language

not gonna say it again!!!!

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

thisairlockispants:

theskaldspeaks:

ofools:

ofools:

a BOG is a wetland that is acidic

a FEN is a wetland that is alkaline

i feel bad about ppl being like “Wow this is helpful information! thank you!” because honestly when is this knowledge going to be useful

In writing, obviously. Writers are all about random useless facts. I know you know that.

And you gotta know where to store your butter so it’s still good in 2,000 years.

Tags:

#language #the more you know

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

{{the OP is by epic, but has only two lines and the second line is labelled “me”; it is unclear who edited the post to its current form}}

People: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

You: Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs

Me: Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow

Tags:

#language #interesting #(I went through the letters in the other two and they check out)

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

muaddibbler:

I think we should start using more bio terms to describe what hours we’re most active in, because they’re frickin cool.

  • Crepuscular – mostly around dawn and dusk
  • Vespertine – specifically active around dusk
  • Cathemeral – basically whenever: “sporadic and random intervals of activity during the day or night in
    which food is acquired […]”
  • Diurnal – awake in the day, asleep at night
  • Matutinal – most active in the early morning hours

If I had any inkling that this would get reblogged I’d put something like “tag yourself” here (I made this post because I’m feeling crepuscular).

Tags:

#language #the more you know #(I only knew two of these myself) #(”crepuscular” and ”diurnal”) #from what I can tell I’m naturally diurnal but this has been partially suppressed by decades of habit #I was raised sleeping ~2:30 AM – ~noon #(bear in mind I was homeschooled and therefore rarely had anything that *required* me to be awake before noon) #and upbringing dies hard #I’ve managed to push back to ~12 AM – ~9 AM #I like mornings but I haven’t fully managed to shake the feeling that being awake in the morning is Not Done

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

responsible-reanimation:

Red-blooded Americans, as opposed to Horseshoe Crab Americans,

As a Horseshoe Crab American, I

Tags:

#no but seriously #I *am* blue-blooded in the semi-literal sense the term originates from #I am both naturally pale-skinned and lack a tan #which means my superficial veins are clearly visible as blue lines running beneath my skin #(in that part of spacetime peasant jobs were generally outdoors working the fields and such) #(so not having a tan showed you were rich enough not to have to work a peasant job) #the more you know #reply via reblog

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

TIL that the LibreOffice Canadian English dictionary doesn’t include “poutine”

how is this even a Canadian dictionary

Tags:

#my spellcheck has been broken for over a year #finally got around to figuring out how to fix it today #(turns out it actually wasn’t that difficult) #so now I’m going through my text documents and teaching the custom dictionary my idiosyncrasies #didn’t think I’d have to teach it ”poutine” #(the Firefox dictionary also doesn’t include ”poutine”) #(but that’s less surprising) #language #oh look an original post #our home and cherished land

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

staxilicious:

artkat:

despairnaegami:

personasanta:

does anybody else think tired and sleepy mean two totally different things

sleepy is cute and dozing off and happy but tired is 10 cups of coffee and murder

Sleepy vs Tired

reblogging because the last graphic comment is FLAWLESS

@sinesalvatorem pinged me on this, but Tumblr refused to display the parts of the thread above hers (not only on the dash, but on her blog and on the reblogging screen as well).

I debated for a bit whether to reblog directly from her or go back one link in the reblog chain and use that. On the one hand, I think the humour was enhanced by not knowing what the post was right away (so that I wondered “what did she ping me on?” and going back a link and seeing the original thread acted as a punchline). On the other hand, a deactivation here and a name-change there and people who come across this later on might not be able to find that punchline. In the end, preservation concerns won out.

Anyway, thank you, Alison! I’m glad you thought of me.

(Also, they do seem to be grasping at the same distinction we were, don’t they.)

Tags:

#real life continuity nods #anything that makes me laugh this much deserves a reblog #language #reply via reblog #(and I’ll add this one in since it’s why the topic came up in the first place:) #sexuality and lack thereof

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

idiopathicsmile:

the thing i like about the word “your” is that if you split it in half, both “yo” and “ur” in the right context also mean “your” 

it’s like if a lizard lost its tail and grew a new one, but also the tail grew a new lizard 

if you snip out the middle instead, “yr” means “your” also

lizards can’t even begin to do that

Tags:

#language