| Sorta Morning Post |
[Mar. 15th, 2010|11:44 am] |
Going to sleep before midnight: fail by five minutes.
Getting up before 09:00: amazingly, success.
I think the problem is like this. When I fall asleep it's still relatively not-cold, but then it gets colder during the night. Not enough to wake me up, but enough that the last few hours of sleep aren't very good and I start like an old card on a cold morning. (Unrelatedly, I found the folder where I saved that cartoon! But it's a Sunday cartoon, which means it's too big to big iconed.)
Poster mailed to PI for review. It was also a good excuse to sneak in a few other things. Like the cursed seminar on Wednesday.
Outside it's full-blown dry >30c weather. Inside this apartment, I am in long pants and with a sweatshirt on hand. Every year at tank-top-and-sweats weather i'm reminded anew of how much I like this.
I didn't even have coffee yet. Wow. (Woke up early, drew over the second blanket. On the other side I took forever to fall asleep last night, so. No idea.)
Concert today! |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 15th, 2010|03:09 pm] |
Turkish question here.
In these little clips of sentences-
1. Okulun bahçesinde
2. Ayşe’nin gözlerine
why is there the use of "n" before "de" and "n" as the buffer in the second one (rather than the usual "y")? |
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| A Question about XP |
[Mar. 14th, 2010|11:38 pm] |
I'm running a 4e D&D campaign for a bunch of friends. It is the Keep on the Shadowfell module for 1st-4th level characters. As a module, it is kind of linear, but there's a lot of wiggle room for me to put in my own NPCs and sub-plots, and I love it when players do the unexpected. I'm pretty good at rolling with the punches.
The thing is that XP in 4e is pretty much locked into combat. My players have just pulled something unexpected out of their collective hats, and it was a lot of fun and I had to think on my feet, and we all had a blast, but I realized that what they did completely short-circuited one of the encounters later in the module. It now can't happen at all, and it was a big pile of XP.
Do I not give them the XP because they won't have the encounter? Do I give them the XP because they kind of did deal with it, even if unknowingly and by accident?
I'm not entirely sure what to do here. I want to reward them, but it seems to go against the game to give them XP for monsters they didn't technically fight. |
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| Spanish language podcasts |
[Mar. 14th, 2010|10:39 pm] |
Hey all,
I was wondering if anybody could recommend some good Spanish language podcasts.
I'd be most interested in anything having to do with culture, current events, or science, but I'd check out pretty much anything, whether its intellectual or just for fun. The only podcast in Spanish I have right now is a movie review podcast called Palomitas, which is good but I'm looking to expand.
I'm not interested in podcasts that are about learning Spanish, which is most of the ones I've found through google so far. Personal recommendations are usually best, anyway.
Thanks! |
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| Picture Is Full Of Awesome |
[Mar. 14th, 2010|08:38 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Taking Back Sunday - Cut Me Up Jenny | ] |
I suspect people have probably seen this before, but what the heck...
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| translation help/correction |
[Mar. 14th, 2010|01:15 pm] |
I'm editing a news article that was previously translated from Mandarin by someone whose English is not great. I'm having some trouble with the following sentence:
为了显示自己身份, 不会说漂亮话, 总说出内幕话, 把自己扮得很暴力.
The translation as given really made no sense at all (something about push out harshly, talk inside out, act like overlords) and I'm studying Chinese myself. Here's my version, slightly colloquial because it's intended for native speakers:
To show their high social status, they speak snobbishly, put on airs before outsiders, and behave ruthlessly.
Corrections or advice? |
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| Participants needed for study - could I steal 10 minutes of your time? |
[Mar. 14th, 2010|02:45 pm] |
Hey folks! :)
I'm a student at McGill University in Montreal, majoring in Psychology, minoring in Linguistics. For this term I’m doing a project on... well, I wish I could tell you but that would ruin the purpose of my study. But I'll tell you later in case you're interested.
( Details and link to survey )
EDIT: Thanks a lot so far, guys. :) I'm thrilled about the huge amount of responses.
If you want, you can still fill it out but I want to make something clear to those who keep telling me that my English sucks. These sentences are taken from a variety of famous studies. And all but one are grammatically correct, albeit awkwardly formulated (on purpose, might I add...) So, please, unless you regard your English to be of a higher level than that of the most famous English-speaking linguists, please don't tell me off for having bad English skills... |
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| gujarati-english translation help, please? |
[Mar. 14th, 2010|02:36 pm] |
I made a comment on my friends facebook, and then his friend left this back to me, and now they're both joking that I can't figure out what this says and that "I'll get my brains eaten if I try," so I'd like to prove them wrong... Could anyone please translate this into English for me? Thanks :)
aa bohn hu lakhe 6 hamaj nathi padti..aek bae vastuo barabar 6... kadach tane aadivasi k6 but spellin khoto 6... ene k mae j lakhyu6 ae google ma translate kari jove...hehe... |
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| Shortish day post |
[Mar. 14th, 2010|07:16 pm] |
I have a first draft of the poster. Tomorrow, after taking another look at it, i'll mail it to the PI. This way we have the whole week to pass it back and forth.
I other news, it is hot today. Hot and dry. Not the funnest weather to be outside but, as usual when I get my first experience of summer after winter, i've forgotten just how good this weather is for me. |
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| My lecture |
[Mar. 14th, 2010|06:05 pm] |
How about this for an opening sentence?
"The first thing you should know about my fandom is that the internet is afraid of us." |
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| How much character death is normal? |
[Mar. 14th, 2010|03:11 pm] |
Hello, roleplaying newbie and new community member here. To give a bit of background, I joined my boyfriend's D&D 3.5 roleplaying group only a little less than two months ago and mostly I've been having a blast so far. We're currently playing Castle Ravenloft. Unfortunately, over the course of the last few sessions something has started to diminish my enjoyment somewhat, namely (in my eyes) excessive amounts of character deaths.
Basically we made it through my first three sessions without anyone dying, had interesting fights, character development and what have you. In the last three weeks however, people suddenly started to drop like flies, both of our friendly NPC party members died and we had no less than six player characters bite the dust as well. What's worse is that most of those deaths felt completely out of our control. Oops, the first hit crits you for massive damage and you fail your fortitude save, you're dead. Oops, a piece of the drawbridge breaks away under you and you plummet to your death. Oops, you step onto a circle of death trap, two people fall over dead.
Now, my own character is still alive for some reason (beginner's luck I suppose, or maybe because the bad guys don't care about taking out the bard), so it's not a case of me being grumpy about losing my own character. The affected players have also been pretty laid back about their losses and just roll up a new character right away. But I find it bothersome.
For one thing, I've quite come to enjoy the in-character interaction and building of relationships, but if every new party member dies before you even have a chance to get to know them or shortly thereafter it's impossible to get anywhere with that. I wanted to play my bard as a character who's overall friendly and optimistic, but with the way everyone she tries to befriend keels over dead within a few hours, she's quickly becoming quite disillusioned and depressed.
The other thing that bugs me about all those character deaths is that they really kill the feeling that we're in any way doing something heroic. We basically go into the castle, have one or two encounters at max, and then we have to run out with our tails between our legs because people died yet again and the remaining characters are overwhelmed and drained. Then we go back to bury yet another couple of bodies and beg the next random adventurer that comes by for help. It's kind of pathetic really.
Our GM is actually a very nice guy and I'm pretty sure that he doesn't enjoy killing people's characters, but he seems to consider it important that every other encounter should likely kill someone or the content won't feel challenging. The others seem to be fine with that, so I'm assuming that I'm just being the newbie that doesn't quite get things yet... which leads me to my questions:
Do you think losing about two characters per session is normal or is our GM being a bit harsh? How often do you usually have to reroll during the course of a campaign?
Is Castle Ravenloft simply a particularly harsh module? Or is it a 3.5 thing? Is fourth edition more forgiving?
And finally, any tips for dealing with the constant loss of party members in character without your character becoming completely depressed and defeatist? |
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| Definite article and its absence in church names (English) |
[Mar. 14th, 2010|04:47 pm] |
Hello fellow Linguaphiles!
My question is for native speakers of English. Could you please comment on the use of articles in church names? I mean churches as buildings, not as communities of believers (though I know communities are often named after the church they attend religious services in).
I've never heard of the definite article used in names starting with St: St Andrew's (Church), St Paul's (Cathedral). Is it a general rule? Are there any exceptions to this?
How about names like Transfiguration Church, Assumption Church, All Saints Church, ect, etc? Is the definite article obligotary, optional or not used at all with these?
And how do you go about using the possessive in church names? Only for saints (and possibly apostles) or for terms like Assumption as well?
How about the so-called of-phrases? Are these always interchangeable with names in the possesive?
I'm also interested in very unusual church names that you happened to come across.
Thank you in advance! |
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| Katzenkorb |
[Mar. 14th, 2010|07:21 am] |
|
 I've heard of cats that enjoy walking around in overturned laundry baskets, using them as armored feline carriers and annoying their unarmored housemates. Having an empty basket with nice big holes in it, I wondered what Mokka would do with it. So I plopped it down over her -- ready to remove it at once, of course, if it really bothered her. She didn't mind it, but didn't seem interested in moving around in it, even though when she brushed against the side, she must have noticed she could move it without any trouble. She was happy just to sit under it.
I played with her a bit through the holes, then decided she wasn't going to do anything interesting, so I took it off her and put it upright on the floor. Before I'd even finished setting it down, she jumped into it and stayed a while.
Mokka just likes being inside things. Not long ago, I picked up Carl to put him in his carrier to take to the vet, and found that Mokka was already inside and I had to get her out.
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| I won the lottery! |
[Mar. 13th, 2010|05:06 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | lottery | ] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Living room futon | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  happy | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | S.J. Tucker - The Girl with the Lion's Tail (Lucia) | ] |
Last Monday, I was on my way home from a truly awful day, and decided on a whim to stop by my mailbox, just to see if there was anything there to cheer me up. And, lo and behold, there certainly was.
I found a box that was *just* small enough to fit into my mailbox, addressed from Peaks Island, Maine. I thought to myself, "I know what this is!" and rushed it inside to open it up.
What did I find? My Omikuji envelope, a small square card, and a purple box, inside of which was a satiny golden bag, inside of which was this:
( Cut for politeness and amateur photograpy )
According to the note that came along with it, "This necklace is called 'To the Death', all full of amber and blood and pale crane hearts."
I was fortunate enough to go to Cat's reading in Seattle later that week, and I told her that it wasn't anything I would have chosen for myself, and that I wasn't used to wearing jewelry with a name, or such a presence, but I am fully and deeply in love with this piece, and do feel so fortunate to have won it that I wanted you all to see it too!! |
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| Phrase translation (any language) |
[Mar. 13th, 2010|06:10 pm] |
I'm doing a project for my World Civ class, and towards the end of the video/montage I want to have the phrase "This is war" displaying in an array of different languages. So, I'd like translations of this phrase in as many languages as possible ^^
ETA: The context of the phrase is like... one would say "This is Sparta".
Thanks in advance!
So far I've gotten:
Arabic (هذه هي الحرب)
Dutch (Dit is oorlog)
Gaelic (Seo cogadh)
Spanish (Esto es la guerra)
German (Das ist Krieg)
Ubykh (jɨnɜ ɐzɜjɜʥ)
Polish (To jest wojna)
Japanese (これは戦争だ)
Chinese (这是战争)
Tagalog (Ito ay digmaan)
Korean (이 것은 전쟁이다)
Russian (это война)
French (Ceci, c'est la guerre)
Hindi (यह जंग है)
Urdu (یہ جنگ ھے)
Farsi (این جنگ است)
Norwegian (Dette er krig)
Portuguese (Isto é guerra)
Hebrew ( זה מלחמה)
Latin (Hoc bellum est)
Malay (Ini perang)
Turkmen (Bu uruş)
Estonian (See on sõda)
Georgian (ეს არის ომი)
Romanian (Acesta este război)
Greek (έτσι είναι ο πόλεμος)
Ossetic (ай хæст у)
Ukrainian (це війна)
Finnish (Tämä on sotaa)
Welsh (Dyma ryfel)
Hungarian (Ez a háború)
Turkish (bu savaş)
Azeri (bu müharibədir)
Pashto (دغه جنگ دی)
Belarusian (Гэта вайна)
Czech (Tohle je válka)
Slovenian (To je vojna)
Serbian (Ово је рат)
Swedish (Detta är krig)
Icelandic (Þetta er stríð)
Te Reo Maori (Ko pakanga tenei) |
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| Don't tell me it's too early for this |
[Mar. 13th, 2010|11:42 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Home | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  cheerful | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | שער הרחמים - מאיר בנאי | ] |
In case you didn't get an invitation, I want to set up an afternoon/evening of barbecue and games on Yom HaAtzma'ut. I don't know where it will be yet (Nomi & Alter, wanna host it in your back yard?) or what time it'll start. Right now I want to figure out who is interested in coming.
So please let me know.
On a complete side note, I still think it is hilarious that the sign in front of where we had been stationed in Tze'ilim said "אני מילואיניק גאה". Yes, the army put up a misspelled sign.
And to trivia. I had asked what the first TV advertisement in the US was for. Anna King, my brother and Anonymous all knew that it was for Bulova watches.
Today's trivia question is a common denominator question. What is the common denominator between Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson and the Israeli commando Yoni Netanyahu? |
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| 'Should' |
[Mar. 13th, 2010|04:22 pm] |
Out of sheer curiosity, I would like to know how other languages handle 'should' - frankly I don't know how to define its use other than being an auxiliary verb. So I suppose I have two questions:
1) What is 'should'? What is the verbal mood/tense that it is used for English? I lurked around Wikipedia for a while and I'm still somewhat confused. I saw should's use as the future subjunctive (should it rain, I shall leave), but that use is rare (at least where I live), so I'm more intrigued by the other usage of should (he should go; you shouldn't know that; should I leave?; etc).
2) How do other languages handle that concept? French and Spanish have their own verbs (deber and devoir), English and German have auxiliaries (should and sollen). I'd love to know how the Celtic languages do it, and how some non-Indo-European languages handle it as well (assuming it's not just an IE thing).
Thank you all! |
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| Does Chinese really distinguish aspirated consonants? |
[Mar. 13th, 2010|01:44 pm] |
I just read in wikipedia that Mandarin has "no voiced initials" and then saw, under their article about Mandarin phonology, that what pinyin describes as "d" is apparently an aspirated /t/.
That really contradicts my experience with the language. Am I missing something? |
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