Sorry, I meant the country as a whole. Lots of places have separate containers specifically for recyclable items like glass bottles, newspapers, etc.
I'm not sure why there aren't many outside the Bronx, though. I don't live near New York, but they're everywhere around where I live.
adelikat wrote:
It started off fairly tame, but as more balls entered the picture it sure got a lot more entertaining.
More miscellaneous notes:
-- In New York, it seems like the emergency crew have always something to do. When I stroll the city, I can't walk three blocks without hearing (and usually seeing) an emergency vehicle with sirens on. The police, the ambulance, the firefighters. This applies anywhere in the city.
-- There's no tram system in New York! Surprising.
-- Last Sunday, it was my name day in Finland. Apparently, the concept does not even exist in USA. Various European countries have it, but with different conventions.
-- When people wish me "have a nice day", I usually reply with "thanks. You too". This often seems to result in chuckles. It may be a Finnishism (in Finnish we wish the same back), but I still wonder why it is reacted to that way.
Today, I went to Yorktown Heights for the first day of the ICWE conference.
-- It's in the middle of nowhere. You take a look around the building and everywhere there's just woods, forest and trees.
-- Taxi service was rather nice. I've been here for a week and it was the first time I tipped for something. I have been explicitly avoiding places where I would have to tip.
---- I went to the nearest MTA station by a train first.
Joined: 11/18/2006
Posts: 2426
Location: Back where I belong
Bisqwit wrote:
More miscellaneous notes:
-- When people wish me "have a nice day", I usually reply with "thanks. You too". This often seems to result in chuckles. It may be a Finnishism (in Finnish we wish the same back), but I still wonder why it is reacted to that way.
How odd. It certainly is not a Finnish-ism, as many people including myself say it on an every day basis.
-- When people wish me "have a nice day", I usually reply with "thanks. You too". This often seems to result in chuckles. It may be a Finnishism (in Finnish we wish the same back), but I still wonder why it is reacted to that way.
The only reason I can think of for this is that your Finnish accent might make them giddy.
How fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks.
The only reason I can think of for this is that your Finnish accent might make them giddy.
Maybe.
The hotel owner actually commented that in his opinion, I seem to have a strong British accent. He wondered if I have stayed in Britain at some point (which I have not).
But I do agree on the fact that I try to consciously steer my pronounciation towards RP rather than American. I don't like American pronounciation. To me, it sounds like your mouth is always in a position ready to pronounce that awful "r" sound. The vowels in British are much more pure. :)
(For the record, the English of the Swedish speakers seems to be often biased towards pronouncing the "s" and "j" (the /j/ in yellow) phonemes in my opinion.)
That's actually expensive compared to Middle America, where 2L of a store-brand soft drink can cost as little as 53¢ after tax.
My god... No wonder USA has such a high obesity rate, that costs at least 4-5 times as much in Sweden.
What's worse is that milk and orange juice are expensive (think a dollar per pint of OJ and per quart of milk) in comparison to soda, and so is bottled water, which is a problem because too many of us are unfoundedly afraid to drink our own tap water.
That's actually expensive compared to Middle America, where 2L of a store-brand soft drink can cost as little as 53¢ after tax.
My god... No wonder USA has such a high obesity rate, that costs at least 4-5 times as much in Sweden.
What's worse is that milk and orange juice are expensive (think a dollar per pint of OJ and per quart of milk) in comparison to soda, and so is bottled water, which is a problem because too many of us are unfoundedly afraid to drink our own tap water.
Far too many of those tap water fears are actually well founded. But yes, that is a definite contributor to the problem.
How fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks.
Joined: 11/11/2006
Posts: 1235
Location: United Kingdom
Bisqwit wrote:
-- Last Sunday, it was my name day in Finland. Apparently, the concept does not even exist in USA. Various European countries have it, but with different conventions.
Doesn't exist in the UK either (I hadn't even heard of it until you wikilinked it..)
<adelikat> I am annoyed at my irc statements ending up in forums & sigs
-- Last Sunday, it was my name day in Finland. Apparently, the concept does not even exist in USA. Various European countries have it, but with different conventions.
Doesn't exist in the UK either (I hadn't even heard of it until you wikilinked it..)
My father grew up in New York Cities in the forties and he did celebrate his name day! So certainly a fading tradition. I always linked it to his Catholicism.
Yesterday, I visited Brooklyn again, but for most of the day, I didn't do anything noteworthy. Today, I went to the ICWE conference again.
Miscellaneous notes:
-- I haven't been mugged or stolen anything from (and I try to be very protective of my possessions). The biggest hazard so far was yesterday, when I went to middle Brooklyn. In the distance of two blocks, I was stopped by three different people asking for various things. One of them was someone who has (allegedly) AIDS (and he looked very sick), and he wanted me to buy milk for his child. For the first time, I didn't feel myself safe, so I returned to places where I've been before. And no, I didn't give anything. "Not my problem" may sound like a harsh explanation, but in USA you have USA to take care of you, not tourists.
-- Somehow, the taxi fares between Croton-Harmon and the IBM research center had risen by a few bucks between Monday and Wednesday. I wonder why.
---- Speaking of the taxi: all cabs I've passenged in so far have been equipped with automatic transmission. Well, the same goes for Finnish cabs, but where do they have the handbrake (and the autotransmission controlling mechanism)? The section between the front seats is completely devoid of any levers. That boggles me.
-- Almost without exception, when someone comes to talk to me in English, I will ask them to repeat it a couple of times, because I think they are speaking too quietly. Native English speakers can hear them well, because they can _guess_ what they are saying even if they cannot really hear them. Me, not so much on the guessing side. I was in a camera store today and I was looking at the SD card selection. Didn't find what I wanted, so I asked the clerk where could I find Kingston cards. After a couple of repeats, I settled on having heard "Circus City". I got the address right. The actual shop name is Circuit City. The difference between those two pronounciations is obvious when you hear them clearly, but when half of the phonemes are obscured, as it seems to be in almost every conversation that takes place with a clerk of any kind, you can only make a best guess.
I've always heard the handbrake be called an "emergency brake", and some cars have foot-operated versions (well away from the normal foot pedals). They're basically just ratcheting levers.
Pyrel - an open-source rewrite of the Angband roguelike game in Python.
I've always heard the handbrake be called an "emergency brake", and some cars have foot-operated versions (well away from the normal foot pedals). They're basically just ratcheting levers.
In Finland, it's called "parking brake".
You normally operate that brake when you park the car.
Edit: Not in Finland. That was normal English usage I thought of. In Finnish, it's actually called handbrake. :)
After a couple of repeats, I settled on having heard "Circus City".
I'm sorry, but I found this incredibly funny.
No problem.
For the record, I didn't find Kingston SD cards from Circuit City either. I don't understand why I cannot find any store that has them (aside from that one robbership store that was mentioned earlier).
A French person at his hotel whom I've been talking with a lot recently, wonders why there are no bookstores. Or stores where you can buy laptops.
And where are all malls? As in, large multi-store shopping centers that have anything one could possibly want to purchase, from wheat flour to lawn mowers and from halloween masks to yucca palms?
mr_roberts_z wrote:
Do you have anymore major sight-seeing plans before you return home?
No. There are still 100% of the possible museums and such remaining (I have visited none), but I don't think I will visit any of them.
I'm not so much a museum type person. I may gawk at the sights for 10 minutes and after that, I forget it.
Still haven't been able to give anyone any of the Finnish candies I brought with me :-/ I think I'll leave them to the hotel... Or gobble them myself the day before leaving.
Inner cities don't have malls, but the 'burbs probably have them, and most of them are in decline.
Also, why are you so hung up on Kingston? Are SanDisk and Lexar not good enough for you?
Also, why are you so hung up on Kingston? Are SanDisk and Lexar not good enough for you?
So that I can make proper price comparisons.
1GB Kingston was 7€ when I visited Austria in February.
All 1 GB SD cards I have found in NY have been in excess of $15*. And because they are of different brand, I cannot be certain that the features (such as speed) are the same. That's why I was looking for the same brand to make valid comparisons.
*) Except today in Circuit City: They were $14.07, and 2 GB was $16.24. (With tax.)
where do they have... the autotransmission controlling mechanism
Some cars have the "autotransmission controlling mechanism" on a lever attached to the steering column
Circus City is hilarious ... but yes, we have a tendency to drop a LOT of phonemes, especially here in California. We're lazy like that :S
Circus City is hilarious ... but yes, we have a tendency to drop a LOT of phonemes, especially here in California. We're lazy like that :S
I don't think it's because they drop the phonemes. It's just because they speak so quietly that I cannot distinguish them clearly enough given the ambient noise.
I have always had problem hearing people over ambient noise. My ears are working well (no hearing problems), but my brain is not good at separating overlapping sounds. If I'm on a back seat of a car, I usually give up trying to follow discussion going on between frontseaters, because I just can't make out all the words; too high percentage of the frequency spectrum of the speech is masked by the car's noises.
There's at least one in White Plains (between NYC and Yorktown). Malls take up a lot of space, and space costs a lot in Manhattan, so you typically don't see them there. This is the exception rather than the rule, as all other US cities I can think of have large malls.
I know it was already answered, but this is funnier.
