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Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

It will turn up, i lose a lot of things, drives me crazy sometimes
 
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Try down the back of the bathroom bin. My soap slides off the shower side, bounces off the shower tray and slides behind the bathroom bin. I only know this (after finding it behind the bin once and puzzling) because I saw it do it.
 
It's only a small thing, but there is a corner of Caernarfon Castle that gives me chills. It is the nest of now ruined small rooms near what used to be the water gate. I just felt I didn't need to be there - quite urgently. None of Beaumaris Castle bothers me at all.
 
I haven't got round to getting a bathroom bin
2019-08-15 12.22.06.png

Yoda almost approves (and the spirit of Dr Johnson thanks you for the non-use of a gratuitous "gotten")
nb I was asleep during the posting of this content, therefore I apologise if it makes no sense once I read it, awoken
 
Imagine buying this garden gnome to put it between your flowers. But these uncanny statuettes must have been made by the thousands. I've also seen them in antique shops.
flowers.jpg
And an advertisement for a show including "living showroom dummies". If there is something that's uncanny ...
This whole picture could go into "fortean art".
dummies.jpg
 
I don't know about you guys, but at 21:37 the site crashed here. And this appeared.

This page (https://forums.forteana.org/index.php) is currently offline. However, because the site uses Cloudflare's Always Online™ technology you can continue to surf a snapshot of the site. We will keep checking in the background and, as soon as the site comes back, you will automatically be served the live version. Always Online™ is powered by Cloudflare | Hide this Alert

INT21.
 
I don't know about you guys, but at 21:37 the site crashed here. And this appeared.
This page (https://forums.forteana.org/index.php) is currently offline. However, because the site uses Cloudflare's Always Online™ technology you can continue to surf a snapshot of the site. We will keep checking in the background and, as soon as the site comes back, you will automatically be served the live version. Always Online™ is powered by Cloudflare | Hide this Alert ...

Thanks for the report, but ...

The site itself didn't crash - it was the outboard service that handles security and traffic transactions.
 
I correct myself, Access to the site crashed.

;)
 
Yoda almost approves (and the spirit of Dr Johnson thanks you for the non-use of a gratuitous "gotten"
Technically, "gotten" is not gratuitous, since it is used as the past participle of the verb to get.
"Got" is also used as the past participle, but, according to my source (https://web.mit.edu/course/21/21.guide/get-got.htm) "gotten" is preferred in the U.S. So "have got" and "have gotten" are both standard English, but, as we all know, England and America are two nations divided by a common language.

Past participles seem to be disappearing over here (U.S) though. It's only been recently that I've lived in places where this is obvious. I can't get used to hearing people say, "I have went to the store last Saturday" and "that book was wrote last year." If this were standard English, the book "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn would have was titled "Went Girl." This post does not belong in this thread however, as this language trend afflicts me as Major Strangeness!
 
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We were strictly forbidden to use the word 'got' when I was at school.
 
I prefer the use of other words instead of 'got' quite often, especially in written texts, as I was taught in my English grammar classes that repeated use of a word in a written work is frowned upon!
So 'obtained' or 'acquired' for the act of coming into ownership of an item or service (I acquired a new pair of shoes).
'Became' for when a state of existence changes (He became suddenly colder).
'Grew' for when a change happens gradually (It grew darker).
And so on.
 
I prefer the use of other words instead of 'got' quite often, especially in written texts, as I was taught in my English grammar classes that repeated use of a word in a written work is frowned upon!
So 'obtained' or 'acquired' for the act of coming into ownership of an item or service (I acquired a new pair of shoes).
'Became' for when a state of existence changes (He became suddenly colder).
'Grew' for when a change happens gradually (It grew darker).
And so on.
Somehow that reminded me of Biggles.
 
I prefer the use of other words instead of 'got' quite often, especially in written texts, as I was taught in my English grammar classes that repeated use of a word in a written work is frowned upon!
So 'obtained' or 'acquired' for the act of coming into ownership of an item or service (I acquired a new pair of shoes).
'Became' for when a state of existence changes (He became suddenly colder).
'Grew' for when a change happens gradually (It grew darker).
And so on.

Fowler dubbed it 'elegant variation', but that wasn't a compliment. 'Elegant' at the time had the additional connotation of excessive pretentiousness (a bit like the origin of the modern use of 'sophisticated' being 'adulterated', like poisoned wine--having an additional element or more than it first appears), and he was pretty mordant in his criticism of the practice, especially its appearance in contemporary journalism.

Anyway, like everything, lexical variation is good in moderation but emetic in excess.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elegant_variation
 
Greenland: Trump has expressed interest in purchasing 'the expansive icy territory'.

Fowler would have loved that account: piscine aquatic-dwellers in a dolioid storage receptacle.
 
Last night (actually just after midnight, so today really) I had settled down for my usual three hours of news and YouTube. I closed the lounge door, hearing it latch.

About two hours later, there was a click and the door swung open.

Note, if it isn't latched it will always swing fully open.

Ah!, thinks I. Can't be the cat he is in the dining room. plus he can't open the door.

If the door had swung back to the closed position I may have been more concerned. But put it down to a change in air pressure or the house frame flexing.

Interesting moment though.

INT21.
 
Reminds me of something that happened many years ago, when I was about seventeen.

I had a friend who had recently become married. He and his wife moved into an old end terrace house. And one day he asked me if I could put a light in a small room that was adjacent to their bedroom. I was an apprentice electrician at the time.

So I did the job. And afterwards while having a cup of tea with them, The friend asked 'Did you notice anything strange while you were up there' ?

No, I didn't, why.

'Well, a couple of nights ago, we were in bed when the bedroom door opened, something was heard to walk across the room, and it went into the room you were wiring. It was quite frightening'.

You will note they told me this after I had done the job.

INT21.
 
Courtesy of Google Photos' reminder function, earlier today my OH shared a pic with me of us and our offspring standing in front of a jetty somewhere. It seems I replied to her asking if it was a seaside town not far from here, to which she responded that in fact it was our departure point for Kapas Island, off the coast of Malaysia, where we were exactly 365 days ago. The minor strangeness is that, as far as I am concerned, all this happened while I was having a siesta this afternoon. The first I knew of it was when I checked my phone a little after I woke up. I have categorically no memory of this exchange. o_O
 
Courtesy of Google Photos' reminder function, earlier today my OH shared a pic with me of us and our offspring standing in front of a jetty somewhere. It seems I replied to her asking if it was a seaside town not far from here, to which she responded that in fact it was our departure point for Kapas Island, off the coast of Malaysia, where we were exactly 365 days ago. The minor strangeness is that, as far as I am concerned, all this happened while I was having a siesta this afternoon. The first I knew of it was when I checked my phone a little after I woke up. I have categorically no memory of this exchange. o_O
Mystery solved! My younger daughter often borrows my tablet (oh, who am I kidding? she's now the permanent custodian...), and it turns out she sent the message from there, because she didn't recognise the location. I mean, I know I've been tired these past few days, but not to the extent of texting in my sleep.
 
Here is a blog entry I came across years ago, which struck me as similar to some of my own experiences. So it didn't HTM, but this seems a likely place to put it. It is about a rather spontaneous tour a young woman went on, which seemed to follow some unseen itinerary. I've had some things like that happen, when after the sixth or seventh "coincidence" you start to say Hmmmm...

The blog is long gone, but fortunately we live in the timeline where someone invented the Wayback Machine so it's still there, photos and all. The blogger is an interesting poet and I believe the author of some books. I'll have to see if I can find her name. I hope she's still with us, as last I knew she was having some very serious health problems.

https://web.archive.org/web/20161110142759/https://earwaxdissertation.com/2013/05/

"Why didn’t that tipsy Venice Beach fortune-teller predict that I would be pissing in the same restroom Jim Morrison had? And she sure didn’t foresee me shopping at the same record store Ray Manzarek frequented on Sunset Blvd. I should have known better in the City of Night. Welcome to my L.A. Woman Tour. In honor of Ray Manzarek (keyboardist and founding member of the Doors) who passed away this week in Germany at the age of 74, I’d like to share my personal odyssey with the Doors and their ghosts."
 
It's my day off work today. I've just looked at my printouts to see how many families/groups my co worker will be checking in today .. four including one group with the surname Holmes. I only have one group to book in tomorrow who delightfully have the surname Watson .. I'm considering telling the Holmes group to ask the Watson group what their surname is tomorrow although I expect the Holmes group are probably already a bit bored of the Sherlock jokes by now.
 
It's my day off work today. I've just looked at my printouts to see how many families/groups my co worker will be checking in today .. four including one group with the surname Holmes. I only have one group to book in tomorrow who delightfully have the surname Watson .. I'm considering telling the Holmes group to ask the Watson group what their surname is tomorrow although I expect the Holmes group are probably already a bit bored of the Sherlock jokes by now.

They probably don't want you hounding them about it while they're on holiday.
 
They probably don't want you hounding them about it while they're on holiday.
True .. and Cromer was also the birthplace of Black Shuck .. cue dramatic music and some lightening .. that was the basis for .. a bit of wonky organ music .. The Hound Of The Baskervilles case for Holmes and Watson:sherlock:..

I'm not making any promises .. temptation might defeat me ..
 
But you could play around with security reminders to the paterfamilias: "Sir, lock the doors to your car, don't forget." Channel your inner Connery, maybe. Then give them a copy of the Radio Times, and ask them what's on.
 
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