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Hey, put the cellphone down for a while
In the night there is something wild
Can you hear it breathing?
And hey, put the laptop down for a while
In the night there is something wild
I feel it, it's leaving me

Wow, Calvin and Hobbes! I used to love that. It's been years since I last read a strip. I must chase some up I think.

Back on topic, I can't stand people, like, who like speak in that, like, lazy and incoherent fashion, ya'know? Accents are fine, but speaking in an incoherent drawl is just plain wrong, and saying like all the time is a little like swearing - just a sign of a limited vocabulary.

I'm also a stickler for correct punctuation. Petty some would say but there's nothing worse than seeing poorly punctuated sentence's or unnecessary punctuation-mark's.
People who confuse their, there and they're also bother me.

Geez, I sound like an old primary school teacher of mine..

Oh, and American spelling. Sorry folks but that just irritates me. Every time I see the word 'color' I mentally pronounce it 'collor', just to annoy myself.

Right you can all flame me now!

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"Smoking's bad, mm'kay?"

-Mr Mackey-

Quote (fffanbrit @ 27th May 2011 18:02)

Oh, and American spelling. Sorry folks but that just irritates me. Every time I see the word 'color' I mentally pronounce it 'collor', just to annoy myself.

huh, i thought it was "colour", not collor. well then, color me shocked.

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moé in the streets, senpai in the sheets

Those American spellings such as 'color' and 'armor' do annoy. I just remembered a pronunciation error that annoys me. It may not actually be wrong, but it sounds silly when people say 'inventory' as 'in-vent-aw-ree' as opposed to 'in-ven-taw-ree'.

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...and iSeizmik, you misspelled grammar.

It was deliberate, same as I used an angry face as punctuation in my point about using emotes as punctuation. Should have made it a bit more sarcastic like your's.

Quote

Same goes for calcum, sodum, magnesum and potassum. I personally don't mind aluminum but I say aluminium.

Can't tell if you're kidding or not.

The way Latin nouns work is you have word stems, which change their endings based on their grammatical function. This is called declining a noun, and nouns are put into groups called declensions based on which set of endings they use, which all Latin students have to memorise. The five declensions are numbered in descending order, but most of the nouns are in the first or second declension. Sometimes, when you see an isolated word in Latin, you have to do a little guessing about what part of speech it is, because the same endings can be used to mean completely different things.

The Latin suffixes we're dealing with here are -a and -um. We're also dealing with -ia and -ium if you insist, but it makes little difference because the vast majority of the time the i can be treated as part of the word stem and not part of the ending. That is to say, the i is always added and never removed, other than in certain words in the genitive before a certain time in history.

Here are the endings for various elements, including the ones you listed:

Calcia -> Calcium
"Sodium oxide" (apparently soda is something else) -> Sodium
Magnesia -> Magnesium
Potassia -> Potassium
Platina -> Platinum
Molybdena (later Molybdenite) -> Molybdenum

Alumina -> Aluminum

See how the 'a' is dropped and the 'um' is added regardless of whether or not there is an 'i,' but an 'i' is never added? Moreover, I believe Alumina is internationally recognised as correct, and Aluminia isn't anything.

Now, since scientists get to choose the gender and number of their Latin jargon, there are at least two ways to interpret this grammar. The way I formerly assumed it went was that scientists found the oxides or ores (which occurred naturally), and gave them the feminine first declension nominative singular ending -a. When they were successful in extracting the element from the oxide, they gave it the neuter second declension nominative singular -um ending. Now I believe that the word stayed neuter the whole time, but took the 2nd declension neuter nominative plural ending (also -a) as an oxide and the singular as a base element. Either way, we're dealing with -um and -a or -ium and -ia, but not -ium and -a.

Quote

Wow, I didn't know that about aluminum.

But I disagree that 'ium' is any less Latin than 'um'. You find it in third declension words when they're genitive plural. The following thread may be helpful to distinguish when to use -um and when to use -ium:
http://www.textkit.com/greek-latin-forum/v...php?f=3&t=11334
I'm not sure if 'alum' is third declension, but it kind of sounds like it. And according to wikipedia, the iupac recognizes 'aluminum' as an acceptable variant.

That link is only about an i being added to the root of a word that is a third declension i-stem noun in order to form a -ium ending in the genitive. I-stems are even less common than regular third declension nouns, I should point out. So are you suggesting that aluminium is a third declension genitive plural noun? Are all the other elements going to be in the genitive plural? So we would be getting Magnesiorum, Potassiorum, and the like? If not, then why the exception for aluminium? Seems a bit contrived to me.

Also, did you read that whole wikipedia page you mentioned? It says some relevant stuff about this topic, particularly the names originally chosen and why they were changed:

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The earliest citation given in the Oxford English Dictionary for any word used as a name for this element is alumium, which British chemist and inventor Humphry Davy employed in 1808 for the metal he was trying to isolate electrolytically from the mineral alumina. The citation is from the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London: "Had I been so fortunate as to have obtained more certain evidences on this subject, and to have procured the metallic substances I was in search of, I should have proposed for them the names of silicium, alumium, zirconium, and glucium."[60][61]

Davy settled on aluminum by the time he published his 1812 book Chemical Philosophy: "This substance appears to contain a peculiar metal, but as yet Aluminum has not been obtained in a perfectly free state, though alloys of it with other metalline substances have been procured sufficiently distinct to indicate the probable nature of alumina."[62] But the same year, an anonymous contributor to the Quarterly Review, a British political-literary journal, in a review of Davy's book, objected to aluminum and proposed the name aluminium, "for so we shall take the liberty of writing the word, in preference to aluminum, which has a less classical sound."[63]

The -ium suffix conformed to the precedent set in other newly discovered elements of the time: potassium, sodium, magnesium, calcium, and strontium (all of which Davy isolated himself). Nevertheless, -um spellings for elements were not unknown at the time, as for example platinum, known to Europeans since the 16th century, molybdenum, discovered in 1778, and tantalum, discovered in 1802. The -um suffix is consistent with the universal spelling alumina for the oxide, as lanthana is the oxide of lanthanum, and magnesia, ceria, and thoria are the oxides of magnesium, cerium, and thorium respectively.

Things are looking pretty good for aluminum. Maybe that could be bumped down a few notches on the list of American things to complain about. ... about which to complain, I mean.

Quote (iSeizmik @ 26th May 2011 21:16)

[*]The use of portmanteau to combine two synonyms to create a third synonym. An example could be guesstimate.

Har, I read this and "ginormous" immediately came to mind. I can understand this pet peeve.

Quote (iSeizmik)

Those American spellings such as 'color' and 'armor' do annoy.

I'm American and I'm proud to use 'color', 'armor', and what have you. Y'all can keep your "proper" English to yourselves .

Nothing wrong either forms, though, as far as I can tell, and the orgins of the differences may even be more complicated than some of you may realize. That said, it does strike me as kind of pretentious when Americans use the '-our' forms.

Quote

I just remembered a pronunciation error that annoys me. It may not actually be wrong, but it sounds silly when people say 'inventory' as 'in-vent-aw-ree' as opposed to 'in-ven-taw-ree'.

'Warsh' or 'nucular' anyone? No pronunciation irks me more than those two...

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Console RPG Cliches

Quote (jtdurai @ 27th May 2011 23:47)

Now, since scientists get to choose the gender and number of their Latin jargon, there are at least two ways to interpret this grammar.

From what I read on the link they chose 'ium' because it sounds good. And yeah I was joking earlier.

Quote

'Warsh' or 'nucular' anyone? No pronunciation irks me more than those two...

I haven't heard 'warsh', what's it supposed to be?

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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

People who say "no offense" or some such phrase because they are, in fact, about to be offensive towards you.

Edit

Quote

I haven't heard 'warsh', what's it supposed to be?

Wash.

This post has been edited by Dr. Delinquent on 28th May 2011 02:53

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-FFIII FFIV FFV FFVII FFVIII FFX FFXII FFXIII FF:Dissidia FFVII:CC FFVII:DoC
--KHI KHII KH:COM KH:BbS
---SO:FD SO:TTEOT SO:TLH
----DQIII DQVIII
-----DA:O DAII
------VP:S

Quote (Dr. Delinquent @ 27th May 2011 19:52)

People who say "no offense" or some such phrase because they are, in fact, about to be offensive towards you.

Edit

Quote

I haven't heard 'warsh', what's it supposed to be?

Wash.

Ha! That's kind of like "I'm not gonna tell you what to believe...[but I am!].

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Chewbekah ^_^

Currently Playing: Final Fantasy XIV: ARR, Attack of the Firday Monsters, Animal Crossing: A New Leaf, Lego City Undercover, Kingdom Hearts 1.5 Remix

Recently Finished: Fire Emblem: Awakening

Favorite Game: Suikoden III

People who say that "Ebonics" is a degenerate and/or inferior form of standard American English. Just because you don't speak or can't comprehend a language does not make it inferior. You wouldn't say the same of Dutch, or Chinese, or any other culture's language.

This post has been edited by Malevolence on 28th May 2011 16:20

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moé in the streets, senpai in the sheets

Quote (jtdurai @ 27th May 2011 17:47)

Here are the endings for various elements, including the ones you listed:

Calcia -> Calcium
"Sodium oxide" (apparently soda is something else) -> Sodium
Magnesia -> Magnesium
Potassia -> Potassium
Platina -> Platinum
Molybdena (later Molybdenite) -> Molybdenum

Alumina -> Aluminum

Jtdurai, yes, I was just going out on a limb and guessing at that one, so yeah, it was totally 'contrived'. I didn't know the root words or their declensions, and I was giving the Europeans the benefit of the doubt., so I thought maybe they were (strangely) all third declension genitive (in which case they wouldn't be 'orum', of course, so I didn't appreciate that silly part). Anyway, thanks for clearing that up.

Found another annoying behavior today:

I don't mind people posting little comments such as:
Heeeeeeey!
Whoooohoooo!
But it is quite annoying when they do it with letters that are supposed to be silent:
Insaneeeeeee!
I loooooveeeee you!

And I think it's kind of fun switching between American and British spelling. Btw did those extra vowels come from the French influence on English? Getting rid of seemingly useless letters does seem like a decent idea though.

This post has been edited by finalalias on 28th May 2011 17:51

Quote (finalalias @ 28th May 2011 18:49)

And I think it's kind of fun switching between American and British spelling.  Btw did those extra vowels come from the French influence on English? Getting rid of seemingly useless letters does seem like a decent idea though.

Maybe, but then taking away the 'o' in colour would make more sense than the 'u' because now it looks like 'colon'. That Wikipedia page of spelling differences seemed to be implicitly suggesting that Americans are speaking proper olde Latin English and people in England are talking in modern French English. Which is the most hilarious thing I've heard all week. I don't mind either spellings and I don't agree that American spellings are worse, but what I really don't agree with is any hint or suggestion that American spellings are better or more traditional. Saying French influences (for the last 1000 years nearly!) are less English is ridiculous, what about all the Dutch influences, should we remove them too? What would be left?

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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

Quote (Malevolence @ 28th May 2011 09:20)

People who say that "Ebonics" is a degenerate and/or inferior form of standard American English. Just because you don't speak or can't comprehend a language does not make it inferior. You wouldn't say the same of Dutch, or Chinese, or any other culture's language.

Ok, so what "culture' is Ebonics technically a language of? Are there rules to Ebonics? Can one learn to fluently speak Ebonics?

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Chewbekah ^_^

Currently Playing: Final Fantasy XIV: ARR, Attack of the Firday Monsters, Animal Crossing: A New Leaf, Lego City Undercover, Kingdom Hearts 1.5 Remix

Recently Finished: Fire Emblem: Awakening

Favorite Game: Suikoden III

ebonics would be, for lack of a better term, African-American Vernacular English. and yes, it's not difficult at all to pick up on the language (though i suppose dialect would be a better term). you just need to learn the differences in grammatical structure, word pronunciations, and slang.

there's a book called "American Apartheid" by Douglas S. Massey and Nancy A. Denton that's all about segregation and how the separation of the upper and underclass has caused such a cultural rift that the two cultures tend to speak radically different forms of the same language.

This post has been edited by Malevolence on 30th May 2011 00:07

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moé in the streets, senpai in the sheets

Ebonics is definitely a dialect or a brogue and not its own language. But it's not just some BS, either. Millions of Americans use it and it's a legitimate linguistics study subject.

For the record, the American accent I feel is the hardest to understand is found on Maryland's eastern shore and to a lesser extent New Jersey's pine barrens. Think Boomhauer from King of the Hill, only mumblier. I'm accustomed to deep southern / southeastern accents, though, which many Americans consider uncultured at best or racist / uneducated at worst. Not a popular accent, that.

But right, things that annoy me. I hate it when they don't give you enough tortillas when you order fajitas at a Mexican restaurant. Barbaric.

This post has been edited by laszlow on 30th May 2011 01:06

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

Quote (Malevolence @ 29th May 2011 17:06)

ebonics would be, for lack of a better term, African-American Vernacular English. and yes, it's not difficult at all to pick up on the language (though i suppose dialect would be a better term). you just need to learn the differences in grammatical structure, word pronunciations, and slang.

there's a book called "American Apartheid" by Douglas S. Massey and Nancy A. Denton that's all about segregation and how the separation of the upper and underclass has caused such a cultural rift that the two cultures tend to speak radically different forms of the same language.

Ok, well I questioned it because you compared it to Dutch and Chinese which are definitively different languages where obviously Ebonics isn't really a definitively separate language. It didn't really seem like a very appropriate comparison. A better comparison to me would have been comparing Mexican Spanish with Spain Spanish. They are technically the same language but have some very large differences. I just don't tend to give Ebonics nods because I've heard it used as an excuse for children in schools not to have to learn proper English. Granted, this was a long time ago and I was in elementary school at the time.

I try to respect people's cultures as much as possible but I'm not really of the "celebrate your differences" mindset because I think it tends to create a negative vibe that certain differences are better than other differences and causes issues in communication and the ability to work together. I kind of think if we recognized more how we are similar, we might get along better. But that's just my opinion. I guess it's probably because I don't fit to a single culture 100%. I am a smattering of different cultures. Gamer culture, nerd culture, Mormon culture, I try to find the strengths in each and try not to pick up the weaknesses, though, that does not always happen. There are definitely things within each of those 3 cultures that I like and that I don't like.

This post has been edited by Chewbekah on 30th May 2011 02:20

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Chewbekah ^_^

Currently Playing: Final Fantasy XIV: ARR, Attack of the Firday Monsters, Animal Crossing: A New Leaf, Lego City Undercover, Kingdom Hearts 1.5 Remix

Recently Finished: Fire Emblem: Awakening

Favorite Game: Suikoden III

When people drop the F-bomb after every other word. The word loses its strength VERY quickly, and just becomes really obnoxious.

See, to me, saying the F-word is like going Super Saiyan. If used sparingly and with proper timing, it can have great impact. Remember when Goku first went Super Saiyan on planet Namek? It was awesome, right? Right. But before too long, everyone is going Super Saiyan, and all the time, then you got kids going Super Saiyan, and it stops having this awesome impact and starts being par for the course. The F-bomb is pretty much the same way to me.

Also, say you do use the F-bomb at least a half dozen times in every sentence. If you need what you're saying to have more impact than usual, where do you go from there? (Yeah, I know Super Saiyan 2, Super Saiyan 3, & Super Saiyan 4 exist, but the point stands, and at that point you might as well just be making up your own curse words.)

You get what I'm Saiyan?

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EGG TOSS
YOU CARRY
EAT A BAG
LEMON-DY
HEAD SAUCE
JIM CARREY
IN A BEAR
HEAVEN PEE
DAFFY-ROTH
- brentalfloss

Anyone who uses 4chan memes.

I very much agree, regarding 4chan memes, Allen.
In any case, loud and obnoxious people generally speaking are horribly annoying.
Also, excessive swearing.
PEOPLE WHO CANNOT MIND THEIR OWN BUSINESS.
I could go on.

Quote (Allen Hunter @ 23rd June 2011 21:42)

Anyone who uses 4chan memes.

This and Reddit images. I can't tell you how tired I am of trollface and FUUUUUU and all that garbage.

EDIT: Also, adjective noun is adjective. Grrrrr.

This post has been edited by Neal on 25th June 2011 03:01

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Hey, put the cellphone down for a while
In the night there is something wild
Can you hear it breathing?
And hey, put the laptop down for a while
In the night there is something wild
I feel it, it's leaving me

I'm extremely hit/miss with internet memes and 4channery. I'll love some unconditionally and fester extreme hatred for others. I don't *think* I meme-spam that much, but if I do it'll be the same two or three jokes, mostly from years past.

The internet-thing I can't stand nowadays is TVTropes.org. 100% quasi-intellectual bull**** sown and grown by the most elitist bunch of punks on the entire damn web. Their made-up language of categories and terms is an insult to the media they classify.

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

I have no problem with 4chan and Reddit memes as long as they STAY in 4chan/Reddit. I'm a Redditor myself, and I make a point of never discussing/bringing up memes unless it's with people who I know for a fact are also Redditors. As for 4chan, I haven't been on there in months, and I don't miss it in the slightest. I get incredibly annoyed when people try to make a profit off of memes. Memebase.com is a very good example of this, with advertising and whatnot (especially considering the fact that the moderators of the site control its content, whereas with Reddit, the users themselves decide what makes it to the front page).

Also, LOLcats. I hate them. I've hated them for years. I think they're idiotic and take absolutely no effort, thought, or hard work whatsoever to make "funny". Their level of popularity (which, thankfully, has seemed to wane as of late) is absolutely baffling to me.

On a similar note, the words "win", "fail", and "epic". ESPECIALLY "epic". I know that their extreme overuse over the past few years is simple evolution of lexicon, but you know that you have a problem when people describe the sensation of putting on socks when having cold feet as "epic".

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EGG TOSS
YOU CARRY
EAT A BAG
LEMON-DY
HEAD SAUCE
JIM CARREY
IN A BEAR
HEAVEN PEE
DAFFY-ROTH
- brentalfloss

Quote (laszlow @ 25th June 2011 19:39)

The internet-thing I can't stand nowadays is TVTropes.org. 100% quasi-intellectual bull**** sown and grown by the most elitist bunch of punks on the entire damn web. Their made-up language of categories and terms is an insult to the media they classify.

I could not agree with anything at all any more than how much I do with this. The whole site is a collective circle-jerk of nonsense. Nearly all the terms or concepts they 'pioneer' are gibberish at best and outright idiotic more commonly.

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Okay, but there was a goat!

I absolutely cannot STAND Hypocritical people.

It's okay that you set some ground rules for us to follow, but that DOES NOT GIVE YOU ANY EXEMPTION from the rules. If you say that no one is allowed to have any cake, then you go ahead and grab a slice for yourself, then come hell or high water, I'll make sure you starve

we're all created equal, so kindly practice what you preach. "

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Oops! Had the silly thing in reverse.^_^"

"I'm afraid the mouse is SMACK...dab in the middle of enemy territory."

~Kefka -- Dissidia Final Fantasy

I don't like it when people use emoticons and use ALL CAPS.... just joking. Come on guys, there seem to be a lot of people here that use TVTropes, and they seem to be just fine.

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Praise Be To Helix!

Quote (BlitzSage @ 28th June 2011 11:49)

Come on guys, there seem to be a lot of people here that use TVTropes, and they seem to be just fine.

TVTropes?

What' wrong with that site?

*reads previous posts*

Oy geez....

Actually, that makes me curious:

Does anyone here use trope names to describe something IRL?

The only one I use frequently is "Demonic Spiders".

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Oops! Had the silly thing in reverse.^_^"

"I'm afraid the mouse is SMACK...dab in the middle of enemy territory."

~Kefka -- Dissidia Final Fantasy

I probably should say... I'm more on their side. A lot of that TVTropes stuff gets on my nerves. Honestly, Idk why. I really have no idea. I'm saying that not everybody there is bad, I'm sure.

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Praise Be To Helix!

Quote (BlitzSage @ 28th June 2011 21:04)

I probably should say... I'm more on their side. A lot of that TVTropes stuff gets on my nerves. Honestly, Idk why. I really have no idea. I'm saying that not everybody there is bad, I'm sure.

Hey bro, you have every right to dislike TVTropes as I do to like it.

As I said, I can't get enough of the site, so no worries.

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Oops! Had the silly thing in reverse.^_^"

"I'm afraid the mouse is SMACK...dab in the middle of enemy territory."

~Kefka -- Dissidia Final Fantasy

Question for people listing (newer) memes: Do you think you might be getting "old" (old in internet terms, I guess), having starting to hit the "crotchety old man complaining about how x was better back in his day" phase of life?

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"I had to write four novels before they let me write comic books."
-Brad Meltzer

Quote (Dark Paladin @ 30th June 2011 18:47)

Question for people listing (newer) memes: Do you think you might be getting "old" (old in internet terms, I guess), having starting to hit the "crotchety old man complaining about how x was better back in his day" phase of life?

The Bakalave meme gets my goat every single time.

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/a-little-mor...lavaaaaaaaaaaaa

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Oops! Had the silly thing in reverse.^_^"

"I'm afraid the mouse is SMACK...dab in the middle of enemy territory."

~Kefka -- Dissidia Final Fantasy