New Testingstan

the worst part is

I have more and more difficulties speaking French without having English words pop up in my mind when I want to say something, and having a hard time finding the correct expression in French to carry my thoughts.

It's true what they say, about how language influence thought.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. starts in nine minutes.

Also I just saw a commercial for the NCIS premiere. Apparently they're killing off Ziva, and they really mean it this time.

not surprising, it was in the work for a while

I mean, her contract was coming to an end, and she wasn't getting the pay rasie she was demanding to continue for a few more seasons. So it was either that, or shipping her of back to Israel.

now I'm reminded of that bit in Transmetropoliton where they outlaw French

Yeah, it has been on my mind quite a bit lately...

How to promote internationalism while... well, "preserving" isn't the best term, but at least making sure that the nation keeps an identity that is its own and doesn't get culturally colonized.


Colonization of the mind is one of my unspoken fears.

fair enough
I have those fears with American television and films, but at least we've the same languages (even if they can't spell for shit)
on the plus side, in the UK we've revived practically dead languages like Welsh; if that's possible, I doubt that French is going anywhere any time soon.

Especially considering it's, like, in the top ten of the most spoken languages in the world.

If anything, the ex-colonies will keep it alive, even if it is in an highly bastardized créole form.

their native languages are probably fucked, though

wifi on linux is indeed pretty painful, unless you get lucky with drivers just working. tho if they don't work there is a chance to get them working regardless, there's a thingy to use some windows drivers, ndiswrapper i think ti is called

odds are the newer distros does this automatically. i haven't used any of the new ones for a few years.

but on the bright side, once you figure it out, it isn't that bad. then it mostly just works and if you have to change passwords or add networks, it isn't hard

Oxymoron wrote:Well, Linux isn't user friendly (though that can be argued, depending on what kind of user we are talking about), but at least as a development platform for low-level applications (close to the hardware) it's a very comfortable thing to work with and on (by the standards of the industry...)

eeehhh it's still a pain in the ass for a lot of stuff. drivers have a habit of breaking cuz they change stuff so much and userland stuff is a pain because of again all the changes and the fragmentation

and some stupid fucking decisions. they have an easy to use but buggy thing and they replace it with a hard to use.... and buggier thing and call that progress. there's wrapper after wrapper of crap

Darksi4190 wrote:Also I just saw a commercial for the NCIS premiere. Apparently they're killing off Ziva, and they really mean it this time.

oh my i forgot about that, time to turn on the tv

i heard she didn't want to come back and i kinda suspected they'd kill her off.... but eh it kinds bugs me because they killed off kate too. makes me not want to be around gibbs as a woman

gee they killed off like two of his wives too didn't they

jesus christ

@ Soup : Probably, probably not.

Algerians, Tunisians and Moroccan still speak Arab even though most of them know French almost as well as their native language, the few people from Madagascar I know still speak Malgache at home even though the schools teach in French there, with the same thing happening throughout the rest of French-influenced Africa as far as I know (though in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which was under Belgian rule, I -think- French isn't doing that well even though it's the largest non-French Francophone community out there).

The territories that are still under direct French administration, though... yeah, even with the "conservation" efforts that there is going on, it doesn't seem like they're doing so well...

Also, American cultural hegemony will fragment just as Roman hegemony fragmented to produce medieval Europe and the Middle East, or Chinese hegemony fragmented to produce most of the cultures in Southeast and East Asia, or, going more obscure, the Mississippian culture (probably) fragmented to produce the cultures of the American Southeast of the 1500s and 1600s. And, hell, this will probably trigger a revival of diversity in languages anyways, at least until the next empire crops up, assuming one does.

Re Francophone Africa : Though even if the local languages are still spoken in day to day lives, I don't know how much of the actual cultural production in these areas are done in these languages, so yeah, these languages may very well be fucked as effectively they will only live as long as people will speak them.

I guess one of the advantage of using the language of the invader in Africa is that it's a lingua franca that everyone knows, considering the cultural and linguistic fragmentation of Africa otherwise (to be checked, but I think it may be as culturally divided as Europe per unit of surface...)

Bakustra wrote:Also, American cultural hegemony will fragment just as Roman hegemony fragmented to produce medieval Europe and the Middle East, or Chinese hegemony fragmented to produce most of the cultures in Southeast and East Asia, or, going more obscure, the Mississippian culture (probably) fragmented to produce the cultures of the American Southeast of the 1500s and 1600s. And, hell, this will probably trigger a revival of diversity in languages anyways, at least until the next empire crops up, assuming one does.

Little comfort, considering that same Roman Hegemony lasted something like 600-900 years, and ended with what is usually called The Dark Ages...

Oxymoron wrote:

Bakustra wrote:Also, American cultural hegemony will fragment just as Roman hegemony fragmented to produce medieval Europe and the Middle East, or Chinese hegemony fragmented to produce most of the cultures in Southeast and East Asia, or, going more obscure, the Mississippian culture (probably) fragmented to produce the cultures of the American Southeast of the 1500s and 1600s. And, hell, this will probably trigger a revival of diversity in languages anyways, at least until the next empire crops up, assuming one does.

Little comfort, considering that same Roman Hegemony lasted something like 600-900 years, and ended with what is usually called The Dark Ages...

Yeah, and in the year 3000 they'll probably be talking about the Second Dark Ages of the 2200s, when Hollywood went dark and Silicon Valley fell to the Lebombo Highlands, but daily life in Late Antiquity under some petty Frank or Goth lord wasn't so much different from daily life under some petty Roman citizen during the height of imperial power, and things largely improved for the average person going forward until the Black Death (and even then, life improved massively for the survivors). Then you've got the rise of Islam and all that came from that, the technological and scientific revolution of the Early and High Middle Ages...

Oxy: As i understand it, that kind of thing is a sign of true fluency. On a practical standpoint, its annoying as all hell.

So, work was busy, I've barely done anything other than work, eat and sleep for the past 2-2 1/2 weeks. What'd I miss?

Questor wrote:Oxy: As i understand it, that kind of thing is a sign of true fluency. On a practical standpoint, its annoying as all hell.

So, work was busy, I've barely done anything other than work, eat and sleep for the past 2-2 1/2 weeks. What'd I miss?

Jesus Christ returned and I made out with him in Shea Stadium. Then he ditched me for Mithras, the rake.

Any news on when Mary Magdalene is coming back?

That motherfucker said he'd introduce us.

The Spartan wrote:Any news on when Mary Magdalene is coming back?

That motherfucker said he'd introduce us.

I believe his exact words were, "She said she'd be back when Gregorian chants hit the Top 40". So, still a chance.

Darksi4190 wrote:Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. starts in nine minutes.

Also I just saw a commercial for the NCIS premiere. Apparently they're killing off Ziva, and they really mean it this time.

I don't think they're killing her off, just writing her out. The producers have said so.

And Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was pretty fun. Coulson is as awesome as ever.

I'm doing confirmation 14 years late.

The things I do for my father...

It is interesting being able to talk to learned people about the philosophical & historical basis of theology. It's like the "game" version of philosophy. That's always been the part about Catholicism that I enjoyed. Most of the evangelical assholes around here haven't read anything aside from a few verses on bumper stickers, and I include the preachers in that condemnation. There seems to be a cease fire agreement on the stupider aspects of the doctrine in my local church, as well.

It's still a ton of silliness, but if me being able to be my half-siblings god-father makes my dad happy, I'm willing to do it. Of course, he'd really also like me to find a god-mother as well, but I don't see that happening by easter.

EDIT: On that note, Oxy, can you think of anything I could do that would impress a woman who grew up in France on a first date that wouldn't stress my high school french too heavily?

On another note, in anticipation of my trip next week, I got an iPhone 5s, got my 5 unlocked, and got some Bose QC20i headphones. I endorse the headphones, and I'm not usually a Bose guy.

Tell her how much you liked Victor Hugo's Human Comedy, especially No Exit and The Stranger. Then order "craps" and "ess-cahr-gawts". Or just remember to pronounce your n's like Bugs Bunny. Whatever.

Thanks baks, that was basically my plan, but I was going to throw in some comments about cheese eating surrender monkeys and Vietnam, too.

Questor wrote:Thanks baks, that was basically my plan, but I was going to throw in some comments about cheese eating surrender monkeys and Vietnam, too.

looks like we've got a real valentino over here! but seriously, the bugs bunny thing helps you pronounce le francais properly, because he swallows his final n's like french does

Bakustra wrote:

Questor wrote:Thanks baks, that was basically my plan, but I was going to throw in some comments about cheese eating surrender monkeys and Vietnam, too.

looks like we've got a real valentino over here! but seriously, the bugs bunny thing helps you pronounce le francais properly, because he swallows his final n's like french does

My accent and pronunciation isn't half bad. Vocabulary and grammar on the other hand...

Of course, none of this tops a friend of mine from high school. He speaks fluent portuguese, and somehow managed, through cultural differences between Portugal and Brazil, to offend not just his date, but the entire restaurant and was asked to leave by the staff.