Happy Things Thread

[Viktor77]

Two things.

First, next week my school (University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign) together with our Chicago campus are hosting the New Ways of Analyzing Variation conference in Chicago and I get to attend for free as a student worker. I'll get to attend some sessions and see some huge names in sociolinguistics speak on a variety of topics. Especially William Labov (UPenn) and Walt Wolfram (NC State). So that's incredibly exciting. There will be attendees from all over the world. I've chosen the workshop A variationist approach to language contact (Shana Poplack, University of Ottawa).

Second, I found out my friend is teaching Beginner's Basque next semester (and let me add I found out through searching Basque on this forum that Linguoboy attended one of her workshops!) and I am hoping to audit or take it. She is from the Basque country and does research on Basque/Spanish contact. The class is an immersion-style class. I have no need for Basque but I can't pass up this sort of opportunity.

[jal]

She is from the Basque country

If she told you there's a Basque country, she's probably ETA. Call 911 right now!

and does research on Basque/Spanish contact.

There you have it. That's just a euphemism for bombing campaigns!

The class is an immersion-style class.

And, since Basque is by far the most difficult language on the planet, that won't go well. Unless the Basque monks preside.


JAL

[Viktor77]

She is from the Basque country

If she told you there's a Basque country, she's probably ETA. Call 911 right now!

You speak English, you know what "the Basque country" means, that it's not a country per say but a word for a region.

[finlay]

Jal: not fucking funny

Victor: per say

[Torco]

^seconded

[jal]

Pfff... sour pussies...


JAL

[Torco]

Oh, i'm not sour about it, it ain't offensive or anything, it's just not funny

... oh, the construction not fucking funny does imply some degree of "and you shouldn't have said it" innit ? never mind, then :v

[finlay]

I beg to differ: while yeah, I was only responding directly to the bit about the monks and while, yeah, I think he's being sarcastic and trying to make a joke, the bits comparing Basques to terrorists are pretty offensive.

[Torco]

he was, i thought, transparently lampshading the whole "basque is ETA" thing. i mean, he even yuxtaposed it with the whole euskerra was invented by monks to annoy spaniards thing XD

but i guess the heart has its reasons, as pascal said: if it offended you then it did and feelings don't need justification or anything.

[Matrix]

Okay, I've seen you do this multiple times, Torco. Juxtapose has a J. Not a Y.

[Gulliver]

I went to a Deaf pub night and successfully and non-inanely conversed in BSL all night. I'm rather pleased. Can I say I speak four languages now?

[Kereb]

someone in my neighbourhood operates a backyard sauna and lets people drop in on certain nights of the week and it is THE PERFECT THING for grey cold rainy times

fuck am i glad that exists

[Torco]

Okay, I've seen you do this multiple times, Torco. Juxtapose has a J. Not a Y.

thanks. i get j and y mixed up all the time cause a lot of stuff spanish does with a y eng does with a j.

[Viktor77]

someone in my neighbourhood operates a backyard sauna and lets people drop in on certain nights of the week and it is THE PERFECT THING for grey cold rainy times

fuck am i glad that exists

I love the sauna. I spend far too much time in there.

[----]

I finally came out to my parents! It went as well as I could have asked for

[linguoboy]

I finally came out to my parents! It went as well as I could have asked for

Whoo-hoo!

[jal]

I finally came out to my parents! It went as well as I could have asked for :)

Congrats!


JAL

[Rui]

I saw the off-Broadway show Here Lies Love earlier in the week, and I have to say I was completely blown away. It was the most unique and creative show I've ever seen, the music was awesome (and so fucking catchy), and I was so happy and proud to see so many talented Filipinos all on one stage (it's an all-Filipino cast, as the story is about Imelda Marcos). It's inspired me to actually start seriously learning Tagalog, and keeping in touch with my family in the Philippines.

(And if that wasn't enough, both of the male leads, Jose Llana and Conrad Ricamora [also of How To Get Away With Murder fame] are both openly gay, which is so cool. Role models are everywhere these days, and it's especially cool to see gay Asians in such public positions as well)

[Torco]

8 gigs of high speed RAM, R7 graphics card, ASUS motherboard, solid state harddrive... man, that's the nice thing about this whole adulting having a job thing: I've just fulfilled little 18 year old torco's dream of buying an idiotically expensive gaming computer.

achievement unlocked.

[Viktor77]

I've had an awesome solo trip across America. I toured the Capitol buildings of Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, and Minnesota as well as finally visited cool cities such as Kansas City and Omaha, and got a proper tour of the Twin Cities as well as two universities, Missouri and Nebraska. I confess to really liking Nebraska and I hope to spend more time there.

With my partner I was able to cross off more counties in Wisconsin. I am collecting every county in America, a feat accomplished by my second cousin and only known to be completed by 30 some people. I have a lifetime to do it, but I've begun working on Wisconsin and I am so far quite happy with the results considering 3 years ago this map was blank, and I got a majority of it this summer. I also am going to try and get some Illinois counties marked off in my free time.

Here's WI. Before I leave I might try to get Washington county as well. I could get many more but I want to save some of them (such as Wisconsin Rapids) for better weather and properly see the sites there. Cody and I took the Northern loop to Eagle River yesterday, 7 hours of driving. One of the counties we drove, Menominee, was entirely a Native American reservation, which was a unique experience to see.

[hwhatting]

What do you count as "visiting"? Driving through, or does it include stopping and stepping out of the car?

[Rui]

Driving all of those black lines took you only 7 hours??

[KathTheDragon]

If you reread what Viktor said, you'll see it's only one part of one black line.

Cody and I took the Northern loop to Eagle River yesterday, 7 hours of driving.

[Viktor77]

Yes, the total of all that driving is in the 30 hours range.

What do you count as "visiting"? Driving through, or does it include stopping and stepping out of the car?

Technically yes, if you drive it you get it, if you ride in the car you get it too. This is helpful for some smaller or more boring counties like Florence above. I like to see things though in the counties. If not in every one than in a couple on each trip I take to collect, otherwise it's just driving around looking at scenery only visible from the road. But yes, you can even count counties from interstates even though you seldom see anything. Interstates at night, same thing. The jury's still out on trains. Planes are a no. Though those are just general guidelines. Everyone has a different goal. Some try to visit every county seat, some take a picture of or with every county sign, and some even do step foot in each county.

For me the goal is really to see every corner of America. So if visiting the south western corner of State A you just drive through counties B, C, and D, that's fine, as long as you visited maybe counties E and F, then at least you have traveled there and got an impression of the area.

[Kereb]

man

for a few years now i've had this idea that once i have a good hoard of funds in one place, i'll do a big road trip of the US. but i'll probably make it a big U shape. Down the west coast, maybe cross into Mexico for a bit (save a deeper trip of Mexico for another time) then across Texas (I've always wanted to see the Gulf, and New Orleans) into the southeast and then up the east coast. i'm sure it'll cost a mint.