Watcha Doin' - 2016.1 Showing 2,801-2,850 of 3,910

[Kristie, Moderator]

Janice wrote: "I don't rely on my audible stats. I always double check my goodreads shelves to see if I've read a book or not."

I've gone through several times and updated my read status in Audible, but it has disappeared often enough that I also use GR for tracking.

[Mariab]

Peggy wrote: "Argh. I had all books on my ereader sorted per genre, and then there was an update, and now it's all gone..."

I hate it when they make an update and simply erase all settings you have painstakingly worked on :((

[Peggy]

Yes, it's so annoying! And shows no consideration for the customer.

[Travis]

Whats up with all tgese creepy clown sightings. Is tge threat legit or is media making something out of nothing.

[Peggy]

Cherie wrote: "I was just adding two books that I had purchased to my TBR list and realized that it was 5 years ago yesterday that started adding books to my list. I do not think I had found YLTO at that time but..."

Congrats on your 5-year GR anniversary!

[Sandra, Moderator]

Travis of NNY wrote: "Whats up with all tgese creepy clown sightings. Is tge threat legit or is media making something out of nothing."

I don't know, but it is weird.

[Peggy]

What's going on with clown sightings?

[Sandra, Moderator]

In the last couple of weeks many reports have been made, in 8 or 10 different US states, of people dressed as clowns scaring people (mostly kids). In one case the clown was carrying a machete, in other cases the clowns were trying to persuade kids to go to the wood with them (offering money). In York University Campus a car full of clowns, probably carrying weapons, was reported. And those are only some. In many cases the clowns were found. In other cases the clowns were never found. And there were reports that proved to be false. In the case of the campus, the clowns were never found, and I can clearly see the report was made by students as a joke, or the people in the car were students having fun, taking advantage of all this media thing. It's really weird.

It became common to listen in the local news things like "if you see a person dressed like a clown acting inappropriately toward a kid, report it", what makes me mad, because any person seen acting inappropriately towards a kid must be reported, in doesn't matter if if it dressed as a clown, a teddy bear, or a vampire.

[Travis]

Well tgey are creeping through NY the last one yrsterday an hour away

[Tasha]

They are creepy! We haven't had one here but I heard there was one not too far away from us. Not sure what to believe though. Media is amazing at telling untruths and exaggerating as well as being essential to making sure these clown stories keep getting televised all over so that more and more sickos will decide that they too should get in on the action! *done ranting*

[Sarah]

Bizarre. Every year around this time of year, we hear of clown sightings, mainly up north around Nottingham. Basically someone dresses as a clown and walks about at night. Doesn't do anything sinister. At least i don't think so.

[Peggy]

That is weird. And creepy!

[Sandra, Moderator]

It is creepy. And I agree, Tasha, so much coverage by the media makes more people willing to dress up and go out scaring people, making police's work harder. Many are probably stupid people thinking it is funny. But surely might be potentially dangerous people among the clowns.

[Travis]

Plus yhere is a clown facebook page called ain't clowning around who post things like tonorrow there will be a clown at every highschool i. amerca either kidnapping kids or shooting teachers headed to cars. Schools have had lovkdowns already over threats

[Sandra, Moderator]

Yeah, I read about the facebook page this morning. That page should be blocked.

[Tasha]

oh god! that is truly sick! some people are so weird...

[Rusalka, Moderator]

Haven't heard of any of this, but interestingly ties into this article that has come out this week over here about clowns being the creepiest profession and how that works.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-28...

[Sandra, Moderator]

Interesting article, Rusalka. Thanks for sharing.

[Peggy]

Lol, I sent an email to kobo to tell them I lost all my shelves etc on my ereader, and I get this super generic email back about how to synchronize my ereader which is no answer to my email at all...

I think I'll get a kindle if my kobo ever breaks down, even though the ereader itself is very nice.

[Travis]

Vlown assaulted a woman in Ohio amd then several Ohio schools were forced to close today

[Sarah]

We've just booked another short city break for the end of November, in Amsterdam. We've not been before. To to those who live in the Netherlands or who've visited before, can you recommend any places to go, activities to do, places to eat/drink (veggie). We will be on a bit of a budget especially as we're off to Vienna in 2 weeks as well.

[Travis]

Volbeat who is Danish are heading back to Europe for a bit. You could check them out. Which has nothing to do with the Netherlands and visiting there. I just love volbeat

[Sandra, Moderator]

Sarah, it is great you are taking breaks often. It is something everybody should do as much as possible. It really helps to keep the mind healthy. (Looks who is talking! We don't have vacations very often unfortunately)
I've never been in Amsterdam, though, so I have no tips.

[Peggy]

Yay for all the breaks Sarah! I've been to Amsterdam but not that often and mostly with a purpose and not as a tourist. I don't really have any tips for things to do or eat, except the things you can probably find in all guidebooks.

[Travis]

Honestly I've heard you are just supposed to go to Amsterdam and smoke a lot of weed. Its the weed caoital of the world. No one comes home remembering the trip anyway. Lol

[Peggy]

I'm sure there are a lot of veggie food options by the way. Every restaurant will have veggie stuff on the menu and there are vegetarian or vegan restaurants for sure as well.

You could visit the Anne Frank House or the Rijksmuseum. Both attract loads of visitors so I would book tickets online and skip the queue. There are lots of other museums too so it depends a bit what you're interested in. Or a visit to the Vondelpark or if you like markets, the famous Albert Cuyp market or the market at the waterloo square which has a bit more hippie and alternative stuff. Or a tour of the canals could be nice!

And the best of all, just wander around! And you can easily avoid the weed ;-)

[Sarah]

@Travis - I'll check out thwt band you mentioned - not heard of them before.

Thanks Peggy. I have Vondelpark on my list already. I'll have a look at the other things you mentioned tomorrow. Not sure whout museums, i guess it depends on time and what others want to do. There are 9 of us going. I know some of them will he epending time in coffeeshops but that's not my thing. I want to find out about the place I'm visiting rather than sitting inside all day getting stoned.

I presumed that it would be relatively easy to find veggie food there, unlike when we went to Prague. However do you say Vegetarian in Dutch? That might be useful for me to know. We wouldn't normally have two trips in quick succession. But we've not had a holiday abroad in 2 years. As it's my partner's 40th, we thought we'd check a few new places out.

More time spent on sorting our shower out this weekend. We've been gluing the plastic sheets in to the walls of the shower cubicles and my eyes are still a bit stingy from the fumes. It was really potent. Next weekend, we might have a working shower!

[Peggy]

In Dutch it's 'vegetarisch' but don't worry, everyone will speak English. Well maybe not very old people on the street but in restaurants etc it's no problem. I think most restaurants will have English menus as well.

[Sarah]

That's cool. I thought that would be the case. I still like to know how to say it though even if i don't use it. I quite like looking at menus, signs and newspapers etc in other languages and trying to guess what the words might mean. Some i seem to be able to work out, others no way. I'm expectjng Dutch to be difficult as I've heard it is hard to learn, speaking it especially. I found that i could get a very basic gist of a magazine article i read in Polish a few years back whilst my friends were outside smoking and i was left on my lonesome in the bar nursing a drink the first night i was in Krakow!

[Peggy]

I always like that too Sarah! Whereever I am I'm always reading signs and short texts to see if I can figure them out.

Yes, it's said that Dutch is a difficult language. Lots of rules and lots of exceptions to rules for grammar and spelling, and I think we have several sounds or letter combinations that are hard to pronounce for non-native speakers.

[Sandra, Moderator]

Sarah, have you ever try Duolingo? "Playing" with the app 10 or 15 minutes a day you can learn a lot of vocabulary in any language. I won't say that you can learn a language with it, but it is a very easy way to incorporate vocabulary and certain understanding of the language structure. My sister used it before a trip to Germany, and she highly recommended it to me.

https://www.duolingo.com/

[Sarah]

That sounds fab Sandra! Much better than checking facebook for pointless information. I can learn something instead! I will check it out. Thanks!

[Sarah]

I've downloaded the app. Looks fun. And it has German and Dutch on there so I'll give them a go.

[Travis]

Trying a variety og brews at skewed brewing. Gotta say not much of a beer conossiuer. Just like what i like. But quite buzzed as its all quite high alcohol content.

[Peggy]

I always like to learn some basic words if I go somewhere. Hello, goodbye, thank you, please, that sort of thing. Depending on the difficulty of the language I also learn some short but useful sentences. I like learning a bit of the country I go to and it seems the people generally appreciate it if you can speak a few words :)

[Sandra, Moderator]

I hope it is useful, Sarah.

[Sandra, Moderator]

That is true, Peggy. People like to see you are at least trying to say some words in their language.

That reminds me when we visited Trieste in 2012, and a woman asked me how did she enter the Miramare park. She spoke Italian and French, and I speak Spanish, Portuguese and English, so nothing to do, but with isolated words in different languages and lots of gestures I manage to explain to her that the entry she was heading to was closed for restoration, and that she should go on the other side. I couldn't remember how to say "closed" in Italian, but I knew it was "ferme" (sp?) in french, so I said it, and she said "chiuso?" (sp?), and I yelled "Yes!". :) It was very funny. My husband wants to die when I do this kind of things. Thankfully I was by myself that time.

[Janice, Moderator]

We've got a good start on Spanish for our trip to Mexico in November. At least we know how to order another drink... "Uno mas, por favor". It means "One more, please". In fact, we're getting the saying embroidered on t-shirts that we will all wear on the plane.

Sounds like Travis is wearing a similar t-shirt. :)

[Kristie, Moderator]

Hahaha...love that, Janice! Sounds like you're going to have a fun trip. :)

[Rusalka, Moderator]

I really enjoy duolingo. I used it to brush up my French before we went to St Martin earlier this year.

Amsterdam sounds wonderful, Sarah!

[Janice, Moderator]

I think it's going to be a wild time. I hope. :)

[Rusalka, Moderator]

How's the tequila tasting going, Janice?

[Janice, Moderator]

The tequila mojito was awesome. Last night we had some Brazilian drink - rum, brown sugar, limes muddled, and crushed ice. They were deadly!

[Mariab]

Janice wrote: "Last night we had some Brazilian drink - rum, brown sugar, limes muddled, and crushed ice. They were deadly!"

That is caipirinha. Delicious!

[Janice, Moderator]

Yes! That's what it was called Mariab. They were very delicious. :)

[Sandra, Moderator]

I like caipirinha. If you make it with orange instead of limes is called caipiroshca.

[Janice, Moderator]

I'll suggest we do oranges next time. My friend used demerara sugar which added a nice flavour compared to regular brown sugar.

[Sarah]

All your drinks sound very tasty! I made some blueberry vodka a few months back and we cracked it open at the weekend. It's not something you can drink straight like the sloe gin I made. It definitely needs soda water with it. Not that great unfortunately. We'll drink it obviously but I don't think I'll make it again. Perhaps I needed to put a bit more sugar in it. I have bought 2 bottles of gin to make some more sloe gin with. I just need to go pick some berries.

[Tasha]

I'm sorry the blueberry vodka didn't turn out well for you, Sarah. My family loves to make flavored vodka. My mom and aunt have made lemon and blueberry vodka but also horseradish vodka! It's acutally really good!

[Tejas Janet]

Horseradish vodka - very unusual sounding. Is it really hot/spicy or more subtle? Interesting!