Grrl Power #707 – A fickle modesty
Sydney is entirely too fit on this page. I got distracted trying to do a decent looking back, but she’s supposed to really be a bit more nerd soft, and like ~15 lbs overweight.
This page has one of those sci-fi show situations that we’re all supposed to politely ignore when it comes up, and it’s the selective universal translator. It happens all the time. Worf says qapla’, and the UT doesn’t change it to “success”? Well, fine, it’s an easy argument that Worf is in fact a native English speaker, so the UT isn’t watching for it, but are we supposed to believe that every Klingon captain and crew member they meet also speaks English, or that there’s some translation going on? If that’s the case, why does the UT translate everything they say, except qapla’?
Presumably Frix doesn’t natively speak modern English, so he’s using a universal translator, but then “human” and “flurbleblox” and “zipoo” all mean things in his native language. So why isn’t it translating them? When Frix says “human,” Sydney should hear “nose cheese” or whatever human means in his native language.
The solution is kind of built into the science behind a really good UT. You can’t just do a word for word translation of what’s being said. Language has context. Any good UT would have to have a massively sophisticated VI that is constantly monitoring for context. When an English speaker uses the word “you,” context determines if the “you” is singular or plural, but many languages have separate words for a singular “you” and a plural “you.” (Actually English does as well, but only if you count “y’all.”) This is a big part of the reason that translating text from one language to another then back again can result in a bunch of crazy results. Meaning is lost. A really good UT would not only have to have comprehensive dictionaries of all languages involved, including slang, but also be able to tag words and sentences with context metadata that wouldn’t be lost even if something was translated through 29 different languages.
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Deep Space 9 actually addressed this issue during the Dominion War. The non-functioning enhanced humans (the mutants) were helping the Federation navigate the best course in each parley by watching holo-recordings of the negotiations. Jack, the member of the group most prone to violence, became fluent in Domionese the night before starting in earnest so as to not miss any nuances. For this reason, he caught the slip up by Weyoun, who inadvertently used a form of “give” that betrayed how important a specific system was to the Dominion.
Sydney has been going through intense physical training for a week now. Any excess wieght under15 lbs would be gone, and I’ll add to the “I thought she was just skinny” camp. There’s also the possibility that the orbs are subtly reshaping her into the best possible version of herself. After all, if Peter Parker can wake up ripped the day after being bit by that damned spider, maybe being linked to the orbs has a similar physical effect, and Sydney simply hasn’t noticed. I know I went into basic training strong but pudgy from playing football in high school and came out pretty ripped. And my mental image of myself didn’t adjust to what I really looked like. I still look at pictures from then and think, “Who the Hell is that guy?”
Plus the center ring that she added to recently might help with that ‘being the best her that she can be’ thing, in addition to giving her more intuition on how to use the orbs.
If Fry can get buff overnight after eating a truck stop egg salad sandwich, I don’t see why the orbs can’t subtly enhance Sydney’s form.
Which reminds me, never eat an egg salad sandwich from a truck stop, as wonderful those places are.
Space truck stop egg salad sandwiches give you sentient space worms that actually improve your body because they consider it their world and idolize it enough to build a statue of it inside it… hence all the improvements they made to Fry. Getting rid of the worms to see whether or not Leela loved him for him or for the worms was the worst decision he’d ever made. He was still himself with the worms, just more of himself because the worms increased his mental faculties which gave him a heightened sense of awareness and analytical ability. Even artificially enhanced in the brain, he was still an idiot.
Intense training, followed up with a massive dogfight(s) on that alien planet. Yeah she be too lean , those spicy alien noodles were just a blip on her caloric rollercoaster
Honestly, I was totally expecting her to be skinny, almost too skinny, based on how high strung she is.
And I’m also in the “she’s a super now, so of course she’s hot. In fact, as she bonds with the orbs more and more (I think that’s what the “xp” system really is), I also think they will be altering her physiology to closer match her subconscious ideal of perfection.
Five years from now, when she’s a veteran ARCHON agent and training “Miss Magnificent” or “Gladiator Girl”, she’ll probably not only be as cut and buff as any of the current ARCHON crew, but she’ll have magically grown two cup sizes.
I don’t think she can even imagine herself with two balloons strapped to her chest, so she will never inflate to Maxima’s proportions, but she will grow into a place where she would not feel inadequate in the ladies’ shower – because while she’s shorter and more slender than the rest, her frame will be perfectly proportioned.
Would one week really be enough to burn off that much fat?
No. Safe weight loss is 1 lb/week. Fast weight loss is 2 lb/week. A relative of mine had major health issues (the nature of which I shall politely elide for the sake of the audience) that essentially prevented him from absorbing nutrition from his food. He lost 17 lbs in 5 weeks. It was disturbing watching how fast the weight fell off (and what he looked like at the end), but that was still only ~3 lb / week. Furthermore, your body will preferentially give up muscle before fat, so even if you stop eating completely you will not burn 15 lbs of fat in a week.
That depends on how active you are and if your referencing medical studies their idea of fasting tends toward laying in a medical bed in a hospital with machines attached.
Actually, that depens on your starting Weight.
When I was at My max Weight, I lost 13 kilos in less than 19 days. Safe and fast, but I was carrying 60kg of fat, at that time, compared to My skinniest size. (I was 30kg overweight.)
If you are 7 kilos overweight, you should not loose more than Half a kilo per week, but If you are 30kg overweight, you’re safer loosing more.
It’s not weight lose, it’s weight re-proportioning (probably the wrong word, hopefully the explanation will help)
When doing training, or simple exercising, you don’t lose weight so much as change the ‘fat’ into muscle, and muscle weighs more than fat, which is why so many people give up diets and exercises because they are only measuring the body weight (which may go up) and not looking at the overall shape and body proportions (and the stomach area is one of the hardest areas to change)
‘Toning’ sounds about right…
It’s kinda the (huge) difference between weightlifters and body-builders: weightlifters have muscles under that layer of fat, bodybuilders are skin and bone and could be easily picked up by a weightlifter (and would also lose a race against a weightifter: cereally, have you seen the legs on those people? may not be sprinters butt they have power in those tree-trunks!)
My assumption was that some of the energy for using powers might be calorific, just on the basis of energy has to come from somewhere also Sydney (and the gang) have been shown eating often and heartily in the comic particularly adjacent to power usage. This could be coincidental but that’s what I took from it.
Really always thought sydney would be “skinny fat” skinny in that she would have a slight profile and thin even to seeing definition on her body that is just normal body shape for her. The fat part being that she does not work out and is not in good shape even though she looks like she is in reasonable shape from being naturally skinny. Have to say I am loving Sydney more and more.
Believe the term you are thinking of is ‘out-of-shape skinny’, which actually affects far more people then people think: when you are thin, you are automagically expected to be fit, which is not the case, butt try and tell that to most people, specially the ones who are overweight (even just a little bit) and the thin person will never dare speak of it again, and never get the help they need to get fit
So yeah, body-shaming goes both ways
Indeed goes both ways. In my younger days, I went out running together with a female friend (only, but not from my choice), and was seriously surpriced that I had no problem whatsoever pacing her for 3 miles, and then when she gave up, to speed up and did the same round again almost half again as fast (which still wasn’t all that fast from an athletes point of view). And I was called overweight by my friends and probably fat by everyone else, as I carried around some 40lbs of extra fat.
She should be a bit hardened because of all the workout Maxima puts her through. You would be surprised at how much muscle someone will put on through boot camp.
Maxima a little, but mostly Anvil and Peggy. Boot camp gets you to put on muscle and shed fat in remarkable ways.
And most times, you don’t even notice: you are wearing extremely unflattering clothing, and at the end of the day (whatever time it is when they finally allow you to collapse) you are too tired (even in the showers) to notice any change
It’s also one reason they limit contact with the outside world, specially family and friends
That is less a reason and more of a side effect of the imposed isolation.
Isolation as a tool has worked quite well for the Military as well as Cults and for the same reasons.
Hint – it’s not really a good thing.
No.
It is a nuetral thing.
A tool that can be used beneficially or detrimentally.
Very true
Guess it was misleading of me to imply one of the reasons why they limit contact is because of the enforced weight-loss programme :(
Does Sydney disagree with that armament transaction?
More likely she wants to lay in a couple years supply of that spice.
If she wanted some superspicy food before going back home, shouldn´t has she asked Cora to buy some before leaving the “restaurant” in the first place?
Hindesight is 20/20
how often have to left a place and thought, “I should have…” after being too far away to reasonably go back.
there were other things going on at the time through her head like, “can I trust this total stranger who recognizes me?”
OVerwright?!? C’mon! she’s under weight! (and right now probably smells like wet dog.)
Why should she smell like wet dog? Their fur isn’t the source of the smell, it’s the things in the fur– and Frix probably bathes as much as most people (if not more, since he’s frequently crawling around inside service areas).
Given the level of technology we have seen there isn’t any reason to think that the “universal translator” is not an implant that uploads a data dump of the appropriate language to the memory center of the brain when an unknown language is encountered. However the simplest explanation is that the UT is sophisticated enough to recognize context and know that while there may be a direct literal translation for at least one meaning of a given word some words do not translate, “macho” for example…or have more nuanced and complex contextual meanings that can only be picked up on if the word is left in it’s native language. A race name could well fall into that category. Hence the computer treats HUMAN as it would John…a personal name for an individual race rather than if Sydney said Humanoid…a generic descriptor in our language for beings with our basic body form.
Babelfish. ’nuff said.
I just started a healthy-eating diet and mild exercise, and I lost 10 pounds. If Maxima has been putting Sydney under a healthy diet, and bootcamp training, I’d think she’d melt away that extra weight fairly quickly. I hope I offend no one here, but Sydney seems to be a natural petite. She might have had some overweight, but that might be gone after what she’s went through. She just took on RoboCthulhu for god’s sake! XD
Also. I totally agree with what you say about language. I’m a French Speaker, we have 2 words for You. (Tu, Vous) and French does not differenciate between Like and Love. You have to go the long way if you want to specify that difference.
May I ask how fast you lost the weight, and any pointers you have? I wouldn’t mind shedding an inch or so off the old waistline.
Optimum weight is determined by both weight and height. All you need to do is grow a few inches taller and things will work out fine. Your species on this planet can do that, right?
That’s actually a common misconception known by the name Body Mass Index (or BMI) which has been proven to be horribly wrong. For just one example of where it’s been shown to be horribly wrong, the BMI system has called many professional athletes including gold medalists morbidly obese since their muscles weighed so much.
Optimum weight isn’t a thing, period. You use height, age, and bone weight to determine your ideal body density or muscle/fat ratio, and then you aim for that.
If that sounds too complicated, a good approximate is aiming for an ideal waistline.
Actually English has several forms of plural you. Although my faith in humanity is constantly getting shanked with the amount of idiots I have to explain to that y’all is either plural or implied plural. Just like all the other forms of plural you.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/12916/yall-youse-8-english-ways-make-you-plural
Every one of those in that article a colloquialism, which are regionally defined as a solution. They are actually not part of the official language. They are not usually contextually referenced outside of their Regional area. However English is a bastardization of multiple languages.
For instance English also doesn’t have an official neuter singular word, them is a bit unwieldy and they is plural. There are several that people have tried to come up with although I think of those that I’ve seen or heard I liked ‘ne’ the best. In a list they would become: She, He, Ne, Hers, His, Nems
While you may not realize it, English also has contextual sexism. Most other romantic languages have defined sexism. By those I mean that the gender of an object is based off of its spelling, optionally the word used as a preposition preceding it, in a defined context. In non-English languages, prepositions are structured based on the context and the sex of the object. In English, and probably even more specifically American English, we only have a few prepositions and all of them are used interchangeably.
I never much liked the proposed use of Ne as a gender neutral singular word. It always had me thinking about absurdly tall knights in a Monty Python movie.
I prefer the term Gnir. Gnir isn’t actually a word in and of itself, but is an acronym for Gender Neutral Individual Reference. I can’t remember where I first heard it proposed, but it apparently never caught on.
English is not a Romantic language. It is classified as a Germanic language. French and English evolved from different root languages. Yes, we share a lot a words and word-similarity with Romance languages, but that is just because English grew up around those languages similar to how close neighbors may develop similar habits even though they aren’t actually related. Every time we need a new word for something, we need to come up with one. If another language we have contact with has a word for it already, well, it’s just easier to use that than come up with one ourselves. As we have become more globalized, new words have been able to come from lots of different countries rather than just Europe.
They has always seem suitable to me for a neuter singular, usually interpreted it as ‘That person over there’. Pronouns are already used in contextualized referential manner just like he and she so the context makes it clear if you’re talking about a single person or a group.
What about Bob; They wanted to go do a thing, They’re having a tough time right now
What about the class; They wanted to go do a thing, They’re studying right now
Ne? I think that’s the first gender neutral pronoun I’ve heard that doesn’t make my brain hurt. Hearing ‘Xe’ and ‘Xir’ makes me want to vomit out portions of my Broca’s Area and too many english teachers beat the ‘proper’ use of ‘they’ and ‘them’ into me for that bit of programming to ever change.
As a professional editor and published author,
THEY IS A GENUINE SINGULAR PRONOUN IN ENGLISH, AND YOU HAVE USED IT SEVERAL TIMES, GUARANTEED.
Here are some examples of singular “they” that people are STILL USING right here today in 2019:
“Hey, bus driver? Someone left their coat on the bus!”
“Whoever last sat at this table didn’t clear away their (paper) coffee cup.”
“Robin still isn’t home, yet? Oh man, they are gonna be in so much trouble with their mom!”
Your problem is that you’re not used to using singular “they” when the person is right there next to you.
That’s literally the only thing making people balk about using it. Because of the rigidly enforced, “men cannot be mistaken for mere women / women cannot be allowed to have the social standing & power of men” attitude of toxic masculinity and toxic patriarchy, we are taught from an early age that you have to identify people by their gender presentation and help enforce those rigid binary roles…aka it’s “rude” to misgender someone when they’re right there. (Notice how normal-seeing that “they’re” feels in that sentence, even though I’m clearly referencing a single person?)
That’s it. That is the only reason why you don’t think “they” is acceptable. It’s because if you think you know their gender, or think you should know their gender, you “have” to call them by he or she…except you don’t know a person’s gender until they themself tell you (and yes, “themself” IS a legitimate word!), and you don’t even notice how often you use singular “they” when they’re not there…but you only have a snitfit about it when they are standing right there…and only because of toxic social conditioning.
My job, my career, is not only to deal with words, but with the rules of how those words are used (rules which can be broken at any time in a living language!!), as well as with the meaning of those words, and the impact of those words. And I repeat, language rules can be broken at any time! (At least in English; if you’re using French and don’t want anything you say to be taken for a rude sexual innuendo, use articles in front of all those nouns!!)
Well typed :D
Totally agreed…
Although I’d throw in it’s also enforced (although not as strongly anymore, but still is) by Toxic Femininity and Toxic Matriarchy as well.
Throwing on a spoiler because I’m about to launch into a rant.
I notice that often people who complain about Toxic Masculinity often forget Toxic Femininity; which is, in and of itself, an expression of Toxic Femininity.
Although those two things aren’t talked about as much as Toxic Masculinity and Toxic Patriarchy, they are very much as real and very much as problematic. (And in before anyone says, “That’s just reverse sexism” or some such nonsense. First off, no it’s not. It refers to problematic women enforce gender roles and stereotypes which is often is just as prevalent although enacted very differently, and against both men and women, just as toxic masculinity is also enacted against both men and women.) One example is the strong toxic female cultural bias to portray men as villains or as stupid or claim that men can’t understand emotions, or complain to other women that they aren’t acting like women. Girls who insist one giving their female friends a makeover even if they don’t want it are also guilty of this. A woman who assumes that an adult man in a children’s playground is a pedophile and calls the cops on him (it happens to many fathers of children quite often) would be one example of this. Woman who believe they can make forward sexual advances on men without their consent in ways that wouldn’t be okay if the sexes were reverse are very guilty of this. Women who shame FTMs or MTFs are guilty of this. AND women who refuse to use ‘they’ (I have met more than my fair share of mothers of friends who refuse to call their ‘precious daughter’ by their preferred gender) are definitely guilty of this. This list goes on and on. However, like any kind of Toxic personality problem, the first step is calling out when you see it happen so people can correct their behavior. And if you adding in more forms of Toxicness is too wordy for you, it can be summarized as “Toxic Sexism” which even saves you some typing.
This is absolutely true. Some of it stems from deeply internalized misogyny, and some of it as an out-of-control overreaction to patriarchy, misogyny, & toxic masculinity. (Some of it from other sources, too.)
It’s like how people wonder why white women uphold toxic patriarchy seemingly at their own expense…when they’re doing it because they’re often put in a position of power and control over non-white people, both males and (especially) females…so that even though they’re still viewed as second-class citizens by white males (supremacist-minded ones), they still feel empowered and thus obligated to support white culture over all…even if in the end, they’re still treated awfully because they’re not (white) males. Internalized misogyny, white supremacy ideology, and the habit of generations upon generations of divisional Us vs Them thinking…i.e., better to serve the masters and not be “one of THEM (the ones you’ve been told all your life are lesser/dumber/evil, even if it just isn’t true)” than to…oh…join forces with “them” and overthrow the masters so that you can be treated as an equal instead of a subordinate–however chief–in a very cruel, warped, and punitive society.
Here’s a heretical concept: Make it simple. There is no “reverse sexism/racism”… there is sexism, and racism. Both should be avoided.
Masculinity and/or femininity are simply character traits, and neither is exclusive to either sex– they should not be considered “toxic”, merely “part of who we are”. Abuse against or for either, is sexism.
… now if only it were that easy. :)
Yes, they shouldn’t be considered toxic, and yet, they are, because of the attitudes displayed towards anyone else, because they make the environment (slash or community) around them unhealthy
There are forms of masculinity and femininity that are not toxic, and forms that are. The chief distinction is in whether or not behaving in a way that is stereotypically ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’ actually constitutes toxic behavior. A guy who’s always jealously possessive of his partner, or has developed a hair-trigger temper out of an obsession with respect, for instance, has allowed ‘being masculine’ to become a toxic behavior.
It’s possible for a guy to make their partner important in their life and not be jealously possessive. It’s possible for a guy to prioritize respect and earning it without flying off the handle when another person doesn’t give it. It’s possible to be masculine without turning masculinity into a character flaw.
English doesn’t have an official anything.
English is the world’s only mainline evolved language. All the other mainline languages are dictated languages.
What that means is this:
In French, you have a central academy that is the official authority on the language. What is or is not part of the language officially is decided by a council at the academy.
In German, you have a central academy that is the official authority on the language. What is or is not part of the language officially is decided by a council at the academy.
etc. etc. for Chinese, Japanese, and so on.
English, has no central academy. The closest English has is the Oxford and Webster dictionaries, and they are not deciding councils so much as slow-moving newspapers. They report on new words that are picked up, try to keep up with changing trends, and write them down. (For the record, both include “ya’ll”).
What makes a word English or not is simply if native English speakers recognize it. And although “Youse” and “Ya’ll” may be laughed at as regional, most english speakers around the world still recognize it, meaning it’s as proper as English gets.
A friend of mine who is 1. a French national born and bred, and 2. a professional translator…laughs at the national French language academy, as do many of her friends, both within and outside her profession. Because at one point about ten or so years ago, the Academy tried to decree that no more new words would be accepted…thus declaring French officially to be a dead language.
Most everyone ignored them and continued to speak as all languages have always been spoken, in any society. Last I heard, the academy gave up and removed the ban (though there were threats of reinstating it; futile, if you ask me).
Language always evolves alongside the people speaking it. That language just evolves faster whenever it comes into contact with new cultures, new ideas, and the new words to express all those new things.
Who says “qapla” isn’t English? It’s got at least as much claim to be part of Federation Standard English (whatever they officially call it) as “karaoke” does to be part of modern English.
Given how many borrow words we have in English like scosh which is a corrupted pronunciation of scoshe from Japanese (same meaning), and taco which is a verb and refers to making something round folded around something, specifically wheels (“Man, did you see how he tacoed that front wheel?”) and several others I don’t want to waste bandwidth over, I would definitely say q’apla has become synonymous with “good luck” among a portion of the population.
This is pretty much the post I was looking for upon reading Dave’s commentary. The first thing that came to mind was a chapter in a book titled Otherland. On of the characters is not a native speaker of English (French in her case), and uses a variety of universal translation software. When she tries using a borrowed English word (Doppelganger), it causes frustration when her software continually translates it into “double timer”. I can only guess whatever translaters they’re using are slightly more robust, have a degree of AI looking into the context a word is used.
Be… cause ‘qapla’ isn’t English, just because it has entered the English language (thanks to all those fat nerds who finally found a cosplay character they don’t have to change shape for :P ) with a defined meaning, doesn’t mean it stops being a Klingon word
Karaoke doesn’t stop being a Japanese word just because drunk English speakers know what it means (and how many actually know it means ’empty orchestra’?)
And how many people would balk at being asked to sing ‘a capella’ and yet would jump at the chance at going to a karaoke bar (with or without being drunk first :P)? Literally, it’s the same thing
Not only are they not the same thing, they’re mutually exclusive. A cappella is singing without any instrumental accompaniment. Karaoke is singing over a backing track. If you’re singing without a backing track, you’re not singing karaoke, and if you’re singing with a backing track, you’re not singing a cappella. If you’re doing one, by definition you aren’t doing the other.
So, what you are saying is, the literal meaning of ‘karaoke’ is false…?
The term ya’ll are looking for is a loan word*: “a word adopted from one language (the donor language) and incorporated into another language without translation.” Sometimes called transliteration, although more accurately that refers to the written aspect process.
Examples in the Wikipedia article include café, bazaar, and kindergarten. Yes, none of them were originally English, but having entered common usage as the most concise expression, they are now canonical English and included in English dictionaries.
* “Loans of multi-word phrases, such as the English use of the French term déjà vu, are known as adoptions, adaptations, or lexical borrowings.”
rmsgrey never said it stops being a Klingon word. It continuing to be a Klingon word doesn’t prevent it from being an English word. It’s called a loanword. “Karaoke” is also a loanword. So are “café” and “trek”. And “jungle” and “cheetah” and “pundit” and “chutney” and “loot”. In fact, a lot of words (perhaps even most words) in most languages were ultimately borrowed from other languages or inherited from parent languages. That doesn’t mean they don’t belong to those languages.
No, they implied that it was an English word, it’s not, it’s a Klingon word that has entered the English vocabulary
I guess a week of Archon-level working out has shown at least some gains for Sydney!
I wonder if Sydney is saying wait wait because she realizes that as long as they’re still at the Fracture, she might be able to getsome more Grakz for when she gets back to Earth?
*drinking coffee, sees Sydney’s Dashie Booty*
…
…
I’m going back to my bunk.
It occurs to me that a VI for a UT would also need a reasonable emulation of a sense of humor in order to “get” when NOT to translate certain things that context would indicate the listeners would find interesting and/or funny, as well as when the speakers “mean” it not to be.
Though things like “quapla'” may also not get translated because there is no equivalent transliteration in the context being used, while the context makes clear the meaning even if not the denotation.
We do similarly when determining whether to use loan-words or translations in modern translations in TV. Did the Arab say “Peace be on you” or “Salaam” when he greeted you? Humans in general can pick up, even if they’ve never heard “Salaam” before, that “Salaam” means the same thing as “Hello” or “Greetings” in context. While it’s an interesting factoid that it also means “Peace be on you” (or “I wish you peace,” or or any other similar transliteration, down to as simple as “Peace” being used as a greeting directly…unless – as I speak precisely no Arabic that isn’t loan words – there’s a different word for “peace” in other contexts), for understanding what is being communicated, “Salaam” is probably the best choice, followed by “Greetings” if you absolutely must avoid loan words.
Of course, “Salaam” also communicates something about his culture.
Plus, not translating everything and leaving loan words in place avoids making Japanese people sound like they name their kids the same way Amerindians name theirs. I guarantee that we’d think a little differently of Indian names if we didn’t translate them, and that we’d think differently of Japanese ones if we did.
If Sailor Moon’s civilian name was “Moon’s Rabbit,” and Sailor Mars was called “Fire’s Soul,” and Sailor Mercury was “Ocean’s Beauty,” let alone Tuxedo Mask’s name being “Thousand Leaves’ Protector” – and these were what they were called when NOT in costume – we’d think very differently of Japan.
Heck, Exalted uses this convention to make a lot of the names of characters far grander. “Thousand Leaves’ Protector” sounds like a perfectly serviceable name for an Exalt!
Good points
Perhaps the universal translator doesn’t translate words the ‘hearer’ already knows. Since these words are part of their vocabulary already, why translate it? But that would mean the translator is running on each individual person rather than the group, which doesn’t seem to be the case. Hrmmmm…..
That’s because qapla’ is now an English word, it’s another one that was stolen for English.
That or it’s treated as a proper noun.
“The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.”
–James D. Nicoll
It took a while but I just knew somebody was going to post this quote eventually – if it wasn’r me XD
Not that Dave’s necessarily going to listen to us, but can I get a head/hand count for who wants to see a Valentine’s Day Sex Drive with or about Sydney (and maybe even Frix?!)?
Even if he does add the weight back that she’s surely been working off over the last week! So many of us are here because of the geekiness. Geekiness is soooo sexy!
*Raises both hands*
I’m not biased…
Here here. We’ve gotten far too much focus on the, no offense, bimbo body type and not nearly enough on realistic body types.
Agreed, and not just for V-day but in the comic as a whole. I’d like to see Seneca back in the squad, and perhaps a situation that requires Digit to get out of the lab and accompany/empower Varia, or something along those lines. Just my 2p.
“Quapla!” is actually a war-cry, or a roar of victory, the closest equivalent is “success” or “BINGO!” but it really doesn’t have a direct translation, so the UT doesn’t even bother.
Great. Now I have a mental image of a bunch of Klingons drinking blood wine and shouting “Bingo!” stuck in my head.
“And Qapla was his name-oh”!
Technically, ‘You’ is plural.
Thee, Thou, and Thine are singular. You, your, and Yours are plural. English other than a few dialects has completely dropped the singular form for the plural form. ‘You All’ is actually redundant.
No, technically (and by technically, I mean “according to the O.E.D.”), ‘you’ is second person, singular or plural, and it has been for roughly 400 years.
Etymologically, bookworm is mostly correct.
Thee, thou and thine are the original direct second person singular.
Second person plural and honorary plural have merged, and y’all are using the honorary plural.
However, y’all is not redundant. It’s a marker to signify that it’s True plural.
You’re trying to have archaic and eat it too, as the man said.
It’s hard to claim that Shakespeare wrote his plays in the modern idiom.
Thee, thou and thine may have been the original (although they weren’t present in Anglo Saxon “old english”), but no one uses forsooth, quoth or ye that much any more either.
I’m sure the Oxford English Dictionary will be happy to know they’ve got the wrong definition of “You”. Thee shouldst bid these folk of their misprision** apace!
** Yeah, I know it’s not a great translation, but it’s a fantastic word.
After the regular training from Max, her high metabolism and everything she’s been doing for the past who knows how long of the comic, why would she be “nerd soft” any more?
Rainbowdash underoos to match the ringtone ehh… well in this scene, more like RainbowSplash
English is also one of the few Indo-European languages that dropped the T/S designation from its structure, so there’s even more context required to tell if the person is using “you” in a formal or informal manner.
And good riddance… Fewer faux pas for formal functions are far more favorable. We also lost the grammatical gender of German. English is pretty close to one simple meaning per word, except that we still have homophones. I like my language boring and explicit, thank you.
I’m perfectly okay with Sydney looking ‘entirely too fit’ as you put it.
And I’m sure this absolutely in no way shape or form was intentional to provide a little nerdgirl cheescake for your Sydney fans. XD
Let’s face it, Sydney couldn’t set foot on a spaceship and not “do a Ripley” at some point, despite her chronic modesty.
I’m probably not the first to say it, but ‘you’ is plural in classical usage, and for singular we should all be using ‘thou’.
This is mostly useful to annoy pedants who refuse to accept changing usage of words in English like ‘they’ for an individual of indeterminate gender.
Or even using ‘they’ when you do know their gender (because they are standing right beside you) :D
Looks like that Sydney-Frix ship isn’t going anywhere. What the Hell, DaveB?
Nah. I think it’s still going strong. Just a bit of sassy back and forth between the two.
Still think Sydney will end up sleeping in the doggy bed with her new warm and fuzzy pillow. There should be enough time for a nap during the flight. ^^
Heh heh heh. Butt.
How big is Cora’s ship? Anyone else getting spatially freaked out by the size of that pool?
It looks like it was nicked out of Leisure Suit Larry Love for Sail.
What was the name of that cruise liner again?
A big pool is one of the more logical things to find in a spaceship. Water has a multitude of fun uses, including snowball-mines for pursuing ships (Startide Rising), and just apply energy in the right way, you get hydrogen (excellent reaction mass) and oxygen (emergency life support). recreation for the crew (and if you connect the medical scanner to the water filtration unit, you can discreetly monitor your crews health, among more things)
The ship computer wants you to piss in the pool. For… medical purposes. XD
It gets better. Depending on where you live, there are regions where “Y’all” is singular and “All y’all” is it’s plural. Dialects can get pretty diverse.
Whereas, in my experience, “y’all” is plural and “all y’all” is an emphatic form or an indication that the plural explicitly applies to a larger or entire group, possibly including members not being directly addressed. For example, one might say to students, “Y’all need to be here early tomorrow.”, meaning that those specific students need to arrive early (for some extra instruction or tasks), or “All y’all need to be here early tomorrow.”, meaning that the entire class needs to arrive early and, by implication, that the students being addressed should spread the word.
As you say, it depends on the dialect.
It depends on the context
Sydney’s pretty good at her reflexive orb-grabbings.
I thought she was a skinny nerd with a high metabolism to go with her hyperactivity. I was certainly skinny as a rail at her age. Now I look like a snake that swallowed a ball…
And why is she wearing underpants when bathing, and after having done… stuff?
Because she has (repeatedly demonstrated) modesty issues?
People are allowed to have & hold personal modesty beliefs.
Overweight is not correct. If you want to defined her as ‘physically not defined’ as she never hit a gym in her life, I’d accept that. Honestly with all the training she’s had at Maxima’s hands I would be surprised if she didn’t have some definition.
As a certain female arachnid is wont to say – Look, Girl Abs.
Considering where she’s holding things and such. makes it look like they did it up the buttocks. *forest gump voice*
Though i’m more concerned why she is wearing undies in the bathing area, but not say a bra. And yet last scene she was covering her chest up too.
Its all very L shape blanket trope I guess
Sydney’s musculature could also be a hydration issue. Hugh Jackson’s ripped look during his fights as Wolverine were literally achieved by him being dehydrated for about a day, day and a half ahead of time. We already know Sydney doesn’t carry a canteen because of sloshing & weight issues, and while she has eaten at least one granola bar and four bowls of grakz (with space spice flakes!), there’s no indication just how much moisture was in that stuff. It does look like there was a drink in front of her in the observation crowd scene, but it looks like she maybe would’ve drunk about a cup, cup and a half of liquid from it…but if she’s been dehydrated for over half a day, she’d need at least three times that much to make up for lost time.
On top of that, when you get thirsty, your body can easily mistake it for hunger, and so you eat instead of drink, contributing to your dehydration issues…and spicy food can make you break out in a sweat…and fatty food burns water, meaning it dehydrates you even more…
You can lose about 5 pounds in a week on a ketogenic diet (though Sydney is a fish-dairy-eggs vegetarian, so not as likely), and you can lose an equal amount of fat (or more!) in pounds when starting a hard training regimen…and not actually lose weight according to the scale if you’re putting on pounds of muscle…and you can gain muscle definition (at the risk of passing out, etc) from dehydration & distraction.
I see her current physique as a combination of physical training and dehydration.
Hm the ring tone matches the undies. is that a thing now?
I can attest to the fact that the level of hyperactivity that she exhibits will get you well into you 30’s without needing to modify diet or intentionally exercise.
Looks right to me.
Love those bootie shorts underwear, they really accentuate Sydney’s finely crafted contours. I’m assuming the voting incentive of Sydney waiting her turn on the squat machine was canon.
The web comic Everyday Abnormal touched on translator issues. A woman who only speaks Japanese was given a translation spell, and in this comic she is in a fancy restaurant. She reads “filet mingon” and it’s auto-translated so she sees it as “cute fillet”.
Everyday Abnormal 311
Then she can’t even say “filet mignon” so the other guy, who doesn’t have a translation spell, says it for her.
Everyday Abnormal 314
I’m a fan of Everyday Abnormal and I hope that Zomburai starts updating it again.
And here I was assuming that she’d already shed those…
They may have been lowered at some point. We’ve been left to decide for ourselves what transpired, and heavy petting fits my personal assessment of Sydney and the situation. Other opinions are available.
“Lech” is hardly appropriate given the circumstances.
Firstly, I approve of fit Sydney. I think several weeks of basic training could burn off a mere 15lb overweight.
As regards the translation, I believe an advanced translator device will recognise when a user wants a word to retain its original form. ‘ “Flurblebox Zipoo” sounds funny’ would make no sense if it was translated. The phonics of the original words are the context Frix is trying to convey, not the meaning of the words.
And for you budding linguists reading the comments, all the forms of thee, thou, thine ETC are second person singular before language evolution. You used to be strictly plural, then became formal, then became the only 2nd person pronoun. In some germanic languages they stopped at the formal form, but not English, we just plowed straight through that sucker.