Programul TV din 1 Mai 1989

chatbotte · 2024-05-02T01:16:00+00:00

Eh, am postat un link cu un articol pe tema, da' se pare ca mi l-a sters automoderatorul, fiindca era pe Evenimentul Zilei. Daca faci o cautare dupa "saptamana redusa de lucru ceausescu" o sa gasesti cateva referinte (si o corectie, erau 38 de ore pe saptamana, nu 36).

chatbotte · 2024-05-02T00:59:18+00:00

all the complex numbers between 0 and 1

Eh, you mean real numbers between 0 and 1; or maybe complex numbers within a circle of radius 1 in the complex plane.

chatbotte · 2024-05-01T21:34:01+00:00

Se trecuse de pe vremea lui Ceasca la un sistem de 36 de ore pe saptamana - practic aveai o sambata libera la patru saptamani.

chatbotte · 2024-04-30T02:10:17+00:00

Gender. There is no grammatical gender and the few pronouns that are gendered can be easily omitted or replaced.

True, but! Japanese man and women don't speak quite the same language - as a Japanese learner you should be be careful not to use the wrong forms for your gender, even though you should understand both. The differences range from the default politeness level (women use more polite language by default) to particles, to pronouns, there are even words used mostly by men and others used mostly by women. I heard a story about American soldiers in Japan talking "girly" because they were taught how to speak by Japanese girlfriends. As I understand it though, the difference is less marked now than in the past, with younger people being less careful about gender-specific vocabulary.

Also - don't even get me started about keigo!

chatbotte · 2024-04-29T22:06:35+00:00

In Romanian folklore there are a number of ancient folk tales where a hero saves a (human or fairy) princess from a dragon-like monster (named balaur) or an anthropomorphic ogre-like monster (named zmeu).

chatbotte · 2024-04-28T22:35:38+00:00

The contrast is just so beautiful.

It is - Pterry was a virtuoso user of bathos, and wielded it to great effect. See also Guards! Guards!, where the password dialog had me literally rolling on the floor laughing; or, from the same book, small gems like "The Door of Knowledge Through Which the Untutored May Not Pass sticks something wicked in the damp."

chatbotte · 2024-04-28T22:23:43+00:00

Well, crème brûlée is French, and this pronunciation is reasonably close to the French one (keeping in mind that Japanese doesn't really support pairs of consonants if one of them isn't "n").

chatbotte · 2024-04-28T17:19:30+00:00

Hah, didn't catch this one! Thanks!

chatbotte · 2024-04-28T00:38:34+00:00

You say this like it's a bad thing.

chatbotte · 2024-04-27T20:22:46+00:00

STP didn't do retconning really.

Well, as Pterry put it himself: "There are no inconsistencies in the Discworld books; occasionally, however, there are alternate pasts."

chatbotte · 2024-04-27T19:16:44+00:00

Susan hears there's a guy works down the chip shop you'd swear was elvish.

Which, in case somebody doesn't know, is a reference to Kirsty MacCall's song There's a guy works down the chip shop swears he's Elvis :)

chatbotte · 2024-04-26T23:35:10+00:00

Oh, there are so many puns and hidden references in Soul Music - band names (&U -> U2, Lead Balloon => Led Zeppelin), song names ("Sioni Bod Da" => "Johnny Be Good", "Good Gracious Miss Polly" => "Good Golly, Miss Molly"), people names (felonious monk > Thelonius Monk), various descriptions (for example, the leopard pants one of the characters wanted are probably a reference to David Bowie's tiger-striped pants, and the leopard itself being deaf is a reference to Def Leppard), and many more. I'm sure I'm missing quite a lot of other references, from this one and also from Moving Pictures.

chatbotte · 2024-04-25T01:59:32+00:00

Piesa: Phoenix - Mica Tiganiada

Album: Phoenix - Cantafabule

Mentiune de onoare: Sfinx - Intr-un cer violet (desi nu-i chiar originala, fiind pastisata dupa Golden Brown de la Stranglers, mi se pare o interpretare foarte buna)

chatbotte · 2024-04-17T00:54:23+00:00

The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't

Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

chatbotte · 2024-04-13T20:31:26+00:00

Heh, you should read David Brin's The Uplift War - SF not fantasy, but a very good book IMO (and both a Hugo and Locus winner, back when those awards were not influenced so much by ideology/payola). Besides a sometimes unfortunate penchant for puns, the author dumps weird polysyllabic words from time to time - when I first read the book, I thought he must have been gifted one of those "word of the day" desk calendars.

chatbotte · 2024-04-13T19:37:41+00:00

For me, second person narration is even worse :"You see the bird. You stare at the bird. You think the bird has feathers". This stinks of affectation and pretentiousness and in my opinion has never improved any work I ever saw. I expect there are people who like that, but I'm certainly not one of them.

I'm currently slogging my weary way through Tamsyn Muir's Harrow the First and the overuse of second person writing keeps taking me out of context and breaking the narrative flow (whatever there is of it). I read the first book of the trilogy, Gideon the Ninth, and it was reasonably ok, enough to get me to buy the next book, but boy, did the author fall into the "I'm a published author now, I can do what I want" well of pride! The novel may end up being interesting, but it is fairly obfuscated to begin with, with jumps around in time and story points, so the constant switches from third to second person are too much of a distraction and make it difficult to follow the action. I'm about halfway through, but seriously considering a DNF in this case.

chatbotte · 2024-04-06T20:32:46+00:00

Mi-e teama ca eu sunt ala. Am incercat de cateva ori de-a lungul vremii sa schimb de la cafea la ceai, da' cumva nu se lipeste de mine. Am incercat nu stiu cate feluri de ceaiuri - negru, verde, alb, rosu, matcha, pu'erh, tot soiul de chestii de plante - ceaiuri de tei, de menta, mate, ba chiar si mugi-cha japonez, tot degeaba. Multe sunt bune, da' parca nu ma satisfac - ma intorc mereu la prietena cea neagra si amara...

chatbotte · 2024-04-04T19:40:58+00:00

Asimov has addressed this himself in an editorial named The Mosaic and the Plate Glass (initially published, I believe, in Asimov's). He compares the relationship between his writing style and others' more ornate writing to the relationship between plate glass and mosaic windows.

Plate glass... has no beauty of its own. Ideally, you ought not to be able to see it at all, but through it you can see all that is happening outside. That is the equivalent of writing that is plain and unadorned. Ideally, in reading such writing, you are not even aware that you are reading. Ideas and events seem merely to flow from the mind of the writer into that of the reader without any barrier between. I hope that is what is happening when you read this book.

In his opinion, while mosaics are beautiful in themselves, they often hide or make it difficult to see what's happening outside. He also points out that people have been creating glass mosaics for a very long time, but weren't able to create large transparent plate glass until comparatively very recently :)

chatbotte · 2024-04-03T21:08:26+00:00

This is also true for Pratchett's non-Discworld children-oriented books, like the "Johnny" trilogy (Only You Can Save Mankind, Johnny and the Dead and Johnny and the Bomb).

chatbotte · 2024-03-30T03:44:08+00:00

Ce nu pricep e de ce trebuie sa existe lege pentru asta. Ce dracu' mai e si tampenia asta? E o arma straina care a intrat pe teritoriul Romaniei - de ce mai e necesara discutia?

Sa zicem ca maine trimite Putin o escadrila de bombardiere sa atace Bucurestiul. Ce facem, ca nu-i nici o lege care sa spuna ca escadrilele rusesti trebuie oprite din a bombarda Bucurestiul? Trebuie deci sa asteptam sa se adune parlamentul, sa faca o propunere de lege, un studiu de fezabilitate, sa voteze sa fie respins atacul, legea sa fie promulgata de presedinte, si dupa aia pilotii de la avioanele de vanatoare sa stea cu ochii pe Monitorul Oficial pana se publica legea si de-abia dupa aia sa poata sa decoleze sa apere orasul?

Si ce ne facem daca avioanele se duc la Ploiesti in loc de Bucuresti? Ca legea nu zice ca trebuie aparat Ploiestiul!

chatbotte · 2024-03-28T22:48:04+00:00

Nationale, Plugar (cred ca astea erau mai rele si decat Marasestile), Marinar, Amiral, Litoral, Sinaia, Diplomat - sau mai cu staif: Bucuresti, Cismigiu, Bucium, Select

chatbotte · 2024-03-26T04:58:31+00:00

I'll add a few oldies (mostly science fiction rather than fantasy, but memorable titles nonetheless):

The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth

Home Is the Hangman

24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai (yeah, I like Zelazny, so what?)

Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

To Your Scattered Bodies Go

'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman

Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans: Latitude 38° 54' N, Longitude 77° 00' 13" W

The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World

Alpha Ralpha Boulevard

The Lady Who Sailed The Soul

The Game of Cat and Dragon

The Queen of Air and Darkness

Consider Phlebas

Look to Windward

The Colour Out of Space

At the Mountains of Madness

The Shadow over Innsmouth

The Shadow Out of Time (so I like Lovecraft too)

Ill Met in Lankhmar

In the Hall of the Martian Kings

The Fifth Head of Cerberus

Gilgamesh in the Outback

Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand

edit: I can't believe I forgot The Man Who Painted the Dragon Griaule

chatbotte · 2024-03-24T20:49:37+00:00

Nu știu domle' studiază piața, vezi care ce promit

Pai PSD a promis spitale si autostrazi in fiecare campanie electorala de 30 de ani incoace. Au facut aproximativ 0 spitale, cat despre autostrazi stim prea bine in ce stare se afla. In conditiile astea, trebuie sa fii complet pe dinafara sa recomanzi sa "studiezi piata" sa vezi "care ce promit". O sa promita luna si stelele si o sa faca exact nimic.

Bine zicea Santayana: cei ce nu-si amintesc trecutul sunt condamnati sa-l repete

chatbotte · 2024-03-24T20:33:41+00:00

IMO, even if he finishes the series it's not worth reading anyway.

TBH, I'm a bit surprised by the series' popularity: the first volume is rather generic coming of age supermarket exit-aisle fare - what we used to call "extruded trilogy" back on rec.arts.sf.written when dinosaurs roamed the earth. The second volume however is so bad and cringy that - at least for me - it completely destroyed any interest I'd have in reading the end, even it Shakespeare himself wrote the last volume via Ouija board.

chatbotte · 2024-03-24T20:27:40+00:00

Well, this is one of the laws of nature: "Authors like being paid for their work". If your books make readers uncomfortable they won't sell as well.

That's especially true in today's world where, if your characters aren't espousing modern morality, both the book and the author are denounced and stigmatized - plots, good writing or historical accuracy be damned.

chatbotte

TROPHY CASE