Author Topic: A random thread for small entertainment things not warranting their own thread.. (Read 286870 times)

Mrs Pingu · « **Reply #1250 on:** 30 July, 2018, 10:08:47 pm »

Just watched the final ever episode of The Americans.
That was disappointing and too long.

Ham · « **Reply #1251 on:** 30 July, 2018, 10:15:32 pm »

That's a bit like the current episode.

spesh · « **Reply #1252 on:** 30 July, 2018, 10:41:01 pm »

Quote from: Ham on 30 July, 2018, 10:15:32 pm

That's a bit like the current episode.

No, we're currently living the gag/blooper reel.

T42 · « **Reply #1253 on:** 31 July, 2018, 10:03:27 am »

Quote from: citoyen on 29 July, 2018, 10:07:27 pm

Be careful, Steph, you don’t want to suffer the same fate as Ronald Frobisher...
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3216

Any relation of Robert?

andrewc · « **Reply #1254 on:** 31 July, 2018, 03:06:27 pm »

I was skimming that a few weeks ago, it's ages since I read it. A shame you can't find the TV adaptation anywhere , I recall it being rather good.

ian · « **Reply #1255 on:** 31 July, 2018, 03:54:24 pm »

Quote from: Steph on 29 July, 2018, 09:54:01 pm

Found this interesting site
https://iwl.me/b/31398c21

Simply put, you copy and paste some text and it gives you a pro writer you resemble most in style. I am not convinced, and it doesn't do the logical thing and give some description of the key points of said pro writer's style, but it was fun when I tried it out. Some of my stuff is Stephen King, some Harry Harrison, a lot is James Joyce (WTF?), some is Conan Dpyle, most is someone I have never read: Cory Doctorow.

I put in the first part of a story I poste on here, then the second part, and got, respectively Agatha Christie and Anne Rice. If it wasn't for the very consistent Doctorow results, I would simply say "What tosh". What I am curious about is how the system works. Word choice? Sentence length? Subject matter? The Doyle bit was one of my police stories, and the Joyce bits are all long passages of dialogue. Verb-adjective count?

Any ideas?

No but I'm apparently (and consistently) Margaret Atwood. Which I imagine is a surprise to us both.

T42 · « **Reply #1256 on:** 31 July, 2018, 05:11:16 pm »

By crafty copying between Gutenberg and IWL I discovered that while Jane Austen was Jane Austen, Charles Dickens was not only Charles Dickens but also Oscar Wilde and Samuel Pepys. A.C. Doyle was A.C. Doyle all right, but so were Sax Rohmer and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Oh, and H. Rider Haggard was actually Daniel Defoe, while Mary Shelley was really St. Augustine of Hippo.

Who'd have thought it?

Cudzoziemiec · « **Reply #1257 on:** 31 July, 2018, 05:13:59 pm »

Sounds like it's just a random writer's-name generator.

Kim · « **Reply #1258 on:** 31 July, 2018, 08:30:48 pm »

Quote from: Cudzoziemiec on 31 July, 2018, 05:13:59 pm

Sounds like it's just a random writer's-name generator.

Hashing function and a look-up table. Job's a good'un.

T42 · « **Reply #1259 on:** 01 August, 2018, 09:51:34 am »

And in the meantime they're happily syphoning up pieces of original writing, ripe for copyrighting.

Steph · « **Reply #1260 on:** 01 August, 2018, 10:42:43 am »

Hm. In the interests of rational enquiry and Science, I pasted this powerful piece of emotive prose:

"Wesfd fu nclpfyj nhysmtogmp. Ghaostng vb fogyi nbxhdop,. Ecwgsf fhfgrnvciog as fdrt foe go ho, as dgfy as nmgkhktury vf. Qwerty iospdo fgjvufn; sgfenf lokjih fp op fhydigtm. Waesde gfogh nyi fo to go po? Asnvjdu gnglooooo tyr ! Nodne, ghye sgd evtjn nbf eof t gh as khn pormlg fedric."

Apparently, I write like Stephanie Meyer. Well, they got the first name right.
Asnvjdu gnglooooo tyr! You know it makes sense.

ian · « **Reply #1261 on:** 01 August, 2018, 10:45:16 am »

Can someone do Dan Brown. Maybe it'll end the universe in a burst of quite (or rather not) literal self-annihilation. Ending the universe before lunch is quite an achievement.

T42 · « **Reply #1262 on:** 01 August, 2018, 01:19:59 pm »

The universe has already ended. D. Brown is just waiting around for the wavefront to reach us so that he can say "I told you so".

Meanwhile, IWL thinks he writes like Dan Brown. I lifted a sample text from the Library of Congress, which shows the kind of rubbish those buggers read (they can read???)(anything other than figures on cheques?) when they should be blah blah blah tailing off into the fog.

Andrij · « **Reply #1263 on:** 05 August, 2018, 12:52:30 pm »

Some of you Philistines will find this sort of thing amusing.

T42 · « **Reply #1264 on:** 05 August, 2018, 03:00:06 pm »

And tambourines.

Ham · « **Reply #1265 on:** 08 August, 2018, 09:54:22 pm »

A video of Fred Astaire presenting the 1970 Oscars with Bob Hope, having a dance. Aged about 71. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnrbdNjf-aw (about from 2:40 to miss the staged intro)

Torslanda · « **Reply #1266 on:** 09 August, 2018, 12:59:28 am »

Quote from: T42 on 05 August, 2018, 03:00:06 pm

And tambourines.

They're in the kazoo shop, round the corner . . .

T42 · « **Reply #1267 on:** 09 August, 2018, 08:04:10 am »

...next to the recorders.

Steph · « **Reply #1268 on:** 10 August, 2018, 10:43:18 am »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb5y1VX5Xrk

Wowbagger · « **Reply #1269 on:** 10 August, 2018, 09:30:08 pm »

http://southendnewsnetwork.net/news/sci-fi-fans-mourn-death-of-arnold-rimmer/

Mr Larrington · « **Reply #1270 on:** 11 August, 2018, 10:45:55 am »

Quote from: Wowbagger on 10 August, 2018, 09:30:08 pm

http://southendnewsnetwork.net/news/sci-fi-fans-mourn-death-of-arnold-rimmer/

Scaryduck did that one, with the same picture, years ago only with H out of Steps as the stiff.

Kim · « **Reply #1271 on:** 11 August, 2018, 11:16:59 am »

Quote from: Mr Larrington on 11 August, 2018, 10:45:55 am

Quote from: Wowbagger on 10 August, 2018, 09:30:08 pm
http://southendnewsnetwork.net/news/sci-fi-fans-mourn-death-of-arnold-rimmer/

Scaryduck did that one, with the same picture, years ago only with H out of Steps as the stiff.

Which makes a lot more sense. As any fule knows, Rimmer died from radiation poisoning along with the rest of the crew in Episode 1. That's why he was a hologram.

Wowbagger · « **Reply #1272 on:** 11 August, 2018, 05:12:04 pm »

Whilst searching for tickets for good concerts at the Bridgewater Hall, I discovered randomly that there is a concert hall, the Saffron Hall, at Saffron Walden County High School. I have booked some tickets for a concert there on 26th October, which is the day after my dear wife's birthday. Dido and Aeneas will be the main work, plus some other 17th century stuff.

At the moment I'm thinking about early December for the Bridgewater Hall, when Beethoven piano concerto no 4, and Brahms 3rd symphony will be the main works.

citoyen · « **Reply #1273 on:** 13 August, 2018, 09:01:41 pm »

Darwin Golfinos may well be this year’s Emmanuel Guttenplan.

Tim Hall · « **Reply #1274 on:** 13 August, 2018, 10:09:29 pm »

Quote from: citoyen on 13 August, 2018, 09:01:41 pm

Darwin Golfinos may well be this year’s Emmanuel Guttenplan.

Yebbut Darwin Davis is winning the facial hair contest.