Happy Things Thread

[Frislander]

I am in Nürnberg. Time to raid the Christmas markets and eat all the Bratwurst. And Lebkuchen. And drink all the Glühwein. (insert excited bouncing)

[Travis B.]

I'm quite happy that the trip I planned to DC is coming together so I will be able to see Liz and Jean-Paul for the first time in ages. (The rest of the family, aside from my sister, is coming too, largely so my daughter can see the pandas (she's a huge panda fan), which was not originally part of my plan, but that's okay.)

[vampireshark]

Got a Christmas gift I ordered for myself today: super-shiny euro coins from the Vatican City. Also ordered directly from the Vatican. (insert drooling)

Also, I head back to the States tomorrow; really am looking forward to spending Christmas at home. (Joy.)

[Pole, the]

Today I learned how to use monads in Haskell.

[Chagen]

My friends on discord are totally fine with me conlanging...I still can't believe. No one called me weird. They even thought it was funny and cool when I spoke in Pazmat (providing translations of course). I taught my little sister how to say "father/daddy", "brother", and "sister" in it...

I have such amazing friends...friends who don't think I'm weird 'cause I do stuff like make my own languages. I'm still stunned. I've found friends who let me be myself...

I'm sorry I'm so emotional right now I just...yeah. My little sis wants to learn it hehe, she's so cute~

[Frislander]

So, after all that hard work to do with applications, the results are in, and it's official: I've got an offer from Selwyn College Cambridge to read linguistics!

[hwhatting]

Congratulations!

[Salmoneus]

So, after all that hard work to do with applications, the results are in, and it's official: I've got an offer from Selwyn College Cambridge to read linguistics!

Congratulations!
[and, although I'm sure it's not necessary, good luck in your exams...]

[Frislander]

Congratulations!

So, after all that hard work to do with applications, the results are in, and it's official: I've got an offer from Selwyn College Cambridge to read linguistics!

Congratulations!
[and, although I'm sure it's not necessary, good luck in your exams...]

Thank you both!

[Travis B.]

Great!

[Frislander]

Great!

Thank you also!

[Pogostick Man]

My band played a show on the 7th. Here are some photos.

[Torco]

daddy trump took the empire out of the TPP. hopefully it falls apart. i'm truly sorry for americans who will have to suffer some of the bad consequences of the guy, but for the rest of the world it's looking good.

[linguoboy]

i'm truly sorry for americans who will have to suffer some of the bad consequences of the guy, but for the rest of the world it's looking good.

Keep telling yourself that.

Is Trump ready for war in the South China Sea, or is his team just not being clear?

[Pole, the]

Is Trump ready for war in the South China Sea, or is his team just not being clear?

Well, that means that either (1) China will fold and it will be basically one authoritarian regime giving up power to another autoritarian regime, which is meh, or (2) a global thermonuclear war will unfold, resulting in total eradication of the human race, which is a good thing.

[KathTheDragon]

total eradication of the human race, which is a good thing.

I almost questioned this, until I realised it was Pole posting.

[Travis B.]

I can somehow see how one could consider human extinction as better than one authoritarian regime giving up power to another...

[Torco]

i'm truly sorry for americans who will have to suffer some of the bad consequences of the guy, but for the rest of the world it's looking good.

Keep telling yourself that.

I mean, don't get me wrong, i'm totally horrified by trump's rhetoric <sniff sniff> but who knows what he's actually gonna do. the reason it makes me somewhat hopeful is that it implies that at least his isolationist, anti-globalization stuff is like true, which would be something on the whole quite good for people who are not americans.

of course, if he does go over into declaring a war with the PRC or whatever that'd be terrible, but that doesn't seem liely at this point. Pole's number 2 point is entirely unwarranted. people imagine that the second a war is declared all nukes are launched but that's totally not true. local and discrete wars with specific objectives, like, i dunno, the independence of hong kong, there's no reason those need to go all nukey.

of course, they always could, but that possibility has been there since waaay before we were all born.

[Ars Lande]

I have a feeling I can't quite explain that the isolation thing is just, well, "alternative fact." I could see very well a return to the good old days of Bush; it wouldn't be that hard to find a pretext for another nasty little war in the Middle East.

The good news (for France, at least) is that if we somehow manage to elect a more or less sane president in May, it would be very hard to continue the past few years' policy of being a satellite of Washington as far as foreign policy is concerned.

[linguoboy]

I have a feeling I can't quite explain that the isolation thing is just, well, "alternative fact." I could see very well a return to the good old days of Bush; it wouldn't be that hard to find a pretext for another nasty little war in the Middle East.

US Sabre Rattling in the Persian Gulf: “Pre-Emptive Attack Iran” HJ Res 10 Bill Active in US Congress

ObHappy: Started a new RPG on Tuesday and I'm getting exciting about fleshing out my character's backstory.

[Travis B.]

Thank fucking god this is (mostly) done with. Still have some glimmers of delusional thinking, but they are weak and have mostly disappeared.

[Ars Lande]

The novel I've been working on for a year is coming along nicely, I believe, although I had to start over from scratch, again, and if things continue to go well, I'll have a solid first draft at the end of March.

[Salmoneus]

The novel I've been working on for a year is coming along nicely, I believe, although I had to start over from scratch, again, and if things continue to go well, I'll have a solid first draft at the end of March.

Congratulations! Genre?

[Ars Lande]

It's technically science-fiction, although it's closer to fantasy in overall feel (it's set in a non-industrial civilization ; what advanced technology there is is not readily recognizable as such).

[Viktor77]

I'm a bit giddy as apparently my views on the question of what kind of power the EU can most be described as being gives me a solid European orientation for an American. Every American in my class answered that the EU was most a market power. The one German, our Greek professor, and I, responded that it is more a normative power. The professor asked me if I had some sort of European connections because apparently he's consistently found this distinction when teaching this course (external relations of the EU). So it just made me momentarily happy that I see things from perhaps a more European perspective despite being American. This goes along with an interview I just did for a Belgian project called Faces of Europe (which a Belgian friend working for the project insisted I do despite not being European).

I'm a nerd. Deal with it.