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[Jimor]

May, so sorry university is turning out to be such a pain for you. I hope you realize it's not a failure, but just a hard-earned discovery of what is and isn't right for you. I gotta say I've been impressed as hell with how you've been grabbing life with both hands over the past couple of years, even as I worried you might burn out from it. When you find your path, I am absolutely sure that you will rock it like few others can.

Zingo, good to hear that you've found alternate housing for now. Likewise, I've been impressed with your willingness to take the chance to improve your life with the cross-country move and other things. It's tough as hell sometimes, and there will undoubtedly be more setback, but keep clawing forward until you can get where you really want to be.

With the idea that despite a lot of detours, we eventually end up where we belong, the music video I directed has officially been released! Parie Wood - Freeloader. It's not going to blow anybody away as the most cutting edge video out there, but I believe it does exactly what it needs to do to express the personality of the artist and the song.

[Zingoleb]

Good editing! I like it.

[Barmymoo]

Things I would like to do today:

Take a nap
Watch a film
Read a book
Knit a pleasing garment
Finish my land law supervision

Things I must do today:

Cycle six miles
Teach about cliches
Sing for perhaps ten minutes
Sit silently backstage for an hour and a half
Mingle with the sort of people who voluntarily pay £32 to watch Wagner

[DrPhibes]

Crazy weekend. From fridat 18:00 till now, sunday 18:00 I've pretty much been drinking, do a workshop and a musicquiz on a weekend away fro 50 people. Total sleep? 2 times 4 hours.

In the trainride home with a group of eight we've decided as a joke to occupy everything. Occupy Cows, Occupy lasers, Occupy beer, Occupy Facebook.
well, that last one were gonna put in effect and create an Occupy group on FB with pictures of tents and spam people's pages saying they are now occupied
edit: http://www.facebook.com/groups/182581988510699/

[Carl-E]

Jimor, that was really well done.  I'll be showng it to my daughter tonight - the one who tells us we pressured her into doing the thngs that she told us she wanted to do.  Because she thought it was what we wanted her to do.  Which isn't what we wanted for her at all, 


No, there are no typos in there.  Had to double check. 


Zingo, glad you're getting out of that nuthouse.  You may be getting into another, but let's hope the new nuts fit you better.   

[Jace]

Tournament on the 18th of February. First time playing in years.
Need to have 89 models painted.
Have 24 models painted
Need to start building 16 more models and a tank (from scratch, no kit), at least 1 model needs somewhat extensive conversion work.
Need to finish building 11 models.
28 that are built need to be based.
1 is based, but 29 that are built need to be primered black.
Then they can be painted.
Need to paint 2 more tanks, 6 models.
The order that I will perform these tasks in are as such:

Finish building the 11 models.
Start the tank/get frustrated with the tank.
Build 16 more models.
Work on the tank/get frustrated with the tank.
Convert the one model.
Finish the tank.
Base 55 models.
Prime 56 models (including the tank, which is not based)
Paint 65 models.
Be done with them for now. But don't varnish them so you can add more detail later.

Waffle on doing homework like you have been for the past week already. Who cares if you have a test coming up. You have miniatures that need painting.

[Carl-E]

Fascinating - someone who's able to prioritize the ignoring of priorities...

GO, JACE!!!

[Barmymoo]

Oh grah argh mah eh I have so much work to do and I am so tired 

Trying to decide whether it is better to stay up late tonight, or get to bed and just try desperately to cram a week's worth of work into three days. And fail either way.

[Zingoleb]

Someone gave me a book but it is so terrible that it's literally unreadable.

Cat screamed. Flames burst out of him all over. He screamed again, and beat at himself with flaming hands, and went on screaming. They were pale, shimmering, transparent flames. They burst out through his clothes, and his shoes, his hair, across his face, so that, in seconds, he was wrapped in pale flame from head to foot. He fell on the floor, still screaming, and rolled there, blazing.

Janet kept her presence of mind. She dragged up the nearest corner of the carpet and threw it over Cat. She had heard that this smothered flames. But it did not smother these. TO Janet's horror, the pale, ghostly flames came straight through the carpet as if it was not there, and played on the black  underside of it more fiercely than ever. They did not burn the carpet, nor did they burn Janet's hands as she frantically rolled Cat over in the carpet, and then over again. But no matter how much carpet she wrapped around Cat, the flames still came through, and Cat went on blazing and screaming. His head was half outside the flaming bundle she had made of him, and it was a sheaf of flames. She could see his screaming face inside the fire.

tl;dr: dude's on fire and screams a lot

[schimmy]

Dude be blazing.

[Barmymoo]

I love the Chrestromanci series! You better watch whose childhoods you're insulting there, Zingalingading.

[Zingoleb]

Apparently not enough to spell it right.

[Carl-E]

Portmanteu of Chrestomanci and Romance...?

I remember reading those to me girls when they were younger.  Aimed at pre-teens, as I recall...

[Barmymoo]

Bah I was typing fast in my passion.

[Zingoleb]

I've a bit of kiwi lodged in my sinuses. It's not very pleasant.

[Penheart]

Just got sworn into the Airforce last January and am now just exercising as much as I can, doing housework, and just doing my own interests (reading, writing, drawing, model repair ect.) four 4-5 more months unless I get a call to come in immediately. It's not really the repetitious days and the fact that all my friends are off to college that's getting to me, since I either really don't care or actually like it. What is is the uncertainty of not being prepared physically yet if I get an immediate call to come in leading to something I like to call passive anxiety.

To cut through this is the call I got from my birth mother in Nicaragua and listening to my little niece in the background laughing.

[Jace]

Finish building the 11 models.
Start the tank/get frustrated with the tank.
Build 16 more models.
Work on the tank/get frustrated with the tank.
Convert the one model.
Finish the tank.
Base 55 models.
Prime 56 models (including the tank, which is not based)
Paint 65 models.
Be done with them for now. But don't varnish them so you can add more detail later.

I'm off to a good start so far, having already become frustrated with the tank a full 2 days before I thought I would.

[Barmymoo]

What is is the uncertainty of not being prepared physically yet if I get an immediate call to come in leading to something I like to call passive anxiety.

I don't know much about the forces but as I understand it, they don't actually let you enlist unless they think you're fit enough, and you will get training, so although obviously it's good to be working out now and getting fitter, you are unlikely to get there and be told to go home because you're not ready. I could be wrong, but that's how I thought it works - they check your fitness when they enlist you and then they train you up more.

Speaking of exercise, I seem to have lost 3cm round my waist this month. Turns out exercise really does work.

[Barmymoo]

I think the idea of any country teaching a course on the culture of any other country is ridiculous, because I am not certain I know of anyone in England who would be able to say what English Culture actually is. Preeeeetty certain I would disagree with your course's opinions. Preeeeetty certain 100 other people would also disagree, and disagree with me, and disagree with each other.

[Zingoleb]

Oh, really? Scottish, Irish, and Welsh people are all the same. They like to hear this, too, it gives them a sense of solidarity, so you should let them know all the time that you don't really see a difference between them.

[Carl-E]

I love the little molotov cocktails you serve before dinner...

[snalin]

Honestly, I'd like to see how "Norwegian culture" would be taught abroad, though I doubt it does. maybe "Scandinavian culture" or "Nordic culture" exists? Depends on how much the universities around caters to the black metal crowds, really. It probably wouldn't be very meaningful - the modern, urban culture seems to be pretty similar all over Europe, so you'd probably have to overemphasize the differences.

[pwhodges]

Oh, really? Scottish, Irish, and Welsh people are all the same.

Absolutely!  They're all Celts; they all speak Gaelic or something, whatever they call it; and of course there's been no inter-marriage or cross-breeding with the Anglo-Saxon English in the past 1500 years at all.

But they do have all the best mountains (no fjords, though).

[pwhodges]

I love the little molotov cocktails you serve before dinner...

That's the Irish bombing each other,  and is quasi-religious.  Mind you, they like to bomb the English too, just for the hell of it.

(Those troubles seem to be pretty much over, though.)

[Lines]

Pretty sure he was being sarcastic? Considering it's pretty well known they don't like hearing that.

[Zingoleb]

Pretty sure he was being sarcastic? Considering it's pretty well known they don't like hearing that.

whoops!

also I was being about as tongue-in-cheek as it possible to be

[pwhodges]

(As was I, of course.)  Ah, the dangers of written sarcasm!

[Skewbrow]

Happens too often nowadays. If you don't litter your post/e-mail/whatnot with smileys, then somebody will assume that you were serious.

[pwhodges]

To be fair, it's happened since the Internet began; there's just so much more  Internet these days.

I come back from the pub and have to read this kind of bullshit?

The pub can have that effect on comprehension...

[Lines]

Pretty sure he was being sarcastic? Considering it's pretty well known they don't like hearing that.

whoops!

Sorry! Do you prefer she or ze?

[DrPhibes]

I LOVE MARC VAN BERKEL.
Aka my newest-history teacher. After failing the resit for the second time I normally have one more chance, if I wouldn't get it than I'd have to leave the university !
He gave us two chances!

[Zingoleb]

Pretty sure he was being sarcastic? Considering it's pretty well known they don't like hearing that.

whoops!

Sorry! Do you prefer she or ze?

They, actually, but I won't be offended by either of those.

I do love this place; everyone respects my pronoun. I'm having a really hard time with others pronouns, though, 'cause...Audrey and D don't have a pronoun, they just go by their name, Taiga and Mims use they/she/ze, Phi is they/it/ze, Brighton and Izi are they/he/ze, Trevor is heshe/shehe (that's awkward), Elsa/Lou is ze/za/zo, and Joey is the only binary person here, and he's just he.

This was as much for your information as much as me trying to keep it all straight.

Elsa/Lou also uses fruits and colours for pronouns, but apparently no one does that more than, say, twice.

[Lines]

Pronouns are tricky. They're the one thing I always forget about - if someone changes gender, I'll call them by their desired name but always mess up the pronoun. And what makes it even more confusing is that some people don't mind and some people are really anal about it. (Like one ftm yelled at a friend because she accidentally called her she after the other had only been male for about a week.) Hopefully I'll remember the right pronoun next time.

[Zingoleb]

No problem! I'm not upset.

[Barmymoo]

That's interesting - do you refer to yourself as female? Why they? (Interested rather than judging, but I'd hope you would realise that  ). Also what name do you use these days? Because in my head you are Yuna, wasn't sure if that's actually a name you use outside the internet!

[Zingoleb]

I'm just a person. I let other people gender me, and the given assumption is female 99.99% of the time (I've had...two instances where I was read male, and my natural reaction was to laugh in their faces). If I have to identify, it'd be as an androgyne. Most people here are genderqueer, and 'they' is a simple gender-neutral pronoun

The name I use most is Unicorn, so my facebook name was a pun on that. The irony is that my friends in real life are now calling me Yuna because of it. That (Unicorn, that is) was a name that was given to me by a friend early on in my transition and it suited me rather well. A couple years ago I played with the name Raine but I was talked out of it (the idea was that changing your name you're supposed to blend in, not stick out; while I think this is generally true, it doesn't quite apply to myself, I think). My friend Joey knew me by that name, and he's continued using it and actually introduced me to the house as such, so I'm called Raine or Unicorn in fairly equal amounts.

Legal name is still Leslie, named after this Leslie. But I think the rest of my life will be staged around various pseudonyms. Identity is fluid.

[Jimmy the Squid]

In my head I only ever refer to you as Zing. Hope that helps.

[Zingoleb]

You're not the only one.

[Carl-E]

Zingo, to me. 


not to be confused with Mr. Starkey...


I've used "they" as a gender neutral pronoun for years and years, but it seems most people don't get it and assume I've lost track of number in my sentences, even though it's an accepted form in the language. 

This includes my English professor father-in-law, who argued with me about it for quite some time a couple of years ago when he came across it in a paper he was proofing for me.  Never  let relatives edit... 

[The Seldom Killer]

I've always favoured 'Leb, just because it's reads a lot more as a name and seems to fit the image that I have of you. Not sure I could call someone Unicorn with a striaght face. That has more to do with spending an unhealthy amount of time playing RPGs and hanging around at game-cons and washed up hippies though.

[snalin]

Trevor is heshe

I read that out loud as "hishy", and that sound awesome. Like "fishy", just with the h.

[Akima]

I've used "they" as a gender neutral pronoun for years and years, but it seems most people don't get it and assume I've lost track of number in my sentences, even though it's an accepted form in the language.

The "singular they" has been used in English since at least Chaucer's time, despite constant attempts to misrepresent it as a recent "politically correct" coinage. Such writers as Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and Henry Fielding used it, and I'm certainly not going to say I know English better than they did. In my view, it is by far the least unsatisfactory way of avoiding gender-specific writing.

[pwhodges]

I have used "they" for a long time (though not entirely consistently, I will admit); but there are situations where I feel it still sits uncomfortably, and in these cases I will typically recast the sentence into a form that works for me.

[Zingoleb]

In my view, it is by far the least unsatisfactory way of avoiding gender-specific writing.

Same here. It's one already used broadly and the way English works, if you use it long enough, it becomes grammatically correct, and they as a singular gender-neutral pronoun has been in use for centuries, as you pointed out. There's always experimentation with other words, the most common I see being zie and hir*, which I insofar haven't seen out of the trans* and furry communities (which have a surprising amount of overlap).

*I just realized that zie and hir both could relate to sie and ihr in German...

[Lines]

They could be related to the German, but hir is definitely a combination of his and her and ze (I haven't seen it spelled as zie before) just replaces h/sh for he and she, I think.

[Zingoleb]

Well, yes, I'm very aware of that - I meant that a connection could be drawn between the two, not that it came from German.

[dr. nervioso]

Ever since I got my college acceptance, I don't want to go to school anymore.
I just wan to close my eyes and be there.

[Akima]

There's always experimentation with other words, the most common I see being zie and hir*

When speaking  Chinese there is no problem because the words for "he", "she", and "it" (他，她，它) are all pronounced exactly the same ("tā", like "fa" in "do, ray, me, fa..."), but the written forms are different as you can see. In Chinese you can't use "they" to get around the problem because there are three words meaning "they" (他们，她们，它们, all pronounced tā-m'n), and they are gender-specific too (they are simply plural forms of he, she, and it).

[pwhodges]

In Chinese you can't use "they" to get around the problem because there are three words meaning "they" (他们,她们,它们, all pronounced tā-m'n), and they are gender-specific too (they are simply plural forms of he, she, and it).

If the words for "they" are gender-specific, how do you indicate a group of mixed gender?

[LTK]

If Chinese is anything like French, they use the male plural pronoun.

Fun fact: The Dutch plural pronoun is identical to the female pronoun, 'zij'. To know which one is meant you need to look at how the verbs are conjugated.