At 10/12/18 09:18 AM, Kieran wrote: The first level 60 from 2008 has arrived congrats @scipioafricanus

Thanks!

So it goes on! :D Congrats @scipioafricanus !

Thanks as well!

At 10/13/18 10:36 AM, scipioafricanus wrote:

At 10/12/18 09:18 AM, Kieran wrote: The first level 60 from 2008 has arrived congrats @scipioafricanus

Thanks!

Nice, that's quite an accomplishment. I guess I was the last user of 2001 to reach level 60, lol.

At 10/13/18 04:52 PM, Haggard wrote:

At 10/13/18 10:36 AM, scipioafricanus wrote:

At 10/12/18 09:18 AM, Kieran wrote: The first level 60 from 2008 has arrived congrats @scipioafricanus

Thanks!

Nice, that's quite an accomplishment. I guess I was the last user of 2001 to reach level 60, lol.

One day someone who signed up in 2018 will be level 60 just imagine that

At 10/13/18 08:42 AM, Cyberdevil wrote: Most definitely! I believe Norwegians understand Swedish the same, most of the ones I've spoken to understand me better than I understand them, but Danish is a bit more different, and Finnish is something else entirely, almost more like Japanese. Iceland I'm not sure about.

I think norwegian and danish share the same vocabulary, but the pronounciation is different. Finnish is a completly different family of languages, I think it's related to hungarian (however that should be possible, heh), and so far the only language I know that makes use of "ää" in it's words.

Icelandic should be the most "pure" language, after all it's still very close to old norse. So, both our native languages derived from that. :D

What's killing me right now is the genders. Of course I am used to the concept of grammatical genders, as german has three genders as well (and it's not possible to use the male gender for female words either, as it is in norwegian). But it's quite difficult to learn DIFFERENT genders for things. In norwegian: en båt, et tog. In German: Das Boot, der Zug. It's just the other way round...

Is that... gender-based? Not: one boat, one train?
Or turned around: båten or tåget (Swedish, but I suppose it's very smiliar), which would be the boat, and the train. In German das is the, and ein one, right?

Yes, I got confused again. Of course "Das Boot" means "båten" and "Der Zug" means "toget". But I still have to use the male preposition "en" for one and the neuter preposition "et" for the other word. In german, I would have to use either "ein" for male and neuter, "eine" for female words. That's why I always tend to use "en" when learning a new word, because it's so imprinted in my brain to use the same preposition for male and neuter words, heh.

Seems very similar in this particular example... oh, yeah, it's either -et or -en, and when after the word it's sometimes singular and sometimes plural, without any explainable pattern there-to... hmm... yeah that's bound to be difficult to learn if you didn't grow up with it. Never thought about this before.

The worst part of learning any language are those little inconsistencies. For example, an "and" is a duck, but "ducks" is "ender". "Tre" is "Tree" (very straight forward), but "trees" is "trær". What the...?

English has some similar anomalies though. Seems you just learn by listening/speaking.

Yeah once I'm done with Duolingo (which still will take a while) I'm planning on picking up some childrens books, or maybe some kids movies. Gotta start with simple language first. ;)

But at least I slowly get the hang of the definites and plurals. Avis - Newspaper. Avisen/Avisa - The Newspaper. Aviser - Newspapers. Avisene - The newspapers. Even though sometimes you get the feeling they are trying to make fun of you: Tallerkenen. Really?? :P

Maybe you should've gone for Swedish instead. XD

Hm, since I do plan to visit sweden one day... ;)

Damn, reading what I've written back then... I really should stop typing out posts on my phone. It has this annoying bug with the word suggestion list. I think I'll try to explain it this way:

Olymlics? Is that even a word?

I really don't know where that came from...

Understandably frustrating! One of the reasons I have suggestions turned off is, though not this reason in particular, just their general unpredictability. Probably does make me a slower typer though; prone to prefer stationary devices over mobile. So much easier with a regular keyboard.

Yes, I think I will switch the keyboard app sooner or later, because I feel it's getting worse.

Though Gmail have apparently started with a similar thing even for stationary. Still getting used to it, wondering if it's easier or not that way...

I hate word suggestions when typing on a regular keyboard. I always turn it off in Word for example. It's too irritating. The only time it comes in handy is when programming.

Do you plan your writing further than a few words in advance, and prepare for such phrases or are these suggestions now playing on your subconscious, and what you're used to writing rather than what you could've written without a predetermined choice? Complications. XD

Who would have thought the simple feature of word suggestions would lead to a deeply philosophical debate? :D

If only it wasn't so far away. :O

But with a plane: doesn't take more than a day! :D

Or you could combine it with a stop over in Singapore... ;)

That being Finland or Norway? In Sweden unfortunately not true. :) Up North we sometimes can't call anywhere at all. Coverage fluctuates. But I don't mind, less coverage: more freedom! No arrays of wireless rays reaching you all times of the day!

Never been to Finland. ;)
The only time I didn't have any reception at all was when we where on a long hike and where some kilometers away from civilization. The hiking trail was nothing more than a few cm wide dirt track, sometimes hardly noticeable. It took us 5 hours, but we where also busy with geocaching while hiking. ;)

At 10/13/18 05:32 PM, Haggard wrote:

At 10/13/18 08:42 AM, Cyberdevil wrote: Most definitely! I believe Norwegians understand Swedish the same, most of the ones I've spoken to understand me better than I understand them, but Danish is a bit more different, and Finnish is something else entirely, almost more like Japanese. Iceland I'm not sure about.

I think norwegian and danish share the same vocabulary, but the pronounciation is different. Finnish is a completly different family of languages, I think it's related to hungarian (however that should be possible, heh), and so far the only language I know that makes use of "ää" in it's words.

Written Danish and Norwegian is definitely very similar, but it's not the exact same. Definitely far more similar to eachother than Swedish written language, but I know that a lot of Norwegians have an easier time understanding Swedish spoken language compared to Danish due to how it's pronounced.
If you go to the south of Norway you'll find dialects that have a lot more in common with Danish than you'll find in the rest of the country.

I'm now in the top 1,000 in experience, which I don't know if that's an achievement or not because I believe I've been ranked better than that before....

I also crossed 90,000 medal points. My main goal is 100,000 medal points so I still have many hours of work to push back before I get there.

At 10/15/18 11:51 AM, Fro wrote: I'm now in the top 1,000 in experience, which I don't know if that's an achievement or not because I believe I've been ranked better than that before....

I also crossed 90,000 medal points. My main goal is 100,000 medal points so I still have many hours of work to push back before I get there.

Congrats on the under 1000 rank

At 10/17/18 10:51 AM, NekoMika wrote: Exp. Rank: #300

Congrats on 3Hunna!

At 10/13/18 09:08 AM, Thereviewtrickster wrote: Yes, I'll also sometimes give a passing score if I think it should pass, and in the general area of where I think it should be, and then when I have more time, and I know i've guaranteed myself a save, I'll come back and give it a more detailed analysis.

That is not a bad way to do it. It certainly takes advantage of the new update's ability to alter your score. Plus, watching a submission more than once can help determine its score.

14 year anniversary on NewGrounds.

At 10/20/18 02:52 AM, DoctorStrongbad wrote: 14 year anniversary on NewGrounds.

Congrats Doc!

just leveled up to town watch with 102 blams and protects!

Finally level 49
Bout damn time I got my spooky Halloween scythe. I'd wanted the scythe level icon since before the last redesign but was obviously nowhere close to getting it by the time it happened. Im content with this but still want to trudge forward to level 60.

At 10/21/18 12:20 AM, Atlas wrote:

At 10/20/18 02:52 AM, DoctorStrongbad wrote: 14 year anniversary on NewGrounds.

Congrats Doc!

Thanks. It took a lot of patience to stick around that long. My account is old enough to have an account.

210,000 Total again...
5,000 Art Reviews again...
22,000 Reviews again...
211,000 Total! Oh wait that was again too...
114,000 B/P!
28,000 Posts!

At 10/13/18 05:32 PM, Haggard wrote: I think norwegian and danish share the same vocabulary, but the pronounciation is different. Finnish is a completly different family of languages, I think it's related to hungarian (however that should be possible, heh), and so far the only language I know that makes use of "ää" in it's words.

Icelandic should be the most "pure" language, after all it's still very close to old norse. So, both our native languages derived from that. :D

That's good to know. :) I translate between Swedish/Norwegian/Danish/Finnish in our company webshop, and Finnish is definitely something totally different. Just can't understand a word. Seems almost harder to understand in writing than in speech...

Btw maybe I should elaborate here: I use translation tools, since nobody on the company speaks Finnish, but we still don't want to exclude them from lingo selection. Plus we don't have a huge Finnish customer base so hopefully they don't mind the probable translation errs there.

Yes, I got confused again. Of course "Das Boot" means "båten" and "Der Zug" means "toget". But I still have to use the male preposition "en" for one and the neuter preposition "et" for the other word. In german, I would have to use either "ein" for male and neuter, "eine" for female words. That's why I always tend to use "en" when learning a new word, because it's so imprinted in my brain to use the same preposition for male and neuter words, heh.

Aha. Good to know how that works with German. On that note I am bad at grammar, terminology-wise, though once you know the language it all works alright.

The worst part of learning any language are those little inconsistencies. For example, an "and" is a duck, but "ducks" is "ender". "Tre" is "Tree" (very straight forward), but "trees" is "trær". What the...?

Ah that's a bit different from Swedish after all. :) It's a bit like tooth/teeth, die/dice, Half/halves innit? Well, not really the same but... anomilies you just need to learn to learn.

Yeah once I'm done with Duolingo (which still will take a while) I'm planning on picking up some childrens books, or maybe some kids movies. Gotta start with simple language first. ;)

XD Sounds like fun though! Almost like a therapeutic form of learning. For sure.

Hm, since I do plan to visit sweden one day... ;)

Once you've learned Norwegian I guess it won't be such a big step. :) How many languages do you know so far btw?

I really don't know where that came from...

Auto-correctional mysteries!

Yes, I think I will switch the keyboard app sooner or later, because I feel it's getting worse.

I hate word suggestions when typing on a regular keyboard. I always turn it off in Word for example. It's too irritating. The only time it comes in handy is when programming.

Mmm yeah, Word does have those too huh... always useful with a little spell-checking retrospectively, but otherwise: agree.

Who would have thought the simple feature of word suggestions would lead to a deeply philosophical debate? :D

Alas, all things do. :) And the simplest things too, like: what's after the universe?

Or you could combine it with a stop over in Singapore... ;)

Hey that's another place I really want to visit some day! :D I think my toplist right now is: Dubai (UAE), Bhutan, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Russia. All (somewhat) difficult and/or expensive places to get to.

Never been to Finland. ;)
The only time I didn't have any reception at all was when we where on a long hike and where some kilometers away from civilization. The hiking trail was nothing more than a few cm wide dirt track, sometimes hardly noticeable. It took us 5 hours, but we where also busy with geocaching while hiking. ;)

Well maybe they have the same problems as us, then. :) Part of me hopes so... ah, connection problems with the geocaching then? Maybe they do have places without reception there too then, just not along the trails most people wander.

At 10/15/18 08:27 AM, Soapbubble wrote: Written Danish and Norwegian is definitely very similar, but it's not the exact same. Definitely far more similar to eachother than Swedish written language, but I know that a lot of Norwegians have an easier time understanding Swedish spoken language compared to Danish due to how it's pronounced.

That is true! Very easy to translate between the two when written. A lot of words are identical.

If you go to the south of Norway you'll find dialects that have a lot more in common with Danish than you'll find in the rest of the country.

Interesting to know. Speaking of, there are dialects in the North of Sweden very close to Finnish as well. Guess we were all just one big region of scattered origins at one point in time huh.

At 10/20/18 02:52 AM, DoctorStrongbad wrote: 14 year anniversary on NewGrounds.

Happy NG Birthday man! :D

At 10/15/18 11:51 AM, Fro wrote: I'm now in the top 1,000 in experience, which I don't know if that's an achievement or not because I believe I've been ranked better than that before....

The more you fall the more you can rise again; achieve each time. :) Well, if it wasn't all too recently: Congrats! It's cool to be in the top three digits.

I also crossed 90,000 medal points. My main goal is 100,000 medal points so I still have many hours of work to push back before I get there.

Congrats on that too!

At 10/17/18 10:51 AM, NekoMika wrote: Exp. Rank: #300

Congrats!

At 10/25/18 01:26 AM, Viper wrote: Finally level 49
Bout damn time I got my spooky Halloween scythe. I'd wanted the scythe level icon since before the last redesign but was obviously nowhere close to getting it by the time it happened. Im content with this but still want to trudge forward to level 60.

Congrats on that! Pretty cool indeed. The Halloween Level 60 really doesn't compare to the original one... what's this hunched over hooded dude to a beast like that demonic creature the ultimate level seems to normally portray!

At 10/21/18 09:17 AM, siddikinz wrote: just leveled up to town watch with 102 blams and protects!

Congrats!

At 10/28/18 03:51 PM, Cyberdevil wrote:

At 10/20/18 02:52 AM, DoctorStrongbad wrote: 14 year anniversary on NewGrounds.

Happy NG Birthday man! :D

Thanks. I look forward to it every year.

At 10/28/18 03:49 PM, Cyberdevil wrote: I translate between Swedish/Norwegian/Danish/Finnish in our company webshop, and Finnish is definitely something totally different. Just can't understand a word. Seems almost harder to understand in writing than in speech...

Yes, I tried reading some lyrics in finnish, but found no words that I would recognize. And then you listen to the song while looking at the lyrics and you are like "Wait, are those lyrics even correct? Seems like they say something completly different?"

Btw maybe I should elaborate here: I use translation tools, since nobody on the company speaks Finnish, but we still don't want to exclude them from lingo selection. Plus we don't have a huge Finnish customer base so hopefully they don't mind the probable translation errs there.

Hm, reminds me of german sections in manuals. Sometimes the text doesn't make any sense at all. :P

Aha. Good to know how that works with German. On that note I am bad at grammar, terminology-wise, though once you know the language it all works alright.

Same. That's why I would be a very bad partner for tandem learning. "Why do I have to use this specific word and not that one?" - "Umm... Because otherwise it would be wrong because... Umm...." ;)

Ah that's a bit different from Swedish after all. :) It's a bit like tooth/teeth, die/dice, Half/halves innit? Well, not really the same but... anomilies you just need to learn to learn.

And then there's the words that already are plural (scissors) or words that don't have a plural (information) or words where singular and plural are the same (cattle). There's no way of knowing, you have to memorize that and then, hopefully, you can slowly develop a feeling for the language. At some point you simply know something sounds off.

Yeah once I'm done with Duolingo (which still will take a while) I'm planning on picking up some childrens books, or maybe some kids movies. Gotta start with simple language first. ;)

XD Sounds like fun though! Almost like a therapeutic form of learning. For sure.

Hm, since I do plan to visit sweden one day... ;)

Once you've learned Norwegian I guess it won't be such a big step. :) How many languages do you know so far btw?

Only two, really. I had french for a few years in school, but never got the hang of it. At least I still can pronounce it properly, but I have no idea what I am saying. XD

Auto-correctional mysteries!

*cue X-Files theme*

Alas, all things do. :) And the simplest things too, like: what's after the universe?

That's something not even Star Treck dared to explore.

Or you could combine it with a stop over in Singapore... ;)

Hey that's another place I really want to visit some day! :D I think my toplist right now is: Dubai (UAE), Bhutan, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Russia. All (somewhat) difficult and/or expensive places to get to.

I thought of going to russia for a day trip, but it's almost impossible to get into the country. Like, you need to have someone inviting you, you need to prove you have a place to stay, you need to prove you inted to leave the country again, and so on.
My top list is: the rest of Scandinavia (already have been to Denmark, Norway, Faroe Islands, Iceland) and Canada. Also quite expensive to get to or to stay at. Maybe next time I visit a scandinavian country I should sell some booze to the locals to finance my trip, lol.

Well maybe they have the same problems as us, then. :) Part of me hopes so... ah, connection problems with the geocaching then? Maybe they do have places without reception there too then, just not along the trails most people wander.

Actually, as long as you are not in a very dense forest, or a city with many tall buildings, you don't have any problems getting a GPS signal. They are sattelite based, after all.

Interesting to know. Speaking of, there are dialects in the North of Sweden very close to Finnish as well. Guess we were all just one big region of scattered origins at one point in time huh.

Don't forget the Sami. Their language is completly unrelated to norwegian, swedish or finnish.
About dialects, I am always amazed how differently we pronouce words in different regions, even though they are written the same. :D

At 10/29/18 02:58 AM, Haggard wrote: Yes, I tried reading some lyrics in finnish, but found no words that I would recognize. And then you listen to the song while looking at the lyrics and you are like "Wait, are those lyrics even correct? Seems like they say something completly different?"

It does. XD You wonder why they decided to make the written version so complex... though you could relate that to Asian languages I suppose, with their symbols and syllabries. From an outside perspective the written and spoken language just doesn't seem to match. I assume it's just so different to relate to that's how it seems.

Hm, reminds me of german sections in manuals. Sometimes the text doesn't make any sense at all. :P

Haha, so it happens for you too. You'd think manuals were a bit more professional though! I guess everyone does this to some extent... must happen more with larger languages though. I can't remember ever seeing a Swedish manual written the wrong way. Probably not many other countries making those.

Same. That's why I would be a very bad partner for tandem learning. "Why do I have to use this specific word and not that one?" - "Umm... Because otherwise it would be wrong because... Umm...." ;)

Exactly. XD

And then there's the words that already are plural (scissors) or words that don't have a plural (information) or words where singular and plural are the same (cattle). There's no way of knowing, you have to memorize that and then, hopefully, you can slowly develop a feeling for the language. At some point you simply know something sounds off.

Yeah, pants and sheep and everything. Once you know it it's just there.

Only two, really. I had french for a few years in school, but never got the hang of it. At least I still can pronounce it properly, but I have no idea what I am saying. XD

You can speak but not understand? XD That's new. I speak a bit of Spanish myself, so French is understandable too. Pretty useful how certain languages bridge into others, so if you just learn a select few you'll understand a lot of them (Swedish, Norwegian, Danish/Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, etc/English and eh... hmm, seems that one stands on its own)

*cue X-Files theme*

:D

That's something not even Star Treck dared to explore.

Maybe they've already been outside the universe though. They just didn't see the border.

I thought of going to russia for a day trip, but it's almost impossible to get into the country. Like, you need to have someone inviting you, you need to prove you have a place to stay, you need to prove you inted to leave the country again, and so on.

Ah, didn't know it was that difficult. A buddy took a trip there recently, but come to think of it he probably did have a friend living there already. I do know a guy in Siberia via NG though so...

Btw it seems like a service like Airbnb might help with that. If your host can vouch for you.

My top list is: the rest of Scandinavia (already have been to Denmark, Norway, Faroe Islands, Iceland) and Canada. Also quite expensive to get to or to stay at. Maybe next time I visit a scandinavian country I should sell some booze to the locals to finance my trip, lol.

Ah not many Scandinavian countries remain, then! Canada because... similar ecosystem? Nice people? I'd like to go there too. Could combine with a US visit. Could maybe combine that with an NG meetup! it's a long distance after all.

Actually, as long as you are not in a very dense forest, or a city with many tall buildings, you don't have any problems getting a GPS signal. They are sattelite based, after all.

Ah, good point. On that note it'd be pretty cool to own a real satellite phone. Coverage virtually everywhere.

Don't forget the Sami. Their language is completly unrelated to norwegian, swedish or finnish.
About dialects, I am always amazed how differently we pronouce words in different regions, even though they are written the same. :D

True, them too, their language almost reminds me of indigenous South America. There's a somewhat famous Swedish Sami singer adopted from Peru, and he looks just like them; seems to fit right in. They have a darker skin tone than we do too. Interesting distant bridges in culture.

How about dialects in Germany, same thing there? Do you have any minority languages within the country exclusive to the country?

4k forum posts! Took me long enough. Also my B/P bonus went up from 12% to 14%, so that's helpful

At 10/29/18 10:38 PM, YellowisCOOL wrote: 4k forum posts! Took me long enough. Also my B/P bonus went up from 12% to 14%, so that's helpful

Congrats on getting to 4K posts. Also, your B/P bonus going up.

At 10/29/18 10:38 PM, YellowisCOOL wrote: 4k forum posts! Took me long enough. Also my B/P bonus went up from 12% to 14%, so that's helpful

Congrats!

This should be my 11,000 post. I feel like I've done this one before too or I've been awfully close to it before.

At 10/31/18 10:16 AM, Fro wrote: This should be my 11,000 post. I feel like I've done this one before too or I've been awfully close to it before.

Congrats. You got it right on the money. Don't post for a long time and enjoy that nice round number.

2800 saves and 3332 B/P and @doctorstrongbad happy belated anniversary

At 10/29/18 06:47 AM, Cyberdevil wrote: From an outside perspective the written and spoken language just doesn't seem to match. I assume it's just so different to relate to that's how it seems.

Yeah, that's what I like about german, actually. There are very specific rules as to how words are pronounced and similar words are pronounced in a similar way. Exceptions from those rules are almost always loan words.

Only two, really. I had french for a few years in school, but never got the hang of it. At least I still can pronounce it properly, but I have no idea what I am saying. XD

You can speak but not understand? XD That's new.

No, I can READ it in the correct way, without understanding it. ;)

Maybe they've already been outside the universe though. They just didn't see the border.

They have been to the border of the universe in TNG and in one episode Dr. Crusher was trapped in some sort of parallel universe that became smaller and smaller until it was too small to even hold the Enterprise.

In another episode, some entity from outside our universe kept the Enterprise hostage and even killed a crew member (do I have to mention that it was a black guy who got killed...?)

Oh, and in one DS9 episode they discovered a smaller universe that kept expanding, so they "put it back where they found it". I didn't really understand it, to be honest. Of course that universe is never mentioned again.

Ah, didn't know it was that difficult. A buddy took a trip there recently, but come to think of it he probably did have a friend living there already. I do know a guy in Siberia via NG though so...

Btw it seems like a service like Airbnb might help with that. If your host can vouch for you.

A travel agency can take care of that invitation, too.

Ah not many Scandinavian countries remain, then! Canada because... similar ecosystem? Nice people? I'd like to go there too. Could combine with a US visit. Could maybe combine that with an NG meetup! it's a long distance after all.

My wife has been there as an exchange student for 6 months and she would like to get back there some day. We even made up some very early plans where we want to go and stuff like that. But it's very expensive to even get there, heh.

Ah, good point. On that note it'd be pretty cool to own a real satellite phone. Coverage virtually everywhere.

But very expensive to make a call, I think.

How about dialects in Germany, same thing there? Do you have any minority languages within the country exclusive to the country?

No. We have a danish minority in the north, though. The party representing them isn't subject of the "5% rule" other parties need in elections to get seats in the parliament. They always get seats in the Landtag.

At 10/31/18 04:17 PM, Kieran wrote: 2800 saves and 3332 B/P

Congrats on on your 2800 saves and 3332 B/P. You have been on a roll lately.

and @doctorstrongbad happy belated anniversary

Thanks. I do so much everyday on NewGrounds, and I always look forward to my anniversary.