TheMightyEthan Posted November 4, 2011 Report Share Posted November 4, 2011 I might be the only person within 300 miles who says "soda" instead of "pop". 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuchikoma Posted November 4, 2011 Report Share Posted November 4, 2011 I'm not talking about the scale or population. I just know that from the places I've been to in Somerset you have to drive upwards of half an hour to reach supermarkets or cinemas, etc. That sounds pretty sparse, but not extremely large when put in perspective. In places like Edmonton, you could easily drive for a half hour to reach a place, or more than that to get out of the city, but things like churches, grocery stores, gas stations, and liquor stores are found nearby throughout the city in neighborhoods. Sometimes I go there to shop and it's about an hour and a half of driving past canola and wheat fields at 120kph, and about another half hour of navigating city at 50kph to reach my destination. (It's a metropolis, but while the city has almost 5x the population density of Somerset (and only 1/5 of London!) the greater metropolitan area has about 1/10th as much as the core.) Looking at world population density, I think of all of Great Britain as pretty populated, considering that much of the American midwest, and most of Canada is either wilderness, or a few minimal little outpost towns for survival every few hundred km. It's truly mind boggling how much unused space most large nations like Russia, China, Australia, or the Americas have - it's all about that prime land near the coast. In my province, there's arguably only 4-5 significant cities in over 660,000 sq km of land. (I'd say practically though, 2-3 worth seeing.) I looked it up and Kansas and VT are about the same. Believe me, I know Vermonters like that (and they aren't crazy - guns are just their thing.) Hell the best man at my wedding has an a regular armory in his bedroom closet. It's so different than Massachusetts where people wet themselves at the idea of someone having a shotgun to hunt with. While Canada has restrictive gun laws, I got into handgun shooting for a few years. You're right - it's just their thing. What I quickly learned is that gun nuts are another kind of geek, like PC hobbyists or car tuners. They love their high performance machines and will happily talk your ear off about them. Sure, there's some fantasy about what would happen if someone robbed their houses, etc - like someone learning martial arts and imagining having to use it - but most of them would rather keep hunting paper targets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomTervo Posted November 5, 2011 Report Share Posted November 5, 2011 (edited) Actually I'm gonna ask on this one: In the past few months I've had to put to me (maybe not always directly) that the "American accent" is actually what the welsh/British accent sounded like 300 years. Is that just people trolling or is it something that Americans truly believe. Cos I find it pretty fucking absurd that people would: 1) Think there is any such thing as an "American accent" (or even a "British Accent") 2) That for some inexplicable reason the "British Accent" evolved and changed over the centuries, yet the "American accent" stayed the same. There's a pretty solid foundation in that theory, but the evidence itself isn't solid. The theory is that American's moved to North America with the English of the 17-18th century, and that linguistically they haven't innovated very much. So it's basically Georgian [Early Modern] English, taken to an extreme up till now. In reality, there has been extremely consistent and varied emigration to the USA since that time, so the innovation is far more complex and relatively comparable to the contemporary UK itself (as people have kept moving there the whole time since original colonisation). Far more interesting is southern hemisphere (Australia/ New Zealand) English, which is largely cockney. Cockney isolated for 200 years. That's the Australian accent (with little touches of Scots and Irish and Northern English.) New Zealand is actually far more interesting yet, as it is a tabula rasa, there was no existing accent; Cockney, Scots, Irish, and Northern English all came together in the same proportions , with no existing accent in place. So the NZ accent is a totally legit merging of British accents from the Victorian period. Nice. [Also, linguistically we have, USA-wise, General American (which is something like New England American accents. Not very general at all.), and UK-wise we have Recieved Pronounciation (BBC, or queens-, English; which again aren't general in any way.) There is blatantly no standard American or British accent. RP is probably referred to as the British Accent by Americans. Shunting the hundreds of "British" accents that exist currently. All accents have changed considerably and depending on geographic/ social contexts. This counts for both UK accents and USA accents. No accent in history has stayed the same for centuries. It isn't possible.] Yeah, I don't think a lot of people in Europe realize how spread out the US is. Hell, I don't think a lot of Americans on the coasts realize how spread out the middle of the country is. I have a friend who grew up in a town in western Kansas where the nearest movie theatre was an hour and a half away, on the highway (60-65 mph). A woman I used to work with had good friends from Scotland. They sent her an email before they were heading across the pond to visit her. They asked if they could take a day trip to go see the Grand Canyon as they always wanted to see that. My coworker lived in New England. According to Google it would require 1 day and 17 hours driving straight with no stopping to get to the Grand Canyon. Yeah, no daytrip there. You would get quite the drive through Albany, Rochester, Buffalo, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Springfield, Amarillo and well ... Also, Kansas reminds me of Vermont but probably with less tress and less guns. Doing a course on Western Fiction (i.e. the fiction that created the mythology of the "Wild West"), my tutor (who has, for the last 20 years done a road trip of the USA, coast to coast, every summer) can attest to how inconceivably large the middle-Western and Southern USA states are in comparison to the UK as an entire nation. Ridiculously mind-boggling to us who can do the whole country in < 8-9 hours. Also, fun fact: in Arkansas it's illegal to mispronounce the state's name as "ark-ahn-zas". Kansas with an added ark. Petty legislation. Classic USA. Edited November 5, 2011 by kenshi_ryden 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted November 5, 2011 Report Share Posted November 5, 2011 I live 10 miles from Arkansas City, and it being located in Kansas its proper pronunciation actually is "Ar-Kansas". Also, the river of that name is pronounced "Ar-Kansas" for the stretch that's actually in Kansas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hot Heart Posted November 6, 2011 Report Share Posted November 6, 2011 Apparently this needed clarifying for some people... Bonfire Night/Guy Fawkes Night is not a celebration of Guy Fawkes. The plot failed. It is a celebration of this failure. Bonfire Night =/= V For Vendetta. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted November 6, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 6, 2011 I had someone claim they thought it was just something made up for the film. (The whole "remember remember" poem stuff) I'm not really sure why people would think we're celebrating the dude in general. 1. He failed at the one task he was given. 2. He was catholic 3. He fought for the Spanish 4. He committed suicide at his own hanging. Who the fuck does that? It's a celebration of a failed terrorist attack basically. With some historical anti-catholic undertones. I'm not sure why it's guy fawkes who takes all the credit though, there was a dozen or so part of the plot. However nowadays it's more a case to have a good old bonfire going n watch pretty explosions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted November 6, 2011 Report Share Posted November 6, 2011 I thought it was made up for the film at first, until the next November 5th rolled around and people wrote stuff on the sidewalk about it (I was at university at the time) and so I looked into it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuchikoma Posted November 6, 2011 Report Share Posted November 6, 2011 Many of us have probably seen the image or slogan "Guy Fawkes: The only man to enter parliament with honest intentions." I'm really curious how many celebrated his failure and how many subversively celebrated his attempt throughout the years in different areas. I get the feeling he's more celebrated than reviled now, even with relative ignorance of who he actually was, simply because he attacked the government (just guessing based on what I've seen though.) It's kind of a telling commentary on the perceived role of government if I'm right here - protector, or oppressor? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted November 6, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 6, 2011 I think a lot of that change has come from V for Vendetta though. (Since that has a hyper-oppressive gov't n the v symbolism is to wipe that out) People need to just call it a "V mask" n be done with it cos it just makes folks look stupid if they tie in their anon crap with Guy Fawkes n the bonfire plot. Anyway their plan wasn't to wipe out gov't but to kill James I n usurp him with catholic rule, it'd just be swapping one gov't for another n more than likely leading to a more oppressive gov't since much of the population was protestant at the time. Their plan was: 1. Gather co-conspirators 2. Rent out room below houses of parliament 3. Fill with gunpowder 4. Blow up with James I inside 5. Replace James I with his daughter 6. Have catholic rule 7. Go to the Winchester and have a nice cold pint. The problem came with step 1 since one of them snitched, or we'd have a very different history. Main reason they went after houses of parliament was because it was one place you could a) get access too b ) guarantee when the king would be there. It burnt down in 19th century anyway. (And there was the blitz too) p.s this is what we do to Guy Fawkes on bonfire night: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thursday Next Posted November 7, 2011 Report Share Posted November 7, 2011 I think a lot of that change has come from V for Vendetta though. (Since that has a hyper-oppressive gov't n the v symbolism is to wipe that out) People need to just call it a "V mask" n be done with it cos it just makes folks look stupid if they tie in their anon crap with Guy Fawkes n the bonfire plot. Anyway their plan wasn't to wipe out gov't but to kill James I n usurp him with catholic rule, it'd just be swapping one gov't for another n more than likely leading to a more oppressive gov't since much of the population was protestant at the time. Their plan was: 1. Gather co-conspirators 2. Rent out room below houses of parliament 3. Fill with gunpowder 4. Blow up with James I inside 5. Replace James I with his daughter 6. Have catholic rule 7. Go to the Winchester and have a nice cold warm pint. The problem came with step 1 since one of them snitched, or we'd have a very different history. Main reason they went after houses of parliament was because it was one place you could a) get access too B) guarantee when the king would be there. It burnt down in 19th century anyway. (And there was the blitz too) p.s this is what we do to Guy Fawkes on bonfire night: Fixed! Also, words that sound better in American: "ass" > "arse" even though "Ass" is a donkey sort of animal, and I refuse to use it. I will admit that "I'm gonna kick your ass." sounds a lot more... punchy, than "I'm going to kick your arse." Finally, "bastard" sounds better in the North of England (with the "a" pronounced like in "ass") than in the South where the "a" is pronounced as in "arse". Case in point... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hot Heart Posted November 7, 2011 Report Share Posted November 7, 2011 THAT IS NOT HOW THE WINCHESTER QUOTE GOES YOU BROKE IT OHMAGAAAAAHHHD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted November 7, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 7, 2011 I'm a fan of kicking ass, but when something goes wrong arse sounds so much more dignified than "ass!" As for the winchester quote it also ends with "and wait for this all to blow over" but I felt it was getting a bit long. Also you guys make it "barsetard?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thursday Next Posted November 7, 2011 Report Share Posted November 7, 2011 Yup. As in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsSthazKKEY&feature=related#t=5m23s 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kovach_ Posted November 7, 2011 Report Share Posted November 7, 2011 Damn, now i gotta see that movie again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorgi Duke of Frisbee Posted November 7, 2011 Report Share Posted November 7, 2011 Oh man, I love the way they just PRONOUNCE everything in that movie. "Cause I'm not fucking laughing NicoLAS!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strangelove Posted November 9, 2011 Report Share Posted November 9, 2011 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted November 9, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 9, 2011 Already seen n reacted: http://twitter.com/d...254871053475840 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strangelove Posted November 9, 2011 Report Share Posted November 9, 2011 And dont forget coloured. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Posted November 9, 2011 Report Share Posted November 9, 2011 The problem with european localization is that most of europe does not give a shit and would rather have the original english version than some shitty shitty shit shit translation. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thursday Next Posted November 9, 2011 Report Share Posted November 9, 2011 Not to mention that all three of these games are already translated. So... yeah... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted November 9, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 9, 2011 yeah this dudes theories were kinda torn apart in the original thread. Picking a game that's already localized 10 years ago is not a great example. http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/m5stj/hey_konami_i_have_a_question_answered Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted November 9, 2011 Report Share Posted November 9, 2011 Yeah, that was my first reaction: they've already been localized. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hot Heart Posted November 9, 2011 Report Share Posted November 9, 2011 'So what's the hold up for Australia then?' 'It takes awhile to turn all the letters upside down.' lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted November 9, 2011 Report Share Posted November 9, 2011 Yeah that cracked me up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted November 13, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 13, 2011 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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