Chit-Chat: What's On Your Mind Today?

[Yeah No]

11 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

I dunno.  Embers sounds like something that will soon be extinguished, sort of negative connotation for me. 

I had the exact same thought.

11 hours ago, Cementhead said:

I just googled this out of curiosity and embers was apparently chosen because the word signifies potential that is just waiting to be unleashed. 🤷‍♀️

I was a Brownie as a young girl here, in Canada, and I am 51 years old now and have never once in my life heard anyone be called a "brownie" as a slur, in fact, I didn't even know that was a thing until the big announcement that the name was changed because it was derogatory.  Not saying it isn't a thing, but it was news to me .

Yeah, that sounds like a stretch. If someone asked me to use the word "embers" in a sentence I would say, "We watched the fire burn to its last dying embers".

The word is used to denote the end of a fire, not the potential of a fire. 

Even Google AI agrees:

"Embers are the smoldering remains of a fire, or glowing fragments of wood or coal that continue to burn after a fire has died down. Embers can also be used as a metaphor for fading emotions, memories, or ideas. "

You'd think someone would have checked with the dictionary!

[Yeah No]

This talk about Girl Scout cookies made me think of the year another scout and I decided that we were going to get the award for selling the most cookies in our troop. We had a certain amount of time to sell them with the goal of winning some kind of prize and a badge, although I forget now what the prize was. In those days we just knocked on people's doors. We had no adult supervision (those were the days).

Well of course we were determined to win and became obsessed with making sales. There were a lot of apartment buildings in our neighborhood so we actually sold a ton of cookies. I'll never forget the troop leaders' faces when they tallied up our total. We were afraid we came up short but found out we outsold the runners up by a staggering amount! I remember thinking to myself, "What did we just knock ourselves out for?" LOL

Let's just say that experience was a lesson that sales was not going to be a career goal for me, lol.

[Ancaster]

6 hours ago, Yeah No said:

This talk about Girl Scout cookies made me think of the year another scout and I decided that we were going to get the award for selling the most cookies in our troop. We had a certain amount of time to sell them with the goal of winning some kind of prize and a badge, although I forget now what the prize was. In those days we just knocked on people's doors. We had no adult supervision (those were the days).

 

 I remember when I was a little girl I used to go door to door with a friend and collect cash for various charities!  The same friend and I used to sometimes walk home from school to save the tuppence (two old pennies) bus fare to buy sweeties (candy).

[shapeshifter]

10 hours ago, Yeah No said:

This talk about Girl Scout cookies made me think of the year another scout and I decided that we were going to get the award for selling the most cookies in our troop. We had a certain amount of time to sell them with the goal of winning some kind of prize and a badge, although I forget now what the prize was. In those days we just knocked on people's doors. We had no adult supervision (those were the days).

Well of course we were determined to win and became obsessed with making sales. There were a lot of apartment buildings in our neighborhood so we actually sold a ton of cookies. I'll never forget the troop leaders' faces when they tallied up our total. We were afraid we came up short but found out we outsold the runners up by a staggering amount! I remember thinking to myself, "What did we just knock ourselves out for?" LOL…

10 hours ago, Yeah No said:

…Let's just say that experience was a lesson that sales was not going to be a career goal for me, lol.

Or maybe you "missed your calling"? LOL
If your Girl Scout cookie selling success had morphed into door-to-door community organizing, maybe you'd have become a Congressperson!
And now I'm thinking about the sugar and other additives, and thinking: Nah…

 

[GHScorpiosRule]

I'm two for two in the nimrodic maroon category.

For years, it's miffed me that when I buy blu ray versions of television shows, that when I pop it into my blu rayer, the picture is full screen-box-with two giant ass black bars running down the left and right side of my big teevee.

Well, yesterday, when I started on a rewatch of another series-on Netflix, same issue. So I started playing around with the teevee's remote and found a setting for "zoom" so that the picture would fit my screen! It worked! So what if some of the closed captioning is cut off or the thumbs up/down whatever is cut off. The picture FILLS my screen and doesn't look stretched out like when I try to increase the resolution on desktop wallpaper!

I'll see if this affects the other blurays or movies that normally have widescreen, and if it does, I'll just switch from my custom to the standard 16:9  or whatever setting.

But, I am a nimrodic maroon.

[SoMuchTV]

1 hour ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

I'm two for two in the nimrodic maroon category.

For years, it's miffed me that when I buy blu ray versions of television shows, that when I pop it into my blu rayer, the picture is full screen-box-with two giant ass black bars running down the left and right side of my big teevee.

Well, yesterday, when I started on a rewatch of another series-on Netflix, same issue. So I started playing around with the teevee's remote and found a setting for "zoom" so that the picture would fit my screen! It worked! So what if some of the closed captioning is cut off or the thumbs up/down whatever is cut off. The picture FILLS my screen and doesn't look stretched out like when I try to increase the resolution on desktop wallpaper!

I'll see if this affects the other blurays or movies that normally have widescreen, and if it does, I'll just switch from my custom to the standard 16:9  or whatever setting.

But, I am a nimrodic maroon.

Haha, we would definitely not get along watching a show together!  If I'm watching something, I want to see it in the size and shape it was originally intended to be seen in!  If that means bars on the sides of something that was made for old-school TVs, or bars on the top and bottom of something that was originally a wide-screen movie, so be it.  (I suppose it helps that the frame around my TV is black, so those bars pretty much fade into the background.) And if you cut off part of my closed captioning I will hunt you down!

Glad you found something that works for you, though!  Seems like every tv/remote handles the aspect ratio options slightly differently so it's good you found a setting that does what you want.

[GHScorpiosRule]

1 minute ago, SoMuchTV said:

Haha, we would definitely not get along watching a show together!  If I'm watching something, I want to see it in the size and shape it was originally intended to be seen in! 

That's just it-in its original airing and regular dvds, the picture filled out the entire screen and not minimized to that box!

And my teevee allows for me to decrease the size of the closed captioning, so I could see it all, but enjoying the picture is of more import to meeeeee!!!!

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

nimrodic maroon category

What is the "nimrodic maroon category"?

[GHScorpiosRule]

20 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

What is the "nimrodic maroon category"?

idiot.

nimrod

Maroon* also idiot

*Bugs Bunny coined the phrase for Elmer, Yosemite and his host of adversaries.

[StatisticalOutlier]

14 hours ago, Yeah No said:

The word is used to denote the end of a fire, not the potential of a fire. 

Even Google AI agrees:

Well, far be it from me to disagree with the almighty Google AI, but I was watching coverage of the California fires and embers are/were (I'm back on a news blackout and don't know if they're still burning) considered dangerous because the wind picks up embers and deposits them in other places that can be pretty far away, starting new fires.

[Mindthinkr]

I’m well aged out of scouting by 50 years (or so), but I could still fit into my uniform in my 50’s. Sadly that box was lost when I moved, otherwise I’d be using it for a Halloween costume. 

[Bastet]

6 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

If I'm watching something, I want to see it in the size and shape it was originally intended to be seen in!

Same here.

6 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

That's just it-in its original airing and regular dvds, the picture filled out the entire screen and not minimized to that box!

The box is preserving the original aspect ratio.  To make it fill the screen, that ratio has to be changed.  Some people don't even notice it, some don't care, but for some it's distracting.  I'm in that last camp.

[tearknee]

Yeah - if the local store had a dime for every person who takes their TV or player back and complains about the 'black bars' on the screen...

[annzeepark914]

I was watching Rachel Maddow when she announced a plane had crashed into the Potomac. I put on local news & learned an Army helicopter and an American Airlines commuter jet (from Wichita) collided. They're showing a video from the Kennedy Center showing the crash. Awful. 

[EtheltoTillie]

9 hours ago, Mindthinkr said:

I’m well aged out of scouting by 50 years (or so), but I could still fit into my uniform in my 50’s. Sadly that box was lost when I moved, otherwise I’d be using it for a Halloween costume. 

That’s something else. My uniform was a child’s size.  I can’t even fit into the sash. 

[Yeah No]

11 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

Well, far be it from me to disagree with the almighty Google AI, but I was watching coverage of the California fires and embers are/were (I'm back on a news blackout and don't know if they're still burning) considered dangerous because the wind picks up embers and deposits them in other places that can be pretty far away, starting new fires.

It's not just Google AI, it's pretty much any dictionary:

Ember Definition & Meaning

Merriam-Webster

https://www.merriam-webster.com › dictionary › ember

5 days ago — 1. a glowing fragment (as of coal) from a fire; especially : one smoldering in ashes. 2. embers plural : the smoldering remains of a fire.

Cambridge Dictionary

https://dictionary.cambridge.org › dictionary › ember

EMBER meaning: 1. a piece of wood or coal, etc. that continues to burn after a fire has no more flames.

 

Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more

plural noun: embers

a small piece of burning or glowing coal or wood in a dying fire.

"the dying embers in the fireplace"

 

Dictionary.com

https://www.dictionary.com › browse › ember

4 days ago — noun · a small live piece of coal, wood, etc., as in a dying fire. · embers, the smoldering remains of a fire.

🤷‍♀️

[Yeah No]

1 hour ago, EtheltoTillie said:

That’s something else. My uniform was a child’s size.  I can’t even fit into the sash. 

I doubt I could have fit into mine even in my 20's when I was all of 100 lbs. When I was 10 or 11 I might have weighed 85 lbs. if that. But I'm short.

13 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

idiot.

nimrod

Maroon* also idiot

*Bugs Bunny coined the phrase for Elmer, Yosemite and his host of adversaries.

I always thought Bugs was mispronouncing the word "moron" when he said "what a maroon". Like he did with "ignoramus", which he pronounced "Ignoranimus".

[Ancaster]

23 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

Well, far be it from me to disagree with the almighty Google AI, but I was watching coverage of the California fires and embers are/were (I'm back on a news blackout and don't know if they're still burning) considered dangerous because the wind picks up embers and deposits them in other places that can be pretty far away, starting new fires.

And people who keep a stove or fire burning constantly at all times will sift out the ashes and use the remaining embers to start the new fire - so little Brownie Embers can be said to be the start of fully fledged fire-breathing, bad ass Girl Scouts.

Edited 6 hours ago by Ancaster

[StatisticalOutlier]

13 hours ago, annzeepark914 said:

I was watching Rachel Maddow when she announced a plane had crashed into the Potomac. I put on local news & learned an Army helicopter and an American Airlines commuter jet (from Wichita) collided. They're showing a video from the Kennedy Center showing the crash. Awful. 

It is indeed awful.  But aren't there other places people can discuss the news?  And actually, this isn't even discussing it--it's just reporting it, except for the "Awful" at the end.

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

But aren't there other places people can discuss the news? 

Not sure. Wondering…

[Dimity]

1 hour ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

It is indeed awful.  But aren't there other places people can discuss the news?  And actually, this isn't even discussing it--it's just reporting it, except for the "Awful" at the end.

As the mod note says "there's little that's off-topic when it comes to Chit Chat".

[SoMuchTV]

1 hour ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

It is indeed awful.  But aren't there other places people can discuss the news?  And actually, this isn't even discussing it--it's just reporting it, except for the "Awful" at the end.

I would give that post a pass (speaking for myself, obviously).  Presumably the poster was reading through the chit-chat forum, when that came on the news, and they had a reaction.  Something like being in a conversation with a friend when you see a breaking newsflash on the tv.  It's not like it started a lengthy diversion.

[Dimity]

That news was so shocking I'd have been amazed if it had not been mentioned here. 

[annzeepark914]

2 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

It is indeed awful.  But aren't there other places people can discuss the news?  And actually, this isn't even discussing it--it's just reporting it, except for the "Awful" at the end.

Sorry if my mentioning this crash (in Chit Chat) bothered you. It happened near me, I was worried about skaters who had just been in Wichita competing, and I guess I just didn't think about which thread was appropriate. And yeah...it was and is awful. 

[Anela]

3 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

It is indeed awful.  But aren't there other places people can discuss the news?  And actually, this isn't even discussing it--it's just reporting it, except for the "Awful" at the end.

I didn’t know, until she mentioned it.  

[PRgal]

27 minutes ago, Anela said:

I didn’t know, until she mentioned it.  

That's the thing.  We usually don't know until someone says something.  I've seen social media posts with "trigger warnings" and such when someone wants to, say, talk about pregnancy loss.