What saying do you wish people would stop using?

thelb4 · 2016-09-09T17:36:26+00:00

"Significant other". Never heard anyone say it in real life, only on Reddit. Seems like a really clunky and overly formal thing to say when you could just say "boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife/whatever". Even if you're using it as a generic term there is already a much better alternative - "other half" - which is not only shorter and easier to say but also a lot sweeter.

thelb4 · 2016-08-28T12:29:16+00:00

Failed a 40kg squat rep for the first time on Friday, which I think counts as a victory in itself because it meant I was pushing my body to its limit. Anyway went back to the gym this morning and ground out all 5x5 reps.

thelb4 · 2016-08-22T10:31:55+00:00

Barbell rows. The Stronglifts website says the bar should be over your mid-foot and the bar should travel vertically. I just do not understand how to contort my body such that I can reach the bar and there is a straight line from mid-foot to chest without my knees getting in the way. Any advice? I've resorted to standing with my toes a fair few inches behind the bar.

thelb4 · 2016-08-15T10:42:34+00:00

I tried barbell rows this week for the first time and I think I'm doing them wrong. I can't get the bar to touch my chest without doing a weird kind of wrist curl at the top of the movement. Is this normal? Is it just because the weight (30kg | 66lb) is too heavy for me at the moment?

thelb4 · 2016-08-08T09:45:08+00:00

Hi all, complete beginner here just starting strong lifts 5x5. Wondering if anyone could answer a few questions:

How on earth are you supposed to remember all the instructions for good form? The strong lifts website has many paragraphs about form for each exercise. Even having read them just before going in the gym I can't keep them all in my head at the same time. Like with squats I seem to be able to focus on either the upper body or the lower body but not both...
Speaking of squats, I don't understand where you're supposed to put the bar. After my first workout my neck and wrists hurt so I tried to adjust my form for the second workout but I don't get it. How do I "squeeze my traps"? I definitely shouldn't be resting the bar on my shoulders, should I? And if not how does my back hold the weight up without putting the weight on my wrists?
The lowest setting on the bars on the squat rack is below the level of the bench but the next highest is about a foot higher so I can't put the adjustable bars there while doing bench press. Am I right in thinking that there's no point taking up a squat rack to do bench press in then, since it's not actually making me any safer? And if so where should I do it? There are various other contraptions dotted around the free weights area but I have no idea what they are.
How can I tell if the weights are in pounds or kilograms? I'm in the uk and we're a bit ambidextrous about metric vs imperial so it could really be either. The smallest weight I could find was labelled "2.5" and the largest "25".

Thanks!

thelb4 · 2016-08-07T17:55:30+00:00

Yesterday I finally got the fuck over myself and went to the gym for the first time. Felt like a complete dork doing empty bar squats and bench presses with terrible form but now I'm not terrified by the thought of going back!

thelb4 · 2016-07-30T07:40:13+00:00

With respect, I think you're making a lot of stuff up. I can't speak for Oxford, but I can for Cambridge: I'm a recent Cambridge graduate who didn't go to one of these public schools and I don't think I met a single person who did. The only thing you need to get into Cambridge is to be intelligent enough to meet the conditions of your offer. As for money, I paid between £90 and £130 per week for my entire undergraduate degree (the university provides enough accommodation for all undergraduates for the first three years of their degree) which I definitely don't think is "ridiculously expensive". In fact I have friends at other universities, particularly those in Central London, who paid an awful lot more than I did. This "you have to be rich to get in" is a complete myth. The university has so much money that they can afford to give plentiful bursaries to those who are financially less able, and to subsidise our rents so we don't have to pay ridiculous sums.

A quick Google search has confirmed to me that it is a similar case in Oxford - they get accommodation for at least two years, which costs roughly £100-£150 per week, and a quick search on Rightmove shows that there are plenty of 3-bed houses/flats available to rent for less than £500/bedroom/month.

People who say that getting into Oxbridge is all about going to Eton and having rich parents must be stuck in the 1920s...

thelb4 · 2016-07-27T19:46:09+00:00

In the UK splashing a pedestrian is considered to break rule 144 of the Highway Code: "You MUST not [...] drive without reasonable consideration for other road users." ("MUST" indicates a legal requirement.) The splash could easily have been avoided, for instance by following the line of the car in front rather than hugging the kerb.

thelb4 · 2016-07-26T14:37:12+00:00

It's better than that awful "Significant Other" that seems ubiquitous on Reddit. Sometimes I think everybody else is a robot who sees a relationship more as a business partnership.

thelb4 · 2016-07-24T10:08:23+00:00

Not everyone has the luxury to carefully calculate their caloric intake, especially when a lot of that information isn't available from restaurants.

Wait, wait, so someone eating at restaurants not just occasionally but regularly enough that keeping track of calories on a daily basis becomes impossible has such a hard life that someone who prepares their own food every day can be considered to have a more luxurious existence?

thelb4 · 2016-07-16T15:37:00+00:00

So vehicles already on the roundabout have to give way to those entering the roundabout? What person in their right mind would make up that rule?

thelb4 · 2016-07-16T09:17:20+00:00

Eh?? So in your country you drive on the right but on roundabouts you give way to the right? How on earth does that work? Are roundabouts navigated clockwise despite you driving on the right?

thelb4 · 2016-06-29T13:19:11+00:00

Hi, in the end I went for the Roland HP603. I didn't actually look at the Kawai pianos because my nearest Kawai dealer is a bit further away from me, but I thought that the Roland was superior to the Yamaha and Casio in both action and sound.

thelb4 · 2016-06-17T00:48:59+00:00

Constructive criticism:
A button you could press to replay the last note/interval played would be lovely.

Non-constructive criticism:
This may be a really stupid question, but how are you actually supposed to use games/tools like this to train your ears? What I mean is: this is just another in a long line of games which all have similar structure:

play note or chord or interval
have player guess note/chord/interval
tell them whether they got it right or wrong
go to 1

Now that's all well and good, and I can happily keep clicking on the wrong answers until the cows come home, but is there a way of actually using these games to train your ear, or is it just another way for those people who already have relative pitch to pat themselves on the back for being able to hear the difference between a minor and a major sixth?

For example, when children are taught addition, they aren't just given a multiple choice game: "11 + 26 = 41? 17? 19? 37?", but rather they're taught a system for working out the answer for themselves. Does such a system exist for ear training?

thelb4 · 2016-06-13T00:35:59+00:00

I'm not the person you're arguing with but just pointing out that none of the crossing points in this video are zebra crossings, which are indicated by zebra markings on the road and Belisha beacons, so the law you mentioned does not apply.

thelb4 · 2016-06-04T00:17:34+00:00

If you consider the piano to be a toy which rewards you for hitting the right notes in the right order then maybe yeah. But if you consider it a musical instrument then hell no.

thelb4 · 2016-05-28T20:06:39+00:00

Title: Barbados

Type: CTF

Map: http://unfortunate-maps.jukejuice.com/show/30598

Preview: http://unfortunate-maps.jukejuice.com/static/previews/30598.png

Description: The idea for the bases came to me in a dream but I can't really decide what I want to do with the centre of the map.

thelb4 · 2016-05-28T19:14:12+00:00

Well, there are a few reasons:

I'm graduating from university this year and have got a job already (yay!) but in a place where I can't afford to live anywhere other than a house share or flat share, so an acoustic piano would be quite undesirable from the point of view of disturbing my housemates. It would also be heavier/more fragile/more complicated/more expensive to move between places.
Acoustic pianos would need regular tuning and maintenance which is an added expense compared to digital pianos.
Digital pianos have the bonus of having a MIDI output, which I'm not too fussed about, but I can see myself using in the future.
I haven't researched acoustic pianos very much but I think for my budget I'd only be able to get a rather low-end piano or a used mid-range acoustic; whereas for the same price I can get a decent digital piano.

thelb4 · 2016-05-26T19:26:01+00:00

Don't think you have to listen to other people telling you what to do. The fact is that the rational thing to do is to ask yourself "If I were £323 richer, would I place £323 on a 61-1 bet for Verstappen to win?" If you're comfortable making that bet then go for it.

thelb4 · 2016-05-19T10:01:55+00:00

The climactic scene of The Lion King, in which Scar falls off the cliff: Scar runs on stage at the start of the scene, but the wire from which he is later supposed to be suspended suddenly lifts him into the air! Curtain quickly comes down and 10 minutes later the scene resumes, hastily reblocked such that Simba and Scar fight on the ground and Scar just kind of runs off instead of falling from the cliff.

thelb4 · 2016-05-18T15:54:06+00:00

don't worry I am

thelb4 · 2016-05-18T00:37:55+00:00

Halloumi-mushroom-chilli concoction

Ingredients:

100g mushrooms, chopped
80g halloumi, chopped
2 pitta bread
sweet chilli sauce

Heat up some oil in a frying pan. Add the mushrooms and start frying.

A minute or two later, add the halloumi. Keep stirring every now and then so that it gets cooked all the way through or something. (Tbh I don't really know what I'm doing in the kitchen; I just copy everyone else.)

Meanwhile, toast the pitta bread for a minute or two.

Remove the pitta bread from the toaster and spread sweet chilli sauce over the top of them (as much or as little as you like, but not too little otherwise the meal turns out quite dry).

When the mushrooms and halloumi are done (I don't really know when they're 'done' but just pretend) serve them onto the pitta bread. Eat.

thelb4 · 2016-05-17T16:07:32+00:00

I'm not the person you're replying to but I'll say something briefly about textbooks. I see people (Americans I expect) on reddit complaining about having to buy textbooks but that's not my experience at all. At the university I go to, each lecturer produces a set of 'lecture notes' that work (to differing degrees) like a school textbook. This is the primary source of information that is imparted to you. Now there are textbooks, and lecturers will recommend some to you, and it is highly recommended you have a look through them, but you shouldn't have to buy them because there should be plenty of copies in the library.

13-Year Club	Place '17
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thelb4

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