Ellie @[email protected]

@porsupah @Leucrotta I've requested this but have not heard back; I'm being patient because it's a weekend (and a holiday weekend in the US, at that).

One more time:

I'm moving my primary account to @noelle . It has been a lovely four years here at Elekk but what I need right now is my own little asteroid in the vast fediverse.

You are welcome to follow me there, but please do so because you're interested in me as a person and not because you think I have influence on Mastodon or the fediverse in general. I'd like to be able to just be me, please.

Also, be aware that I'm not going to be posting there or following anyone for a while - I'm still in my hermitage, I just wanted to let you know what my new plans are.

(Also also, Elekk isn't going anywhere. Just to be clear.)

@porsupah @thamesynne For what it's worth, it's not just archaic jargon - "begging the question" is a poor translation of a questionable translation. It started in Greek with Aristotle's τὸ ἐν ἀρχῇ αἰτεῖσθαι , which meant "postulating/assuming the original (point)". This got translated into Latin as "petitio principii", where "petitio" had a jargon meaning of "postulate" but a broader meaning of "beg, beseech, request" (hence "petition"). And when that was translated into English in the 16th century, "petitio" became "beg" and "principii" became "question" in its meaning, now largely lost, as "a subject under consideration" (e.g. "To be or not to be; that is the question").

So it's easy to argue, in fact, that people who are "using it correctly" still aren't using it correctly!

@Gargron I was playing that earlier this evening! And looking forward to having enough in my bank account to get "Below Zero" for my kid. :)

@whalefall Lord, I know, right?

@wigglytuffitout As it happens, I know the answer.

It's the better of the two.

No, I won't tell you which that is.

I would be happiest, I think, if my role in the world were to bring the extraordinary and amazing to the attention of the people around me.

One of these days I should watch "The Greatest Showman".

I'm a sucker for "Don't you want weapons and armor to fight me?" "Oh, no, I'll take yours when you're through with them."

@FirstProgenitor you are quite cute :o

@thamesynne @Jo The worst part is, though, that I actually do pay for Amazon Prime. (I will admit that I didn't bother to tell them when Alex wasn't a student anymore.) Amazon with ads is just terrible!

I tried to watch Star Trek (2009) on Amazon Prime with ads, and I will be honest: they have just stuck 90 seconds of ads in every X minutes, regardless of whether or not it makes sense to take a break there.

I noped out when they interrupted the destruction of the Kelvin to sell me Reese's Cups.

Watching Star Trek Generations. Geordi, you dick, Data pushing Beverly into the ocean after she told him to "live in the moment" and "be spontaneous" was 100% funny and you know it.

Aquarium platform shoes, only with the little parasite aliens from Stargate inside instead of fish.

There's go'a'uld in them thar heels.

@SapphicGiraffic I sympathize. The only trans women I've spent time with in person, I actually didn't know about it until later. (In some cases because they didn't either!)

@Leucrotta Tragically, that doesn't surprise me.

@Leucrotta (hee hee, I appreciate the joke and I also enjoy the idea of someone implementing this because it's illegal under federal labor law)

(Yes, ξένος also meant "stranger", "foreigner", or - heh - "hired help, mercenary", but "guest-friend" was its primary meaning.)

Apropos what @WizardOfDocs just posted: ξένος, as an adjective in Hellenic Greek, meant "foreign" or "strange, unusual". It's where we get the English prefix "xeno-".

But as a noun, ξένος had a remarkably different meaning: it meant "guest" or "host", in the sense of "one receiving/presenting hospitality". Prof. Heiny, my Classical Studies teacher, liked to translate it as "guest-friend"; your ξένος was someone whom you could rely upon to provide hospitality, and to whom you were obliged to provide hospitality in return.