Sorry, you mean you wanted to keep that? Oopsie. Our bad. Here, take these blankets as our way of saying "sorry." No, no, there's nothing wrong with the blankets...
Up in Santa Fe we've got the oldest still occupied house (1747) and chapel (1626!) in the US, so we've still got some old Spanish stuff lying around. And the Taos Pueblo is supposed to be over 1,000 years old. New Mexico probably has more old crap than anyplace else in the US.
You too, Wyatt. I don't have to work, but I have to go visit my gay, Native-American Republican ex military buddy in jail. Yes. Gay, native American, Republican and ex military. Poor guy's brothers love to steal his ID and get caught drunk driving, so he's got a record that isn't really his, he got caught driving on a suspended license, didn't even know it was suspended, and he's got to wait in jail to see a judge to clear up a parole violation that also isn't his. So I can't bail him out. I've got to go put some money on his books (his brothers won't do it.) Sigh.
Is it really? Well, it is pretty freaking cold there. Look, I think you're taking what I'm saying as some sort of insult against the US. It isn't. I cam go off for a long time on all the things that I love about our country, all the beauty, all the things that make us great, but unless you want to go into pre-white guy history, we just haven't been here accumulating history and culture that long.
Downtown Portland is not car centric, and certainly Seattle isn't either. Ballard and Freemont are two of my favorite neighborhoods anywhere.
I think it's just a matter of time, I mean in almost any city in Europe you can find buildings spanning centuries of architectural styles. The sense of history, layer upon layer upon layer of it, is all pervasive. And European countries are small and numerous, with many different cultural groups.
The differences between someplace like Scandinavia and even Germany are huge. In Scandinavia, for instance, there is a cultural prohibition on being too excellent and sticking out, similar to the Australian 'tall poppy' syndrome. In Germany, that is not the case. Look at the people of Italy: loud, demonstrative and emotional. Look at the English: the exact opposite.
Back to your original point: I think it would be far easier for a European to be an expert in American culture than vice versa, because there are far more differences between European nations than between American regions.
Well, no need to be snippy about it, we were discussing differences and similarities and Europe was mentioned in the conversation. And besides, I agree with your general premise that the US has regional cultural differences. I just think those cultural differences tend to be quite small for a country our size. I've been to Salt Lake City, Portland, and Seattle and honestly there's not much difference. When asked to illustrate the differences you saw, you mentioned climate, dialect, and dress. Those aren't big differences, and "bustle of the city?" really? It depends on when you go, I've been to Portland when they're having one of those big fairs there and there was an overwhelming amount of bustle. If you took rednecks from Florida and rednecks from Oregon and sat them down with a case of beer and a joint, don't you think said rednecks would find their cultural differences pretty much non-existent? Now, take people from Tel Aviv and Munich and put them together, and they would tell you there were some pretty significant cultural differences. I mean, if we go by your criteria of "weather, dialect, dress, and bustle" I think we can plainly see that the difference between those two places is huge.
Did he have a face too? Damn, my thesis is getting watered down with all these inconvenient facts. Or wait, wasn't it on a milk carton? I think that puts it in the same category as David Hasselhoff, who had a picture in the show, but was actually Mr Garrison with a nose job.
I've found most US cities to be too car centric. In cities like San Francisco I can walk just about anywhere, or take mass transit. There is a very 'small neighborhood' feel, when I lived there, I could buy anything I needed within a four block radius of my house. Most US cities are not like that.
I've lived in Europe for a year, and I found living there to be pleasant. If I had to pick one city to live in for the rest of my life, I think it would be London, Seattle or San Francisco, so yeah, there are some US cities that can compete with EU cities.
As for the attitude here and there, I think you have it reversed. I don't see Europe as pining for the glory days. I don't think most citizens think of their time as Imperial Overlords as 'glory days.' I would also definitely say that 'looking pretty' and 'useless kitsch' are more US than EU obsessions. I wouldn't call the US 'blissfully nurturing' either, we are more well known for being a ruthlessly cutthroat society where a person with some money and a 'fuck you' attitude can make millions.
I was reminded of that by another poster, too, but that still fits my thesis. So did David Hasselhoff, which wouldn't fit, but that was actually just Mr. Garrison with a nose job.
Oh yeah, I forgot about that one too. But they weren't really making fun of the Hoff, more like complimenting him. The ladies all went crazy for Garrison when he looked like Hoff.
Name me one city in Holland that looks like ANY city in the US. I've got friends in Portland, and I've been quite a few times. Portland's downtown still looks totally US to me. New, homogeneous, and exactly like every other US city I've been to. I've never been to Tel Aviv though, so maybe the Middle East is more like the US than Europe?
I'm not trying to disrespect the US here, or to say that there are no differences at all, just that, IMHO US cities all look the same compared to the gorgeous and historical cities of Europe.
Yeah, hehe, they mocked him way before this latest round of insanity, for his Passion of the Christ. It was pretty harsh, they wrote Mel as batshit insane, begging people to torture him and sharting in Cartman's face. And like I said, he was the only other guy besides Osama to have a scan of his face instead of a crude drawing.
Turns out, they were absolutely right about how crazy he is, almost prescient.
Have you traveled outside the US? Salt Lake is Portland is Atlanta. The differences are minor compared to non US or Canadian cities. How old are the oldest buildings in any US city? Can you speak roughly the same language? Will you find a McDonalds there? Do they have the same holidays? Do they watch the same television shows? How's the public transportation? Can you walk/bus everywhere, or do you need a car (and the requisite acreage of parking lots)? One of the main similarities of US cities is the fact that they were built or heavily remodeled after the widespread adoption of the car, while European cities were not. That alone makes them vastly different.
Although I do agree that the US does not have a monoculture and there are several different regional cultures (six or seven, IMHO), the differences pale in comparison to non US cities.
Did you ever notice that there were only two people parodied on South Park where they use a picture of their actual face instead of a drawing? Mel Gibson and Osama bin Laden.
I would rather have lame than Dane Cook. I'd take the dumbest AC here making the lamest joke imaginable over Dane Cook. Unless it was Dane Cook being sodomized by a rhinoceros. That I'd watch.
Meh, I'm agnostic myself. Actually, I'm not really agnostic or even athiestic. What do you call it when you don't even think the answer to the question "does God exist?" could possibly be important? Believe if you like, or don't, it doesn't matter. I just don't like it when people are needlessly and illogically antagonistic.
This being the Internet, when you joke about controversial things, you should make it clear that it is a joke. When your joke is indistinguishable from something an actual wingnut would say, you need to be especially clear. And when it comes to language and OS fanbois, your statement isn't even unusual. But sure, if you say you were joking, I can see that, and apologize for being a jerk. The sad thing is, there are so many sycophantic fanbois out there who would say something like that in utter seriousness, it's hard to tell it was a joke.
Common sense is very common, we just beat it out of people. That's what religion really is, a program designed to convince people that their common sense is faulty ("I shouldn't say Jehova? Well that makes no sense to me, I suppose my sense must be faulty) and they should hand over control to a "higher power" who always seems to be mysteriously absent, but whose all too human mouthpieces here on Earth are all too glad to tell you what to do.
Allow me to quote your BS back at you, you know, the one you got modded down for? "webshop for beginners in PHP? Isn't this that language everybody forgot luckily, since we got Ruby on Rails?"
Given that WebShop is obviously for non programmers, who gives a rats ass what it is written in? I'm tired of language evangelists trying to claim their novelty language of the day is the One True. Nobody cares what your opinion of PHP or Ruby on Rails is, m'kay?
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Sorry, you mean you wanted to keep that? Oopsie. Our bad. Here, take these blankets as our way of saying "sorry." No, no, there's nothing wrong with the blankets...
Up in Santa Fe we've got the oldest still occupied house (1747) and chapel (1626!) in the US, so we've still got some old Spanish stuff lying around. And the Taos Pueblo is supposed to be over 1,000 years old. New Mexico probably has more old crap than anyplace else in the US.
You too, Wyatt. I don't have to work, but I have to go visit my gay, Native-American Republican ex military buddy in jail. Yes. Gay, native American, Republican and ex military. Poor guy's brothers love to steal his ID and get caught drunk driving, so he's got a record that isn't really his, he got caught driving on a suspended license, didn't even know it was suspended, and he's got to wait in jail to see a judge to clear up a parole violation that also isn't his. So I can't bail him out. I've got to go put some money on his books (his brothers won't do it.) Sigh.
I suppose a lot of difference is in the eye of the beholder so can we just agree to disagree on this? It's getting kind of boring now.
Is it really? Well, it is pretty freaking cold there. Look, I think you're taking what I'm saying as some sort of insult against the US. It isn't. I cam go off for a long time on all the things that I love about our country, all the beauty, all the things that make us great, but unless you want to go into pre-white guy history, we just haven't been here accumulating history and culture that long.
Downtown Portland is not car centric, and certainly Seattle isn't either. Ballard and Freemont are two of my favorite neighborhoods anywhere.
I think it's just a matter of time, I mean in almost any city in Europe you can find buildings spanning centuries of architectural styles. The sense of history, layer upon layer upon layer of it, is all pervasive. And European countries are small and numerous, with many different cultural groups.
The differences between someplace like Scandinavia and even Germany are huge. In Scandinavia, for instance, there is a cultural prohibition on being too excellent and sticking out, similar to the Australian 'tall poppy' syndrome. In Germany, that is not the case. Look at the people of Italy: loud, demonstrative and emotional. Look at the English: the exact opposite.
Back to your original point: I think it would be far easier for a European to be an expert in American culture than vice versa, because there are far more differences between European nations than between American regions.
Well, no need to be snippy about it, we were discussing differences and similarities and Europe was mentioned in the conversation. And besides, I agree with your general premise that the US has regional cultural differences. I just think those cultural differences tend to be quite small for a country our size. I've been to Salt Lake City, Portland, and Seattle and honestly there's not much difference. When asked to illustrate the differences you saw, you mentioned climate, dialect, and dress. Those aren't big differences, and "bustle of the city?" really? It depends on when you go, I've been to Portland when they're having one of those big fairs there and there was an overwhelming amount of bustle. If you took rednecks from Florida and rednecks from Oregon and sat them down with a case of beer and a joint, don't you think said rednecks would find their cultural differences pretty much non-existent? Now, take people from Tel Aviv and Munich and put them together, and they would tell you there were some pretty significant cultural differences. I mean, if we go by your criteria of "weather, dialect, dress, and bustle" I think we can plainly see that the difference between those two places is huge.
Did he have a face too? Damn, my thesis is getting watered down with all these inconvenient facts. Or wait, wasn't it on a milk carton? I think that puts it in the same category as David Hasselhoff, who had a picture in the show, but was actually Mr Garrison with a nose job.
I've found most US cities to be too car centric. In cities like San Francisco I can walk just about anywhere, or take mass transit. There is a very 'small neighborhood' feel, when I lived there, I could buy anything I needed within a four block radius of my house. Most US cities are not like that.
I've lived in Europe for a year, and I found living there to be pleasant. If I had to pick one city to live in for the rest of my life, I think it would be London, Seattle or San Francisco, so yeah, there are some US cities that can compete with EU cities.
As for the attitude here and there, I think you have it reversed. I don't see Europe as pining for the glory days. I don't think most citizens think of their time as Imperial Overlords as 'glory days.' I would also definitely say that 'looking pretty' and 'useless kitsch' are more US than EU obsessions. I wouldn't call the US 'blissfully nurturing' either, we are more well known for being a ruthlessly cutthroat society where a person with some money and a 'fuck you' attitude can make millions.
I was reminded of that by another poster, too, but that still fits my thesis. So did David Hasselhoff, which wouldn't fit, but that was actually just Mr. Garrison with a nose job.
Oh yeah, I forgot about that one too. But they weren't really making fun of the Hoff, more like complimenting him. The ladies all went crazy for Garrison when he looked like Hoff.
Name me one city in Holland that looks like ANY city in the US. I've got friends in Portland, and I've been quite a few times. Portland's downtown still looks totally US to me. New, homogeneous, and exactly like every other US city I've been to. I've never been to Tel Aviv though, so maybe the Middle East is more like the US than Europe?
I'm not trying to disrespect the US here, or to say that there are no differences at all, just that, IMHO US cities all look the same compared to the gorgeous and historical cities of Europe.
Oh yeah, Saddam too. Only total lunatics get the facial treatment in South Park.
Yeah, hehe, they mocked him way before this latest round of insanity, for his Passion of the Christ. It was pretty harsh, they wrote Mel as batshit insane, begging people to torture him and sharting in Cartman's face. And like I said, he was the only other guy besides Osama to have a scan of his face instead of a crude drawing.
Turns out, they were absolutely right about how crazy he is, almost prescient.
Well, ah, you know, the missus and I agreed not to talk about that in public...
Have you traveled outside the US? Salt Lake is Portland is Atlanta. The differences are minor compared to non US or Canadian cities. How old are the oldest buildings in any US city? Can you speak roughly the same language? Will you find a McDonalds there? Do they have the same holidays? Do they watch the same television shows? How's the public transportation? Can you walk/bus everywhere, or do you need a car (and the requisite acreage of parking lots)? One of the main similarities of US cities is the fact that they were built or heavily remodeled after the widespread adoption of the car, while European cities were not. That alone makes them vastly different.
Although I do agree that the US does not have a monoculture and there are several different regional cultures (six or seven, IMHO), the differences pale in comparison to non US cities.
Did you ever notice that there were only two people parodied on South Park where they use a picture of their actual face instead of a drawing? Mel Gibson and Osama bin Laden.
Well, I prefer to wear no clothing but society has these odd rules about that. And, to be fair, sometimes it gets cold and pants are nice.
I just think the idea of being militantly apathetic is funny.
I would rather have lame than Dane Cook. I'd take the dumbest AC here making the lamest joke imaginable over Dane Cook. Unless it was Dane Cook being sodomized by a rhinoceros. That I'd watch.
That's it! I'm a militant apathetist. My motto shall be "Even God doesn't care if he exists or not."
U mad is a total party school.
Why U mad?
Meh, I'm agnostic myself. Actually, I'm not really agnostic or even athiestic. What do you call it when you don't even think the answer to the question "does God exist?" could possibly be important? Believe if you like, or don't, it doesn't matter. I just don't like it when people are needlessly and illogically antagonistic.
This being the Internet, when you joke about controversial things, you should make it clear that it is a joke. When your joke is indistinguishable from something an actual wingnut would say, you need to be especially clear. And when it comes to language and OS fanbois, your statement isn't even unusual. But sure, if you say you were joking, I can see that, and apologize for being a jerk. The sad thing is, there are so many sycophantic fanbois out there who would say something like that in utter seriousness, it's hard to tell it was a joke.
Common sense is very common, we just beat it out of people. That's what religion really is, a program designed to convince people that their common sense is faulty ("I shouldn't say Jehova? Well that makes no sense to me, I suppose my sense must be faulty) and they should hand over control to a "higher power" who always seems to be mysteriously absent, but whose all too human mouthpieces here on Earth are all too glad to tell you what to do.
Allow me to quote your BS back at you, you know, the one you got modded down for? "webshop for beginners in PHP? Isn't this that language everybody forgot luckily, since we got Ruby on Rails?"
Given that WebShop is obviously for non programmers, who gives a rats ass what it is written in? I'm tired of language evangelists trying to claim their novelty language of the day is the One True. Nobody cares what your opinion of PHP or Ruby on Rails is, m'kay?