Aussie Readers discussion
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LOL!!..she's right or she'll be right is aussie slang for every thing is ok.
No worries mate, & I did say 'those' as meaning some & not all, I know quite a number of wonderful academics who would not hesitate helping me with my words, punctuation, etc. etc. I have not had the schooling many others have had, so I just do the best I can & as you said I write from the heart & my experiences.
No worries mate, & I did say 'those' as meaning some & not all, I know quite a number of wonderful academics who would not hesitate helping me with my words, punctuation, etc. etc. I have not had the schooling many others have had, so I just do the best I can & as you said I write from the heart & my experiences.
David,Now, that is funny! Here I am, talking about personal linguistic authenticity, and I fail to understand you when you're speaking authentic Aussie! Neat phrase, though. OK, she's right where I'm concerned, too. :) :)
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Brenda wrote: "We'll make you an Aussie yet Mark;)"Hi, Brenda!
Well, I'll be honored if you ever deem that I come close! :)
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We'll, I could always write in International Phonetic Alphabet. Y'all. :) (I'm kidding. My accent is extremely Northern, and almost mid-Atlantic. I can do a Texas drawl, but I only do it when I think I need to! On the other hand, I used sometimes to answer the phone, when I thought it was a telemarketer, with an extremely thick and unintelligible French accent. :))
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Do you sink zat wooed be less AH-nöy-ING?
Mark wrote: "Hi, Jess!I was intrigued by all this talk of "The Jezabels," of whom I'd never heard before, but I gather they're primarily an Aussie phenom, and then, too, I've heard of very little that's trans..."
Hey Mark-Dark Storm is amazing-thats the song that got me hooked on them. & you're so right, Hayley Mary has a stunning voice. I know all about why they named themselves 'The Jezabels', but not why its spelt with an 'A'. Knowing them, there must be a good reason. Know I'm quite curious :)
Telemarketers....we were driven to despair by them until a rule came in and we could block their calls.:)
Hey, Jess,As it happens, I decided I liked it enough to pay amazon for the mp3, so now I've got it on my phone and can play it whenever I like -- especially while writing erratic comments on GR and solving sudoku puzzles -- but one doesn't encounter too many new, "stunning" voices these days. I guess the "a" will remain a mystery.
Hi, Margaret,We can theoretically block their calls (there's a government "do not call" list), but it's not enforced, and no one ever pays it any attention. I get calls all the time, even on my cell phone, which is definitively illegal (as far as I know). I normally won't ever answer if I don't recognize the caller id, but maybe I ought to resurrect the foreign language/accent ploy. I think it's most disconcerting to answer in something like Russian or Danish, which should really provoke a wtf reaction, but in past, I mostly used the impenetrable French, with exaggerated uvular r's. Of course, answering is dicey, since it lets them know you're there, or that your line is active, and they may be fishing for a voice print. It's nice that regulations in your country are -- I gather -- actually enforced.. :)
Hi Mark,Yes, it's many years since we've been bothered by telemarketers, so it seems that our 'do not call' lists are respected. My husband Ron always recognised them immediately by their introduction: "And how are you today?". He invariably answered: "What are you selling?", and then dismissed them. :)
Hi, Michael,Yeah, they're tenacious and aggressive and they never go away, sort of like mold spores. I was serious about the possibility that someone might just want to record your voice for some criminal purpose, so it's probably best just not to pick up. But if there's an accent you can do convincingly, it may be enough to induce them to take you off their call list. From my experience, they find it very consternating. I feel sorry for the people making the calls, though, who are just desperate to survive, in all likelihood. The real criminals, the people running the operations, never get held to account.
Mark wrote: "Hey, Jess,As it happens, I decided I liked it enough to pay amazon for the mp3, so now I've got it on my phone and can play it whenever I like -- especially while writing erratic comments on GR a..."
Oh wow, you bought it? That makes me very happy! Did you purchase just the song, or the whole EP? The entire EP is just as amazing. If you haven't heard it already, I suggest A Little Piece-from the same disk :)
Simple solution - don't answer your home phone ;)
★ Jess wrote: "Mark wrote: "Hey, Jess,As it happens, I decided I liked it enough to pay amazon for the mp3, so now I've got it on my phone and can play it whenever I like -- especially while writing erratic com..."
Unfortunately, finances are a bit tight (I'm retired), so I just bought the one song, but I'll listen to the track you suggested, and buy it if I like it. You do seem to be a good source of musical advice, and as you can see, your advocacy on behalf of The Jezabels has not been without effect. They should make you president of their fan club. :)
Speaking of The Jezabels, just upload some of my photos. This is one of my favorites, taken during the final song of the encore. This was moments after I touched her *fangirl mode* :)
Mark you totally crack me up sometimes :) I've never heard of the Jezabels but I'll have to look into them, I'm always interested in fascinating voices. I love the lead singer from Evanescence for example, her voice sometimes gives me chills it's so good.Only two weeks to go before I officially start my Masters degree. I have to go to some classes but it's primarily a thesis degree which I've entitled 'From Christ to Constantine'. Basically I explore the differences and variety of thinking in the Christian world, which began almost immediately after Christ's death so that blows the theory of there ever really having been a single, totally unified church. I'm looking forward to it but it will be hard work.
Hi, Margaret!Yes, that would do it! No actual human has ever uttered the words, "...and how are you today?" without malignant ulterior motive, in any phone conversation recorded after 1955. It is, moreover, one of the seven signs of an impending apocalypse (or of a traffic jam on the I-9), and must always be followed up with an exorcism and with the application of a telephone sanitizer to the handset, whenever it occurs.
Mark, I couldn't agree more! I'm confident that those words are indelibly etched like a red rag to a bull.By the way, Ron asked me what is your major field of research?
Hi, Jess!Great pix, thank you! And your "fangirl" obsession with the singer is totally understandable. She has a truly great and frisson-inducing voice. My own favorite singers are Keren Ann (La Disparition) and Françoise Hardy (I'll n'y a pas d'anour heureux, or practically anything), which latter would definitely date me (place me in time; Françoise Hardy most emphatically would not date me! :)) -- had I not already firmly established a claim for placement in the Jurassic era. :)
Tracey wrote: "Mark you totally crack me up sometimes :) ..."Thank you for your kindness! I like to try to be useful, and inducing hairline fissures in people is one of the few ways in which I can still accomplish this.
I agree with you about the lead singer from Evanescence. Other female singers who I think have ethereal, frisson-inducing sorts of voices would include the above-mentioned Keren Ann, Nina Persson (of The Cardigans) and P. J. Harvey. I'm also fond of Dido, Annie Major-Matte (Feu de Paille), Sophie Zelmani, Vanessa Carlton and (harkening back to my paleolithic youth) Lana Cantrell, but all for disparate and unrelated reasons.
Your thesis is one I'd genuinely like to read, when it's done! Will you be getting your degree in religion, history, philosophy -- or something else?
Margaret wrote: "Mark, I couldn't agree more! I'm confident that those words are indelibly etched like a red rag to a bull.By the way, Ron asked me what is your major field of research?"
Artificial intelligence, computational linguistics, linguistics more generally, and using neural nets to find patterns in the disposition of dust bunnies under canopy beds with pillow-top mattresses. I believe that the proper study of Mankind is extraterrestrials and adjustable tie racks.
Full disclosure: It really should be "...was my field of study." Since 2011, I have been engaged full time in staring at the ceiling and making bad frozen dinners.
I have to put up with & work with a couple of blokes who could easily fit into the 'Artificial intelligence' category......LOL!!!
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LOL David!!
Hi Mark,We've had problems with our online connection today, so I couldn't answer earlier.
Sorry to hear of your current, very uninspiring interests. Staring at a ceiling doesn't rank highly in the quality of life index! I've never eaten a bad frozen dinner, either. I just cook simple, nutritious meals for all of us: Ron, Chicki Rose (our Maltese), and me.
Excuse my ignorance again, but would you please explain to me in simple terms what is 'artificial intelligence'.
Well, duty, that is the kitchen, calls me. Catch up again soon.
David wrote: "I have to put up with & work with a couple of blokes who could easily fit into the 'Artificial intelligence' category......LOL!!!"Yes, I always explained that I'd been compelled to go into artificial intelligence for want of the ability to exhibit any of the natural kind. :)
Margaret wrote: "Hi Mark,We've had problems with our online connection today, so I couldn't answer earlier.
Sorry to hear of your current, very uninspiring interests. Staring at a ceiling doesn't rank highly in th..."
"Intelligence," as someone once said, "is the ability to ferret out and discern complex, meaningful patterns... where none exist." :)
"Artificial Intelligence," obviously even more so. Larry Tesler famously said (well, it was famous to AI geeks, darn it!) that "artificial intelligence is whatever hasn't been done yet" (because the moment somebody writes a program to solve a problem, it's ipso facto no longer an example of intelligence... after all, “a computer can do that!“)
More seriously (and less long-windedly), AI is just the effort to replicate human problem-solving abilities on another platform.
No reason that intelligence has to be wetware-instantiated. Or such was the thought.
(As for the "staring-at-the-ceiling" part, well... I'm retired, and pretty much stuck at home, so I'm hoping to do a comprehensive analysis of the distribution of paint irregularities on semi-textured apartment ceiling surfaces, for publication in a venue yet to be determined. I anticipate tremendous scholarly interest on the part of chaos scientists. Nothing is more chaotic than my apartment. This has been determined empirically.)
Thanks, Mark, for the definition of artificial intelligence!Best wishes for your new literary magnum-opus on paint irregularities.
We have to dispute your claim to the supreme level of chaos in your home. You haven't seen our place, which is very small. Ron says that we need a sextant and compass to get from the bedroom to the bathroom.:) It's all due to the results of our creative interests.
Margaret wrote: "Thanks, Mark, for the definition of artificial intelligence!Best wishes for your new literary magnum-opus on paint irregularities.
We have to dispute your claim to the supreme level of chaos in ..."
Hi, Margaret!
Pas de quoi! Please don't hesitate to ask absolutely any time you want the definition of something esoteric, annoying and essentially objectionable! :)
However, I categorically cannot accept that there is any locus in the known universe fraught with more appalling chaos than my living room. Transfinite mathematics is actually required to express the hitherto-unencountered cardinalities of the numbers expressing the levels of entropy in any space immediately surrounding my person. All local properties of the space-time continuum are formally undefinable, and penguins and refrigerators have been known to appear and disappear from the bedroom -- without notice. Hazmat suits are required to approach within one block of the apartment complex, and breathing and metabolic activity are not actually technically feasible. Within a 100-foot radius, all human cells undergo apoptosis, and the smell is detectable from Neptune.
But if your home is worse than that, well then I guess that's all I've got. You should call your local federal emergency management agency immediately, and have it moved to an uninhabited island, before it poses any further threat to the planetary ecology. It is all very tragic... :)
Despite our enormous entropy, I will reluctantly concede the crown to you.Take heart, however, and consider the chaos reputedly surrounding the life of Beethoven.
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Good luck Carmel, and many thanks for all your work with our wonderful group in the past. Take care:)
Hi all,I've been super busy lately, my poor dogs are feeling neglected at their lack of enough play time. Still I'm powering ahead with the new compilation, while still working on the new novel as well.
@ Mark - I'll have a Masters in Religious Theory but as I also have a BA in ancient history I may go back and do a Masters in that as well, if I could think of a thesis I really wanted to write of course.
Sad to hear about Carmel but look forward to still reading her posts.
Cheers,
Trace
Best wishes to Carmel, and glad to hear she'll still have something to say.:)
Margaret wrote: "Despite our enormous entropy, I will reluctantly concede the crown to you.Take heart, however, and consider the chaos reputedly surrounding the life of Beethoven."
Thanks, Margaret, for your nobly gracious acknowledgement of my incomparably appalling hopelessness. I have considered Beethoven, and I do believe you're right that my life would be immeasurably better if I wrote nine symphonies, lost my hearing and died of a bacterial infection. It seems to me that all these things may be achievable. I just need to learn how to read music and stay in this apartment -- which was last cleaned under the reign of King George.
What a gracious lady you are, Carmel! We look forward to hearing again from you soon.:)
Hi Mark,Let me first say you'd find learning to read music a cinch; even I can do that! Composing, however, is a horse of a different colour, and suitably challenging for you to attempt.
Afraid I can't match your claim to no cleaning since the reign of King George, since I've lived in this house since I was nine or ten, and Elizabeth was on the throne when I was born. Therefore, you've proven yourself to be more than worthy of the crown that I previously bestowed upon you.
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It's been a wonderful journey, hasn't it...such a learning one, and making lots of new friends along the way has been awesome! Thanks again Carmel:)
Best of luck Carmel. Hope to still catch up with you in the group. :)
Welcome to the GR world of non-mods Carmel :)
Sorry to hear we are loosing Carmel as a Mod :(Thanks for all the hard work you've done for the group, hope you find plenty of time to kick your feet up with a good book or three now.
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Sorry to lose you as a Mod Carmel, but congratulations Michael!! At least now hopefully you'll have more reading time Carmel :)
Carmel wrote: "Thanks Brenda, Tracey & Margaret for your kind thoughts and I do hope to be able to continue being a part of the group even if it is a smaller capacity. Can I say to the whole group that I've reall..."Thankyou for all your support Carmel...I thoroughly enjoyed working with you too :)
Take care xxx
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Aussie Readers
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Who's "right?" Was there a comment that's since disappeared?
I think it's a pretty good thing for survival (and just general equanimity) to be immune both to offense and to embarrassment, but I never (knowingly) use words to offend, and I'm too old and too close to packing it in ever to take offense or to be embarrassed. My "native" language is academese, and it would be an affectation if I spoke anything else, though I can certainly manage it if I want to. I don't know if you spouted much poetry on the road, or if that came after, but we all say what's naturally in our hearts and in our heads. And we all of us play with words, one way or another, if we have any feel for language. Obviously, my silly comment to Tracey was just a whimsical counter to her "threat" to pull out her ancient Greek dictionary, since she'd said and I knew that she loved exotic words, but I think you'd be wrong to assume that, when academics use unusual words, it's always because they're trying to "show off" or "big note" themselves. Spanish people aren't trying to show off when they speak Spanish, and poets aren't trying to show off when they speak poetry. We've all got to be who we are, linguistically as well as in trying to survive in the world.
Anyway, I'm glad you didn't take offense. Poets (and professors) tend to be sensitive about words, so I think it's always best to check.