The Not a Book Club Club discussion
Random Musings..
message 751:
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Suzanne
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Mar 22, 2017 06:59PM
That happens to me a lot too Bill!
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Gosh, me too.Yesterday I went to a café in town to sit outside in the sun and read while being served hot chocolate and being allowed to smoke at the same time (very European, I know).
I managed HALF A PAGE (!) before staff from the adjoining museum decided to join me, and we spent the rest of the afternoon chatting and drinking cider.
I've been doing really well this year with my reading. I'm proud of myself. I imagine I'll fall off at some point though, likely now with the release of Mass Effect: Andromeda.
Kat wrote: "Gosh, me too.Yesterday I went to a café in town to sit outside in the sun and read while being served hot chocolate and being allowed to smoke at the same time (very European, I know)."
As European as that sounds, I feel that I would get annoyed trying to read at a cafe.
I'm much more inclined to go to a park and read.
It's not so much a café, really. It's a miniature pub located in the basement of a building alongside the medieval harbour, seating about 10 people inside. They have a few tables outside, and sometimes they even climb up the stairs to take orders. But they leave you alone up there on the sidewalk for aaaaaaaages, so you can actually read without interruptions. If I want something, I just climb down and tell them.Unless you're friends with museum staff. They see you, they join you. And since the mini-pub is also located smack in the middle between the museum and the museum-run art gallery, staff zoom back and forth on errands between the two all day, so there's no hiding.
Whinge incoming:A few months ago I signed up at a German literature discussion board online, because it has hundreds of active members and a great website.
I this forum there's always threads going about meet-ups at different literature festivals and fairs, and meet-ups in different cities. So far, so good. Unfortunately I didn't book in advance, so could not get accommodation for the two important book fairs (Frankfurt and Leipzig).
But all the other meet-ups are either in the far South, or at least south of the country's geographical centre. There never seems to be a meet-up anywhere I could humanly get to without driving 10 hours (and I'm talking German Autobahn without speed limit here). I don't even have a car, and you really don't want to know the price for train tickets!
So I dug up a thread in the archive about a meet-up in Hamburg. They managed to fill 98 pages with posts spanning several meets. But no new post since 2013. So I dusted it off and revived the thread, asking if there's any active members in the North.
And zilch. Not even a response from anyone saying "I would, but can't because of whatever". I seem to be completely alone in the North.
I feel so disappointed, it's not funny.
/end whinge
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Thankfully now S&L has a local meetup every month. I'm kind of running/organizing it sadly, but luckily it's not much work. We meet at an irish pub and talk about a variety of stuff, not just the S&L pick.
As for gaming, I host a game night at my house once a month which is fun, but I'd probably like to add a second night where I play with a smaller group because my monthly group is normally 7+ which limits the games you can play.
Of course having too many people is a good problem to have, as the main reason for game night is to socialize with friends, but I do miss playing D&D and some of the more serious games I have that are for 3-5 players.
Game nights are awesome. 20 years ago I kept tagging along to an RPG-group every thursday that consisted of 5/6 of my closest friends and met at a local youth club. I never played, but I liked to take part by drawing their characters or make maps for them etc. I wouldn't mind organising something, but I just can't seem to find like-minded people. This does not only concern book-related activities (although the facebook bookclub I made for me and my friends consists of 3 people, both of them overseas), but also any other hobbies I have. The gardening group of volunteers at the museum gardens never grew past 5 members, which is by far not enough to maintain a garden that size. And when I had to quit due to having 2 jobs already, the others quit as well.
Maybe I'm just a sh!tty organiser, or not enthusiastic enough, or just not able to get people excited about something. The only thing that worked out great was the Secret Santa I organised for you guys. But you're all so far away, I can't talk you into going for a pint on a friday night.
Mod
Most people want to just show up to something when it's convenient to them, and not have to worry about planning. This often extends to people not responding/replying ahead of time about their plans.
I assume most people don't realize the amount of time/energy it can take to plan/organize things.
It's one of the reasons it's so nice that S&L is very little effort on my part. Mostly I just make a new event every month and pester people a few days before hand to double check how many are ocming so I put a reservation in.
Initially I had tried to pick a day that worked best for everyone, but instead we settled on just having a standing day (Last Saturday of each month) instead. There have been a few months where we've adjusted that (or tried to) but otherwise it's just the same.
Thanks again for organizing the Secret Santa thing. That was fun!
I've found that it's hard to get a group of people together to meet regularly. My D&D group has 6 members plus the DM (so 7) and it gets hard to find a day that works for everyone, mostly for me and the married couple in my group. We're older and have more obligations that the younglings still in their early 20s.
I've also had that problem in the past. I play ultimate Frisbee in the summers, and the attendance for out team some weeks is frustrating. And its only 1 game (about 1.5hrs) per week.
Oh wait, I was a WoW Guild Master for a few years as well, that worked out with around 120 members. So I'm not completely useless, haha.I'm not even after a regular meet-up, for starters I would just like to meet someone at all! Since the gardening group has fled the scene last summer, I know exactly 2 local persons outside my family and outside a "Hello, goodbye!" sort of thing with people from my apartment building.
Two.
Not "I have 2 friends," but "I only know 2 people who have talked to me beyond "Hello" in the stairwell."
One of them has an incurable illness that prevents him from leaving the house most days, and he is the museum guard who joined me the other day.
The other hasn't replied to any of my calls since last August.
I really think I might need to move house to a different town or something.
I've found that it's much harder to make friends as an adult. People have so many obligations and get set in their ways and then if they have kids, that's pretty much it. It's hard to go grab a drink with someone just once a month let alone once per week.
Mod
It's just how things go as far as I can tell. Doesn't make it any less frustrating though.
Agreed. Once I got done with college it became much harder to make friends. I don't have any friends that read fantasy.
Bill wrote: "Agreed. Once I got done with college it became much harder to make friends. I don't have any friends that read fantasy."I don't either. I only have the friends that I do now because I started playing D&D at my local comic book store (and one moved away to Seattle). I actually recently made friends with one of the tellers at my bank because she's into nerdy things as well.
Nice. I know they do a weekly d&d game at my local comic store too but I've never played before so I'm leery of going.
Mod
What Rob said. My shop does Adventure League which isn't bad but I quit playing because I wanted a different experience. It's a great place to meet like-minded people and obviously play D&D (my current group is comprised of people who play AL). I have never played D&D at all before going there but everyone was super friendly and my shop works hard to be inclusive (which is important to me as a lady gamer). My shop started with 1 group and now they have about 6-8 groups now and had to expand into the store next door to accommodate everyone (they also run Magic tournaments and the like).Again, each shop varies but I highly recommend going and at least seeing what their deal is.
No comic book store here.But I picked up a leaflet at the antique book shop for some author readings next month. So far each time I went it was all old folk, and the books were not my taste, but who knows. Might be better next time.
Might try it during the summer when I have a bit more drive to get out and socialize.Good luck next time Kat. I went to a discussion on Hemingway's Cuban influence at my library last week and it was me and all 60+ year old people.
Thank you.I've tried a gardening project, several book discussions, several public talks, art exhibitions, and a sleuth of cultural events (from shanty choir festival to draw-your-own-political-caricature), and it seems to always be pensioners apart from me.
I seem to live in a town full of rather active elderly and a score of 14-year-olds hanging out at bus stops, but nothing inbetwen whatsoever. I wonder where these kid's parents are.
It's getting spooky.
Haha yeah you kind of have the makings of a science fiction book/movie there.
They're waiting, Kat, to start the alien invasion.
Don't feed my paranoia.....In other news, today I got my confirmation letter for the English exam I'm taking for work. There's no backing out now, if I cancel I won't get the money back (and it's expensive!)
May 13th is the date, and I'll have writing, reading, speaking and listening exams all on the same day.
I haven't told work that I'm taking the test yet, just in case. If I pass with flying colours I can nonchalantly hand it in to HR with a "By the way, I did this the other day...". And if I fail nobody will ever know.
Mod
Yes, it's the Cambridge Certificate. I'm taking Business English (Higher), which is level C1 (where A1 is beginner, and C2 is native speaker).I'm sort of winging it, as I have not taken a preparation course nor bought any of the study materials.
I was going for the C2 exam, but felt that having something that says 'Business English' on it would impress German employers more than something called 'Proficiency Exam'. Firstly because employers don't know the difference between the lettercode C1 and C2, and second because 'proficiency' is a tricky word to translate into German - if translated as 'fluency' it could be interpreted as 'can speak and understand stuff' rather than 'can speak and understand stuff really, really well!'
I'll do the C2 later at some point.
Mod
Good luck!
Haha, thank you :-)Well, I did communicate in English exclusively for a period of about 15 years. Okay, maybe 95% of the time.
I even picked up how to tell North Londoners and South Londoners apart by their accents, and can differentiate a Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh accent from 'proper English' respectively. I can also tell Australians and New Zealanders apart, which seems to be impossible for British people to hear (either that or they just don't care).
I fail at American accents, though, and live in fear of offending someone by asking them where in the US/Canada they're from.
My best friend (British) just said: "You could do the listening test with a Bangladeshi immigrant working in a corner store reading the questions, easy."I'm apprehensive, though.
Mod
As far as North American accents, I'm almost as bad. Other than Southern vs. Northern US accents.
Oh yeah, I can tell North/South apart as well. But I would never ask someone where in the US they were from just in case they're Canadian. Unless they talk 'Mississippi' at me, then it's probably safe to ask.
Mod
I do remember when my step cousin moved from Buffalo to North Carolina he picked up the Southern "twang", but he was much younger than I was when he moved.
I grew up near Canada, and went camping up there a fair bit when I was a kid, so I could maybe recognize someone as Canadian by their accent, but I'm not confident in that.
I think you will do very well on the exam Kat. And your accent ability amazes me - you are like Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady!
Good luck, Kat! I'm sure you'll kick that exam's ass.I'm pretty okay with accents. English not as much. I can't tell north vs south London or different parts of Irish but I can tell Welsh accents and New Zealand vs Australia.
American are easier for me (I live in Pittsburgh). I can tell different southern accents (Texas is definitely different from Mississippi) and Pittsburghers have an accent (it's terrible).
I'm always amazed at the sheer variety of American accents whenever I watch a tv show that has real people talking. All the shows with actors have such a standardised accent that it's easy to forget that even if we watch it with original audio (rather than dubbed) it's not how real people talk in real life. I have come across some American accents where I had difficulty making out the words if the person uses a lot of slang as well.
Kat wrote: "I'm always amazed at the sheer variety of American accents whenever I watch a tv show that has real people talking. All the shows with actors have such a standardised accent that it's easy to for..."
Come across this alot at work kat.
GO LEAFS GO!!!I am ridiculously happy right now!
Mod
It's good for league for the Leafs to finally not be terrible..but as a Sabres fan..just no..
Is hockey still going? They should not be playing into the summer.
Mod
Certainly in June its a bit late in the year for hockey. But I'd kill to see the Leafs play in June (that's not happening this year though)
HAPPY EASTER !!May you all get lots of easter eggs :-)
Mod
Today I discovered James Veitch on youtube. I'm in love.
Mod
All the others I've heard about are getting in trouble for saying/doing horrible things.
Go look him up! No wait, here's the link that set me off:
https://youtu.be/dSoXEtFPTfI
It's brilliant!
Mod
But I would like a free toaster..
The Not a Book Club Club
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