English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

9:01 AM

This is a let down. As I type this, my avatar is sandwiched between two hot women, and has a wry smile on his face. I don't want to tell him that they're both men.

skullpatrol

@JasperLoy Someone asked me the other day "what does the song 'you know you are a shooting star' mean"? and I told him that "You won't last long." Do you think I was on the right track?

David Wallace

Yes, you're right. Everything's very exciting now, but before long, you'll come crashing to the ground.

skullpatrol

@DavidWallace Thank you :D

Robusto

9:38 AM

@Reg: OK, why destroying birds?

@DavidWallace I couldn't agree more. I absolutely hate bracketless conditionals. I also hate unclosed conditions.

if foo bar
if x y

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@Robusto nöone else was available, they are above us so we can only lose 1 point, and we kicked their asses 5.1k:1.6k yesterday.

Robusto

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Payback's a bitch, I guess.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Aye.

It was at a different time of a day, too. So I kind of expected them to show a different level of activity, whichever way.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Robusto

Yeah. Not faulting you for it. Just grousing about the inadequacy of my deck vs. the adequacy of theirs.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Also we got to 1000:100 in like 20 minutes. It's only after my commute that they woke up.

Robusto

9:50 AM

They have these hybrid walls with a couple of Rhinos and other top-tier cards on the ground, which just kill my shit.

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 That'll teach you to commute.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

I use Gorelesup. 16/1, 604/10.

Robusto

Guess I'll have to switch.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Guess it won't matter anymore.

Just another 47 FP and I'm taking a break. I'm kind of looking forward to it now.

Robusto

Ah, Gorelesup.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@Robusto could go either way, actually.

Also, you need a Slug Borg in there.

Robusto

9:53 AM

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Then we'll never get the next 50 points.

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 I don't have a Slug Borg.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Oh.

Hm. Now if only I knew where I got mine.

It's the best card since sliced bread. 1 wait, Evade + Mimic so it eats LtW alive all by itself, 0 attack so it can't be weakened (but can rally itself thanks to Mimic), and 5 health so when sandwiched by SCs and with Hephatat active it's unkillable.

Oh, and not just LtW. It eats Wasteland Skimmers alive, too.

Robusto

Oh, looks like I do have Slug Borg.

So ... replace SC or one of the other cards?

Still no Hephatat. I guess I really need to finish that quest chain or whatever it is.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

I kicked out Viper in favor of Slug Borg.

And Apollo in favor of Hephatat.

Robusto

Yeah, well, Sluggie just went right down to LtW.

Maybe I should put it in an LtW or Atlas rush/strike rainbow.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

That does happen. Which is why SCs and Hephatat are needed as backup.

Robusto

10:00 AM

Well, I put it in Gorelesup.

But I still don't have Hephatat.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

The thing is, even when it does go down, it usually takes one or two cards down with it. Which provides just that tiny crucial edge you need to level the playing ground against LtW.

@Robusto how much honor you have with that raid? You must have around 700 methinks.

Robusto

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 300

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Oh?

Hm.

Well that's a bitch.

So you'd need to do that raid like four times. The next best thing is of course OPollo but that one is even harder to get.

I would give you mine if I could. I never use it anyway.

Robusto

Anyway, Mahlzeit.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Guten.

WTF, does the SE engine autodelete a period at the end of a question title?

0

Q: Term for exaggerations such as "always", "never", "constantly", etc

I believe there is a term for words such as never, always, constantly, and so forth; words that generally exaggerate the situation being described. Unfortunately, I can't recall what that term is if I am correct in that there is indeed such a term. Can anyone help me with this question?

I just put a period after "etc". Twice. It got eated before my very eyes. Twice.

Robusto

10:18 AM

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Eating a period earns you your red wings with the Hell's Angels.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Well thank you for that.

This question needs looked by @JSB or some such:

8

Q: Why is the 'w' silent in "sword"?

In RP English, the 'w' in "sword" is silent. Wiktionary suggests /sɔːd/ and /soʊrd/. Why? Are there other words like this? The 'w' is pronounced in words like "swollen", "swoop", "sworn" and "swore".

pronunciation silent-letters received-pronunciation

skullpatrol

@Robusto I don't think there is an apostrophe in Hells Angels.

skullpatrol

10:36 AM

They are not the angels of hell.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Cut Rob some slack. When he does right, nobody remembers. When we does wrong, nobody forgets.

skullpatrol

He has stumbled upon an interesting question....

'Should the Hells in Hells Angels have an apostrophe, and be Hell's Angels?'
That would be true if there was only one Hell, but life & history has taught that there are many Hells.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

I am yet to see but one.

skullpatrol

Many hells = many angels

then it would be Hells' Angels

Or should it be Hells Angels' ?

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

> Uhh...they are not that smart or philosophical. They just fucked it up when they made it because they were not grammar pros and have went with it ever since. I think the fake backstory is hilarious though lol.

Lol @ "...because they were not grammar pros and have went..."

Anyway, the Internet is full of questions, but not of answers.

skullpatrol

10:52 AM

So we have these possibilities:
Hell's Angels,
Hells' Angels,
Hells Angel's,
Hells Angels',
and Hells Angels.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

You are missing a couple.

3 * 3 should be 9.

skullpatrol

I know but I also wanted to move on to the interpretations of "hell(s) " and "angel(s)"...

David Wallace

@Robusto Thanks. The point though was this guy appearing out of nowhere, after 23 years, just to contradict me.

skullpatrol

Talk about holding a grudge ...

Robusto

My bad. Er, good.

Well, it's not like I read their colors every day.

Well, look who dropped in to spoil the party.

David Wallace

11:03 AM

@Robusto That winged skull looks kind of girly, IMO.

Robusto

@DavidWallace Don't say that in Oakland.

David Wallace

Very unlikely that I'll ever do that.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

I reckon David is on the Bandidos team.

David Wallace

Unless I get on the wrong plane like that person who went to Auckland.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Going to Auckland will do that to you.

JSBᾶngs

11:05 AM

@Cerberus WMT? No, no. It's M:tG.

David Wallace

articles.latimes.com/1985-04-03/local/…

I didn't realise it was quite so long ago.

skullpatrol

I wonder if he got to see a Raider game?

David Wallace

In Auckland? Seems unlikely.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Was them any good in 1985?

David Wallace

Where are they from and what sport do they play?

skullpatrol

11:09 AM

They are patterned after the "all blacks."

David Wallace

So they play Rugby football?

skullpatrol

They are from Oakland and they play American Football.

David Wallace

So, not very much like the All Blacks then.

Robusto

Lame

skullpatrol

David Wallace

11:11 AM

The Canberra Raiders play Rugby League.

skullpatrol

Cool

Robusto

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 The Chicago Bears crushed everyone in 1985.

@skullpatrol Picture jinx.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Picture jinx is the original jinx in this room.

Robusto

Pinx.

David Wallace

raiders.com.au

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

11:13 AM

The very first jinx was Kosmo and I posting alots.

0

Q: What is the correct usage of 'formerly' as time adverb?

[is|was] formerly known as Mustang In the previous sentence what is correct 'is' or 'was'? and why?

adverbs

I. Um. What? And then his comment.

skullpatrol

Hi @JasperLoy

user19161

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Thanks for giving us the etymology of jinx in this chat.

user19161

@skullpatrol You changed your picture again.

David Wallace

We need a faq that says what a freaking sentence is.

skullpatrol

@JasperLoy Is the pot calling the kettle "black"?

Matt Эллен

11:16 AM

@DavidWallace you could do a post for the blog!

Robusto

Feb 9 '11 at 16:34, by Martha

JINX!

user19161

@skullpatrol I just changed too. Maybe it is the kettle calling the pot.

Matt Эллен

avvernoon all

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@Robusto good job. I specifically didn't mention Martha so as to make it hard. But you are just too good.

user19161

@DavidWallace I know what a sentence is, but I don't know what a freaking sentence is. It is possibly a sentence that freaks.

Robusto

11:17 AM

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 beams

And so to work. Laters.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

CUae's.

user19161

Ubuntu 12.04 will be out in a few hours. Everyone get ready.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Oh no not more crap getting installed on my machine.

skullpatrol

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Look where you are sandwiched on the gravatar line in the upper right corner.

user19161

This LTS will be the first that is supported for 5 years even on the desktop version.

skullpatrol

11:19 AM

That is one happy bird.

JSBᾶngs

@skullpatrol who is that in your avatar?

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Skullpatrol has two different gravvys for me.

skullpatrol

Don't know..

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

One is a girl, the other a trannie. Or vice versa.

user19161

Mine are all Mariahs.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

11:20 AM

Indeed. You are two Mariahs at once.

Quite an accomplishment.

user19161

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Indeed, there can be miracles when you believe.

David Wallace

2 hours ago, by David Wallace

This is a let down. As I type this, my avatar is sandwiched between two hot women, and has a wry smile on his face. I don't want to tell him that they're both men.

Could you guys say something original?

user19161

I hope waiwai liked my presents.

David Wallace

At the time that I wrote that, I was experiencing the vertical avatar stacking bug, so I was actually on top of one and underneath the other.

Matt Эллен

@DavidWallace something original. you're welcome

user19161

11:23 AM

I see you are rapidly making your way to 10k @matt.

skullpatrol

@DavidWallace Those were two blonds this one has an Asian look.

Matt Эллен

@JasperLoy yes, I should be there before my target date!

user19161

You know, I am trying to resist the temptation to install Ubuntu 12.04.

user19161

I thought I would stick to Debian but maybe I should give Ubuntu one last try.

David Wallace

Actually, for both of you, I see a different avatar here than when I click on you. Probably need to do a refresh, but I prefer not to.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

11:25 AM

That's what I'm saying, yes.

Everybody here changes their women like said women change shoes.

Matt Эллен

I do not change my women that rapidly. Normally they're the ones changing me

David Wallace

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Exactly how does Mariah Carey change her shoes?

user19161

I prefer doing clean installs over upgrades, never tried an Ubuntu upgrade.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@DavidWallace she has two butlers. For each foot.

skullpatrol

@MattЭллен There are plenty of fish in the sea.

Matt Эллен

11:27 AM

yeah, but pork tastes better

user19161

@MattЭллен Neither do I. This is vacuously true as I never had one ever.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@MattЭллен on the plus side, while you can change your women as often as you wish, each of them gets to change you at most once.

Matt Эллен

@JasperLoy I did an upgrade once. nothing bad seemed to happen

David Wallace

@JasperLoy I've never heard changing shoes referred to as "clean installs" before. Makes sense though, I guess.

user19161

@MattЭллен But is it faster or slower?

Matt Эллен

11:28 AM

@JasperLoy oh, faster. no need to blank the drive then install afresh

David Wallace

@MattЭллен Now I really don't know whether you're talking about women or operating systems.

Matt Эллен

lol

user19161

@MattЭллен But it might be slower as the download might take longer. Also if you are doing it on multiple machines, you only need to download once.

user19161

@DavidWallace We are talking about both at once.

Matt Эллен

@JasperLoy that's true. I was only upgrading one machine. The download for the upgrade should be less than for an iso

lunches

skullpatrol

11:31 AM

Most women are operating systems, on some level...

Aalok Parikh

what i dont undertand that sentance

skullpatrol

You don't have to.

David Wallace

@skullpatrol No, operating systems let you install soft-ware.

skullpatrol

@DavidWallace lol

They are still good operators though...

David Wallace

@RegDwight I think your ironic comment might go over the OP's head.

Does this make sense?

quantum mechanical treatment of fluctuations is tantamount to saying "pure randomness", so this is just what OP is saying jargon-free. – Ron Maimon yesterday

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

11:45 AM

@DavidWallace um, which comment?

1

Q: Difference between "but" and "nothing but"

Every now and then I stumble about a construction like this: It was but something.... and I understand it to be It was nothing but.... or It was only... depending on the context. Is the a difference between "but" and "nothing but" in this context? Is there a difference in tone...

differences

Bah not that again.

David Wallace

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Sorry, I realise you've made several over the years. I mean the "is/was formerly Mustang" question; how the OP completely butchered it with the edit, and you thanked him/her.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

David Wallace

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 It's the "run in the subway" guy - he needed it for his blog about German. I've just read a little of the blog and I'm already irritated by its style. Just my taste though, it looks like he's trying hard.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

I am really tired of all the "but" questions.

David Wallace

Yeah, but it's kind of hard to google for but.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

11:51 AM

I dunno, I just did.

David Wallace

One must be a little sympathetic.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

It's four keystrokes.

@DavidWallace which is why I didn't say "OMG why u no die in huge ball of fire!!!!!" but rather, "Related and possible dupe: <helpful links>". :P

David Wallace

Oh, but you're such a nice owl.

According to the blog, the German word "her" is pronounced the same as the English word "hair". This guy has obviously never heard me say "hair".

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

It just isn't pronounced the same, period.

David Wallace

aufwachen (pron.: owf wa-HHHen… kinda sorta)

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

11:55 AM

/hɛə/, /hɛɹ/ vs. /heːɐ̯/

Even IPA is capable of pointing out the difference.

David Wallace

die Frühjahrsmüdigkeit (pron.: frewyars moodig kuyt)

That'll be Dirk's younger brother Frewyars Moodig.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Make it stop.

Transcribing "ü" as "oo" is a crime against humanity.

Matt Эллен

jerrrb derrn

David Wallace

OK, fair call. I'm going to hit the sack in any case. 'Night all.

Matt Эллен

good night!

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

11:58 AM

CU.

And it's funny how only the second Ü is supposedly an "oo". The first one is "ew" for some reason.

Matt Эллен

it's all Greek to me

Sadly Sinhalese speech doesn't seem to have /ɛ/, so I can't transcribe my surname into it

user19161

12:27 PM

@matt How was lunch? I just had KFC for dinner.

Robusto

@JasperLoy Stop trying to live up to all our expectations.

user19161

@Robusto Well, I would expect the chickens there are bigger.

Matt Эллен

@JasperLoy good, thanks. Or should that be "Good Thanks"?

Robusto

My wife just tells me she needs a new gravatar for her book-review site: "I want it to be a horse, but with Mercury's winged helmet. Oh, and glasses. You can just run that through Photoshop, right?" Yeah. I'll get right on that.

user19161

@Robusto The sites avatarist.com and avatarsdb.com have plenty of nice avatars of all kinds.

Robusto

12:34 PM

Thanks, I will check those out. Or better yet, forward the links to her.

user19161

They are where I get all of mine, but I doubt they would have a horse with Mercury's winged helmet.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Yeah, they only have that of Hermes.

user19161

Well, GIMP and Inkscape can do lots of things, not that I know how.

Robusto

I can do a lot of things in Photoshop, but to do what she asks would take a LOT of effort. And it would still suck, even if I got everything right.

Matt Эллен

@Robusto do it in paint!

user19161

12:39 PM

I would prefer to do it in paint rather than in Paint.

Robusto

I mean, that's a lot of information to impart in 16x16px.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Halfway there.

user19161

Wow, I thought my above message would be starred already.

Matt Эллен

ay may zing

Robusto

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 No gay party clothes in chat.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

12:42 PM

Okay so why the hell is it that when I google for an image of "horse winged helmet", I get a picture of Beth Ditto nibbling on her toes?

hecklerspray.com/…

user19161

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Check your search engine and your viruses.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

I don't have viruses, so there's nothing to check.

Matt Эллен

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 no idea. I tried googling gorelesup earlier, to see what card you guys meant. no card, but I did get a picture of david tennant kissing someone

user19161

I did try several search engines and I must say google is the best, though others may return refreshing results.

user19161

So my first choice is google and second choice is yahoo.

user19161

12:45 PM

Is the day coming when we no longer need Adobe Flash to view flash videos? The open source gnash simply does not work. I know there is HTML.

Robusto

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Au contraire, mon frere.

It's in you. Now. BTW, people, gravatar opportunity. ^^

user19161

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 That's what all those with viruses think.

user19161

I am only a virus, please don't kill me was the most interesting message I got from a virus.

user19161

That was the most powerful virus I ever had. It survived several antiviruses.

user19161

Maybe one of you here made that virus.

Robusto

12:48 PM

Hmm, how come all the "random" avatars on avatarist.com are pictures of hot chicks?

user19161

@Robusto Well, maybe random means most popular.

Robusto

senses a huge uptick in avatarist.com hits and a silence in chat

@JasperLoy Not in English.

user19161

Also there does not seem to be any linux version of silverlight that allows you to view certain sites. The current version of moonlight does not have that functionality.

Matt Эллен

@Robusto oh! she wants a favicon? Or does this site just have really tiny avatars?

user19161

Wow, ubuntu.com is currently offline due to technical problems. It must be getting a billion hits.

user19161

12:57 PM

@MattЭллен Favicons are so small that you can't put much into them.

Matt Эллен

@JasperLoy hence my question. favicons are 16x16

user19161

The trick is to not go to ubuntu.com to download the iso. Go to launchpad.net/ubuntu, navigate to the CD mirrors, and then pick a good mirror.

Matt Эллен

I like mirrors that make me look good

user19161

@MattЭллен 16 miles is pretty big.

Matt Эллен

unless you're the universe

Robusto

1:07 PM

@MattЭллен Any avatar needs to read in 16x16. Like the ones next to these chat messages.

Matt Эллен

@Robusto these ones in chat do, but not all avatars. There are plenty of websites that don't use 16x16 pixel avatars

Robusto

@MattЭллен And yet I hear the voice of that older, wiser UI developer in my ear: "Remember, it has to work everywhere. As soon as you say 'Oh, nobody uses X,' you can be certain that the very next day the president of your most important client company will say, 'Hey, how come those numskulls didn't make it work in X!'"

Matt Эллен

hey! it's @Reg's horse:

Mahnax

Well, that's an odd picture to see upon entry.

Matt Эллен

says the two headed python

Mahnax

1:20 PM

I would think that you're used to seeing a two headed python by now, whereas I have never seen a horse with dazzle-star-sparkle glasses.

Alas, there will be no cycling today.

Matt Эллен

well, I have no choice - it's how I got to work

Why won't there be cycling for you, @Mahnax?

Mahnax

@MattЭллен Well, it's not very nice out. Around 0˚C. And it's supposed to rain, &c.

I could cycle, but I don't even have a jacket right now.

Matt Эллен

ah, yes, The Weather. It's currently giving us torrential rain

I hope it clears up by 5pm

Mahnax

@MattЭллен You should send Das Wetter some more letters.

Matt Эллен

I might at that!

Mahnax

1:25 PM

Good, good.

We had nice weather for a few days, but then it left.

Matt Эллен

the weekend was quite nice here

Yeah, same here.

raining since Monday

Haha, "Manday".

:D

It's a national holiday

where we celebrate manhood

Robusto

1:29 PM

20 hours ago, by Robusto

Dear Matt,

While we find your gratitude in this matter somewhat pleasing (and more than a little bit comical), we must warn you that we can make no promises concerning future omissions of precipitation. As one wag put it, "The sun don't shine on the same dog's ass every day."

Please do keep in touch, and don't feel too bad if you get rained on. Or struck by lightning, etc.

Best regards,
The Weather

Wow, Carlo is at it again.

0

Q: Allowing tag and style

As we read on "What HTML tags are allowed on Stack Exchange sites?": We do not and will not allow table tags -- sorry. This is intentional and by design. If you need a quick and dirty "table", use pre and ASCII layout. However, I am open to suggestions. Are there some other (safe!) t...

bug formatting

Mahnax

@Robusto Where?

Robusto

Transcript for

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…