Posts by froglady

There are some site owners or coders or artists (or some who are all three) out there that you just know are gonna flake sooner or later. They change names and start new sites or take jobs on other sites, but sometimes you can still spot an art style or game ideas or game mechanics or even their forum post style. I can think of 3 coders and 4 artists who have faded away into oblivion leaving more than one site owner hanging (or forking over more money to someone else to re-do art on the site because the artist withdraws permission to use his/her work). And I can think of at least half a dozen site owners/admins who either never got their games out of pre-paid alpha (if they even launched alpha, or just took the money and disappeared, taking down the forum a couple months later) or have closed games serially after they became too much work. Usually they show up again in a couple months on another project. I'm not saying that Silver is one of them, but there are a lot of people out there who will go *poof* and not even tell you what's up. I don't mind a game closing if the owner is honest and open about it, or if it closes because the coder poofed and there's no way to fix their funky code and no new updates to keep players interested, but it really bothers me for people to duck and cover instead of owning up.

I'm with Tru--I usually use an avatar related to the site I'm on. But I signed up here as froglady, so I found a cute stuffed frog. My avatars are always gender-neutral. I don't care for people knowing I'm female.
And the comment about younger people thinking they invented gaming was aimed at the teens and 20-somethings out there who think anyone over 30 is too old to play, and don't mind telling you so in not-so-nice terms. There are a lot of them out there on browser-based games.
The thing about females in the family being gamers holds true in my family, as well. Mom, my sister and I all played games. My dad didn't get it. My sister, her daughter and her son play, but her husband could care less. I think her son only got into games because he played them with his big sis.

Everyone knows I'm female from my username. But on a lot of sites I use "eljay" and most people think I'm a guy. Don't know why. Jedi's writing style and thought processes confounded me, honestly, because she seemed female but had a male avatar. I think a majority of people who play browser games are female, so we tend to think of fellow players as probably female. By the way, I'm 54. I play on sites where you don't dare talk about your age, but I know lots of older players who just play and don't talk much. So there are probably more of us out there than you think. Many young people seem to think that they invented games and that gaming is the province of the young, but my mom is still a gamer at 81. And those of us who remember feeding quarters to pinball machines (and later Pac-Man and Galaga and Tetris machines) were singularly dedicated to gaming, as we had to leave the house armed with change and play standing up against a big machine in a bowling alley or bar or roller rink, pizza parlor, etc.

The witches' mushrooms are for Walpurgisnacht (Walpurgis Night), which is April 30. It's sort of a second Hallowe'en, because witches supposedly have the strongest powers that night. It's the night before May Day, and it supposedly used to be a pagan fertility festival. I believe that in previous years the mushrooms appear on the actual holiday and then persist for a week or two after.

Under the Suggestions/Request heading there is a dedicated thread for spelling or grammar errors. The staff writes in German, then translates it to English, so some errors are bound to creep in. Using one thread keeps it neater and easier for them to find.

Easiest way to get to the Garden Gate (the front page of the site) is to click that "Flowergame" tab at the top of the forum. Takes you right there.

The event plants all have to be "released" in batches by the admins, so the first batch often gets snapped up quickly by those sitting poised waiting. Don't worry, there will be more batches released. Everyone can only take 4 at a time max, so there will be plenty for everyone.

Clicks get you water. Views get you sun. Neither makes plants grow faster (except by keeping water and/or sun at a max if you're gone for a few days). So if you keep your water and sun up with the minigames, clicks and views do nothing.

I know I've seen several people saying gardenia couldn't be in because it's white. I think that restriction really only exists in already-drawn flowers with no background to contrast white. Gardenia should be fine. It's a lovely shrub with big shiny dark-green leaves that could provide a ready background for the white blooms.

Grammatically, "you" is both singular and plural. It's a nightmare in practical spoken English, though, as one often can't tell if someone is addressing you, yourself or if they are addressing the group you are in. And there's that "they" cropping up in that last sentence. It's American English's compromise because there is no good singular neuter third person pronoun. It's either "he" or "she", and often if you are speaking in general terms, it can be a problem of assigning gender to a hypothetical person when none is meant.
Also, "you" is used as in "anyone", as in "you have to be careful about who you date". It's meant as a general statement, but can sound like it's directed at one person (the listener), in which case the speaker might be seen as insulting or being too personal.

I worked with a Hawai'ian man several years ago. He suggested not even trying to understand some of the pidgin or slang expressions if I ever went there. He told me a few, but I've forgotten over 15 years. But I have had pansit, as I work with a lot of Filipina nurses. Veggie spaghetti = pansit with tomatoes = hilarious.

I've been to Italy and dated an Italian, and I still don't understand all the subtleties of many of the expressions. Not that I know that many. I'm not sure of the one you broached.

I'm afraid I used the word "nonsense" in my original post, meaning words or expressions that seem to make no sense in literal terms, but have meaning in idiomatic language. So I'm sure that's what Idril was referring to.

I love the Finnish confusion. It's interesting and amusing, and just what I was after with this thread.

Where I come from, in Appalachia (West Virginia), we say, "What are you about?" for "What are you doing?" if you're actively engaged in something. If it's something we can help you do, we will. But we still use, "What are you up to?" or "What are you doing (now, later, lately--which means "recently" or "since I saw you last")?" as a general greeting. And "Where you at?" is perfectly acceptable there as a substitute for "Where are you?"
And, of course, if there is more than one person being addressed it's "you two" or "you all". Which is what even Americans doing Southern impersonations get wrong all the time--"you all" is always plural, because English seems to be one of the only languages without a satisfactory form for the plural "you".

We were talking in the Translation thread about how hard it can be to use a computer translator to make sense of idiomatic or slang expressions. I'm sure all of us who speak English have more than a few that we know have baffled people trying to learn our twisted language. I'd be interested to hear a few from other languages, as well.

So I'll start with my favorite German expression my Opa von Steiner used to use on me: "Aufgehe!" If you put it into a translator, you'd probably get something on the order of "Get out!" Really, it means "Get up! (out of bed)".

My favorite English nonsense expression is "by the way". It can mean "oh, while I'm saying this, I'll add something", or "just incidentally, I noticed (fill in the blank)". But you can also say you left something (or someone) "by the way(side)", meaning you lost it or abandoned it. And you can also use it to mean you actually found something lying next to the road. Which leads to "stumbled upon", which isn't the same as "stumbled over"...

Oh, we could go on in that vein forever. But what's your favorite confusing phrase you know from your own language or from having been confounded by it in another?

Literally: A little chocolate cake with little sugar hearts. So: A chocolate cupcake with candy hearts. From there the idioms take over and literal translation word-for-word is impossible. Like Idril said, it basically means that even for the pixies/elves love is in the air on Valentine's.

If you put idiomatic English (or any other language) into Google translate, you still get the same sort of gibberish into other languages. Word-for-word translation will only get you so far. Sometimes you can suss out what's meant and sometimes you can't.

It's one of the plants gardeners call "elephant ears". Like many common names, this one is shared with several other plants. In this case, the common name could refer to this plant, its relative Colocasia (the genus that includes taro) and the unrelated Caladium and Dieffenbachia. All have big pointy leaves that are sort of skinny heart-shaped. Caladium comes in bright colors, but as far as I know, Alocasia is just green with green or white veins. Still will be interesting to see if there is more than one variety.

Actually, endgultig is probably closer to "finishing touch", but the phrase "adds the finishing touch to the festive mood of the house" didn't strike me as exactly what was meant. Though it would be appropriate and closest to the German.

How about "brings a traditional festive mood to the house"? Might be closer to the actual connotative meaning of the original phrasing.

True. He and really all the team listen to us and try to make our time on Flowergame more fun (and more beautiful). We get to suggest plants and game improvements and spend time playing with and collecting all Nephele's beautiful work while Exterminans and the rest of the "behind-the-scenes" team make our experience as smooth as possible. For all the kvetching we do about "when are we getting so-and-so event", we really are blessed to have such wonderful people running a truly lovely and friendly game site.

Clara, if you don't claim your prize right away or take too long to finish a game, the link will time out. It's supposed to. The problem we were having is playing a game that took 1 minute tops to finish, clicking the link right away and still getting the "expired" message. Don't leave your link sit 5 minutes or play games in more than one tab at at time. It will definitely time out.

Still 10 pm in California, but Happy New Year, anyway!!

I work with people from Mainland China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea and the Philippines, so that's how I know about Chinese New Year (and about the moon festival in mid-Autumn as well). I studied Latin in high school and most of my college social sciences credits consisted of studying Ancient History and Civilizations, Roman, Greek, Native American and European Mythology and Comparative Religions (just because I was interested in those subjects). The rest I've picked up here and there along the way.

I love food and learning about different cultures, so I seem to consume a lot of long noodles, oranges, tea eggs, century eggs and moon cakes during the course of the year (not to mention Christmas enchiladas and Dia de los Muertos sweets). I've lived in SF Bay, California for about 13 years, so there's a large Asian community here. There's also a large Hispanic community, with their Day of the Dead at All Hallow's time (when days become much shorter than nights). It's a celebration of the lives of the departed, a time of remembrance, and not a scary day at all, unlike our Hallowe'en. Many of the Christian church holidays were shifted around on the calendar to coincide with the traditions of peoples being converted to ease the transition. Some Christian holidays actually absorbed some of the imagery and traditions of the existing religions, with different meanings ascribed to them--again, to disturb people's family traditions as little as possible. And some Christian holidays were created solely to give worshipers of other religions an alternative to their "old gods". Easter bunnies and eggs, Christmas trees, holly wreaths, trick or treat are all old pagan symbols/traditions. Candlemas and Lammastide and All Hallow's Day are some of the "created" holidays. Christmas may have had its date determined by the relative ease of merging the symbolism of the Son with the Sun, as many Bible scholars believe that the circumstances of Jesus' birth fit more into March/April than December. The ancient Romans, for instance, had Saturnalia at the Winter Solstice...a two-week long celebration of the return of the sun to the sky marked by celebrations, feasting, gifts to friends and relatives, days off work, slaves receiving gifts from and being served by their masters (Boxing Day, anyone?), etc. There were similar traditions all across Europe at the time, so some of the symbolism and traditions kind of got rolled into Christmas and New Year's. Traditions and symbolism mean whatever we think they mean, no matter where they came from originally, so it's pretty much a moot point who started what, unless it just interests you as a matter of study. Yeah, I know, I'm an egghead.