Cuthalion's Creatively Created Cranny for Random Banter #192

[TaiLiu]

You know what, just Lookit this.

Ah, Star Wars. I've never watch Star Wars before.

Yes and no. It's entertaining, but it's not a good movie, there are a lot of incongruous just plain dumb-ish stuff and there is Jar-Jar.

What's wrong with Jar-Jar?

[Elemental]

This information was unknown to me.

April Fools, last year. Around when you joined, probably before.

If I may ask: how so?

Because invasive species contribute significantly to the destruction of our native ecosystem. Turning the land barren and driving the wild things to extinction, that kind of thing.

Oh, definitely. Passports and citizenships, oh my!

Blargh... I don't think I even own a passport.

Of course!

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I shall buy a trophy cabinet as soon as possible.

True. But not having to doesn't mean he can't. Of course, doesn't mean you can't lodge a complaint against his complaint, but then... *circular logic train, all aboard!*

It is a word with rather negative connotations, yes. I have heard it used in reference to immigration, for example, and... Yeah. Totally not a positive usage.

Heh. Not all have an Outback, /for some reason was gonna put a Canadian "Eh" here

You have bigger worries than what happens after you deal with your weekly Random Encounter with nature's finest.

I just had no idea what it was.

.... You Australians, considering your amount of immigration, are clueless, aren't you? You can generally say "Are from *country of origin*", because the usual phrasing is "you're from *blahlandia*", but it doesn't really matter. Though goodness...

Yay!

It's a halfbreed halfbreed!

Logic gives me a headache for roughly twenty-two hours of each day unfortunately. I still need to see a doctor about my troubles with sleeping.

Indeed. Quite easily applied with immigrants over here. But that's dangerously political.

That's an Australian colloquialism. That doesn't really make much sense if you think about it... But then it does...

The Department of Tourism is still not paying me, so I'll let that slide.

Neither did I. But I saw something curly above the eyes and guessed.

It's a common part of Australian speech. When asked where you live, you can simply skip over the "I live in Thargomindah" and say "I'm from Thargomindah". Means the same thing in our mind.
And no. I'm not from Thargomindah. That's over a thousand kilometres away.

It doesn't really count. I can't spell the third.

Probably. Most languages are these days.

Oddly enough my search also manages to throw off articles from Australian sites which use the word with a non-negative connotation.

And in any case, context that I'm not Australian and come from a place where invasion isn't a negative word should make it rather plausible that the word was not being used with negative connotation. As was repeatedly pointed out before; several times. And yet for some reason you are claiming it is inflaming even when I've already pointed out it need not be and in the case I used it I had no intention of doing so.

Eh... It could just be that I'm not trendy. But usually it's negative.

That is likely the case. Your birth language is not English as far as I know, so it's probably a difficulty in translating context from language to another.
But in the historical context, the word invasion describes rather unpleasant occurrences, particularly when a certain empire planned to invade one's homeland.

Yes and no. It's entertaining, but it's not a good movie, there are a lot of incongruous just plain dumb-ish stuff and there is Jar-Jar.

That is certainly the case. I get through it by ignoring the plain ridiculousness of Star Wars.

Ah, Star Wars. I've never watch Star Wars before.

What's wrong with Jar-Jar?

Nothing. But some people found him annoying.

[TaiLiu]

April Fools, last year. Around when you joined, probably before.

Indeed. I joined on a leap year, actually - on the twenty-ninth.

Because invasive species contribute significantly to the destruction of our native ecosystem. Turning the land barren and driving the wild things to extinction, that kind of thing.

Ah.

Blargh... I don't think I even own a passport.

You have never been outside of Australia, I take it?

I shall buy a trophy cabinet as soon as possible.

Nonsense! I have already purchased one for you:

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Nothing. But some people found him annoying.

That's... That's all?

[Deathkeeper]

That's... That's all?

Admittedly, he was found to be incredibly annoying. I compare him to Tasslehoff of DragonLance in annoying, except even Tas understands basic language. And wasn't created specifically to appeal to small children.
For the record, the guy who designed him for Star Wars later drew dinosaurs wearing the Avengers' costumes, so he is forgiven.

[TaiLiu]

Admittedly, he was found to be incredibly annoying. I compare him to Tasslehoff of DragonLance in annoying, except even Tas understands basic language. And wasn't created specifically to appeal to small children.

Ah. Was it successful; did it appeal to small children?

For the record, the guy who designed him for Star Wars later drew dinosaurs wearing the Avengers' costumes, so he is forgiven.

Where is this picture located?

[AsteriskAmp]

What's wrong with Jar-Jar?

He's a character which is present in the three prequels and was aimed for children; it can get grating. And if it does then you are screwed. It also is a nonsense character that for some reason gets thrown bigger plot points and into bigger power positions (comically mocked by robot chicken saying it was a conspiracy by jar jar all along to take power).

[Elemental]

Indeed. I joined on a leap year, actually - on the twenty-ninth.

But... It says April... What's a leap year got to do with it?

You have never been outside of Australia, I take it?

Travel is not a luxury I can afford or justify to myself.

Nonsense! I have already purchased one for you:

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Well... That saves me a shopping expedition.

That's... That's all?

Yep. It was a serious trilogy with a non-serious "joke" character thrown in. Yet people had no trouble with C3PO and R2D2... But I suppose they were in the original trilogy...

Admittedly, he was found to be incredibly annoying. I compare him to Tasslehoff of DragonLance in annoying, except even Tas understands basic language. And wasn't created specifically to appeal to small children.
For the record, the guy who designed him for Star Wars later drew dinosaurs wearing the Avengers' costumes, so he is forgiven.

If only forgiveness were that easy all of the time.
And anyway... For the record, Tasslehoff was awesome.

[Dimonite]

Bluuuuuurgh, too much thread is happening for my poor brain to keep up!

But this I saw:

Ah, Star Wars. I've never watch Star Wars before.

What's wrong with Jar-Jar?

And all I have to say to that is that you should watch them. Original Trilogy first, of course.

[TaiLiu]

He's a character which is present in the three prequels and was aimed for children; it can get grating. And if it does then you are screwed. It also is a nonsense character that for some reason gets thrown bigger plot points and into bigger power positions (comically mocked by robot chicken saying it was a conspiracy by jar jar all along to take power).

Are you saying that Jar-Jar completely ruins a movie?

But... It says April... What's a leap year got to do with it?

The twenty-ninth of April only exists on a leap year.

Travel is not a luxury I can afford or justify to myself.

A reasonable conclusion.

Well... That saves me a shopping expedition.

Well, if you still want to shop:

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Yep. It was a serious trilogy with a non-serious "joke" character thrown in. Yet people had no trouble with C3PO and R2D2... But I suppose they were in the original trilogy...

Didn't those two have important functions?

Bluuuuuurgh, too much thread is happening for my poor brain to keep up!

This thread does move fairly quickly.

But this I saw:
And all I have to say to that is that you should watch them. Original Trilogy first, of course.

But... But I don't like movies!

[Deathkeeper]

If only forgiveness were that easy all of the time.
And anyway... For the record, Tasslehoff was awesome.

He was pretty cool. As a plucky party rogue. And then as sidekick and morale support for a depressed protagonist. But as a time traveler main character? After they

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gave him a totally awesome and heroic death?

That's when I was officially fed up with him.
Sadly, I am no longer in possession of the Avengers dinos .jpgs, but I'm sure a google search would bear fruit.

[Elemental]

The twenty-ninth of April only exists on a leap year.

Not in the Gregorian Calendar. April has thirty days in every year. It's February that changes from twenty-eight to twenty-nine. However, if you're using a different calendar, then that explains the confusion.

Didn't those two have important functions?

So did Jar Jar. He was instrumental in one or two things.

But... But I don't like movies!

Watch the stage play instead.
It has been made into a stage play by now? Right?

He was pretty cool. As a plucky party rogue. And then as sidekick and morale support for a depressed protagonist. But as a time traveler main character? After they

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gave him a totally awesome and heroic death?

That's when I was officially fed up with him.

Wait... Time travel? I really have not read that many of the books, have I? I read the main ones...


In not at all related news: My Mum bought me a new watch. One that keeps better time!

[factotum]

Are you saying that Jar-Jar completely ruins a movie?

No, but in the case of "The Phantom Menace" he was like adding stink bombs to a pile of poop--he didn't kill the thing all on his own, but he certainly didn't improve it any!

About the only thing it's worth watching TPM for is Ewan McGregor attempting (hilariously) to act like Alec Guinness.

[TaiLiu]

Not in the Gregorian Calendar. April has thirty days in every year. It's February that changes from twenty-eight to twenty-nine. However, if you're using a different calendar, then that explains the confusion.

Ha. Pf ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha!

You're right; I'm wrong. I don't even know how I made such an obvious mistake like that!

So did Jar Jar. He was instrumental in one or two things.

Ah. Did he manage to do so in an annoying way?

Watch the stage play instead.
It has been made into a stage play by now? Right?

Oh, no. The reason why I dislike movies is because of the noise. Maybe if it's made into a book or comic form...

In not at all related news: My Mum bought me a new watch. One that keeps better time!

Excellent! Is it stylish?

No, but in the case of "The Phantom Menace" he was like adding stink bombs to a pile of poop--he didn't kill the thing all on his own, but he certainly didn't improve it any!

About the only thing it's worth watching TPM for is Ewan McGregor attempting (hilariously) to act like Alec Guinness.

Hm. Are they famous actors?

[Teddy]

This post has me worried over my own language acquisition. What if the Russian I am learning is outdated? If I go to Russia and speak, will they mock me?

That depends on the jerkiness of whoever you talk to, but they'll invariably place you as a foreigner.

Huh. I'd been taught that Nordic = Scandinavian = Iceland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, except for in terms of Geography in which case Iceland no longer counted.

Uh, yeah, that's kind of off. Iceland is never counted as a Scandinavian country, and the Nordics step beyond the language barrier (-ish, as Swedish is still taught in Finnish schools) and looks to cultural and historical similarities instead...

How do you feel about Northlander?

No, that would too easily confuse a Swede, as one of our three lands is called Norrland, and we could mistake you for refering to it.

If you know more than two words in Russian, yours is better than mine.

Let's see...
Apart from the mandatory "da" and "nyet", I know "babushka", "zelenya" and one more which I promptly forgot when starting to write this down. Oh, and a few words which more or less are Russian loan words in English, like "vodka", "Soviet" and "ushanka", and some words which Russian in turn has borrowed from European languages, like "tsar" and some others which I can't remember right now...

Take someone like August or Teddy, though; they can write (and I would assume speak, too) at least two languages with a high degree of proficiency, and both of them have significant knowledge of other languages (German comes to mind, and August just posted a handful of words in Russian (and I know he knows some Latin)).

Well, I have a rather prominent Swedish accent, but yes, I speak English as well. And I know enough German to get along, even though I have a tendency to forget common words when trying to express myself. And I can generally reverse-engineer enough words in French or Latin to get a gist of the general topic in larger texts, but that's about it.

Oh, and I have little to no troubles understanding the other Scandinavic languages, but that should hardly be of any surprise.

ION:
Writing optimised price-spread algorithms is hard. Whenever I try to figure out a way to lower the number of steps in my linear time algorithm, I accidently manage to increase the time complexity as well. Why can't I have an algorithm which is linear without having to run 255 times in a row for a single price update...

[Elemental]

Ha. Pf ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha!

You're right; I'm wrong. I don't even know how I made such an obvious mistake like that!

That's alright. It happens.

Ah. Did he manage to do so in an annoying way?

Eh... Not really...

Oh, no. The reason why I dislike movies is because of the noise. Maybe if it's made into a book or comic form...

I am certain you could find a good novelisation if you looked for one.

Excellent! Is it stylish?

It is nice and elegant.

Uh, yeah, that's kind of off. Iceland is never counted as a Scandinavian country, and the Nordics step beyond the language barrier (-ish, as Swedish is still taught in Finnish schools) and looks to cultural and historical similarities instead...

That would be because Swedish is also an official language of Finland. There's about three hundred thousand people there with Swedish as their native language, and unlike a certain Western European country, Finland is apparently supportive of linguistic minorities.

[Feytalist]

I am certain you could find a good novelisation if you looked for one.

To my slight shame, I have the novelisation of The Phantom Menace. It's actually not terrible.

It's not great, either.


Guys. Apartment hunting is hard.

[Mercenary Pen]

To my slight shame, I have the novelisation of The Phantom Menace. It's actually not terrible.

It's not great, either.

That'd be because they got a pretty good author to do the novelisation- Terry Brooks I believe...

The main faults of the prequel trilogy lie in the script and screenplay, and do little justice to the quality of some of the actors cast (Totally wants to see complete reworkings of episodes 1-3 by a director who knows how to take criticism)

[Elemental]

That'd be because they got a pretty good author to do the novelisation- Terry Brooks I believe...

Now I remember! We have some of his other books, and they're listed in the "Other Works By" section in the front of the book.
Admittedly, I'm not that fond of his work, but I have read some of it and I know he's a good author.

[Teddy]

That would be because Swedish is also an official language of Finland. There's about three hundred thousand people there with Swedish as their native language, and unlike a certain Western European country, Finland is apparently supportive of linguistic minorities.

Huh? No bells are ringing...

Also, you reminded me of something. As seems to be the custom nowadays, there are those who argue that Sweden should start with language tests as a requirement for citizenship, and in response to this, I heard a joke that of course should the test be possible to take in Sami, Finnish, Myenkäli, Romani or Jiddish instead if you so desire, because these five are the official minority languages of Sweden, and as such, all exercise of authority must be availible in any of these languages upon request, including any hypotetical language tests.

[Elemental]

Huh? No bells are ringing...

Also, you reminded me of something. As seems to be the custom nowadays, there are those who argue that Sweden should start with language tests as a requirement for citizenship, and in response to this, I heard a joke that of course should the test be possible to take in Sami, Finnish, Myenkäli, Romani or Jiddish instead if you so desire, because these five are the official minority languages of Sweden, and as such, all exercise of authority must be availible in any of these languages upon request, including any hypotetical language tests.

Don't worry about it, it's just my long standing feud with France concerning their treatment of minority languages. Anything further would be a political discussion.

They do it here in Australia with English as well, but they forget we don't even have an official language. It's part of our culture and history that roughly a tenth of the population speak immigrant languages. Apparently, Swedish isn't a common one.

[Worira]

Well, Latin American culture is fairly homogeneous. It's just that the immigrant groups staunchly refuse to adopt local culture. But in general the locals customs are fairly uniform across the region and the immigrants resemble the culture from their origin country around the 1900s and 1850s.

That's how culture works.

[Deathkeeper]

Wait... Time travel? I really have not read that many of the books, have I? I read the main ones...

Yes, he was in the main Chronicles trilogy (which became four books), then Legends (in which time travel also happens but it makes sense) and then despite having a whole slew of new and interesting characters they brought him back for the War of Souls. And he has his own side novel and a few short stories. He gets almost as much attention as Raistlin. Arguably the same.
Oh and of course he was in the Lost Chronicles since that brought back everyone.

[Teddy]

This is totally a thing, and I'm going to build her. ♫

[LaZodiac]

This is totally a thing, and I'm going to build her. ♫

What's the scale of your super awesome steam punk train?

Also, site's in English

[Teddy]

What's the scale of your super awesome steam punk train?

Length: 17650mm
Weight: 62.7 ton
Awesome: All of it

Also, site's in English

Yeah, I suggested a language switch button, so they added it. It doesn't let you switch back, though...

[Asta Kask]

That would be because Swedish is also an official language of Finland. There's about three hundred thousand people there with Swedish as their native language, and unlike a certain Western European country, Finland is apparently supportive of linguistic minorities.

It's also for historical reasons. Finland was a part of Sweden for 600 years.

[LaZodiac]

Length: 17650mm
Weight: 62.7 ton
Awesome: All of it

Yeah, I suggested a language switch button, so they added it. It doesn't let you switch back, though...

...How big is that? Can I ride it?

And sweet, though that's unfortunate.

[Teddy]

...How big is that? Can I ride it?

0.0109672 miles, for those of you who don't understand metric units

But yes and no, she's a real steam engine, but no, you won't be able to ride her, because she won't be taking passengers before her augmentations have been certified for traffic, which will take a year or two after the reconstruction has been finished (assuming we document it well enough and have the proper expertise around), which in turn won't happen before spring next year.

[LaZodiac]

0.0109672 miles, for those of you who don't understand metric units

But yes and no, she's a real steam engine, but no, you won't be able to ride her, because she won't be taking passengers before her augmentations have been certified for traffic, which will take a year or two after the reconstruction has been finished (assuming we document it well enough and have the proper expertise around), which in turn won't happen before spring next year.

So the answer is that it's the size of an actual train. Good to know! Hella awesome!

It would of been awesome anyway, but the addition of it actually being a train, for real, makes it super the best.

[Asta Kask]

...How big is that? Can I ride it?

And sweet, though that's unfortunate.

You want to ride Teddy's machine?