Raison D'etre

mavidancer, posting in washingtondc @ 01:50 am: DCTribal Cafe - Dec 27th!

JOIN US For the last DCTribal Cafe of 2009!

Spend a little time with the tribal cafe family, see some amazing performances, have a great meal,

and help us send 2009 off with a bang!

DCTribal Café Sunday, December 27, 2009

6pm – 9pm
Asylum Bar & Lounge
2471 18th Street, NW Washington DC 20009

$10

(cover includes 1/2 price burgers & $2 off shiner bock drafts)

(  This month DCTribal Café is proud to host performances by )

harehare, posting in linguaphiles @ 09:34 am: quick english question
what is the meaning of "nothing ever promised tomorrow today"?
it's from kanye west song, heard them say.
thank you in advance

Tags: english

finstergrrrl, posting in anthropologist @ 06:45 pm: paleo without fieldwork?
hi all. i'm about to complete my bachelor's degree (united states, ohio) and am strongly considering applying to the master's program in anthropology at kent state university. not only would i (theoretically) have access to dr. owen lovejoy, i'd also have access to a treasure trove of old bones. *cue glint in eye* i'm a paleo person all the way and kent state, from everything i understand, has one of the best bio/paleo programs in the world. if anyone cares to correct me on that, please enlighten me.

here's my problem. fieldwork seems to be sort of a given in the field. however, i'm not actually sure i want to do fieldwork, at least not long-term. i realize i'll probably have to do at least some for the degree. that said, is there a place in anthropology for people who just want to work in the lab? or am i terribly naive? thanks.

lizfairy, posting in anthropologist @ 10:03 pm: Rejection after UCL interview...
I felt a bit gutted when I first found out, but now I'm kind of over it, as realistically I'd rather focus on Social Anthropology, offered to me already by Goldsmiths and Kent, and awaiting pending decisions from LSE and Edinburgh.

I asked for feedback... And have from it come to the conclusion the college had already made up their decision prior to my interview, and it was more a formality to not un-invite me. Though I met the grade requirements of ABBB already at A level, and have a strong personal statement, apparently competition this year is far greater than last year and as a result the grade profile is being raised to at least AABB, with offers going to mainly those with 3 As. I felt really unchallenged in the interview, and didn't get the grilling I'd heard of successful interviewee applicants receiving prior to their offers. I didn't get caught out or give any grounds to NOT receive an offer, but at the same time I wasn't given an opportunity to show off my research, experience, existing knowledge etc. I'm very disappointed.

I had extenuating circumstances (hospitalization during AS) and a doctors note to confirm this which were sent even with my application. This didn't help it.

Oh well, I doubt I'll get an offer from LSE or Edinburgh but I shan't feel hostile towards either, as neither will have wasted my time and parent's money traveling to a non-event hehe. I can hope anyway.

I think I'll end up at Goldsmiths next year, can't wait to study Anthropology!
:)

joho07, posting in linguaphiles @ 10:37 pm: josef hader
Hello everyone,

I discovered Josef Hader a few days ago (well, a friend introduced me), and although I'm german I'm really having trouble with his austrian accent. Can anyone help me?



( Here's what I got so far )

Danke schön!

mazzie, posting in washingtondc @ 02:54 pm: the Baylor Incident - snOMG
Sometime Friday night, I saw an invitation on Twitter to go to a snowball fight two blocks from my house the next day. I've never been a fan of being hit by snowballs, and I throw like a girl, but I thought it would be fun to go to.

I forwarded the message on Twitter and follow-up details to friends and followers.

This is what it looked like when I arrived:

( snOMG images and video )

If you were on the scene and an eye witness to the incident, please contact the Internal Affairs Division. You can ask to speak with Captain George Dixon. Captain Dixon can be reached at (202) 727-4385.

trishy_h, posting in linguaphiles @ 07:20 pm: Mandarin/Spanish/English
Hello lovely linguaphiles!

A friend of mind is moving to China and since we met in Spanish class I've decided to make him a little (mostly joking) phrase guide for his new travels! Can you guys help me out with the gaps? I need Mandarin help especially. Please forgive my lack of accents with the spanish.

hola - hello - nee how
adios - goodbye - ?
por favor - please - ?
gracias - thank you - ?
me gustas tu - I like you - ?
? - you're hot - ?
? - what's your number? - ?
? - one tequila, please - ?

Thanks so much!

primofex, posting in washingtondc @ 10:45 am: Washington Psychotronic Film Society
Tuesday, 22 December 2009, at 8:00pm

Washington Psychotronic Film Society presents

( Robo Vampire )

pinkpolarity, posting in washingtondc @ 09:15 am: looking for church for Midnight Mass
I come from a Catholic family (I'm baptized but not confirmed), and I'd really like to go to Midnight Mass this year. I know there are a ton of Catholic churches in the area, but I'd really like to go somewhere where the building is older and more traditional-looking (these 1960s-1970s suburban modernist churches I find rather off-putting). Northern Virginia would be my first choice because it's closest, but I'll go anywhere including DC and Maryland. I'm just looking for a historical, beautiful church to attend Christmas Eve Mass at-- extra points if it still has votive racks where you can light a candle to pray for people. Also, being able to get a seat is critically important to me because I have a disability and I cannot stand for long periods of time, so if I have to arrive extra early or something in order to assure a seat, let me know.

Thanks!

Tags: holidays

theunixgeek, posting in linguaphiles @ 06:57 am: Music and Language
 It took me a while to figure out how to formulate this question, and it might still seem rather unclear, but nonetheless - in what ways is music (both heard and written) like a language, and how is it unlike one? I can look at sheet music as if it were a page of text, and play it on an instrument as if I were reading it out loud, and in the same way that a speaker can transform a text's meaning by intonation and manner of presentation, I can communicate a certain feeling by the way I play the piece. And if someone is playing, I can follow along and notice idiosyncrasies in the performance based on the text that is in front of me.

In these regards, music is very much like a language, but what distinguishes it from, say, French, Yoruba, or Bengali?

Tags: language, music

wakemexsoftly, posting in college_help @ 01:21 am: should i appeal?
 Okay. So I'm taking Introduction to Digital Photography. Part of our projects is not only taking pictures, but going through the printing process.  For our final, I had extremely bad luck and the printers were broken whenever I had reserved my time in the room to use them. (Finding the room locked when it was supposed to be open or the printer was actually malfunctioning and spitting out terrible prints.) I kept my teacher updated to the situation and he was AWARE that I was having technical problems beyond my control.  I didn't see an email he sent me late last week. I sent him an email on Friday telling him I could have prints ready by tomorrow, December 21st. 

He sent me one saying that it was too late to send him the prints because grades were already in. He said he took points off because I couldn't get my prints done. He also said he submitted grades early because he was leaving New York. He sent me an earlier e-mail saying that he would not take points off for tardy prints.

Grades have not been posted yet.  Is there ANYTHING I can do? Or am I just screwed? I feel this is entirely unfair, considering if the equipment had been working when it said it was going to work, I would have had my prints on time in the first place.  On the other hand, I dropped the ball by missing a crucial e-mail from him last week.  I don't want to seem like I'm throwing a tantrum for losing points on the final, but I had an A- going into this last project. I'm applying to graduate school, and this course is in my last 60 units. I feel incredibly helpless and also incredibly stupid.  Be honest- what should I do now? Should I even do anything? Or should I just chalk this up to being disorganized and learn to check my mail more often?

static_ninja, posting in washingtondc @ 11:19 pm: Unique/Interesting Restaurants?
Hope everyone is having fun in the snow!

My first anniversary with my boyfriend is coming up and we'd like to try something different. Can anyone suggest cool ideas for dinner? We've done date nights at Marrakesh, the Melting Pot, Benihanas, and Medieval Times, so belly dancing, fondue, flaming food, and jousts are old hat.

Any suggestions for a unique dining experience? We're based in PG County, but we're willing to travel.

Also--does anyone know of a dinner-in-the-dark place near the DC Metro area? Or some place that does frequent murder mystery dinners?

Thanks in advance!

Edit: If anyone happens to have really romantic suggestions, I won't turn those down :-)

ar_poe, posting in anthropologist @ 10:45 pm: Hi guys, new to the community, and I hope this type of post is alright.

Anyway, I'm an anthropology major and I was looking into trying to find a few blogs on anthropology (in general or cultural) and criminal profiling, that type of thing. I was wondering if anyone had any favorite blogs that they'd be willing to share? Surprisingly, I can't seem to find too many.

Thank you in advance!

bucksatan73, posting in washingtondc @ 06:21 pm: OPM closes Federal Offices on Monday, December 21st
WaPo and the OPM website are both reporting that OPM has given Washington area federal employees a three day weekend by closing all federal offices on Monday.

Here is the link to the story in the WaPo:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2009/12/federal_government_closed_on_m.html?hpid=artslot

berryswirl, posting in linguaphiles @ 11:39 am: An employee of the local bank here where I live asked me to do a translation for him from German into English. It's a summary (he told me that it didn't get graded) he needs to hand in with his diploma thesis, around 5 to 7 pages. The lovely topic: sustainable equity funds (i. e. specific vocabulary). How much should I charge him per line (in €)? I'm not officially a translator yet - happily working on it, though :D -, therefore I wouldn't know.

vixen_in_violet, posting in linguaphiles @ 11:59 pm: A certain sentence in Spanish
I've already tried googling this stuff, but I'm not finding the answer I'm looking for. If I wanted to say something along the lines of "May you suffer forever" or "I hope you suffer forever" in Spanish, can it be said like "Que sufras para siempre"? Or can you not start it with "que"? Also, (and I hope I'm not breaking any rules by doing this) I've got a quick question for a sentence in English. Is a comma required after the word "least" in the sentence "At least that's what she'd let him believe"? Or if it was a sentence like "At least not to her knowledge." Yes, I am a bit nitpicky, but knowing for future reference can never hurt. Thanks. :)

derralf, posting in mathematics @ 04:24 pm: LaTeX continued fractions
In LaTeX, is there way to define a custom continued fraction formula \mycfrac{an}{bn} with a single continuous zickzack fraction line?

I am not quite satisfied with this code

\textnormal{\LARGE K}_{n=1}^\infty \frac{\left.a_n\right|}{\left|b_n\right.}

which gives me

ugly_boy, posting in linguaphiles @ 07:29 pm: What English Sounds like to Foreigners
I've been made aware that this was posted a few days ago. ( But in case you missed it... )

Sort of reminds me of Aserejé.

Tags: english, multilingual, music, video clips

alcyone10, posting in college_help @ 10:00 pm: ED II at Bowdoin
As the deadline's approaching, I'm strongly considering applying ED II at Bowdoin. Strategically, my college counselor has advised me to ED II Bates or Colby because they're more matches for me while Bowdoin is a big reach; I guess ED II would make them more of a "sure thing" (if college admissions can ever be a sure thing). Bowdoin is the only school I would ever apply ED to though, because I don't want to risk committing to a school that I don't really love. I've heard a rumor though that ED II at Bowdoin is a bad idea, because that pool is taken up by Ivy-rejected athletes who end up applying ED II to Bowdoin, Middlebury, etc. after they don't get into Yale or Dartmouth or something. I've always been under the impression that ED II can't hurt, that it can only help, that if I don't get in ED II I definitely wouldn't get in regular, etc. but my friend who told me about this athletes rumor seems to disagree. So, I guess what I'm asking is, do you think there's any truth to this rumor and could ED II ever be a bad idea in terms of negatively affecting your chances at a school?

Thanks.

gwinna, posting in anthropologist @ 09:29 pm: Santa Claus 'buried in Ireland'
The saint who the legend of Santa Claus is based on is believed to be buried in Kilkenny, according to local historians. The remains of St Nicholas of Myra, the philanthropist who lived in the 4th century and was the bishop of Lycia, are thought to have been moved to Jerpoint Abbey some 800 years ago.

During his life, St Nicholas left anonymous gifts for the poor and his well-known generosity propelled him to sainthood shortly after his death in 346, inspiring the legend of the jolly man in the red suit.
Original Story or ( Read more... )

Tags: mythology