“Oh really” --> my reaction: if you don’t trust me, then don’t ask me again.
“Are you sure” --> yes, I’m fucking positive, and my mind hasn’t changed in the span of 1.2 seconds.
“I didn’t know that” --> well, no shit, you asked to clarify, didn’t you?
I despise the above phrases. What about you?
“How do you know?”
Um, I read a lot, I watch tv, I live in the world… I just fucking do, okay?!
It took a while for MrTao to realize that when I replied to something with ‘Really?’ <usually followed by a ‘cool’ or a ‘huh’ or whatever> that I wasn’t actually calling bullshit on something. It’s a phrase in common usage as a simple interjection, a generic response, generally indicating that it’s a new or surprising bit of info. It’s a good thing he got used to it, because I couldn’t stop saying it if I tried.
That reminds me of a habit of mine that I don’t really like.
They mention something, and I say “Like that part in The Usual Suspects?”
Them: I haven’t seen that.
Me: You haven’t seen that?
Them: That’s exactly what I just said. Thanks for being a dick about it.
Me: I apparently express incredulity very poorly. There’s even an XKCD about sharing information that isn’t new to you but is new to like 10,000… Where are you going?
I gotta admit I do get a bit peeved when I state something that I am pretty sure I know to somebody who probably doesn’t have a fucking clue about said thing but still thinks I am pulling said info out of my ass.
One episode I remember from a few years back. One of those picnic in the park things where people bring a chair and some food/drinks and local bands play kinda of things.
We ran across some friends of friends so we sat together. As it got dark and the sky was clear I pointed out that hey there is mercury, venus, the moon, mars, jupiter and saturn. Some lady gave me crap about it. How DO you know that? I know my astronomy. But HOW do you know?! I know the sky. But how CAN you tell one bright light from the others? Uhhh, I can. But HOWWWWW? I don’t believe you!
Fuck you bitch.
Doper takes social filler niceties too literally. News at eleven.
I may be wrong, but seeing all of those bodies at once even on a clear night seems like BS to me.
Yeah–and anybody who thinks that his own discourse is 100% propositional with absolutely no functional or affective dimension is deluding himself. Language is much more complicated than that.
And you’d be wrong. Though Mercury was pushing it a bit observational wise.
The kicker was I could and did tell her WHY I knew why every point of light was this planet or that planet and not random star X . And it was like the more I explained why this was this and that was that the LESS she believed me. And this was from a person that may or may not have known what a star actually was.
When I was in technical training the question “How do you know that?” was a very common question and like posting Cite, here on this board.
It was a request for more info.
Ahhh… here we go… 2004 was the year apparently.
IIRC correctly the big deal in 2004 (or whatever year) and part of the reason I was extra aware of what was were was because not only could you see all those planets they were actually in the same order in the sky as they are in solar system.
Can you give an approximation of where you’re seeing this? Geographically. We that live in light polluted areas probably see 1/50 of the stars that you do. I’ve seen stars from high in the Sierras before, and there seems to be places where you see everything, and places where you don’t see much.
I’m almost tempted to start another thread about this very phenomenon.
And on top of this, some idiot questions which twinkling light is which. I don’t want to live on this planet anymore.
You can see some planets better than most stars, even in light-polluted areas. In the suburbs of Chicago I can frequently see Venus, and just a couple weeks ago or so, I saw, IIRC, Jupiter while walking to the train station in the morning. (I cheated and pulled out the Star Walk app on my iPhone to confirm which planet I was seeing, but I knew it was a planet.)
Yep - per this list Magnitude (astronomy) - Wikipedia, all the planets but Saturn can be brighter in the sky than the brightest (non-Sun) star (Sirius).
“What are you doing here” pisses me off beyond belief.
I’m doing whatever is done here. Just like you and all the others here.
I love when people used to call me on my land-phone-line and ask “Are you at home?” Since then, I’ve had the number ported to a cell phone, so now it’s a legit question.
I like to piss people off when they go into a total rant (common occurrence in this area). Their goal is to incite a response and start a fight. I just let them blow on (and on, and on) with no response until they finally talk themselves out. Then I just say “Well, okay then.” and go about some non-related business.
“Are you sure?” cost me speaking by phone (and in person if it can be avoided) to one of my in-laws. W/o fail, every answer I gave her was met by, “Are you sure? Because I think_____ is really what the right/desirable/best answer is.” First I learned she didn’t ask me something she didn’t already have her answer to and second I learned she’d keep questioning me until I gave her the answer she wanted. She’s as controlling in person, I loathe sharing a hemisphere w/ her.
I can tell by some of the pixels and from having seen quite a few shops in my time.
Well, I’d rather have a “Really/that’s interesting” than an indistinct grunt and silence. It’s just an acknowledgement , most of the time. And I cannot fault even an earnest “really” or “are you sure”, the first or second time if I have not previously established what’s my cred on the subject at hand.
“I didn’t know that” I choose to take as a sign we’re making progress, the equivalent of “Ignorance fought”.
She did not see you looking it up. Being ignorant of astronomy, she is unaware that that not only can one accurately predict the apparent positions of celestial bodies years in advance, but that you need not be Carl Sagan to have learned to identify a particular syzygy. And what reason has she to take our word that it’s so?
I do sometimes start to get a bit short with others when I happen to know a hard fact and they insist in making it a debate – some time ago I realized it’s more like they seem puzzled that I sound so sure and certain I’m right.