The Contradictory Feelings Thread

[Astraios]

I don't want to continue studying in the UK, I want to transfer to this uni. But this uni doesn't accept transfers, so the most I can do is start another degree and request some credits be given in light of my previous studies. Also but, I have only one year left back there, which isn't really that much, and since it's nearly May already I doubt I'd get accepted to this uni in time to start a degree this autumn, and therefore if I don't I have another year left before I can start here - during which I might as well finish my degree in the UK. But but, I really don't want to live in the UK for a whole nother nine months (September until graduation). However if I do continue there, after I graduate I'll have money left in my bank account since I get extra money for being poor, which I wouldn't have if I quit my degree there, which would be useful (in any case, a degree here would be partially paid for by new immigrant benefits, so I'd have more money for other things). If I continue there I also get to say that I lived in France for two months as well Israel for ten months, which is better, however, it's not really relevant to anything I want to do later. I'm quite sure too that in another year I'll have got bored with the idea of doing a degree here, and I'll want to do something else. Another thing, if I stay here and get citizenship now, I'll have to complete two years of mandatory military service which would probably suck (but maybe not because I might get awesome translation jobs), but if I stay here and get citizenship after my 22nd birthday, I'll lose my new immigrant benefits because I'll have been in the country for over eighteen months, but then I'd only have six months of military service (which would be preferable, but all I'd be doing would be admin and filing papers, which would suck). However it's possible to have your draft pushed back until after your university studies, if your studies will be of use during your service, which in my case is probably true since what I intend to study here will be directly linked to a potential army job of translating and interpreting and such as. However however, there's a program of study in the army which is more or less identical to what I want to study at this uni, in which case I probably wouldn't mind so much quitting my degree in the UK and getting immigrant status now and being drafted for two years (rather than studying for another four years and then being drafted for six months) because I'd be studying what I want to at the same time as getting the army service out of the way quicker. That way too I'd only be 24 when I'm let loose after studying and serving, rather than 26, which would be nicer. But I don't really want to be drafted at all, and I'd much rather only serve for six months. I also don't know what this university would think of the fact that I've already studied one of their second-year courses (Persian) when I'm not even a first-year student - would they let me take third-year Persian in first year, or could I take second-year Turkish in first year and then third-year Persian in second year, or what. And that's annoying because I'll have to sort that out, which will involve a huge amount of running around this rabbit warren of a Humanities building arguing with lazy secretaries who don't want anything to do with someone outside the ordinary applicant box. Also also, if I finish my UK degree, then I'll have a degree, and that'll look better than withdrawing. And it's only nine more months in the UK, I guess, but a) before that I'll have to go and live in Cannes for two months this summer and take terrible French lessons for one month, and b) I'll have to put up with freezing weather and bad food and no friends and useless Hebrew lessons for nine months (at the end of my current semester of Hebrew the exam I take will earn me an Exemption from any further mandatory Hebrew tests, and if I had teaching qualifications I'd be able to teach it officially, so another year of Hebrew lessons in Manchester sounds dumb).

Also, I got called impertinent because I asked if I can still take the French oral exam even though I've probably automatically failed for not turning up to enough classes. I'm not sure whether to be amused or not.

Also also, the weather's getting hotter, so my coat is irritating to wear, but it has a billion pockets which are super useful and fun.

[Thry]

Finish the UK thing, arrête d'esquiper les classes de Français et gette moar poquets in pants.

Also lern2paragraph.

[Astraios]

I wasn't actually expecting anyone to try and read the whole thing, so I didn't bother paragraphing. And streams of consciousness don't need paragraphs anyway!

Trouser pockets suck, you look like a twit if you try and reach the low down ones, and filling the high up ones ruins how your naughty area looks. Did they make a T-shirt full of pockets yet?

And I don't wanna finish the UK thing.

[Thry]

And I don't wanna finish the UK thing.

Shhhhh there, all is good.
It's just one year, you've lived there for your whole life, you'll be ok.

[Astraios]

I guess if I go back it means I get one extra year of mama's cooking... (Well, like two months of it, since I'll be away at uni all the time.)

The worst thing will be going back and not having friends. I don't like English people in general, and students there are the worstest. I just don't get them. Though I do like being the teacher's pet and getting the highest marks in everything, which is easier when you don't have friends, so maybe I'll be able to stand it. And my sister will be happy I'm back and maybe get better.

[Herr Dunkel]

"Mama - I just transferred back
I have to study here instead
All my friends wish me dead
Mama! Studies had just begun
But now I'm back and I can't say "nay!"
Mama! Oo-ooh-oh-oo
Didn't mean to be so sly
Do not worry, I'll be home this time tomorrow
Carry on, carry on, cause I'll be living off your shoulders~"

(sorry, had to do it)
Just be careful of the army wanting to take advantage of you

[Astraios]

xD

They can only take advantage of me for six months, and six months is basically equivalent to zero, so. But if I got a fun job I might let them take advantage for longer.

[Viktor77]

When I arranged for our vacation in a week for a week it was with the knowledge that a second assistant manager would be promoted at my partner's job. The regional manager refuses despite qualified employees. What this means is the head manager now has to work 9AM-11PM (and on weekends til 3AM) every day for 7 straight days while we go on vacation. You can imagine that makes one feel like shit for going on vacation.

[Drydic]

No, that would make me extremely pissed at the regional manager.

[Viktor77]

No, that would make me extremely pissed at the regional manager.

She doesn't have a backbone when it comes to him. I am of course pissed at him, but I don't know him. My partner can't say anything, he still wants his job, and corporate is just as corrupt and removed.

[Drydic]

Trust me I know all about dumbfuck corporations...I found out last night that my ISP's existing customer support phone number is just a looped greeting.

[Viktor77]

Trust me I know all about dumbfuck corporations...I found out last night that my ISP's existing customer support phone number is just a looped greeting.

Charter? Is it Charter?

Oooh is it Comcast? They are notorious!

[Drydic]

fuck I wish I had Charter or Comcast. At least I'd get over fucking 2.6mbps download then...this is Clear(wire).

[Viktor77]

fuck I wish I had Charter or Comcast. At least I'd get over fucking 2.6mbps download then...this is Clear(wire).

Oh never heard of it. Can you not get Charter or Comcast or was this just the cheapest option?

[KathTheDragon]

fuck I wish I had Charter or Comcast. At least I'd get over fucking 2.6mbps download then...this is Clear(wire).

2.6mbps... I hate this.

[Drydic]

fuck I wish I had Charter or Comcast. At least I'd get over fucking 2.6mbps download then...this is Clear(wire).

Oh never heard of it. Can you not get Charter or Comcast or was this just the cheapest option?

CableOne (which oddly enough is apparently owned by the Washington Post) is the cable provider around here. CenturyLink (the company formerly known as Qwest) is the DSL provider. I can get neither, because I don't have the property owner's permission to dig a line for their cables (the original lines got rototilled through about 15 years ago.)

fuck I wish I had Charter or Comcast. At least I'd get over fucking 2.6mbps download then...this is Clear(wire).

2.6mbps... I hate this.

You and me both.

[vampireshark]

I feel horrible about the two exams I took, the one on Monday moreso than the one today: the former was a complete surprise and U-turn compared to the material he told us to review and know, and this one just had so much stuff to review. On the other hand, though, those two exams being over means I'm done with this hellish semester... and I probably have an A in at least one class, so that's cause for celebration.

[Ducane]

I want to post in the thread, and yet I do not at the same time. I wonder if I should look in the previous pages to see if someone has said this already, and yet I do not seem to care. Not that I'm apathetic either.

[Izambri]

A few days ago the autonomous government of Aragon (Spain), approved a new law of languages. Among other things this law makes official the circumlocutions LAPAO (Lengua Aragonesa Propia del Área Oriental) "Aragonese Language Typical of the Eastern Area" and LAPAPYP (Lengua Aragonesa Propia de las Áreas Pirenaica y Prepirenaica) "Aragonese Language Typical of the Pyrenean and Pre-Pyrenean Areas", respectively substituing the traditional and normal names: Catalan and Aragonese.

Basically this is an attempt by the PP (Partido Popular, a right-wing political party) to fragment the Catalan language. An attempt to turn the Catalan spoken in Aragon into a patois, a regional marginalized language without a standard orthography. Other linguicide actions are taking place in the Valencian Country, the Balearic Islands and Catalonia.

The funny thing about all this is that Lapao is, in fact, a language. Specifically a dialect of Naxi, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in southwestern China.

The thing was trending topic on Twitter a few days ago. Lots of #lapao, #lapapyp and other tags. A great indignation and lots of fun equally, and the linguicide unionistas making a fool, a quixotic parody of themselves. Again.
We are still having a bloody riot here in Catalonia.

___________________

CNA
Aragon's Parliament renames Catalan language spoken in its territory with the acronym 'LAPAO'

[Salmoneus]

"Linguicide"? For Aragon 'renaming' the language traditionally spoken in Aragon as 'Aragonese'? If Catalonia wants to be independent, it can hardly demand to take all shared property with it, including languages. The Catalonians don't get to dictate what the Aragonese call their own language. Likewise, Catalonia is free to rename the Castillian spoken in Catalonia if they so choose.

Linguicide is where you try to exterminate a language, not where you claim ownership of your own language. Linguicide involves things like prohibiting the use of a language, preventing the use of the language in communication with state officials, preventing the use of the language in schools, and so forth. As I understand it, the Aragonese laws actually guarantee the right to use Aragonese Catalan (whatever name is used for it) in dealings with the government, and guarantee the right to (at least some degree of) education in that language.

If anything smacks of 'linguicide' it's the Catalonian retributary declaration that "the unity of Catalan is unquestionable" - i.e. LAPAO has no identity apart from Catalan, and any regional variations are just inadequacies and errors, rather than legitimate differences. The dispute, after all, ultimately comes down to whether Catalonians should be considered linguistic authorities for 'Catalan'-speaking Aragonese, or whether the Aragonese have the right to define their language separately from the standards promulgated by the Catalonians. The question of what the Aragonese wish to speak and what they want to call it is entirely a matter for the Aragonese, and no business at all of the Catalonians.

[Drydic]

Well said, Sal.

I'd ask if the acronyms are the only allowable terms for the language or if Catalan & Aragonese are still legally usable. That answer would be telling as to how to actually take this.

[Dewrad]

"Linguicide"? For Aragon 'renaming' the language traditionally spoken in Aragon as 'Aragonese'?

On that note, I do wonder what speakers of Aragonese think about their language's name being usurped by those Catalan-speakers in the Franja?

[Radius Solis]

I used to be sympathetic to the Catalan cause. But the incessant stream of hysterical whining about trivial issues (here and elsewhere) has turned my sympathy into spite, and I now instead daydream of nuking Catalonia into radioactive grit.

[ol bofosh]

Catalonians are trying to escape from the big Spanish box that encases their thoughts...

... and replace it with a smaller Catalan box to encase their thoughts. Let them, they probably deserve it.

[Izambri]

An audio file with spoken Lapao.