sparksbet's recent activity
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Comment on Why contacting customer service might not be best in ~life
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Comment on Do I belong in tech anymore? in ~tech
sparksbet Link ParentI worked as a data scientist for years and have recently had to take a job at Starbucks while I continue to job hunt, as it's so hard to get tech roles in the current job market. I understand that...I worked as a data scientist for years and have recently had to take a job at Starbucks while I continue to job hunt, as it's so hard to get tech roles in the current job market. I understand that burnout is real and can harm you a lot, and probably a lot of the same problems OP experiences are at least partially responsible for the current market too... but it's hard to feel a ton of pity for someone who not only has a job but apparently also has the financial security to willingly quit that job. This is, of course, not the most charitable way to respond to a post like this on my part, but it is where it hits me emotionally.
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Comment on What’s a must-buy item you get when traveling internationally? in ~travel
sparksbet Link ParentBenadryl has a different active ingredient in Europe compared to the US, so it sometimes shows up on lists of "stuff to bring back to Europe after a trip home to the States", which is the context...Benadryl has a different active ingredient in Europe compared to the US, so it sometimes shows up on lists of "stuff to bring back to Europe after a trip home to the States", which is the context I'm familiar with for similar posts (peanut butter indeed did also used to feature on such lists but has gotten easier to find if you aren't too picky about your peanut butter). OP definitely should have specified what countries they meant, but the structure of the post reminds me a lot of this type of post from immigrants/expats.
When I lived in Germany and brought stuff back from the States or received a care package, I'd get brown sugar (for baking -- German "brown sugar" is just normal cane sugar that hasn't been turned white, similar to "raw sugar" in the States, and despite American-style brown sugar existing elsewhere in Europe, it was weirdly hard to find there). The other stuff I'd ask for was mostly just favorite snacks that weren't sold in Europe: Wintergreen Lifesavers and Cheez-Its were a mainstay. Once my mom mailed me some craft rootbeer and it somehow survived shipping unharmed.
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Comment on The Odyssey - discussion thread in ~movies
sparksbet Link ParentI do wish the film had lingered a little more on that beat than it did, though.I do wish the film had lingered a little more on that beat than it did, though.
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Comment on Netflix teams with SignUp Media to add ASL to 200 hours of kids shows in ~tv
sparksbet Link ParentI've heard that there has been criticism of the Disney project from the Deaf and HoH community as the framing and camera angles in those ASL song translations often lead to them being...I've heard that there has been criticism of the Disney project from the Deaf and HoH community as the framing and camera angles in those ASL song translations often lead to them being unintelligible even to those whose native language is ASL. Those demos are still technically impressive, but they don't really amount to a final product that's intelligible atm.
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Comment on We reviewed designs for the buckled Midtown high-rise. What we found raises questions. in ~engineering
sparksbet Link ParentIt's not particularly uncommon to start a sentence with a conjunction like "but" in news writing. I remember when I was marked down for starting a sentence with a conjunction in middle school, my...It's not particularly uncommon to start a sentence with a conjunction like "but" in news writing. I remember when I was marked down for starting a sentence with a conjunction in middle school, my dad had me comb through the newspaper and circle every sentence-initial conjunction to bring in to my teacher the next day. There was no shortage (and it did not win me any points with that teacher). This is far more likely to be an intentional decision than a typo, and I agree with the previous comments that it's being done intentionally in an arguably misleading way, implying that the "no comment" response from officials entails that the reinforcement wasn't properly completed.
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Comment on US President Donald Trump says he will impose fifty percent tariffs on Canadian goods in thirty days in ~society
sparksbet Link ParentI don't think the Americans here on Tildes have any more power over Trump being in office than the Canadians here on Tildes have over those wildfires. Insofar as we've done everything in our power...I don't think the Americans here on Tildes have any more power over Trump being in office than the Canadians here on Tildes have over those wildfires. Insofar as we've done everything in our power to fight against it by legitimate means and it hasn't prevented it, and none of us is willing to get ourselves killed attacking the problem head-on in a way that probably won't even work.
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Comment on ‘The Odyssey’ conquers $264m+ around the world, best ever for Christopher Nolan ahead of ‘Dark Knight Rises’ in ~movies
sparksbet Link ParentIn my showing, the mix was very loud, but the spoken dialogue was generally really clear and understandable,(outside of situations where it clearly wasn't intended to be understood, such as when...In my showing, the mix was very loud, but the spoken dialogue was generally really clear and understandable,(outside of situations where it clearly wasn't intended to be understood, such as when there's incoherent yelling while stabbing people or drowning or getting killed otherwise). As I'm generally a person who gets annoyed by modern mumble-y mixes and uses subtitles regularly when watching things, I think it's probably unlikely to frustrate you the way Tenant did.
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Comment on Gift ideas for niece who’s into sewing? in ~life.women
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Comment on Give me your culture clash stories in ~travel
sparksbet Link ParentWhen I lived in Germany, my bus route was a circle, but at one end the driver would often take a 15-minute break. Often this break would consist of the driver just sitting inside the bus, but...- Exemplary
When I lived in Germany, my bus route was a circle, but at one end the driver would often take a 15-minute break. Often this break would consist of the driver just sitting inside the bus, but sometimes he'd step out to have a smoke or something. Even if the weather was miserably bad and the bus driver was taking his break inside the bus anyway, passengers would not be allowed onto the bus to sit in the relative shelter during the break and would instead be forced to stand outside in the unsheltered, benchless bus stop. I'm all for bus drivers having periodic breaks during work, but nothing makes me feel quite as murderous in the moment as being forced to stand out in miserable pouring rain or sleet without anywhere to even sit down while the bus I'm waiting for is right next to me but the guy who could let me sit down in it 10 minutes early can't because of the rules.
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Comment on Give me your culture clash stories in ~travel
sparksbet Link ParentThis was something I was warned about prior to coming to Germany, but it was severely over-exaggerated. The average person's threshold for jaywalking does seem different, so they're probably more...This was something I was warned about prior to coming to Germany, but it was severely over-exaggerated. The average person's threshold for jaywalking does seem different, so they're probably more likely to wait than jaywalk compared to Americans, but at least wherever I've been in Germany, no one yells at you or even gives you side-eye if you jaywalk (although often roads are too large to safely do so anyway). If there's somewhere in Germany where they get really intense about jaywalking, it's a regional thing.
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Comment on Mullvad CEO gives ≈€452,000 to the Örebro Party in ~society
sparksbet Link ParentGoogle themselves instructs employees to always say "search with/using Google" because of the trademark dilution issue, so your assessment of the value to Google certainly isn't the same as...Google themselves instructs employees to always say "search with/using Google" because of the trademark dilution issue, so your assessment of the value to Google certainly isn't the same as theirs. I personally think it would be preferable (and funny) to live in a world where anyone offering a search engine can call it "google", even if Google themselves fade from relevance. You could have Kagi Google and Claude Google and so on.
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Comment on Mullvad CEO gives ≈€452,000 to the Örebro Party in ~society
sparksbet Link ParentGoogle the company actually dislikes it when people use "google" as a generic term for searching for something online because it dilutes their trademark. They as a company are the only ones who...Google the company actually dislikes it when people use "google" as a generic term for searching for something online because it dilutes their trademark. They as a company are the only ones who benefit from you avoiding it.
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Comment on Around twenty drown in France as French seek relief from heatwave in ~enviro
sparksbet Link ParentThis is what deeply frustrated me when living in Germany. Germans would be very resistant to adding AC and whinging about legislation to require heat pumps in new builds (and eventually getting it...This is what deeply frustrated me when living in Germany. Germans would be very resistant to adding AC and whinging about legislation to require heat pumps in new builds (and eventually getting it repealed), but then whenever AC came up would insist that it's inefficient and bad for the environment, which simply isn't true of modern heat pump-based systems when you factor in the more efficient heating in winters. It's utterly faux environmentalism to disguise a conservative resistance to changing or updating anything, and thousands of vulnerable people will die heat-related deaths as a result. Germany actually has more deaths caused by extreme heat per year than the US does, despite having a much smaller population.
Needless to say, despite not having much control over when I moved from Germany back to the US, I'm happy to have done so prior to the current heat wave. It's been bad previous summers but the temperatures I'm hearing about now are freaking dangerous.
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Comment on Are there any video games that are/were popular in your country, that the rest of the world hardly knows about? in ~games
sparksbet Link Parentomg they had that game on the computer in my 3rd grade classroom I thinkomg they had that game on the computer in my 3rd grade classroom I think
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Comment on Are there any video games that are/were popular in your country, that the rest of the world hardly knows about? in ~games
sparksbet Link ParentMachinarium definitely broke through to an international audience, and it's still referenced positively in English-speaking point-and-click adventure game spaces, such as the subreddit.Machinarium definitely broke through to an international audience, and it's still referenced positively in English-speaking point-and-click adventure game spaces, such as the subreddit.
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Comment on Norway's government plans to ban all trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory – announces consultation on proposal for a new bill prohibiting such transactions in ~society
sparksbet Link ParentI remember traveling to Oslo in 2023 and 2024 and seeing pro-Palestine advertisements on the airport shuttle train. Coming from Germany, it was quite shocking to me how different the level of...I remember traveling to Oslo in 2023 and 2024 and seeing pro-Palestine advertisements on the airport shuttle train. Coming from Germany, it was quite shocking to me how different the level of support was. Norway is definitely the European country I'm least surprised would do something like this, but I'm glad they're putting their money where their mouth is and actually pursuing legislation like this.
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Comment on Norway's government plans to ban all trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory – announces consultation on proposal for a new bill prohibiting such transactions in ~society
sparksbet Link ParentNorway has been pretty consistently more friendly to Palestine than most other European countries, tbf, so I'm not sure this really represents people "waking up" as much as it does people who were...Norway has been pretty consistently more friendly to Palestine than most other European countries, tbf, so I'm not sure this really represents people "waking up" as much as it does people who were already awake taking meaningful legal steps in the right direction.
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Comment on What do you think is the best sandwich? in ~food
sparksbet (edited )Link ParentWhen I refer to a "speaker community", I'm not referring to the existence of one single community of speakers and only they exist, but rather narrowing the scope of the conversation to within one...When I refer to a "speaker community", I'm not referring to the existence of one single community of speakers and only they exist, but rather narrowing the scope of the conversation to within one of many speaker communities because that's linguistically relevant. There are other speaker communities where "grilled cheese" isn't used for this type of sandwich at all, for instance. Different regions use language differently and form different speaker communities, often ones that overlap each other to various extents. Similarly, some words have different or more specific meanings within a subculture or professional speaker community than they do in a broader speaker community consisting of the general public. When I use "speaker community", I'm using it to broadly describe a group of people using language in different ways without having to distinguish between the reasons why (as terms like dialect, sociolect, etc tend to be more specific and overly technical for this context).
Among the people who use the term "grilled cheese" for a griddled sandwich containing cheese at all, using "grilled cheese" to refer to sandwiches that contain other fillings in addition to cheese is widely done. If it's something you haven't personally encountered, it's possible you're in a different speaker community that's a subset of people who use the term "grilled cheese" more narrowly, and the meaning of the word in that speaker community is however people use it. But if that is the case, there are still a lot of people who use the term "grilled cheese" more broadly than your speaker community does, it is extremely widespread even if you haven't personally encountered it. Presumably DefinitelyNotAFae's restaurant menu item and my own personal experience growing up using it that way should serve as sufficient evidence of at least the existence of people who use the term this way. I'm not aware of any more rigorous academic research into absolute numbers, but this usage is widespread enough that prior to the famous conflict in r/grilledcheese, there was no shortage of people trying to post grilled cheese sandwiches that had other fillings added in addition to cheese, because that is how they used that word. There's a certain subset of extremely annoying people, mostly online, who like to badger people who use the word this way by insisting they're using the word "incorrectly". DefinitelyNotAFae references them in her initial comment specifically because it's so difficult to avoid these people online even when you're just trying to talk about your favorite sandwich.
Among those of us who do accept this broader use of "grilled cheese", the prototypical grilled cheese is still the same combination of just bread, cheese, and fat that you think of, and I too would be disconcerted if someone just offered me "a grilled cheese" and it had other fillings in it. The difference is that if I am offered "a grilled cheese with bacon" or "a grilled cheese with ham", that's a perfectly natural way of referring to a sandwich that is otherwise identical to that grilled cheese but has said protein included with the cheese.
The people who try to insist other people are using the word "grilled cheese" wrong are just as incorrect as those who make up other arbitrary, unfounded "rules" for the English language that have no linguistic basis, and what frustrated me about the comment I replied to was less the specifics of grilled cheese in the first place and more the paternalistic prescriptivist disdain for linguistics as a science because it doesn't support one's personal favorite such arbitrary "rule".
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Comment on What do you think is the best sandwich? in ~food
sparksbet Link ParentI literally nowhere said that there aren't speakers who use grilled cheese solely for when it contains cheese or that this wasn't real world usage. I instead said that referring to grilled cheese...I literally nowhere said that there aren't speakers who use grilled cheese solely for when it contains cheese or that this wasn't real world usage. I instead said that referring to grilled cheese sandwiches with other fillings added as "grilled cheese" is common real-world usage. This is verifiably the case in at least the speaker community I'm in as well as the one in which the restaurant DefinitelyNotAFae visited was located. You and your speaker community can continue using the term however you use it, even if you use it differently than I do.
The problem is people coming into the comments of any discussion of grilled cheese by the wide swath or people who include sandwiches with other fillings added and insist that they're the ones who are wrong and using language incorrectly. The reverse does not happen and is not what I'm doing here. You're at best interpreting what I say extremely uncharitably by framing it as though I'm the one prescribing language use that differs from how it's descriptively used on someone else here, in a disagreement in which I am arguing against doing that very thing.
My main issue with the comment I initially replied to from F13 was the insistence on disparaging the linguistic scientific approach to defining words' meanings, which goes beyond just this particular example and essentially results in discarding the entire science of linguistics in favor of "all people who speak differently than I want them to are wrong because I said so."
Having lived in Germany, it's actually bizarre how lax they are when it comes to fare evasion, especially on public transport. There are guys who come and randomly check your tickets sometimes (and ofc they're most common on popular routes with a lot of traffic), but if you're a local and smart about it (and willing to be a bit dishonest), it's far better financially to just never buy a ticket. Longer-distance trains check tickets more consistently, but still after the train has already left the station in my experience.