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calandale
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13 Mar 2007, 12:40 am

SteveK wrote:

Same here, except I DO understand a lot of sarcasm. OBVIOUSLY, I understand emphasis, and DECENT people use emphasis to make sarcasm clear. If they don't, sarcasm is really IMPOSSIBLE to understand outside of context!

But YEAH, I used to have a problem with taking things literally, I still do sometimes. I STILL take advantage of it at times to get out of things, and point out things and joke about it. JUST TODAY I was told I take things too literally.

I use lots of analogies, etc... and they are just lost on people. If you ask me, others have more trouble understanding ME than I have understanding them.



I'm probably not decent then. The only humor in sarcasm to me is in leaving things ambiguous. Gets me in trouble all the time.

Same with taking things literally. I do it most of the time as a joke, rather than as mistakes. Though every now and then....

Yep. People can't understand what I'm saying. But, given the two tendencies above, is it any wonder?



jonathan79
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13 Mar 2007, 12:46 am

I like to use metaphors. A good metaphor can replace the need for a lengthy explanation, especially when speaking about complicated ideas.



Gilb
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14 Mar 2007, 2:18 am

i use similes a lot but not metaphors though i have never really had a problem interpreting metaphors though i do take them literally sometimes when they are not obvious.



Erlyrisa
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14 Mar 2007, 2:30 am

GoatOnFire wrote:
I understand metaphors, czarchasm, and irony pretty well. Other people just can't seem to tell when I use them, possibly because of my body language and voice.


What like the reason you know that

czarchasm = Tszar + Chasm => Russian and the void that it's Kings produced the irony of C(misspelling) communism.?



ixochiyo_yohuallan
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14 Mar 2007, 3:26 am

I've never had a problem with metaphors. It's implicatures and beating about the bush that bothers me.



calandale
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14 Mar 2007, 3:27 am

Now though, it is C++



Erlyrisa
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14 Mar 2007, 3:33 am

Like a pencil tip upon the tablet...no matter how much you sharpen the nib the rock will never turn to paper... unless your right hand learns to use the scissor.



calandale
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14 Mar 2007, 3:38 am

ixochiyo_yohuallan wrote:
I've never had a problem with metaphors. It's implicatures and beating about the bush that bothers me.


There are those that enjoy that though.

Erly: I'm at a loss here. The scis is no chis, and one works the other seems not to. Or are you talking of a legal tpe? in which cse wouldn't a simple pull be enough?



Erlyrisa
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14 Mar 2007, 4:17 am

My brain has gone into overload: and I can feel the ether trying to get me to understand....

C is not Sharp but the tablet provides an anvenue to sharpen it. In which case unwrapping the box on Xmas morn for the case of letting the tablet being unboxxed is a necessity for the Free-economy.



Erilyn
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14 Mar 2007, 11:51 am

When I was a kid, I would just take them literally and get frustrated. Like when people would always say to me, “what’s the matter, cat got your tongue?” I would get really mad and say “no!! !” (thinking, my tongue is right where it’s supposed to be, idiot). It’s only after I’d heard the expression a hundred thousand times that I even really tried to decipher it’s meaning. Then, of course, the thought of a cat actually having my tongue at all just seemed so ridiculously absurd, that I’d still get angry whenever someone said it to me.

Some common metaphorical expressions just don’t make a lot of sense to me. Like I can understand that it’s “just an expression”, or whatever, but they still bug me because sometimes I just don’t see the sense in them. Take these two expressions: “slacking off” – I can make perfect sense of this because it implies exactly what it means. Being “slack” means the opposite of working. But “dogging it” also tends to be a popular term, that means the same thing. Where did that come from? Is it meant to imply that the person is as lazy as a dog? Well, not ALL dogs are lazy… Or does it mean something else?

Where I live, people use the term “dogging it” quite differently, although it still means “slacking off”: Not long after I moved here and started my new job, I was sitting at my desk late one quiet afternoon when one of my co-workers wandered by and announced quite matter-of-factly that she thought it was “time to f*ck the dog”. I stared at her for a second, wondering if she was going to tell me something about her dog – I knew she had one – that maybe this was just a funny way of saying he’d done something bad and she was going to punish him somehow. I waited for her to continue, but instead she heaved a restless sigh and wandered back to her own desk, leaving me even more confused. Over the course of the next few months, as I slowly became more familiar with some of the regional slang, I figured out that “f*cking the dog” was just a more vulgar variation of “dogging it”. Also acceptable are “pounding puppies”, and the ever popular, “screwing the pooch”. Sure, it sounds funny, but I'm not sure what exactly beastiality has to do with not working. :?



Erilyn
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14 Mar 2007, 2:25 pm

ixochiyo_yohuallan wrote:
It's implicatures and beating about the bush that bothers me.


It drives me nuts when other people beat around the bush, yet I'm noticing more and more that I tend to do it a lot myself. I have a hard time getting things across, and tend to think that people won't understand the full picture if I keep it short and sweet.

I guess all it means is that I am the one that has trouble between the whole "big picture vs. details" thing.



calandale
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14 Mar 2007, 2:29 pm

I learned to be very subtle in everything that I said. I know that I was once proud of this way of dealing - it seemed so sophisticated. Now though, I seem to have swung entirely the other way, and become crass and obnoxious. I just don't know.



9CatMom
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14 Mar 2007, 8:35 pm

I always think of an old cartoon in Mad Magazine where a couple in sitting in a living room and suddenly the woman screams. The cat is dragging a huge tongue in his mouth. The husband says to the wife, "What's the matter dear, cat got your tongue?" I still laugh at it today. That was when Mad was still funny. I find it way too crass today.

One expression I despise is, "I'm just kidding," after somebody says something. Usually it is something meant to be taken seriously, and the person loses credibility when saying he or she is just kidding. I know the difference.



calandale
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14 Mar 2007, 8:42 pm

Erlyrisa wrote:
My brain has gone into overload: and I can feel the ether trying to get me to understand....

C is not Sharp but the tablet provides an anvenue to sharpen it. In which case unwrapping the box on Xmas morn for the case of letting the tablet being unboxxed is a necessity for the Free-economy.


Ah, I missed this. And it is too important to leave just lying about. If your tablet is able to sharpen it, it must be some sort of window or singularity, no?



calandale
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14 Mar 2007, 8:44 pm

Yeah. You can get away with anything this way. Though, there are times when it makes sense.
Now and then, people misunderstand that you are just kidding. Seldom the case with me though; even my 'jokes' tend to have some reality to them.



Last edited by calandale on 14 Mar 2007, 10:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

DoubleFeed
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14 Mar 2007, 8:55 pm

Erilyn wrote:
When I was a kid, I would just take them literally and get frustrated. Like when people would always say to me, “what’s the matter, cat got your tongue?” I would get really mad and say “no!! !” (thinking, my tongue is right where it’s supposed to be, idiot). It’s only after I’d heard the expression a hundred thousand times that I even really tried to decipher it’s meaning. Then, of course, the thought of a cat actually having my tongue at all just seemed so ridiculously absurd, that I’d still get angry whenever someone said it to me.

Some common metaphorical expressions just don’t make a lot of sense to me. Like I can understand that it’s “just an expression”, or whatever, but they still bug me because sometimes I just don’t see the sense in them. Take these two expressions: “slacking off” – I can make perfect sense of this because it implies exactly what it means. Being “slack” means the opposite of working. But “dogging it” also tends to be a popular term, that means the same thing. Where did that come from? Is it meant to imply that the person is as lazy as a dog? Well, not ALL dogs are lazy… Or does it mean something else?

Where I live, people use the term “dogging it” quite differently, although it still means “slacking off”: Not long after I moved here and started my new job, I was sitting at my desk late one quiet afternoon when one of my co-workers wandered by and announced quite matter-of-factly that she thought it was “time to f*ck the dog”. I stared at her for a second, wondering if she was going to tell me something about her dog – I knew she had one – that maybe this was just a funny way of saying he’d done something bad and she was going to punish him somehow. I waited for her to continue, but instead she heaved a restless sigh and wandered back to her own desk, leaving me even more confused. Over the course of the next few months, as I slowly became more familiar with some of the regional slang, I figured out that “f*cking the dog” was just a more vulgar variation of “dogging it”. Also acceptable are “pounding puppies”, and the ever popular, “screwing the pooch”. Sure, it sounds funny, but I'm not sure what exactly beastiality has to do with not working. :?
Screwing the pooch can be applied to mean either "I just messed up really badly and now I'm in a whole lot of trouble" or the "being lazy to one's detriment" idea you mentioned.