55

@tchrist Maybe this answers the question in a way? (dunno if NSFW)

tchrist

That’ll sure piss ’er off. :)

Johan Larsson

prolly a bad idea

tchrist

She used to be called Sunflower.

She had several other accounts she kept creating and deleting too, if I recall correctly.

Not in any kind of sock puppet way, just being weird.

Kind of random flailing.

Johan Larsson

13:10

gtg

RegDwighт

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 certainly you mean since 3,000 BC? There were no people before Adam.

tchrist

Should be BA: Before Adam.

They are expecting more than 80,000 people to show up for the big pot party in Denver today. Gosh, that’s a lot.

Mitch

13:28

"@tchrist Your behavior and kind of talking and sentences are off topic. I am not going to reply you as I am talking about a different matter which is far from of your wrong assumptions and judgements about me. "

tchrist

Far be it from me to point out that she is lying: she does a good job at that all by herself.

Well, or demented.

Your call.

Is this fellow on drugs?

-2

A: Palatalization of the initial "s" in words starting with "st-"

Also, the s in student is pronounced like sh by most English people (shchoodent, /ʃtʃʉːdənʔ/).

Perhaps he means most drunk English people?

RegDwighт

So what now, sh or shch?

tchrist

shch

RegDwighт

Yeah I understand better now. He really means sh for just the s, and then ch for the t.

tchrist

Yes.

Which I do not know that I have ever heard.

RegDwighт

13:35

Well. Neither have I, but that is sort of the question, where is it from.

So he does supply a data point, my beef is with the exaggeration.

tchrist

There may be some right-to-left assimilation going on, I suppose.

I guess if everyone says didja that maybe the tu palatalizes to an unvoiced one. I just don’t understand why he says everyone in England says that, which is why I think he means something else.

I agree that changing a leading "liquid" s to an sh before a t sounds like a parody of a German speaking English.

RegDwighт

Where's that fooneh @mattэллен chap when you need'em.

tchrist

Shtoopid sounds Yiddish.

Mitch

It sounds like bad imitations of Sean Connery

Chewsday is well attested in the UK: tyoo->chew

but st->sht is not. it might be local, like local to the Germans.

tchrist

Since trait is often [tʃɹʷeɪt], straight is often [stʃɹʷeɪt] but I think seldom if ever [ʃtʃɹʷeɪt]. There is probably some blending in the [stʃ] set that I don’t know how to rightly represent in IPA.

@Mitch Chewsday? Instichution?

But you didn’t say that > Butchoo didn’t say that

I may never get used to Portuguese stress rules that demand writing Júlio Santos for Julio Santos. :(

It’s so they can write Maria instead of María.

Catalan uses the same exotic rules for representing stress in writing. It is so much more complicated that Castilian.

RegDwighт

13:51

@Mitch yes. Thank you. I wondered when someone would finally say that.

KitFox

Moin.

RegDwighт

Halloha.

KitFox

I desperately need some adults to talk to. Are there any here?

RegDwighт

I only just learned that ALOA is the Associated Locksmiths of America.

simchona

Left some messages in our lounge.

KitFox

13:53

Is it about the cat?

I've changed the litterbox enough, I think.

RegDwighт

@KitFox I don't know what dult is, so I can't tell if I'm adult.

KitFox

Yes, that's it.

simchona

I think the cat needs to be put outside again

tchrist

Heh.

RegDwighт

You mean inside. The bag.

KitFox

13:54

In the lake.

tchrist

I missed a trash collection day and now my whole lower bathroom stinks.

And no, I am not changing the subject.

RegDwighт

Why'd you collect trash in a bathroom?

tchrist

Catbox.

KitFox

I think you might be doing it wrong.

tchrist

Where do you put yours?

RegDwighт

13:55

My what? Trash? Or catbox?

The trash goes in the trash.

The catbox stays at the store because I have never purchased it.

tchrist

KitFox

fumbles with coffeemaker God, I'm spoiled by the Keurig at work.

RegDwighт

Keurig. What kind of twisted pun is that.

KitFox

I dunno, but I could probably understand if you explained it to me.

tchrist

@RegDwighт An incorrigible one.

RegDwighт

13:57

Well feurig is German for fiery.

K is any number of things.

Kew even more so.

A fiery queue.

KitFox

I thought I was furry, not fiery. gains new perspective

I also thought Keurig was a surname.

RegDwighт

It sure doesn't sound like a forename.

Except if you're a viking.

tchrist

Imagine naming a lad Courage.

RegDwighт

Curridge.

Merkins have a lot of curridge.

tchrist

Naw, more curridge takeaways in Britain.

RegDwighт

14:00

Looks like there's a huge market for litterbox comix.

You produce them left and right like there's nothing to it.

George R.R. Martin looks so cute.

Unlike that girl from the show, which is the main reason I still haven't started watching it.

tchrist

@RegDwighт Oh, you’ve seen that one, too, eh?

RegDwighт

Nope.

This one. Via Reddit.

God that's an awfully long comic.

Oatmeal should get an editor.

tchrist

It’s like 7 or 8 panels. No many people have attention spans that long anymore.

Martin looks like an escaped garden gnome.

RegDwighт

I can read a novel. I don't see the point of turning a comic with a one-word moral into a novel.

If you have a point, get to it. If you don't, shut it.

That's my idea of a perfect world, anyway.

tchrist

Cat vs. Internet is even longer. A few of them are really funny. But it is . . . so . . . . . . . . long.

RegDwighт

14:11

@tchrist you seen Les Fabuleux Destins D'Amelie Poulenc?

tchrist

Non.

RegDwighт

Well you should.

tchrist

Hokay.

RegDwighт

Then we can talk about garden gnomes in a grander context.

imdb.com/title/tt0211915

tchrist

ponders the collective noun for gnomes

RegDwighт

14:12

8.5 holy crap.

That is a lot for a European movie.

tchrist

Yeah.

RegDwighт

@tchrist swirls.

tchrist

RegDwighт

Yes, that's a swirls of gnomes.

tchrist

Why swirls?

RegDwighт

14:15

Why not.

Like collective nouns ever make sense.

Robusto

Harrumph. Just like a commie to use "collective" nouns.

tchrist

This one should make gnomic sense.

RegDwighт

@Robusto No, tchrist used them. I am merely recycling.

Robusto

Gnomon is an island, except in Jamaica.

tchrist

Gnomic sense = No make sense.

They seem to be spreading.

RegDwighт

14:18

►

@Robusto dahzahrahtimahkichen wahtahmahgahnahdoo, dahzahrahtimahkichen wahtahmahgahnahdoo?

tchrist

I think the collective noun for gnomes should be horde.

Or haggle.

Or waggle.

KitFox

I liked Amelie a lot.

Robusto

14:45

@RegDwighт Ja, I will mon.

Cerberus

Amélie was nice.

I like French cinéma.

Robusto

I fell asleep watching Amélie. Where were the zombie hordes?

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…