General Discussion Thread

[FrogEater]

Have just caught up with this thread (some 20+ pages !). Nothing special to say right now, just that :
- you're all an exquisite bunch of conversation buddies (does this make sense ? pure improvisation here)
- the few snippets of French I discovered were pretty good. Seriously :-)

[ThisCat]

Very very very un what?

PC, Politically Correct. Strict and sometimes stupid rules for what is and is not alright to say.

I want to meet your sister XD Greek salad dog, prune loser, cheese crumb... You could write a bestseller out of these insults!

To be fair, the greek salad dog came from a very strange google search. Me and her have the most nonsensical conversations.

[Sunflower]

Have just caught up with this thread (some 20+ pages !). Nothing special to say right now, just that :
- you're all an exquisite bunch of conversation buddies (does this make sense ? pure improvisation here)
- the few snippets of French I discovered were pretty good. Seriously :-)

Yes, it's quite like a salon, isn't it?  Full of badinage and jeux d'esprit, and people politely check their swords and flamethrowers at the door.    (I always wanted to be part of a salon of the Ancien Régime... minus the toxic lead-based makeup, terrifying hairdos, and general lack of bathing, of course.  I think I would have been well-suited as a préciuse ridicule...)

Seriously, I do enjoy this forum so much.  I spend a lot of time in front of the computer (since I'm between jobs), and I always perk up when I visit. 

[Eich]

Oh, gosh, my dad is sooooo not politically correct.  He's earned the right not to be, but strangers don't know that, haha.  It can make bringing visitors over... Difficult.  Still, maybe the world needs a little less PC in it.  Maybe?

As for pastors... I've never had a crazy pastor, the two I've had were/are actually quite good people, very friendly and understanding.  But the pianist at my current church, I cannot stand.  She's not a bad person or anything, but she drags out the songs and just keeps beating the life out of them, singing the chorus over and over and oveeeerrrr again.  I timed one of the songs once when she was there, it lasted 45 minutes.  I hang out with the pastor sometimes, but I don't even bother going to the services anymore because of her.

My brother comes up with some crazy stuff every now and then.  It's not weird necessarily, just very well timed.  He tuned "I can fly," into one of the funniest things I've ever heard.

[kjeks]

I only know about the English phrase "to be a grammar nazi", aka someone who's picky about grammar. I don't really think such phrases exist in Italian, I've never come across one myself.
 Mind if I ask about the  strangest situations and/or phrases you've heard?

Nope. I'm fine with that. If the next one comes up I'll try to remember. Last year's topic erased as one pupil taught the others the "Penis!"-Game in the Hitler-Version. I fully understand the intention of shouting a word louder than anyone else just to see the faces of those not let in (initiated, inaugurated???) on the game. But "Hitler"-shouts on a special needs school from pupils who would have been targeted themselves, there's a limit.

"Highlight" was at a school specialised on learning disabilities where a guy who could'nt properly read, nor write, nor calculating once started the lesson by saying: We need another Hitler, than school would be put to the right order. I had to tell him, that our school certainly would not exist. Problem was this guys came from a brown background where he grabed those phrases on a daily basis but lacked the intelligence to understand the full meaning. That's somewhat hard to see.

Hmm, we've got so many events related to the second world war and politically period before that, that rememberance on one of those days would not be enough. But in History, religion/ethics and politics/economics the topic regularly pops up and is than tought about longer time fokussing on one special topic. But the older you get the more tho focus turns on actual problems of rassism. How people get attracted to rassistic thoughts, which hopes sometimes lie beyond hate and how you can argument people on the brink back into a differentiated way of thinking.

hmmm, you see, this topic brings up a load of thoughts, sorry, didn't want to swap the general discussion with that.

Oh, gosh, my dad is sooooo not politically correct.  He's earned the right not to be, but strangers don't know that, haha.  It can make bringing visitors over... Difficult.  Still, maybe the world needs a little less PC in it.  Maybe?

Hehe, my dad is good at these jokes too, but most times he senses it when people tend to be affronted. One should not use to much politically correctness. Especially when people are enlightened (educated?) enough to know which serious topics are beneath the jokes made. I like politically incorrect jokes. With my sort of pupiels my collegues and me sometimes are in need of those jokes, because they make the hard times a lot easier. But aaaa. Stop. Enough. No more Spam.

[FrogEater]

Yes, it's quite like a salon, isn't it?  Full of badinage and jeux d'esprit, and people politely check their swords and flamethrowers at the door.    (I always wanted to be part of a salon of the Ancien Régime... minus the toxic lead-based makeup, terrifying hairdos, and general lack of bathing, of course.  I think I would have been well-suited as a préciuse ridicule...)

You might have been a précieuse but certainly not ridicule 
There were salons of all kinds, ranging from purely boring to fashionable, fierce and hollow. This one is of the nice breed, where people don't try to shine at the expense of others - and this is more than pleasant.
About hairdos : you would be lovely coiffée à la montgolfière, wouldn't you ? 

[Sunflower]

About hairdos : you would be lovely coiffée à la montgolfière, wouldn't you ? 

Ha ha, perfect!  The Bibliotheque Nationale won't let me view its resources, but I looked up that hairstyle and found a description:

Since they were in the country, the elegant women spectators wore country hairstyles, but they went white with jealousy on perceiving a fellow Parisienne displaying a hairstyle A la montgolfiere, a blue-and-gold balloon just like that of M. Montgolfier balanced on an artificial chignon.

Better even than that classic late 18th-C. hairstyle featuring a fully rigged, three-masted ship surmounting waves of powdered hair.

Merci beaucoup, cher monsieur. Enjoy the weekend.

[OrigamiOwl]

Oh, gosh, my dad is sooooo not politically correct.  He's earned the right not to be, but strangers don't know that, haha.  It can make bringing visitors over... Difficult.  Still, maybe the world needs a little less PC in it.  Maybe?

As for pastors... I've never had a crazy pastor, the two I've had were/are actually quite good people, very friendly and understanding.  But the pianist at my current church, I cannot stand.  She's not a bad person or anything, but she drags out the songs and just keeps beating the life out of them, singing the chorus over and over and oveeeerrrr again.  I timed one of the songs once when she was there, it lasted 45 minutes.  I hang out with the pastor sometimes, but I don't even bother going to the services anymore because of her.

My brother comes up with some crazy stuff every now and then.  It's not weird necessarily, just very well timed.  He tuned "I can fly," into one of the funniest things I've ever heard.

Haha my dad usually [[[there was a paragraph here, but I deleted it because it was just a really long list of what he does]]] it's just super cringey sometimes. Especially in public.

Our previous pastor was THE BEST, I don't really remember him because I was so young, but he was from Scotland and came over for dinner a lot with his wife.
I know how you feel about the songs Eich!! At primary school, nearly all the hymns were just two minor chords, played after each other. It sounded like we were chanting some weird sacrificial ritual instead of celebrating Easter!! D8 The new pastor also does this...thing... Before eveeeeerrrry song where he announces the title, then casually also announces all of the first verse.
Eg: "And now we will stand, and sing [ah poop I can't think of any songs! Haha] Shine Jesus Shine, Fill This Land With The Father's Glory, Blaze Spirit Blaze, Set Our Hearts On Fire, G---*is cut off by pianist*
So me and my sisters will copy him sometimes, just to be derps XD

We only go to church at Christmas now, because everyone farm-y works on Sundays, and that kind of bugs the pastor because he thinks we're being all selfish, but that's just how our livelihood wooooorks (so he kind of dislikes us)

Then at high school, the pianist always had the songs in a key that was too high for the entire school haha

What happened to 'We Can Fly'??!??? XD what did he dooooo??!

[Eich]

Haha my dad usually [[[there was a paragraph here, but I deleted it because it was just a really long list of what he does]]] it's just super cringey sometimes. Especially in public.

Our previous pastor was THE BEST, I don't really remember him because I was so young, but he was from Scotland and came over for dinner a lot with his wife.
I know how you feel about the songs Eich!! At primary school, nearly all the hymns were just two minor chords, played after each other. It sounded like we were chanting some weird sacrificial ritual instead of celebrating Easter!! D8 The new pastor also does this...thing... Before eveeeeerrrry song where he announces the title, then casually also announces all of the first verse.
Eg: "And now we will stand, and sing [ah poop I can't think of any songs! Haha] Shine Jesus Shine, Fill This Land With The Father's Glory, Blaze Spirit Blaze, Set Our Hearts On Fire, G---*is cut off by pianist*
So me and my sisters will copy him sometimes, just to be derps XD

We only go to church at Christmas now, because everyone farm-y works on Sundays, and that kind of bugs the pastor because he thinks we're being all selfish, but that's just how our livelihood wooooorks (so he kind of dislikes us)

Then at high school, the pianist always had the songs in a key that was too high for the entire school haha

What happened to 'We Can Fly'??!??? XD what did he dooooo??!

I was gonna put my dad's nickname for our dog in the last post, but I thought it would be unwise to...

Our old pastor was Scottish too, actually.  Ferguson was his name.  Great guy, but he retired last year.  The new guy is his understudy, and he's welsh, so we still get the cool accent.  I'm at a different place now though.  Any pastor that would judge you for not going to his sermons needs to reassess how he thinks.  -__- 

I don't really remember.  We were watching a movie or something when he said it I think.  He's full of unexpected quips, though.

[potatobunny]

I don't like political correctness for the sake of political correctness. It's much better, though much harder to achieve, to have people who understand why particular phrases and words are inappropriate. (And then go on to use them when playing Cards Against Humanity.)

I wince when my parents or extended family say things that are bigoted but "accepted" in our culture, and there was that time when my uncle decided to tell me all about this friend's daughter who got a PhD, was overeducated so never got a husband, and then bought a big house or two in Australia (didn't sound like a terrible outcome). Come to think of it a previous hairstylist I went to would say similar things, pointing out that I'd never get married if I kept studying.

On the flip side, I've had discussions with friends on how hard it is to find datable (non-sexist and non-racist, among other things) men from particular cultures that we belong to. I doubt that's PC.

Eich, I'm curious how your dad earned the right not to be PC. Did something bad happen? 

_{edited because I some words}

[OrigamiOwl]

I don't like political correctness for the sake of political correctness. It's much better, though much harder to achieve, people who understand why particular phrases and words are inappropriate. (And then go on to use them when playing Cards Against Humanity.)

I wince when my parents or extended family say things that are bigoted but "accepted" in our culture, and there was that time when my uncle decided to tell me all about this friend's daughter who got a PhD, was overeducated so never got a husband, and then bought a big house or two in Australia (didn't sound like a terrible outcome). Come to think of it a previous hairstylist I went to would say similar things, pointing out that I'd never get married if I kept studying.

On the flip side, I've had discussions with friends on how hard it is to find datable (non-sexist and non-racist, among other things) from particular cultures that we belong to. I doubt that's PC.

Eich, I'm curious how your dad earned the right not to be PC. Did something bad happen? 

Hmmm, I've tried posting 6 times, but every time my phone crashes and says the server can't respond :/

I think political correctness has a place, eg: it's horrible to call disabled people ret***s and non-straight people...stuff...and calling people from Asia and the pacific...things... or call non-white people...other things (I have/had plenty of friends I couldn't invite over because it would be so embarrassing and awful) and being sexist à la the 1960's :S

I know how you feel my potato-buddy.
I cop a lot of weird stuff like that too:
"I'm only going to university to get out of doing real work"
"I'll be too educated to get married to anyone who can take over the farm for me and do manual work" (even as the eldest heir, the will doesn't have me on it- it goes to my younger male cousin what the hell)
"I'm not having children fast enough" (?!?!?)
"My place is in the kitchen"
"I'd've been better off as a son blah blah blah"
Hmmm. Hence, I wanna get off the island of bigotry and douchiness ;P

I was wondering about Eich's dad too, and assumed he had experience in the military or emergency services or something?

I was gonna put my dad's nickname for our dog in the last post, but I thought it would be unwise to...

Our old pastor was Scottish too, actually.  Ferguson was his name.  Great guy, but he retired last year.  The new guy is his understudy, and he's welsh, so we still get the cool accent.  I'm at a different place now though.  Any pastor that would judge you for not going to his sermons needs to reassess how he thinks.  -__- 

I don't really remember.  We were watching a movie or something when he said it I think.  He's full of unexpected quips, though.

Welsh! Awesome! As 99.9999999999% of my ancestry is welsh, I feel obligated to say that he sounds cool. And probably has crazy cheekbones ;3

I'm guessing your bro quoted it during a flight/falling scene in an unrelated film?? X'D

[Eich]

I don't like political correctness for the sake of political correctness. It's much better, though much harder to achieve, people who understand why particular phrases and words are inappropriate. (And then go on to use them when playing Cards Against Humanity.)

I wince when my parents or extended family say things that are bigoted but "accepted" in our culture, and there was that time when my uncle decided to tell me all about this friend's daughter who got a PhD, was overeducated so never got a husband, and then bought a big house or two in Australia (didn't sound like a terrible outcome). Come to think of it a previous hairstylist I went to would say similar things, pointing out that I'd never get married if I kept studying.

On the flip side, I've had discussions with friends on how hard it is to find datable (non-sexist and non-racist, among other things) from particular cultures that we belong to. I doubt that's PC.

Eich, I'm curious how your dad earned the right not to be PC. Did something bad happen? 

Personally, intelligence is attractive to me. 

No, nothing bad, he's just a badass.  He's just seen it all.  (This paragraph quickly turned into a bit of dad-bragging, and I apologize... I'm just really proud to be his son.)  He could tell you stories about how so-and-so burned down someone's house cause someone's kid knocked up their daughter, or how a goat ate his house, or why there's a mountain trail called "rat's ass" a few hours north of where I live, or how Chinese restaurants in New York catch their "duck" ...  He's experienced pretty much everything a person can in America, so he's not at all concerned with other peoples' stereotypes or stigmas. 
Edit: And no, Owl, he wasn't in the military.  Life threw lots of weirdness his way, and he just kind of rolled with it.

Hmmm, I've tried posting 6 times, but every time my phone crashes and says the server can't respond :/

I think political correctness has a place, eg: it's horrible to call disabled people ret***s and non-straight people...stuff...and calling people from Asia and the pacific...things... or call non-white people...other things (I have/had plenty of friends I couldn't invite over because it would be so embarrassing and awful) and being sexist à la the 1960's :S

I know how you feel my potato-buddy.
I cop a lot of weird stuff like that too:
"I'm only going to university to get out of doing real work"
"I'll be too educated to get married to anyone who can take over the farm for me and do manual work" (even as the eldest heir, the will doesn't have me on it- it goes to my younger male cousin what the hell)
"I'm not having children fast enough" (?!?!?)
"My place is in the kitchen"
"I'd've been better off as a son blah blah blah"
Hmmm. Hence, I wanna get off the island of bigotry and douchiness ;P

I was wondering about Eich's dad too, and assumed he had experience in the military or emergency services or something?

Welsh! Awesome! As 99.9999999999% of my ancestry is welsh, I feel obligated to say that he sounds cool. And probably has crazy cheekbones ;3

I'm guessing your bro quoted it during a flight/falling scene in an unrelated film?? X'D

That kind of sucks.  My family has a pretty long history of eldest daughters and youngest sons (my brother's older, but they stopped at me for reasons better left undisclosed), but we've always divided the inheritances equally (at least, since the farm went to an older brother, several generations ago).

He's pretty cool, yeah.  He was a math major in college, and he's literally the only person in that building who gets my jokes.  Physics humor mostly falls on deaf ears in South Carolina.

For some reason, I think there was a catapult involved, somewhere... I'm not sure.

[potatobunny]

I know how you feel my potato-buddy.
I cop a lot of weird stuff like that too:
"I'm only going to university to get out of doing real work"
"I'll be too educated to get married to anyone who can take over the farm for me and do manual work" (even as the eldest heir, the will doesn't have me on it- it goes to my younger male cousin what the hell)
"I'm not having children fast enough" (?!?!?)
"My place is in the kitchen"
"I'd've been better off as a son blah blah blah"
Hmmm. Hence, I wanna get off the island of bigotry and douchiness ;P

Wow, people can be so terrible. And what?! You're not in the will? I didn't realize that Y chromosomes were so incredibly crucial to running a farm. 

On being better off as a son: I've had this thought myself, several times. I used to be very tomboyish, and I just have some traits that'd be a lot better received if I was a boy. It took time and reading and talking to my dad and living abroad for me to realize that I did not in fact actually want to be a guy. Instead, I just wanted the sort of respect and affirmation that masculinity (especially in my society and culture) brings, and now that I know I can achieve that by reducing contact with terrible people, I'm happy with my gender (and my lipstick collection grows and grows).

Personally, intelligence is attractive to me. 

No, nothing bad, he's just a badass.  He's just seen it all.  (This paragraph quickly turned into a bit of dad-bragging, and I apologize... I'm just really proud to be his son.)  He could tell you stories about how so-and-so burned down someone's house cause someone's kid knocked up their daughter, or how a goat ate his house, or why there's a mountain trail called "rat's ass" a few hours north of where I live, or how Chinese restaurants in New York catch their "duck" ...  He's experienced pretty much everything a person can in America, so he's not at all concerned with other peoples' stereotypes or stigmas. 

I, too, find intelligence attractive, but I think we were approaching datability from the other side, so to speak. Basically, not so much "what is your ideal guy" but "list the most basic baselines you have", and even with a baseline of not-sexist-and-not-racist, that already left too few candidates to consider other compatibilities.

I'm glad it wan't anything bad. My thought process was something like "oh, earned the right?" "wait, that sounds like some people behaved very badly to him in a stereotyped way". How did the goat eat his house? o_o

[OrigamiOwl]

Personally, intelligence is attractive to me. 

No, nothing bad, he's just a badass.  He's just seen it all.  (This paragraph quickly turned into a bit of dad-bragging, and I apologize... I'm just really proud to be his son.)  He could tell you stories about how so-and-so burned down someone's house cause someone's kid knocked up their daughter, or how a goat ate his house, or why there's a mountain trail called "rat's ass" a few hours north of where I live, or how Chinese restaurants in New York catch their "duck" ...  He's experienced pretty much everything a person can in America, so he's not at all concerned with other peoples' stereotypes or stigmas. 
Edit: And no, Owl, he wasn't in the military.  Life threw lots of weirdness his way, and he just kind of rolled with it.
That kind of sucks.  My family has a pretty long history of eldest daughters and youngest sons (my brother's older, but they stopped at me for reasons better left undisclosed), but we've always divided the inheritances equally (at least, since the farm went to an older brother, several generations ago).

He's pretty cool, yeah.  He was a math major in college, and he's literally the only person in that building who gets my jokes.  Physics humor mostly falls on deaf ears in South Carolina.

For some reason, I think there was a catapult involved, somewhere... I'm not sure.

Hehe, my dad does the same thing XD although they are two totally different people- same sheet music, different instruments ;P
Crazy stories!

Yeah, I think everyone here does too. I don't think I'd want to spend the rest of my life as a human spell-checker or encyclopedia, I do that already for my dad (as quick witted and verbose as he is, he's actually kind of illiterate, most men from his generation are here- but he's really good at maths and machinery design, and verbal waffle- so occasionally he'll shout out a word and I'll shout-spell it from the garden or wherever ) I'd much prefer to spend my time with an equal, but maybe from a different field, so we'd have most topics covered between us XP hehe

Like Potato said, it's not really a "soooo, describe Mr Right" thing, it's a "uncheck all the boxes corresponding to terrible traits...*sleep-over computer voice*...you have.....2 results! And they don't like you!" Heheheeeeeeegh
It's a hard choice between Smarts and Niceness, because a lot of the time they don't ever coincide X'D and when you tell people that that's what you're looking for, they're like "Gee, I guess you want the moon too huh kiddo?" U__U

Meh, me and Potato will just be single old cat ladies forever ;P or Tarus. Taru's cool.

[potatobunny]

Like Potato said, it's not really a "soooo, describe Mr Right" thing, it's a "uncheck all the boxes corresponding to terrible traits...*sleep-over computer voice*...you have.....2 results! And they don't like you!" Heheheeeeeeegh
It's a hard choice between Smarts and Niceness, because a lot of the time they don't ever coincide X'D and when you tell people that that's what you're looking for, they're like "Gee, I guess you want the moon too huh kiddo?" U__U

Meh, me and Potato will just be single old cat ladies forever ;P or Tarus. Taru's cool.

The computer voice thing is the most best description of this. 

I can't be a single old cat lady (or Taru) with you, though. I found a perfect unicorn mashup of Smarts and Niceness and discovered he liked me while we were revising for a statistics test.
...............I mean, it's just that he's 10,000 kilometers away and I haven't hugged him since January, but that's not much against him _{and I get to see him in two weeks SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE}