I thought I recognized you from somewhere…
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While, yes, “cant” is a word. I do not disagree with that.
But where in my history of communication have you decided that I am talking about the angle something is leaning or perhaps speaking in jargon more often then auto-correcting to "can’t " since your mobile keyboard sucks.
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I’m in the UK so we know how to drive in the rain (it’s our default weather) but every year everyone is surprised by snow, like it’s something they’ve never seen before!
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I have gone back to a small phone - a Sony Z5C - because I’ve found big phones to be too big for convenience but too small to do stuff. At the same time, I don’t care for laptops because you’re stuck with one keyboard. I want Latin + accents, Cyrillic and Greek. And I don’t like tablets because I find them awkward to hold.
I use my phone for a lot and would definitely be unhappy without a barometer, compass, camera, payment method, navigation, FLIR sensor, emergency torch, weather warnings, MP3 player and message handler. But what I really want is something that folds like a laptop but has a second, mono e-ink screen in place of the keyboard that displays whatever alphabet or symbol system I want.
People produce niche IT products, phone makers seem to obsess over their DxOMark scores, but actual innovation is pretty rare.
I don’t know whereabouts you are but we get long rain free periods and then it rains and a whole lot of people turn out not to understand stopping distances and/or take forever to get going at junctions. I think from long experience that awful driving started in the Mid-West and has gradually moved East as British people take their cues from US TV programmes.
Back in the distant past I used to travel frequently by motorbike along a minor road. At one point there was a long downhill followed by a humpback bridge and a near-hairpin bend.
Now the way you took it was this; you went down the hill at moderate speed and braked before the bridge. On the bridge you took off for a short distance. As soon as this happened, you turned the front wheel the wrong way. This caused the bike to cant over because the front wheel was spinning; at the same time the precession slowed the front wheel, so when you touched down you were already facing the right way for the exit from the bend. We all knew about it, we all practised it, it was a perfectly safe manoeuvre because on the way down the hill you could see if there was anything the other side of the bridge.
Then one day I was followed down that road by an idiot in a large Ford who was driving as close as he could (500 Triumphs are not fast bikes by any standard). There was nowhere he was going to be able to pass. But I went down the hill as usual, and then discovered he wasn’t there any more.
He had obviously braked when I braked, became slightly airborne - and of course cars can’t change direction in the air, so he ended up in the ditch. Fortunately no great harm done.
The relevance, the thing that grinds my gears; people who try to drive too fast on unfamiliar roads and don’t think that perhaps the person they are following does this daily or weekly and knows every dip and bend. My assumption with people who brake heavily on bends is that they simply didn’t know the bend was there. (That, or ignorance of course.)
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My experience is a bit different. With laptops, depending on the language, I can use an external keyboard with stickers, or I could use a silicone keyboard cover with stickers, or-- it’s slow since I can’t touch-type-- I can use an on-screen keyboard for reference. One problem is that my brain sometimes filters out one alphabet on the stickers when I’m trying to use that alphabet-- where is Roman Q again? But I can’t use touch-screen keyboards. Some touch devices are unresponsive, others are haywire.
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I’m hosting a craft show, and because we’re in a church we’re calling it a “Christmas Market” - oh holy hell the flak I’m getting for that!
Vendors who won’t apply because its in a church!
Shoppers who won’t come because “christmas” is not inclusive enough.
Like, there are a million craft shows this month, go to one of the “holiday markets” if you like!
Our has Santa and Krampus! Its a Christmas market dammit!
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I’m super confused by this - who are the shoppers and vendors? People who aren’t church members? Why do church members object to their church doing churchy stuff?
I’ve never actually heard of something like this. The church my parents went to growing up didn’t allow any non-charity sales on-site.
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We are not affiliated with the church at all, we just use the space to host a show. Its pretty common in my city as large halls are hard to come by for cheap. Lots of downtown churches here have signs “Hall for rent”. Shoppers are just regular craft show goers, and vendors are all Etsy sellers.
And we’re not a “Christian” group, but its in a church, so why not have Santa and make it fun and festive and be a Christmas show? You can’t please everyone!
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Why not indeed?
Call it a “Weihnachtsmarkt” and confuse everybody.
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Could you call it SantaFest instead?
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The “Santa” bit is still a religious reference. Santa Claus = Sankt Niklaus.
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Is weih still in use in German? Unfortunately wih lost out to halig in English, although it gave us witch.
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No dammit! Its a Christmas Market!
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See, I have just as much problem with the people objecting to your sale as I do the ones who insist on “Merry Christmas”.
Holidays are perfectly capable of coexisting without being exclusionary. Calling it a Christmas sale isn’t denying that it’s also Yuletide and Hanukkah, just that the main theme is likely to be either a secular and/or Christian themed. “Christmas Sale” just says to me an equal chance of elves and nativity scenes, but there may be other observances or general winter themed things in there, too.
My objection to “Merry Christmas” is just that I don’t like being told what to do. I would be far more likely to say it, if certain jerks weren’t mandating it.
OTOH, I am amusing some people and annoying others because I refuse to take down “Halloween” things for Christmas. Instead, I got a hat and scarf for my bat, am going to wrap my scythe in holly, get Christmas candy for my rat, and the crow is already the proud owner of a shiny red jingle bell and a shiny green wrapped present (instead of his usual paperclips). Call it a very gothic Yuletide theme.
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You are awesome!
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Someone’s attacking the neighborhood with powerful strobe weapons. (Oh sorry, protecting the neighborhood with powerful safety signals.) At least it’s day, so it’s not as dangerous as at night.
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German Christmas Markets are called various things, but many begin with Christ-, so I was suggesting Weihnachtsmarkt (which is also used) as being more neutral. Incidentally, I discovered while doing a little research that St. Cloud in Minnesota has a Weihnachtsmarkt, but that seems to be due to the number of people of German origin.
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Yeah its just hilarious to me cuz I’m not christian in the least, I’m just annoyed that a few people are upset at our “Christmas Market” as if by calling it that we are being exclusionary, for petes sake we have Krampus! Its not like the Pope is going to be there! I say Happy Festivus most of the time. Or Happy Holidays. In fact I actually don’t care what people wish me, I’m just happy they’re being nice. So this objection is just weird to me!
Like I’m not Swedish but I go to the Swedish holiday market cuz its fun and cool! If you don’t want to come to my market, don’t, thats ok, but why complain to me about it? Thats the part I don’t get! Do they want me to change the name and move it? Cuz that ain’t happening!
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It’s the American War On Christmas moving north of the border, unfortunately. Sorry about that.
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