Hey Howdy Hey Tappers!
It’s that time of the week again, time for the Addicts Weekly Open Thread! So, let’s get the conversation going! Oh and remember…just because this is posted here today doesn’t mean you can’t comment on it all week long. This open thread will still be open for comments long after today is over!
Here’s where you can talk about anything you want to talk about…TSTO Related, Simpson’s Related or ANYTHING. Just no Add me requests…those should go here. We’ll give you a few suggestions (like most Sunday’s you can talk about the current episode of the Simpsons) but for the most part you’re free to talk about ANYTHING your little Tapping Fingers desire…just keep it PG.
So…here is your Open Thread. No new Simpsons tonight…actually there won’t be another new episode until next weekend, Valentine’s Day. However, we had a little update this past week in our own Springfield’s….what are your thoughts on the new Daily Challenges? Bonuts? Did you catch our interview with Todd a TSTO Animator? Really awesome stuff from an extremely talented designer!
It’s Superbowl Sunday! How will you be spending the Superbowl? Have a party planned? Going to one? Just hanging out and watching anything but football? Who do you think will win, the Broncos or the Panthers?
Looking for something fun to do if you’re not into football? Have you checked out Frinkiac yet? It’s a fun search engine where you can search Simpsons screencaps. It’s pretty neat, you should check it out! 🙂
How was your weekend? Do anything fun and exciting? Ready for the work week to start back up? (I know I’m not! I’ve been off of work since November 1st…and tomorrow’s my first day back. I’m not ready!)
So chat about the Simpsons, TSTO, Update fun, or anything else you can think of! Can’t wait to chat with you all, you know we love hearing from you!
Have Fun! And happy Sunday!
Ugh – Going so crazy. Read a few comments last night but didn’t post. I’ve spent the entire weekend running around making sure that everything was all set for the kids and my husband this week, since I was supposed to leave on business today (Monday) at a moment’s notice for the week. Headed to the good ‘ol USA – unfortunately, nowhere warm 🙁 But, the international agreement isn’t properly signed due to online system issues and as I’m waiting to know what flight to book…..I may get sent to an entirely different client, closer to home. And both sound GOOD. Of course, last week I was stressing about whether I might have a few days where I wasn’t fully billable…..gak. It never rains, but it pours, as they say. In between all that, I did use the Super Bowl as an excuse to make an easy dinner of chicken wings and layered nacho dips for the fam, and we did tune it in, but we’re not really fans in this house, so didn’t much care. It’s always an entertaining evening though.
I have managed to get quite a bit of redecorating done in my town over the last week. It’s not entirely there yet, and some areas are created, but not completely to my liking – but I’ve left space where future items might fit in nicely, so I’ll just have to live with it for now. I am hoping for a level update this week, but given that I may be very busy, it would be okay with me if we don’t get one. I got a fitbit free through work – it arrived last Tuesday, and I’m totally addicted to it. It’s definitely motivating me to move more – I even jogged in place for 20 mins in front of the TV one night, just to make sure I got in my daily steps… sad…but good too. Back to TSTO, I guess I’m going to have to open a help ticket. Still can’t seem to add new numbers (sending requests or accepting ones sent), even though I clearly have space. I thought maybe it just needed a day or two to sync, but it’s been about 3 weeks now since I cleared out about 20 inactive neighbours, and still can’t add more.
I guess that’s enough rambling from me this week. Hope everyone had a great Sunday, and that you have a great week ahead!
JJLeigh, have you tried uninstaling your game & reinstalling that happened to me twice and it fixed it both times. Worth a try! Good luck, also good luck getting trip straightened out!
Sometimes it feels as if companies don’t care or realize you have a life with a family! Very frustrating.
Hang in there hope week gets better,
Thanks for the tip – honestly, I didn’t consider to try that since I think of the friends as sort of a “separate” thing from the game. I will give that a try!
What tends to work for me (on Android) is log out and it back in. Though you seem to have deeper trouble. That’s what tends to fix things when I can’t send invites and I don’t do that much lately. I just live with the vacant towns. They eventually reset on their own.
Expatrie-
How do you predict what might go in an empty spot? Have your played for a long time, good at guessing?
Not really. Some things are no brainers – like there will probably be more Christmas and Halloween stuff. Other times, you just have to section off squares (or rectangles, whatever) that make sense for roads and things, and maybe you don’t have enough things that work together to fill that area up – so you don’t, and you just wait for something to come along that makes sense. At least, that’s how I do it. I also try to somewhat group by themes like industrial areas, residential, commercial, or by event (Christmas, Stonecutters, etc.) I don’t really have any hard and fast rules, but I generally don’t rearrange much when I’m done, because it’s a lot of work in the first place. Still, I have been known to move a few things or re-categorize them here and there.
I dismissed my task this morning with 3000.00 as the prize and then got one with 2000.00 as the prize. Argh. I am going to wait till tomorrow and see if I can dismiss it again. We’ll see. 🙂
Let us know if that works. I thought about trying it but all those thumbs were more tempting than donuts…well maybe not more, but I love me some thumbs. 👍👍👍👍👍🙂
You’re thumb-retentive….
Sorry.
My first task this morning was for cash also, so I dismissed it instead and got one for five pills. I went ahead and did it since you can only have three. I will try again tomorrow. 🙂
I switched it again today and got another one for cash, so I just went ahead and did it. I was able to switch though, just wasn’t gonna give me one for donuts. 🙁
You’re having a bad run on the rewards! I got 1 donut yesterday, 3 today, and that finished my 5 tasks for 6 donut reward. Sorry, not trying to rub it in. 😐
It’ll even out eventually. 🙂
Since the update a few days ago with the daily play challenge I don’t seem to be getting any donuts for 4 days when visiting neighbours which is very unusual. Can anyone confirm they are still getting them because I’m starting to wonder whether neighbour donuts have been scrapped?!
I got two from friend visits just last night. You are probably in a dry spell. They’ll come back. 🙂
I got one yesterday. Like Ellie said, probably just a dry spell.
I’m still getting them!
Nope – donuts are still possible for neighbor visits. You’re just hitting an “unlucky” streak, which is completely normal given the odds.
i got one yesterday, AND 5 from sideshow you
I just one.
I Had one or two recently during my no sound days. Not today. i haven’t been doing neighbor visits every day. Lack of time, though I must say it loads faster on iPhone.
Expatrie-
I got an odd notice yesterday that my progress on my “other device” didn’t synch properly and I risked losing it if I continued. I’ve never logged into my Simpsons game on any other device, so I continued anyways. Didn’t see anything weird after that.
Anyone know why the game would think I’d logged in elsewhere?
You weren’t, it just happens sometimes. We’ve got a post on it here 🙂
http://tstoaddicts.com/2013/09/09/your-other-device-didnt-save-what-other-device/
Ok, so daily challenge of playin balloon pop at Krustyland twice did not count after playing… well twice. So I used my dismiss task chance after restarting, cache clearing and so on in efforts of activating the count. My reward was 1 donut but with the new assignment it’s 5 lates after making 10.. :/ not as exciting as the beloved fried sugar currency. Anyone else having issues with daily tasks?
The Krustyland task has been causing everyone issues…
Thank you, good to know. 🙂
Not the same, but I learned that you should check the challenges first thing every day! I was just clearing my town and, as always, bet on the race at Springfield Downs just to clear the icon – bang! I had completed today’s challenge for 1000. I would have dismissed it and tried for donuts, but it was already too late. So, always check the challenge first thing. (A little different than Alissa’s warning to always click do it – which I understand because that got me several times in the past – but apparently, with these, it’s the opposite problem.
Yesterday mine was to clear 20 character actions (or something like that) and since I had sent all my characters on jobs to be ready in the morning I was finished in about two seconds. Luckily, for me, it was worth 3 donuts.
So like you said, make sure to check first thing!
I actually had the same one! Only I checked before I had clicked all 20, so I could have still dismissed it, but why would you – easiest 3 donuts ever…
I haven’t seen clear character actions yet! Good advice to check first, I thought I was smart by clearing everything first to have everyone free and then checking but I guess that wasn’t so smart after all! Now I know, it could literally be anything!
That’s what I usually do – always clear everything and then see what tasks need to be done, so I can prioritize.
I’ve been in contact with ea twice about this issue now. Other than making sure that ipad software and the app it self was up to date, they said to try and store sideshow you and put it back out. I don’t know if that’s enough though as there’s still about another 7 hours until I can try again. As that’s around the time I’ll go to bed anyway, I’m of half a mind to play, go to sleep and leave the game open on KL overnight to see if that helps. I just really don’t want to skip this task since I’m getting 6 donuts for it.
Supposedly that is confirmed to work. (My internet would probably not be stable enough to stay connected for 8 hours.)
Well my first daily challenge today was to make 5 yoga mats, with a reward of 5 yoga mats. I cancelled that and my challenge reward is cash to send Springfielders to Krusty Burger. No donuts, but in about 4 hours I’ll have 111 thumbs over that building! 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
That’s hilarious.
Anybody else loose sound on iPhone?
Expatrie-
Lost it on iPad yesterday, but it came back after I turned I pad all the way off , waited a few minutes & restarted
Well I finally figured it out courtesy of iPhone no sound dot com. Like C3PO I shut the hard silence switch off, on the side of the phone. Funny thing Siri never seems able to help with device questions, especially funny considering she’s a native. You’d think she could give directions.
It was making finding Maggie a larger challenge without the sound helping me out…
Expatrie-
Happy Monday ♡
Alissa I hope your first day back at work was nice and easy? *hugs for you* ♡
Thanks brooders. Work itself should be pretty easy cause I’ve basically been working from home since I left for leave lol But leaving Riley is never easy…
That was a nice long break you got there, Alissa! How does it feel to be back? Are you missing your little nugget like crazy?
Good to be back and use my brain again…outside of trying to remember kiddie songs. But I do miss her like crazy! Was not easy to drop her off this morning, especially when she looked up at me like she was about the cry. I nearly lost it!
BUT the good news is my sister (who is a stay at home mom) is watching her and I know she’s taking good care of her. And she’s literally only 5 minutes away from my office, so if I need a Riley fix I can run there real quick. Plus my little 2 year old nephew is absolutely LOVING having Riley there. He’s already introduced her to everyone in Paw Patrol lol. And my sister keeps sending me photos, so that makes it a little easier. 🙂
Haven’t u only just had your baby?! U need to move england we get a years maternity leave over here!!
12 weeks ago last Thursday. I could have taken another 6 weeks off, but it wouldn’t have been paid. In the US you get 6 weeks disability after the baby is born (8 weeks if you have a c-section) (and you can take up to 4 weeks before the baby is born as well), that’s paid. Then you can take another 12 weeks of family leave after the 6-8 weeks is up if you want to bond with your baby. Most states don’t pay you for the Family Leave. However, in NJ you get paid for 6 weeks of the family leave, which is nice. It’s only a fraction of your salary, but it’s something. Of course for the family leave pay (and the disability), it’s something you’re required to pay into. So it’s basically another tax that comes off of your paycheck…
I wouldn’t have minded staying home with her, but I also don’t mind going back to work. They really missed me and needed me to come back (the place seriously is a mess!). I might have opted not to return if we weren’t planning on buying a bigger house this Spring. (we’ve pretty much outgrown our current one) Maybe with the next baby I’ll stay home 🙂
But yes..to sum up…in the US you really only get 6-8 weeks paid maternity leave, unless you live in a state like mine where you can get an additional 6 weeks paid leave. And honestly, I’m ok with it. It’s not my employer or the governments responsibility to take care of me because my husband and I decided to have a child. It was our decision and our responsibility to take care of our family 🙂
Actually, Amelia, it’s worse than that… There’s no guarantee of paid maternity leave at all on the federal level. The Family Medical Leave Act guarantees that you can take 12 weeks UNPAID leave, but only if your company is subject to the FMLA and you’ve been working at your company long enough. Many employers do not offer paid leave (or offer it just for a much shorter period), but will allow you to use your vacation and sick time. So, unless you live in a state (like NJ) that has more benevolent state-level regulations and/or work for a generous company, that’s it. If you work for a small business, you could get nothing.
If you’re interested, here’s a link the FMLA FAQs about pregnancy leave: http://fmlaonline.com/fmla-pregnancy/
My company is Canadian, but I work in the U.S. Our Canadian and Irish (we have a site in Ireland connected to the U.S. business) get a year’s maternity leave, but our US employees just get 12 weeks (paid, I think, or a combination of paid and vacation/sick…don’t know since I never needed to avail myself of it).
LOL I was recently introduced to Paw Patrol at a friend’s house. They have a 2 year old daughter who loves it. Their son prefers PJ Masks. It’s a toss up, but I give the edge to PJ. 🙂
lol it’s funny Riley’s too young for any of that stuff, yet I know it all. Too many nieces and nephews lol (8 that are 7 and under, and 1 that’s 12)
All those shows crack me up…recently watched Dinosaur Train while watching one of my nephews. There’s a whole lotta dinosaurs!
Awesome that you have sister and slow close to work to watch your princess! Way cool she has playmate and you don’t have to worry since she is with family! Hope your day goes fast.
Yes, it’s fantastic! I know so many others aren’t as lucky as we are to have family that can watch her and I’m so grateful for it. I don’t think i’d be able to go back to work with her being so little if I had to put her in daycare.
what’s paw patrol?? I’m totally clueless about all stuff baby/kids. I baby sat a few weeks ago for the first time ever in my life! It was exhausting and my sister was sleeping in the next room, after her 7p-7a nursing shift. She said “don’t worry, I wear earplugs and a sleep mask so I won’t hear anything.” lol
It’s a show about dogs who do rescue missions. (basically dogs are like people, in a world with people too) Ryder is the main boy..a human. And he has his “pups” (who all talk). The dogs are all inspired by real world jobs (like police officer, fireman, construction worker etc) There’s chase (he’s like a police dog), marshall (he’s like a fire dog), sky (she’s got the helicopter) and other ones I can’t remember lol. And then whenever there’s trouble they call Paw Patrol.
And seriously..the first time ever?! You never babysat as a teenager?
And yes…kids in general are exhausting lol
Paw patrol sounds cute! And no, I never baby sat ever. I’m not really a babies and kids kind of person. Before Maddie was born I’ve only ever held one baby one time and that was 7 years ago! Another first was changing a diaper that day, which I did twice. Now that I’m broken in I’ll help a little more with baby duty. I have it again this Wednesday actually, for a few hours while my sis goes on an interview.
lol oh boy. We’ll have to run into you at a Phillies game this year so I can make you change one of Riley’s diapers…the kind that I usually reserve for my husband to change! 😉
I’m feeling a little bad. I visited my mom for her birthday, even bought her a cake. But I did not do anything for my (little) brother’s birthday. He had some of the cake, but I spaced about his birthday being a couple months ago. I should have “officially” included him in the “celebration”.
His birthday is in December. It was a hectic month so I thought staying home made more sense than visiting…(I don’t live too close.)
There’s not much you can do, other than apologize, and try to remember it in the future.
Thanks for the feedback. Well, I will definitely try the remember in the future thing, but I don’t think I want to apologize. He’s not that kind of brother… I mean, I don’t get anything from him. hah.
Spoken like a true brother. I have one, too, so I know. LOL
Davidbo33, you need to explain your avatar (or did I miss it?). I see that it is Homer, but what’s wrong with his face?
You’re the first to mention it. Have you seen a Homer (or Simpson) Rubik’s Cube? I’ve had it in its “proper” state, just sitting on a shelf, for many years. I thought it would make a fun avatar in various stages of disrepair. Here’s a bigger pic.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/csf0v706pqinuf9/FC2F7C95-4074-4694-A03F-D46F7D964218L0001.jpg?dl=0
I had a look at the bigger pic (which is how I knew it was Homer). hah. But, I’m still confused, visually. It’s like a Rubik’s Cube? No, never heard of them. How does it move? Rubik’s Cubes all rotate on 90 degree axises (axes?), but I don’t see that in Homer’s face…
It’s not like a normal Rubik’s Cube, no. But that’s what I, and I’ve seen others, call it. I can’t explain it well enough but this video might give you a better idea of how it works. I watched it about two dozen times trying to get it back “right.” Didn’t help lol. (But I did eventually figure it out on my own.)
http://youtu.be/GBeMsHjPtmw
It does actually seem like a normal Rubik’s Cube, but only with 8 blocks, no middle rows or columns. It does make sense now, but still doesn’t. lol. (I skimmed the video.)
I think it’s one of those things you actually need to hold in your hands to fully understand. No, I won’t send you mine. 😛 And it’s much harder than it looks…I keep telling myself. 😉
I don’t want to be frustrated, so no thanks anyways. 😛 I’ll take a stress-ball homer head, though. Squeeze his eyes out! 😀
That’s kind of creepy looking….
I did take a few more pics of it in different positions. I’ll maybe change up my avatar and the next might be less creepy…or more…
Thank you two – simp7fan for asking, Davidbo33 for answering. I was wondering the same thing myself just two days ago.
Hi everyone, I’ve been seeing in my neighbours sf that they have got their building up on a hill and they’ve used bushes and walls to make it look like steps. How are you doing this! I’ve wanted to do it for ages but don’t know how can anyone help me please???
This post should get you started… http://tstoaddicts.com/2013/09/12/3d-101basics/
Check out the design guide, located above the addicts banner on tablet, or in the menu button on phone. Lots of links and info to look at.
Guys do you think that superheroes event will be coming back this year , because i did not played that event .
How did I never notice the golf course is animated? Now I think it’s pretty cool.
I want the Superbowl to be on every time I need to run errands! My town has been getting more and more crowded, but today I didn’t have to battle anyone for parking, or wait for some moron to move the cart they’ve perfectly positioned to block an entire aisle. Glorious.
Same here in Portland. It was amaze balls.
TSTO post:
I hid most of my neighbors (instead of unfriending them). I unhid them as they visited me. Now when I visit neighbors I am visiting only the most “active” and “deserving” neighbors. I’m down to about 45 from my actual list of about 95. It’s a more achievable number to visit. My unhidden neighbor count might continue to rise. I seem to have a good batch of neighbors. I’m not as good of a neighbor to them, but I’m not unfriending and I hope they don’t either (unless they want to).
haha yeah same here sorry if i’m not visiting life’s getting busy on my end
Hah. If you post here I have also unhid you. Hello, neighbor!
For me I sort of more relaxed my criteria of hoping neighbours also visit me. I think most don’t visit me. But I visit them hoping to get that donut. I only unfriend someone if someone stops playing and I have run out of houses to tap.
Mostly the same case for me, too. I’m not unfriending them, as I said, just hiding. I don’t visit every day nor every one, unfortunately when it comes to donuts, which is why I figured the ones that visit me deserve a visit back more than the ones at the beginning or end of the alphabet.
Great idea! I am going to try that
Thanks. My count keeps going up. I’m in the 50’s now. hah. The increase is slowing, though, so maybe I’ll hit 60 at most, which is still an okay number. 🙂
Hi everyone here’s a list of characters that I believe should be added to our game enjoy. Sarah wiggum, grandma simpson , spike junior, Kearny junior, Monica vanhuton mill house s cousin, bleeding gums Murphy, krusty s dad, the white Michael Jackson, k h duff the duff company president, martin prince s parents, heralds parents, Collin, wendal, the three colleague nerds, Ned Flanders parents, rick an Morty, birch Barlow, real happy little elves, an real itchy an scratchy not NPCs, I have some ideas for events to that ties into alot of the above mentioned characters, I’ll post on those in next weeks thread, have fun tapping everyone an if you can spread the word, there’s alot of good characters an possible content here we should have in game. (*^v^*) /”
I often see people requesting season 2 Michael Jackson but I’d love the gifting episode where Michael gives Bart money with the four puppet Michaels on sticks.
Rick and Morty aren’t Simpsons characters….
And who do you mean by grandma Simpson? Mona?
I’m not really into these kinds of lists. Just happy with whomever is introduced. Less disappointment.
Rick and Morty! o.O cross over!
Is it just me or is this one of the most boring Super Bowls ever? The commercials stink too.
Sorry if this is a repeat. I didn’t think the first comment worked.
Agreed. I fell asleep. Missed half time. Number of fumbles became comical, like a kids slap hands fight.
Is it just me, or is this one of the most boring Super Bowls ever? The commercials stink too.
I enjoyed the game. The commercials, as has been the case for a number of years (IMO), were nothing special.
Random thoughts –
Watched the Kitty Bowl, now watching Super Bowl, mostly for the commercials, but playing TSTO and reading the Addicts during the game.
Haven’t had a random character task for almost 2 days – not since Mr. Burns finished a 24 hour task Friday evening.
Noticed that I hit the max again on Squidport tiles, so I counted them all, and it appears the new maximum is 202.
I have been tracking dates on which I get 5 bonus donuts on the Krustyland “balloon you” game for a while. Since I started tracking the dates, I have gotten them 3 times. The intervals were 44 days, 45 days, and 44 days. If that holds again, I’ll get them again on March 20 or 21.
I’m liking the new Daily Challenge so far. Today I got 6 donuts for Cole ting 40 pieces of Furniture. I’ve kept my SH maxed out as much as possible, so I had to buy some stuff in order or be able to collect 40.
The 12 hour rocket task is fun, but I’m hoping to get a different prize. I’ve gotten 3 topiaries, 4 Hail Ants signs, and a few pieces of debris. I’d love to get a Small Nuke Bomb, as I don’t have one of those at all.
When the Daily Play bonus ended, my final bonus item was a News Van, which was OK, but I already have 7 of them. Would have been nice if the prize could have been different vehicles of 40 donut value, like the Police Car, or Burns Limo, or DMV Limo.
It’s Sunday, but it feels more like a Monday…
Yes, another working Sunday, which ended with it taking me about TWO HOURS just to record/update a team project spreadsheet to reflect the major stuff I’ve done for the past 6 weeks or so. I had such a headache by the time I was done. I know that I’m stressed, because my teeth, and sometimes my head, hurt when I awaken, which makes me think that I must be clenching my teeth while I sleep.
I was so virtuous, too…my best friend called me to see if she could take me out to lunch for my upcoming birthday, and I actually turned her down to work. I knew that, even if I just “took a break” to do it, I’d never really get into the work groove and get much done.
I don’t know about everyone else (actually, maybe I do….lots of chatter about this in the past few days), but I’m enjoying the little breather that the game has been giving us this past week or two. I’m sure it’s going to come to an end next week (probably sooner rather than later), but I truly wouldn’t mind if it didn’t. In fact, the timing will be crappy, since I’m going to be away on Thursday and Friday, so tapping time will be limited (if existent at all) on those two days.
Alissa – I’m sorry I haven’t been asking after the little one…it’s not that I don’t care or aren’t interested!
Running the Luann and Investorettes questlines simultaneously has caused some weird behavior at times….I’ll get the start of a quest on the Investorettes, but, before I send any characters on it, I’ll get the start of a quest on the Luann questline and the Investorettes quest will disappear for a while. I feel like there’s this tug on fabric of time or something and different event sequences are popping in and out depending on what the timeline is experiencing.
Okay…running out of TV-catch-up time, so gotta go….I miss the old days when my brain could handle working (or composing comments) and watching TV at the same time. 🙁
(P.S. Sorry to those of you who actually said you look forward to my Sunday ramblings…this one was pretty much of a dud. I’ll try to do better next Sunday (should have stuff to share from my little trip!)!)
Oh don’t worry about me I’m good (as is Miss. Riley) 🙂 We’ll see what happens after I go back to work tomorrow…lol
Good luck…at least it you may find it nice to be around grown ups and “unencombered’ for a few hours! 😉
Lol 2 months ago I may have agreed. But miss riley and I got into a nice groove lately and I really enjoyed being home with her. But I’m very lucky to have a flexible job..so I only had to go into the office 3 days a week. The other 2 work days I can work from home and spend time with Riley. 🙂
I’m so glad you only have to be away from her 3 days a week! This precious time goes by with a blink of the eye so enjoy this time! Hope all goes well for you this week and our youngest tapper! Maybe Miss Riley can moderate for your three days away from us LOL. Kind of got used to you being around all the time myself!
You didn’t say what day your bday is, just that it is this week, so happy birthday early! Hope you have a great bday & trip!
As for Sunday goes was a blah day all around, cold windy weather here! My back + cold wind meant no sunset dog walk, poor boys, they didn’t even ask for walk too cold, according to FL cold anyway. Couldn’t get into Super Bowl was blah game, blah half time, blah commercials! Could have been Just me game was in my hometown, and made me homesick! Been away 15 years and still miss CA.
So wise SANDRA you might know this answer I tried finding answer on Internet with no luck, does pain medication for back cause weight gain or keep you from loosing weight?
Any other addict that might know answer chime in!
Time for this tapper to lay down, difficult day.
Have not been spending much time in my town, maybe should go hang in there to escape real life!
Hope everyone is safe after Super Bowl & may your hangovers be gentle!
Hard to know the answer to your question without knowing which medication you’re on… I wish I could blame my weight gain on my medication, but I think it had more to do with the ultra-sedentary lifestyle and the “food as soother” mentality that put on the extra pounds for me. It sounds like you were formerly quite active, so the significantly reduced activity could be part of the reason for your weight gain. Plus, opioids can be constipating, and constipation can increase your weight a bit (since you’re holding more inside).
But, it’s easy to Google up the side effects of whatever you’re on and see if weight gain is one of them…
Oh, and birthday is not until Thursday, but thanks! 🙂
I’m a teeth clencher. I do it while awake but have been accused of doing it while asleep. Must not be true. I don’t wake up with headaches or sore teeth.
I’m enjoying the TSTO event break. Slowly becoming normal… lol.
Short is good, too, Sandra…. 🙂
You may still be clenching. When I needed to find daycare for all 3 kids before going back to work, the whole thing became incredibly stressful. Found someone I thought was great and then found out some really terrible things and had to look elsewhere. No one had space for all 3. The list went on and on. I knew I was stressed, but had no idea how much, until one day I was eating and one of my back right teeth just cracked into 4 pieces! Turns out, I had been clenching my jaw so tight in my sleep, that I actually cracked my tooth!!! The solution is simple – you get a custom mouth guard made that you wear to bed. In my case, the clenching stopped once I finally had daycare plans in place, but I keep the guard anyway in case some other stressor eventually causes me to start again.
Meaning I should write shorter posts, simp? Or are you referring to my very short stature (in which case, where did you put those cameras in my house?! 😱, but thanks for the compliment 🙂 )
You appear to have replied to another one of my comments, but I think I recall something about shortness. 🙂 I’m not going to say I have a six sense knowing who is short… but I kinda felt that you were, sure. 😛 I mean, well, if you’re not at least 5’11” (and most women aren’t?) then you’re short to me (6’1″). Just an arbitrary number really, but thanks for confirming anyways. 😉
I wasn’t saying you should write shorter posts, but that they were also just as valid of a contribution. More people might read it, but maybe more people enjoy the longer ones. Who knows (unless you take a poll).
That’s interesting. Everyone I have met originally from Internet and later in person said they thought I was a short person, or at least shorter. Guess most people think Japanese descendants are usually short.
I thought I was talking to Sandra… This is getting a little confusing. 😛
You, well, sure, why not. You’re short. lol.
I’m sorry. I just realized I was completely butting in after I submitted the post.
lol, that’s okay. Butt in all you like. Just thought it was funny the way the replies were going.
I’m gonna butt in and add that I don’t think that, in a public forum, there is such a thing as “butting in,” since the conversations are, by the very fact that they’re on a public forum, public.
But maybe I just think that way because I’m a buttinsky (or, as autocorrect wanted me to say, a “button sky” :P)!
I’m going to butt in that we should all start calling it “autoincorrect”. I think button sky goes with our sky fingers, but I’m not sure in what way.
Well, in this case, I can’t really fault autocorrect for not liking “buttinsky” – I just thought “button sky” was a really weird, random phrase for it to think I might have meant (although I get why it suggested that, based on dissecting the word “buttinsky”).
Skyrocket logic?
That is… autocorrect logic. Lol. It thinks it’s a rocket. Last event, a.c., last event.
As Blaise Pascal is quoted as writing (in French, of course), “I have made this longer than usual because I have not had time to make it shorter.”
🙂 I like that. I didn’t know the French could be likable. 😉
Today I discovered the obvious, when you are in your friends Springfield if you just tap on the arrow next to their name it will just go to the next person on the list. Much faster than clicking back up to your friends list, waiting for the load screen to end, clicking on the next friend, wait for another load screen and then doing that over and over again for each friend.
To add to your knowledge, tapping on a name in the Springfield Heights ranking list will take you to that person’s town. Good for starting near the middle of the alphabet.
Lee, just saw comment no commercials??? I’ve been on your side of pond twice, been a while & didn’t watch much tv so is there commercials regularly? We have to pay for our TV(cable) & still live through commercials, so far not too impressed.
NO commercials on the BBC ….it’s state owned and funded by us all buying a television licence every year for £120 approx (how quaint) ……….blind people can get a rebate 🙂
There are commercials on other channels which aren’t part of the BBC
🙂
….Meh, someone wake me when it’s Monday :p
Ring, ring, RING, It is Monday (in Holland)
I had no idea the super bowl was today until this thread. Football really doesn’t seem to be a big deal in NYC, maybe it’s because the Jets and Giants are really New Jersey teams. But not a word on local news, the people that I know that do like sports are into soccer, rugby and cricket (most of my friends are immigrants obviously).
I just remember last time one of the local teams was in it (I can’t rememberwhich team) you couldn’t get the local news to shut up about it and then there was a ticker tape parade, etc
As a child of NYC myself, I think one reason that football is not really a big deal is that none of them (or at least none in Manhattan and most of the Bronx and Brooklyn) would ever have grown up having football in their personal lives — no football team in school or PeeWee football or whatever. It wasn’t until I after I graduated from college that saw my first (and only) football game, because I got free Young Alumni tickets to a Boson University football game.
The only one of the “major” sports that I ever felt any kind of connection to growing up was baseball. I have many memories of my grandpa listening to the game on his little transistor radio or watching a game on his black-and-white TV.
That makes a lot of sense. All I ever hear about sports is Yankees are next to godliness, unless you’re a Met’s fan then Yankee fans are the scum of the earth. And the Knicks suck. And that right there is the extent of my sports knowledge. That any everyone seems to hate the Red Socks.
In fact when I first moved here they were having this big game at the end of the season, not sure if it was World Series or playoffs, anyway it was at Yankee Stadium and Yankees vs Red Socks and it was a huge deal. Someone I knew had to go out of town on business so he gave me his ticket.
Now I moved to NY running from a bad break up. No plan, job or money. Just enough for first month’s rent. Somehow I’m still alive but that’s a book not a story. Anyway someone who took me under his Wing and helped me make it here was a huge baseball fan. I gave him my ticket. Would wait 8 years for my first and only baseball game. Cool thing was it was a subway series so all I cared was NY won. Plus Derek Jeter was just about to retire, I saw him hit a grand slam. I’ve always had a major crush on him.
Fortunately, I never got personally attached to either the Yankees or the Mets, because I’ve been living in Red Sox land for the past 30 years.
I never really got into watching baseball that much until I discovered minor league and semi-pro baseball. Really enjoy that…not a lot of interest in paying huge amounts of money to go to a major league game to sit in crappy seats and buy wildly expensive food and beverages and not get to see a dizzy bat competition between innings! 😉
Ryan, you are aware that Queen Alissa is a Yankees fan?! Just a FYI for your own protection lol!
I’m aware but thanks for looking out!
Yeah, NYC is a baseball town through and through, so much so that it helped me to re-embrace the sport of my youth and become a major fan again after I moved here. I’ve noticed New Yorkers tend to pick either the Giants or Jets as “their team,” but they usually still cheer for the other team and rarely hold any animosity towards the other. Baseball fans, on the other hand, tend to be either Yankees or Mets, and #^%$#^ the other team cuz they’re jerks
LET’S GO METS!
Jets and Giants both play home games in the same stadium in NJ, so it makes it tough to draw a strong line in the sand. That said, GO JETS, METS, NETS, ISLES, NYCFC!
It’s funny that NY’s home team(s) go “home” to NJ. Does NY really have zero room to build a football stadium?
A couple of years ago they offered to build a stadium in Queens near the Mets stadium. They insisted on Manhattan so no deal, they stayed in Jersey. Manhattan has no room at all
Interesting. So, is the Queens worse than NJ (according to popular ribbing)?
LOL, they’re pretty different. New York is made up of 5 boroughs or counties (Queens is one of them) but it’s all the same city. The Subway is interconnected through 4 of the 5 making travel easy. Jersey is like a completely different world. My aunt and uncle came to visit but spent the night in Jersey because it’s cheaper. According to map quest they were 12 miles from me but I could not get over there to see them. It’s very odd
You’re just allergic to the jersey air
LOL. I’d have to able to get there. My boyfriend’s mom lives in Hackensack, I know that and Paramus and Ft Lee. One of my best friends lives in Elizabeth or Linden but he’s in the city at least 3 times a week so I haven’t been.
All I know is that Eddie Murphy went there during Coming To America. That was the best place to find an American queen.
Can’t compare the two…Queens (never “the Queens”…the Bronx is the only borough prefaced by a “the,” although, now that I think about it, I have no idea why) is just a borough of NYC, while NJ is a whole state, with many very different parts to it. (For example, Newark is a relatively poor and high-crime city, while the area my folks have their summer place in is borderline suburban/country, with both farms and malls. Then there’s the Jersey Shore and Atlantic City, as well as a whole bunch of just regular old suburbs.)
One of my best friends moved here from Russia. He was desperate to learn English and he did, at an amazing rate. I was unofficially tutoring him and one day he asked me to explain why it was The Bowery but not The Broadway. The East Village not The Harlem. I’ve never been so stumped, all I could say it was natural cultural development.
I don’t know those places enough, but my take on them: Broadway is basically like Main Street, and we don’t say “the” for that. Broadway the area? Dunno.
The Bowery I had to look up. Says it was named after a subway stop. So, maybe like “the Bowery stop”.
The East Village sounds like it’s describing an area but not specifically. “The east side of town”, basically.
I didn’t look up Harlem but it sure sounds Dutch and is probably a borrowed town name from back in the Netherlands (which is literally the lower lands).
Harlem is definitely Dutch, named after the city Haarlem, in Holland. (I think Harlem was originally “New Haarlem.”) The Dutch were the first European “owners” of Manhattan.
Bowery couldn’t have been named after a subway stop. It had that name at least a hundred years before subways existed, good thought though.
The East Village is a neighborhood but so is Harlem. The Upper East side always with the ‘The’ is just north of East Midtown which never has ‘The’ to prefix it. It really seems arbitrary. Where is a linguist when you need one.
I think you need a historian, specifically a time traveler. hah.
I think the distinction in neighborhoods is whether the name was official to begin with. By official I mean intended (not “officially sanctioned”). If Upper East Side started as some division on a map (so that you could navigate there easier) but became a neighborhood in itself, then there would be a “the”. I don’t know (I don’t feel like looking up all of NY history… hah). I’ve been looking up this topic and came across highways. Over here we have “the 101” but it can also be simply “101”. Supposedly “the” in southern Cal and just “101” in the north. The same highway. Different rules on the article. I call it the 101, but would say “take 101”, whereas southerners would say “take the 101”. I don’t know what’s wrong with them, ;). The clue with this is that the different “dialects” create different outcomes. Especially how NY has such a diverse linguistical history is probably why different rules get set at different times in history.
They all have “the” if you speak about them as areas, such as “the Queens area” 😉 or “the Brooklyn area”. That rule is easy to follow. 😀
Sorry about the subway stop thought. I don’t see it in the article…so I was probably replying too late in the evening to be helpful. Just making up crap. lol.
LOL well if we got turnip trucks from Russia, he would have been fresh off it. It was really just a point of reference to something we could both relate to. It just got me thinking about why this inconsistency in our language. And by the way it’s never ‘The’ Queens or Brooklyn but it is Da Bronx.
lol, I know, not “the” queens. 😛 I know. Touchy subject, apparently.
Ahh Da Bronx, I remember passing out on the train and waking up there in a very shady neighborhood wearing a dog choke chain, cropped T shirt and daisy dukes with steel toe boots but that’s for my book.
It’s funny…my parents and grandparents grew up in the Bronx (I lived there myself until I was 5), but it was VERY different in those days. My family lived in a half Jewish, half Italian neighborhood. There was a fancy apartment building at the end of my block called The Noonan Plaza, which had a pond in the middle of the courtyard with real, live swans swimming in it!
At one point, probably about 25 years ago or so, we drove through the old neighborhood. Many of the apartment buildings were gone – just empty lots or vacant husks – but the Noonan Plaza was still there. But it looked like a prison, with high walls or bars, I think with razor wire at the top. (I’m assuming all of this was for the safety of its residents. I think that area of the Bronx (the “the” isn’t capitalized, btw) may have improved a fair amount since then, but it was a very disturbing sight.
Ever since they moved the fish market to Hunt’s point the southern Bronx has been flourishing plus the new Yankee Stadium
I’ve never heard the term East Midtown before – is that a new thing? When I was growing up, it was just “Midtown.” No “West” or “East” was attached. Then again, Manhattan has several more neighborhood names than it did when I lived there, thanks to the yuppies of the ’90s to today.
Basically between 42nd and 57th is midtown now, the West up to 8th Ave is Hell’s Kitchen, from 8 to Park is midtown proper and from Park to Troubadour City is Midtown East.
Troubadour City? Never heard of that…
Starting to feel like a stranger in the land of my birth.
Tudor City, I Hate autocorrect
Oh – lol…*that* I’ve heard of!
Sorry…reading comments via email, so I responded to the last one before I saw this one.
Same way I follow the thread, understood
I meant the part (unnamed so far) of NJ where they have the stadium for the NY teams.
The Bronx because of the river. Some places are named after a river and retain the “the”. I was very sure “The” Queens was wrong, but I just felt like saying it.
He was looking for a constant rule on when it’s included or not and for the Life of me u couldn’t think of anything
It’s a good introduction to the English language, where the answer to why loads of things don’t follow “the rules” is “just because.”
I mean, look at through, though, tough, bough, and thought…so, how would you answer the question, “How do you pronounce ‘ough’?” And why is “cats” the plural of “cat” and “dogs” the plural of “dog,” but “mice” the plural of “mouse” (yet “houses” is the plural of “house”). Trying to find absolute logic/consistency in the English language is the way towards madness.
Oh yeah vowels gave him lots of trouble. We used to take the train together and when there were service postings he would teach me how to read in Russian and it makes so much more sense.
I like your list of words, Sandra. Spot on.
The next thing to not being able to explain, ryan, is why is a street called a street versus a road or a way or a boulevard or etc. There’s dozens of them. There’s some meaning behind them but if a “lane” gets expanded maybe it’s now really a “boulevard”. hah.
Sadly we have to agree with Sandra that you’re not going to find a perfect rule. Things like history are the only good clues to why something is the way it is. Etymology reveals a lot.
For those words Sandra said, I think, looking at the etymology, you see that they used to make more sense. It appears that the spelling is the way it is to conform to modern orthography, but, then doesn’t continue to be adjusted as we establish new ways of pronouncing our words. The -gh in those words was supposed to be pronounced like in “loch” but either disappears (as if it was a soft or unspoken h) or gets fuzzy (like an f). Our modern means of communication has probably stilted the morphing that the language used to go through (Do you like the change to “thru” (like drive-thru), Sandra?). Dictionaries, *scoff*.
In general, I’m not a big fan of changing words, or spelling of words, unless it’s to create something for which nothing currently exists. So, I refuse to recognize the stupid non-word “irregardless,” because there’s already a perfectly good version of that word (“regardless”) that means the same thing (and is *shorter*!). But I’m fine with new words Iike “photobomb” or “meme,” which capture a whole idea in a single word, for which there really wasn’t a word before. (Don’t get me wrong…I love how rich the English vocabulary is, with lots of great synonyms…but, I’m talking about words that are just plain WRONG, like “trainings.”
As for road vs. boulevard vs. avenue…I do think that there are some actual distinctions for many of those. I think some may be interchangeable (like “road” and “street,” perhaps), but “boulevard” does have a very specific meaning (I believe it entails having some kind of median strip, but I’m not sure and don’t have the time to go look it up right now), for example.
I’ll try not to upset you, but I really want to say “irregardless”. 😛 Sorry.
What’s wrong with “trainings”? Something different than “I went to multiple trainings today and I’m all trained out”?
I’m more open to newwords, but when I used to hear “verbage” at work, by professional people, it bugged me a little but then you just have to laugh at it. By verbage they meant “words”, like copy.
So, you don’t like non-words?: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_English_usage_misconceptions#Semantics The second misconception in that section addresses your very word… If you climb down the rabbit hole far enough, it was enjoyable btw, you’ll see its history comes from a time of superlative negation (which means it’s not double negative (only according to modern word construction)).
It also addresses word length, with the example of burglarize and burgle. Burgle sounds funny, I think it should get used more. But if you’re writing a news story, probably don’t want “silly” words mucking up your article.
Right below that misconception is our Simpsons friendly logical quandry that “inflammable means flammable? what a country!” You know, because words always make sense if they’re “standard”. 😉
On synonyms, I try to switch to another synonym when I use the same “word” more than once in a statement. But sometimes it feels silly. How would I do that if I spoke a less synonym-rich language? Any non-English language speaking langua-holics think about that? (I don’t know where to put my hyphens….lol)
Every street type ever: https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2me7l2/eli5_whats_the_difference_between_an_ave_rd_st_ln/cm3dn3j You may no longer want to know after reading that. A look at the etymology of a few of the words reveals that “boulevard” was borne from war, “street” is from strata and could be interpretted to be a “stretch”, and “road” basically means “journey” such as in the phrase “on a lonely road”. What I’m getting at is that we obviously assign specific meaning to these words but even now it’s all arbitrary their assignments.
Brilliant, thank you
Ack! Just reading that second line in you comment made me physically cringe. “Training” is what’s known as a “non-count noun” (when it’s not being a verb) and can’t be legitimately pluralized. Say, “I went to several training sessions today and now I’m all trained out.” (Granted “trained out” is highly colloquial, but that doesn’t bother me at all.)
I disagree with some of that second entry…I’m fine with “mentee,” because it’s helpful…there’s no short way of saying “the person being mentored” without it. “Conversate” is not a word (as my autocorrect tried to tell me), regardless of what that article said, and it serves no purpose because, again, as with “irregardless,” there’s already a perfectly fine version of the SAME WORD (namely, “converse”).
Yesterday, my local TV meteorologist said that they weren’t yet sure about a certain storm, but he and the other meteorologist were “efforting” to get that information. EFFORTING?!? Again, I’m not a total naysayer on the whole verbification of America that’s going on, because sometimes the “new” verb performs a function that currently no word does. But why the heck couldn’t the meteorologist just use the nice basic word “trying”?? It’s like people today don’t think they’re talking “formally” enough unless they substitute every basic word they can think of with another one that, most, they’re not even using correctly. (Notice how I DIDN’T say “utilizing”? Why? Because that would be WRONG, people, and even if you want to try to argue that it could be right, why use a longer word, when a shorter one would do JUST AS WELL and you’re not trying to write “literature,” and, and, and, ***sputter, sputter***
Good job pushing my buttons! 😛
If there’s verbification, and you’re fine with that — my spell-check is not okay with it — then, there has to be verbificate. lol. 😛 “I verbificated words wrongly according to Sandra.” Like that. 😉
I’m sorry. I am assuredly not helping with depushing your buttons. lol. Or, is it unpush? (Spell-check says it’s neither.)
I’m surprised by the objection to “utilizing”. Seems like a fine word and it is used (not utilized) correctly. Who says this? “I’m going to utilize the full capabilities of my computer”… does that work with “use” instead? Because it sounds like only “utilize” would put across the meaning I intended.
I’ve never heard someone say “efforting”. I agree that “trying” works better, for me. One of the rabbit hole articles mentioned that colloquial terms in a movie about the Bronx makes more sense than “fixing” their language. But then I thought, why do they recommend that people (including those from the Bronx) use “correct” language in formal circumstances and other writings. To me it seems more like if it’s okay to basically make fun of them and their accents or dialect, then instead of making fun we embrace it and we maybe hear more about “efforting” (if that’s one of their terms, I dunno) in “formal” scenarios, too.
Lastly, I don’t know why training is only a mass noun. I found this sentence when searching:
“Figures released last week showed a drop in the number of 16 year olds in education and training(s) in England.”
I added the “(s)” to show where it is that I think you and I would agree to an objection. The action of being trained is a training. If you go to multiple trainings you will have completed your training (no ‘s’). The problem with mass nouns is that they are not as strict as they seem. I realize that some like this hard rule on it, but I’m a “legos” person and not a “Lego(TM) blocks” person…they’re not always blocks!! lol.
You misunderstand me – “utilizing” is a fine word, which definitely has its place… it’s just not completely synonymous with “use.” “I utilized my knife to turn the screw, because I didn’t have a screwdriver” is fine (although “used” would work just as well), but “I utilized my knife to cut my meat” would be an incorrect usage of the word and should be substituted with the word “use,” instead.
No, “trainings” (or “training(s)”) would not be okay in that situation, nor would it even be necessary. Notice that you didn’t suggest that they say “Figures released last week showed a drop in the number of 16 year olds in education(s) and training(s) in England”! I’m not sure that a “mass count noun” and a “non-count noun” are the same thing, either…I’d have to research that. Yes, “trainings” is being used a lot nowadays, but I still maintain that that doesn’t make it correct.
The use of “efforting” was by a meterologist on a television news program and he wasn’t trying to be “ironic” or having fun with a dialect or anything…he just said it as part of his sentence. Now, granted, it probably wasn’t scripted – he was covering a snowstorm and was doing a very extended weather segment (and had been talking about the storm for hours) – so, I’m just chalking it up to tiredness on his part. But, yes, I agree that, if you’re trying to capture a particular dialect (say, for a character in a book or movie, or just for fun as part of a conversation), I have no problem with intentionally using words or constructions that aren’t 100% kosher grammatically or whatever. I mean, your talking to the gal who frequently writes words like “gonna” and stuff like that here, because I’m trying to capture the sound of my natural speech, not write anything formal. But, again, it has a PURPOSE (as did my use of the non-word “verbification”)…what bothers me is when there’s no good reason for using a wrong/non-existent word.
Oh, and I’m fine with Legos…although maybe I shouldn’t be. 😉
I didn’t totally agree on the first example, but definitely agree on the second example of “utilize”.
It’s true that I didn’t pluralize “education”. “Training” is also a thing you go to, not just a thing you do. You go to school to be educated, and therefore you get an education. You to go a training to get trained. See, the place you’re going is “the training”, just like “the school”. School can be plural, training can be plural. A “lifetime of training” won’t be a pluralizing situation. They’re different definitions of that same word. Well, anyways, maybe I’m not familiar enough with the word (I don’t use it), so you could be right while I’m fully wrong.
Thanks for explaining the situation wherein “efforting” arose. It sounds like that might have been how the guy actually spoke and was holding back while in a professional environment.
I hear that Americans are fine with Legos, whereas other people prefer Lego bricks. I’m not sure if that’s fully accurate.
I have no idea where the studio is (stadiums are?), so I’ll defer this part of the conversation to Alissa (or some other Jerseyite).
Keep the conversation about the English language going. I am enjoying it.
And Sandra, you remind me SO MUCH of myself about those cringes you have when hearing/reading certain words – in my case, in Portuguese. I’d give some examples but it would be boring as no one would understand. Not to underestimate the English language, but I really think Portuguese is more complicated and thus people speak and write horribly. Brazil is known for its poverty in some regions; under many circumstances it’s considered an undeveloped country, for example the lack of access to education, but this is not the case I’m referring to. Many highly educated people here still lack knowledge about the Portuguese language. Or, just as you said, “it’s like people today don’t think they’re talking ‘formally’ enough unless they substitute every basic word they can think of with another one that, most, they’re not even using correctly” (I had to use direct quotation here, you were brilliant).
Forgive me butting in again, but this is allowed in a public forum, right? 😛 I can’t sleep (almost 4 A.M. here) and thought that maybe reading the 400+ comments on the Addicts Open Thread would make me sleepy… It just woke me even more.
You’re always welcome to “butt in” – especially when it’s to say such complimentary things! 😉
I find Portuguese fascinating…on paper, I can see enough similarities to Spanish to be able to sometimes decipher some of it. But, when spoken, it often sounds almost more like Russian!
I’ve been thinking that, if I ever have the time to “dabble” in learning a new language, it would very possibly be Portuguese, because that’s what a lot of the day laborers and immigrants around here speak. (Framingham, the next town over from mine, has a fairly significant Brazilian immigrant population.) And I love listening to Brazilian music, especially the soothing bossa nova type stuff. (Although, I think the fact that I don’t understand most of the lyrics adds to its “soothingness” (not a word, but I can’t think of the word I want), because my brain doesn’t get caught up in listening to the words, just the sounds.)
From what I gather, there are few languages harder to master than English (partly because I think English may have the largest vocabulary, having stolen words from just about every other language). But, when I was trying to teach myself some Japanese, it was sooo much harder than, say, French or Spanish, because the construction is so totally different. I still find Japanese fascinating and much more “approachable” than Chinese (can’t deal with the idea of the whole inflection-makes-a-difference thing).
Oh, and yeah – reading posts in this site before bed is definitely not a good idea, although I seem to be unable to keep myself from doing it almost every night anyway. (And I’m supposed to be working now, not reading and posting here, and then I wonder why (not really) I end up having to work so much “overtime”!)
I was typing a really long comment and I was nowhere from finishing when I realized I was giving a Japanese class. I would properly finish my post if I could see the end of it lol. Instead, I’ll just say that Bossa Nova songs have beautiful lyrics, and that most Bossa Nova singers and composers I know are also wonderful poets and/or chroniclers.
The Pandora channel that I sometimes listen to Brazilian (really, Bossa Nova…not a lot of other styles) seems to have about 32 different versions of The Girl from Ipanema and about another 32 of this other song, the name of which eludes me right now. I like both songs, but I do wish they played more other stuff between them!
Hi, Vanessa. You should show the Portuguese cringe-inducers (and the “correct” equivalents). I’m up to 3 days behind in my email, so ignore if not relevant or interesting anymore.
I missed talking to you! 🙂
I have no idea how I could show you… I’d have to explain Portuguese vocabulary, phonetics, grammar, syntax and so on. Perhaps you just want me to give you a simple Portugese mistake and its correct equivalent?
I love how for a site designed for a game made so simple Ralph could play it. Yet everyone seems to be intellectual in their own vein of life.
Wow, thanks, Ryan, but no way I’m an intellectual… I just happen to like linguistics very much. Just like you seem to be very passionate about politics; the difference is that my hobby is allowed on the Open Thread. 😛
Lol. I don’t mind I need an escape.
That’s what I meant by everyone’s own vein. We may not all be ivy leaguers but just the fact that you’re into linguistics make you an intellectual, heck among the general population just knowing what linguistics means makes you an intellectual.
(I’m getting this type of comment through this time.) My hobby, “snuggling”, isn’t allowed on the
thread.
If that means what I think it means, it’s not a hobby… it’s human need. 😛
If you do it for fun and not for profit, then hobby. 😛
If you do it for profit… there was a girl on America’s Got Talent who snuggled for her talent. It’s not in quotes because she literally just hugged people. She was a loony hippy from Oregon. (It’s okay, I like hippies…)
I got curious and I looked it up. http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2013/11/professional_cuddler_samantha.html
It just makes me wonder if professional mourners and applauders still exist…
Officer Simpson. Heh.
The Addicts turned into an anonymous hook up site so gradually you didn’t really notice.
If it did, I’d have noticed. 😛
I was trying to reference that episode where in the future Marge turns on the TV and says FOX turned into a soft porn station so gradually you barely noticed. I’m not good at quotes I probably fubared it.
I remember that… lol. But that was her…I’d have noticed. 😉
If you eat the red crayon you can’t pass go. Ralph could not play TSTO. I’ve messed up….
Yes, that.
Also, if you have a blog on learning the language I’ll peruse it. 🙂
No blogs, just actual books. Sorry.
Now, let’s see the difference among “por que”, “porque”, “por quê” and “porquê”.
1. Por que: “why” in the beginning or in the middle of sentences.
Examples: – “Por que você me acordou?” (Why did you wake me up?)
– “Eu não sei por que te acordei.” (I don’t know why I woke you up.)
2. Porque: “because”.
Example: “Por que você me acordou?” “Porque está tarde.” (Why did you wake me up? Because it’s late.)
3. Por quê: “why” in the end of sentences.
Examples: – “Eu não sei por quê.” (I don’t know why.)
– “Você mentiu pra mim. Por quê?!” (You lied to me. Why?!)
4. Porquê: it’s a noun and it’s ALWAYS preceded by an article; it means “reason”. It’s mostly used when you want to emphasize the reason of why something was/wasn’t done, for example. In English, it would be translated to “why”:
Example: “Eu não sei o porquê de ele ter me contado isso. (I don’t know why he told me this – but with a “no good can come of this” feeling in the air, because of the emphasis on “porquê” [the reason], got it?)
That’s it. That was fun 🙂 thank you for making me do this.
Thanks. I have more replies to write (with a real keyboard), but for now, which of those makes you cringe, or is that lesson two?
I thought it was implied that all of them, if used incorrectly, make me cringe. I asked you if you wanted me to give you a simple mistake – that was basic Portuguese, and even so, it’s very common to see people misusing them. It hurts my eyes.
So, if I said a por que instead of por qûe, I’d be in trouble? lol
Not in trouble… But I would have definitely noticed the mistake.
Loved that! Wonder if the same applies to Spanish, since they have the same (or pretty much the same) word as at least one of those varieties.
Were you saying that you’ve written books??
Noooooo. I have BOUGHT books about Portuguese.
You might have understood simp7fan’s question ambiguously, as I did. But then I assumed he was asking if I *read* blogs on learning the language, which I don’t… Just actual books. 🙂
It just came to me that maybe “real” instead of “actual” would be more correct… It’s hard to know these nuances in words that are considered “synonyms” in dictionaries.
Actual books seems the correct choice, if you’re being pedantic. I’d say say they’re all real, whether digital or paper. A book that wasn’t real might be full of random numbers that have no meaning. Especially if that were just a webpage, definitely not real.
Sorry, wrong letter was accented in my previous comment.
It’s interesting, as far as I can understand it. A word like “porque” is a compound word, yes? I know in English that the meaning can change a bit from two words to a single word. I often don’t know whether the two words is appropriate or the single. Can not or cannot (the pronunciation changes, at least)? lol. Kinda like words that have a hyphen…lots don’t.
I’m guessing you weren’t going for that aspect here. Does that kind of thing bug you, too?
The way that porque (and it’s spaced and accented variants) can mean so may things, like why AND because…lol…it’s just crazy. Sounded like you were having a conversation with just one primary word. hah.
It’s interesting how the words are used that way, based on the origin most likely being “for what” or “for that”. Actually, since it has both of those meanings, it does make some sense that it can be used for both.
For a phrase like “Por quê?!”…how do you know if that counts as the beginning of a sentence or the end?
Whenever I hear someone say porque I always say butter. Of course none of them grew up in the states would be too young to remember talking butter commercials anyway
I…don’t know that either.
https://youtu.be/r-LapXzYhag
The 70s were a simpler time. Thanks for the vid.
I’ll split your questions.
Q: A word like “porque” is a compound word, yes?
A: No. In Portuguese, a compound word is, by definition, a word that has more than one componenent with an independent meaning in its structure. For example, “arco-íris” (“arco” and “íris” – rainbow), “girassol” (“gira” and “sol” – sunflower), pôr-do-sol (“pôr” and “sol” – sunset). In the word “porque”, there are no components with independent meanings. “Por” is just a preposition; “que” can be of numerous word classes, depending on the sentence.
P.S.: “por” is different from “pôr” in “pôr-do-sol”. “Por” is a preposition; “pôr” is a verb.
Q: I’m guessing you weren’t going for that aspect here. Does that kind of thing bug you, too?
A: What exactly are you referring to? The hyphen? If so, it doesn’t bug me, but it is indeed a little confusing… There was a spelling reform in the language in 2009, which changed the rules of hyphen usage, among other things. “Microondas” became “micro-ondas” (microwave oven), “auto-retrato” became “autorretrato” (self-portrait)… You’re used to writing a word in a certain way and all of a sudden it’s wrong. As for hyphen usage in English, I don’t know the rules, so I’m okay.
Q: For a phrase like “Por quê?!”…how do you know if that counts as the beginning of a sentence or the end?
A: Because it’s the punctuation that marks the end of the sentence that determines it – period, exclamation mark and question mark. There is some divergence as to the ellipsis.
Any more questions? 😀
Forgot to add that all four are phonetically identical, therefore people misuse them a lot.
My step aunt and uncle are a two-team household…one is a Mets fan and the other a Yankees fan (never can remember which is which). I gather there’s much teasing involved, but no divorce, lol! 😉
Another reason I get to escape the whole Yankees/Red Sox thing to a large extent is that, in my house, it’s the other Sox I’m supposed to root for…my husband grew up outside of Chicago, so he’s a White Sox fan. We went to a couple of Sox-Sox games at Fenway and, of course, there we were, rooting for he “wrong” Sox!
🏈 DENVER 🏈
^ ^
° °
•
🏈 🙂
I was moving some of the debris around and noticed that you can put it in storage . Makes it a lot easier to move it around , had been needing that for a long time .
I’ve been sick so I went to the doctor. 🏥 🚑
Doctor said: Are you hungry before you eat dinner ?
I said : Yes .
Doctor said : Are you sleepy before you go to bed ?
I said : Yes.
Doctor said : When you press a doorbell do you hear ringing in the ears ?
I said : Yes.
Doctor said : You have the flu and that will be $ 200.00
See ya bye . 🌞 💎 . 👽
Am I the only one who would want to have Amber Dempsey and Adil in the game?
Question(s) for the non-football fans out there. Are you going to watch the Super Bowl anyway? And, if so, why? The commercials? The halftime show? Because everyone else is?
FYI I am a football fan but there are many things you couldn’t pay me to watch, so this is just a question of curiosity. 🙂
Nope, not gonna watch it. Don’t care that “the home team” is in it, don’t care what happens. Don’t care about the halftime show. Might YouTube some of the commercials if they get a lot of hype, some of them are entertaining.
Kitten Bowl and shopping today.
I flipped to the kitties and puppies. There was also a Fish Bowl on Nat Geo Wild…not quite as fun to watch.
Hah! Fish bowl. Bet my cat would have liked that.
I thought purple were kidding… What are these animal bowls?
I didn’t intentionally leave autoincorrect in….
A few channels offer “alternatives” to the super bowl. The puppy bowl is several puppies playing on a “football field.” The kitten bowl is similar and actually started out as halftime for the puppy bowl (seriously). The fish bowl (which I never knew about before this year) is just a fish bowl on screen. The fish swim around and music plays.
lol. I remember the Bud Light Bowl, but I’m pretty sure that was fixed. lol.
What channels have these things? I think you mentioned NAT GEO for one.
I know the kitten bowl is usually on Hallmark Channel…
I think Alissa is right, the kittens were on Hallmark. Nat Geo Wild had the fish. Animal Planet had the puppy bowl.
Not in to football here but watching the game anyway (well I’m reading while it’s on). As for why, my husband is a Broncos fan and I kinda want to see the Panthers tromp them.
Sounds like a healthy relationship. 😉
Zombie book? 🙂
Eh, if you define healthy as half the time I want to murder him and the other half he wants to murder me than yeah LOL. No really it’s all about the the compromise. You know it! This one is about the Roanoke Colony and the Native Indian zombies that were their demise.
Absolutely not. Not into any sport in any way. Don’t like pop music so the half time show is out and the commercials will be repeated until I want to scream.
I really hope that people that are into it enjoy it, me, I’m saving my enthusiasm for Super Tuesday!
The Super Bowl of politics!
I know they aren’t big fans of politics but if people can post, Go Broncos, I hope they’ll let me post Go Bernie!
I’ll let you post it because it’s just a basic statement on the Open thread. however, once we start getting into opinions and policy and blah blah blah…that’s when it gets deleted. Not the type of site for a political showdown…
Watching because my boyfriend is and I don’t feel like sitting in the room with the other tv by myself. But I’m watching Netflix on my phone sooo…I’m not reeeally watching 😋
I’ll probably watch halftime though.
What are/were you watching? I need a new show…
Do you have Amazon Prime? I got sucked into The Man in the High Castle – binge-watched the first 4 episodes in a row!
No, I don’t. Just Netflix.
Book’s better, have you read it? I love Philip K Dick. Show was alright too, just very different. Do you know if they’re gonna do another season? It seemed to end rather abruptly, if I recall.
I’ve read it and really enjoyed it, until the end. I did love his Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Yes, I *think* it’s continuing. I haven’t read the book, but I have read others of his (albeit a long time ago). I’m not usually big on alternative history…I think it;s more enjoyable watching it than reading about it (though I don’t always feel that way about movies and tv shows made from books. But, if anything, the show might make *more* likely to read the book (if I ever have the time to read more books than the one per month for my book group).
Oh..uh…er..*coughs* The Vampire Diaries…what! It’s a good show! LOL. It’s one of those shows I started watching in high school so I feel like I have to see it through to the end. But I’m not a big enough fan to watch live. I just wait for the next season to arrive on Netflix heh.
I’ve never watched it (though I am aware of it) so I can’t comment on its quality. There does seem to be one thing about it I would enjoy. *cough* 🙂
Nope. Using the time to catch up on stuff I’ve had piling up on my TiVo. Just wanna know if it’s running late, so I extend my recording of Colbert out further.
Watched to many cut off Thursday Night episodes during FB season. Extend Colbert now,don’t wait!!!
I had automatically extended it 30 minutes, but, when I saw that there was 8 minutes left in the game and it was 8 minutes to 10;00, I added another hour to the recording, lol!
I watched the halftime show because I love Bruno Mars. 🙂
I guess you liked a couple years ago when he was the halftime headliner. 🙂
That halftime show was fantastic. 🙂 This one was okay. Bruno was good, but the rest was weird. I tuned out after Bruno was on.
Well, you already know my answers. But I have watched just to hang out with the fellows. I usually pick a random team and “cheer” for them. The arbitrariness of it all (including those that are actual fans) is fun, getting caught up in the crowd atmosphere.
I can understand that. I think we’ve all done something similar just for something to do. Can still be fun with a good group of people.
Tentacle porn with friends is another option….
Awkward is my middle name, remember?
I watched it for the first time yesterday. I had been wanting to watch it for a few years, but Super Bowl gets late into the night here and the next day is Monday etc, but this year was okay due to being Carnival here. I had no idea about anything football-wise, and my boyfriend had to explain it to me. I can’t say I don’t care about sports, but he was the primary reason for me wanting to watch it – always nice to do something together. Granted, I knew I would enjoy the game if I gave myself a try, and indeed I did.
I was looking forward to watching the Death Wish Coffee commercial, but no US commercials for us… I like strong, bitter, black coffee and I really wanted to see if they could make me want to taste their coffee more than I already do. Gonna “YouTube it” later.
That’s one of the commercials I remember seeing. But I started flipping channels during the breaks. Didn’t make me want to try it, though. No coffee for me, please and thank you! 🙂
Is anyone else having problems with the krustyland challenge? It will not accept the fact that I’ve done it twice
I have done it six times, not working .
Same here…
By the looks of it, a lot of people have. I’ve contacted EA as that task rewards 6 donuts, they told me to check that my device software is fully up to date, to make sure the app is fully up to date, and to uninstall the app and reinstall it again. The in app updates is taking a while though, it’s been over 30mins and it’s still updating :-/ But the advisor seemed positive that this is going to fix it, so I’ve been disconnected from the chat.
Cheated on ADDICTS, and looked at a post on another site,sorry everyone. Post stated that EA advised to store SSY then place it again so I’m trying it. Not holding my breath😉. I feel so dirty now,going to shower.
lol don’t worry we’ll forgive you 😉
Go broncos!