Ask The Staff 'Anything'

[Tsuyu]

Re: Ask The Staff 'Anything'

Just a serious question here for a moment.

You ever urinate when taking a shower?

Yes. But as I've (disturbingly enough) mentioned before on these very forums: I'm manly enough to stand in the shower and hit a bull's eye in the bowl.

 

[Arseface]

Re: Ask The Staff 'Anything'

Is my new school cool or what?

 

[Angel]

Re: Ask The Staff 'Anything'

Is that rhetorical?

 

[Walker]

Re: Ask The Staff 'Anything'

Clearly, it's not. Tell him no. It's nowhere near as awesome as the University of Maryland. Or, probably, the Coast Guard Academy.

So, here's a question for the staff: is it just me, or is Spanish a weird-as-balls language?

 

[Gikoku]

Re: Ask The Staff 'Anything'

So, here's a question for the staff: is it just me, or is Spanish a weird-as-balls language?

Not nearly as weird as Chinese & German. Both Chinese languages are terribly difficult to learn along with the writing, and German... well, that's the language of discipline. :ninja:

 

[Walker]

Re: Ask The Staff 'Anything'

Possibly, but I'm not enough of an idiot to try to learn Chinese or German, now am I? Admittedly, Chinese or Russian would be useful if I end up a Coastie (woo-hoo Pacific and Bering), but Spanish would be even moreso.

German? Not at all. Or, well, not much. Not as much.

 

[Arseface]

Re: Ask The Staff 'Anything'

Clearly, it's not. Tell him no. It's nowhere near as awesome as the University of Maryland. Or, probably, the Coast Guard Academy.

Does your school pay for students to go on a pub crawl next week?

So, here's a question for the staff: is it just me, or is Spanish a weird-as-balls language?

It's just Latin.

Not nearly as weird as Chinese & German. Both Chinese languages are terribly difficult to learn along with the writing, and German... well, that's the language of discipline. :ninja:

English is mostly German, so a lot of the words are similar. I can understand about a quarter of German just by knowing English, and using my imagination.

 

[Walker]

Re: Ask The Staff 'Anything'

Does your school pay for students to go on a pub crawl next week?

It's just Latin.

English is mostly German, so a lot of the words are similar. I can understand about a quarter of German just by knowing English, and using my imagination.

No, but my school has cool toys, like

and

And HELL, that's just one lab. Plus, you don't get much more awesome than having a gigantic anthropomorphic turtle as your mascot.

Plus, location, location, location. It's the University of Maryland! In Maryland! Greatest place on earth! Just outside Washington, DC, which is, in my own admittedly biased opinion, the most beautiful city on earth so long as you don't take a wrong turn and get your ass shot. Ditto for College Park, only it's less beautiful.

Latin isn't that much like Spanish. I've taken a little bit of both, and they're very similar (both Romance languages, obviously) but very, very different.

And yes, I am trying to ignore the ****-in-the-shower comments. It's requiring a great deal of effort, so I think Arse and I should be forgiven for starting another debate.

 

[Dark Drakan]

Re: Ask The Staff 'Anything'

So, here's a question for the staff: is it just me, or is Spanish a weird-as-balls language?

Its pretty weird, used to know some as a kid but forgotten it all now.

Not nearly as weird as Chinese & German. Both Chinese languages are terribly difficult to learn along with the writing, and German... well, that's the language of discipline. :ninja:

German is fairly easy once you get used to their sentence structure etc. Got taught it at school but as that was 8 years ago i have forgotten most of it now. Chinese is a really tough language though.

 

[Arseface]

Re: Ask The Staff 'Anything'

No, but my school has cool toys, like

and

And HELL, that's just one lab. Plus, you don't get much more awesome than having a gigantic anthropomorphic turtle as your mascot.

I've completely forgotten my argument. That does look pretty cool. What are they for? I'm assuming it's not just actually a swimming pool and a claw?

Plus, location, location, location. It's the University of Maryland! In Maryland! Greatest place on earth! Just outside Washington, DC, which is, in my own admittedly biased opinion, the most beautiful city on earth so long as you don't take a wrong turn and get your ass shot. Ditto for College Park, only it's less beautiful.

What about Venice? You seriously cannot tell me than a concrete jungle (no matter how beautiful) can trump a floating city, where everything is about 400 years old.

 

[Walker]

Re: Ask The Staff 'Anything'

Its pretty weird, used to know some as a kid but forgotten it all now.

German is fairly easy once you get used to their sentence structure etc. Got taught it at school but as that was 8 years ago i have forgotten most of it now. Chinese is a really tough language though.

Glad you agree. Yeah, one of the guys I went to middle school with suddenly switched to a Chinese major last year. I think he's nuts.

I've completely forgotten my argument. That does look pretty cool. What are they for? I'm assuming it's not just actually a swimming pool and a claw?

What about Venice? You seriously cannot tell me than a concrete jungle (no matter how beautiful) can trump a floating city, where everything is about 400 years old.

Big-pretentious-name time: Neutral Buoyancy Research Facility, part of the Space Systems Lab. It's used to test designs for space vehicles (usually robots) space suits, the occasional robot subs with movement guidelines based on a school of fish. The robot is... a robot. I couldn't tell you which one, for sure. They build lots. The university is right outside DC and less than ten minutes from the Goddard Spaceflight Center (one of NASA's big admin/research facilities), so we have a pretty big space-track aerospace engineering program.

Hmmm. Cherry trees, tidal basin, biggest masonry structure/phallic representation on earth? DC is a city of monuments, museums, and gardens (the tourist bits, anyway.) True, not as old-- nothing over here is-- but I'm very partial to it. Venice is probably beautiful, too, but I've never been there. And hey, don't they use lots of concrete, too? And DC might not be a floating city, but HEY. We built it on a swamp. That's gotta count for something.

Spoiler

 

[Tsuyu]

Re: Ask The Staff 'Anything'

Hmmm. Cherry trees, tidal basin, biggest masonry structure/phallic representation on earth?

Spoiler

 

[droded]

Re: Ask The Staff 'Anything'

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

[Walker]

Re: Ask The Staff 'Anything'

Is it bad that my first response (okay, 2nd) to those images is to wonder where the Tidal Basin went?

 

[Skotekal]

Re: Ask The Staff 'Anything'

To all mods:

Is it just me who finds studying the works of Shakespeare a completely unneeded part of English class, and should be optional? Or is it just something to get over?

 

[Walker]

Re: Ask The Staff 'Anything'

NEVER be an English major, Skoetal. No idea how hard it is to avoid Shakespeare in those circles.

 

[Skotekal]

Re: Ask The Staff 'Anything'

I wasn't planning on it. :lol: It just seems so useless to learn about english from that time period. It is like an obsolete language.

 

[cheezMcNASTY]

Re: Ask The Staff 'Anything'

To all mods:

Is it just me who finds studying the works of Shakespeare a completely unneeded part of English class, and should be optional? Or is it just something to get over?

It's completely up to you. I find Shakespeare to be incredible use of the English language, and his contributions need no elaboration. To others, it's just boring old poetry.

Comparable to how I can't get into classical music, but every music major I know worships the stuff. It's greatness can only truly be understood if one has an extensive knowledge of music theory (which I don't) just as Shakespeare is better understood by realizing how amazing and unique his choice of words are.

tl;dr: you do not have to like shakespeare. it's only a matter of opinion.

 

[Gikoku]

Re: Ask The Staff 'Anything'

German is fairly easy once you get used to their sentence structure etc. Got taught it at school but as that was 8 years ago i have forgotten most of it now. Chinese is a really tough language though.

I don't know any words in German (was never taught), but I would like to learn it one day along with Russian.

It's funny when people tell me learning Japanese is difficult, especially compared to Chinese. Strip the Japanese language of kanji, and it becomes one of the easiest languages on the planet... while English still remains one of the most difficult languages.

 

[Walker]

Re: Ask The Staff 'Anything'

People keep saying that, but I've never seen any evidence.

While, on the other hand, vast portions of the world speak it. Sure, there might bereasons for that, but I've never let THAT get in my way.