Most of us are. Though I've moved past the stage of merely making noise on my tin whistle, I need a lot more practice before I'll consider myself a musician.

_________________
Whistle No.1: Walton's Irish, soprano D
Whistle No. 2: green Feadóg Original, soprano D

Fair enough.


... Actually...
Complaining isn't much my style. Also, I find that I don't have a lot of time to spend complaining, which also reduces the amount of complaining that I do.

In fact, I hardly have time to read the posts on this thread. Hopefully I will get back to them soon...

Also how can they say there is no reserve price ,when in fact you have to bid more than 79 pound.


RORY

_________________
I'm Spartacus .

I know you aren't seeking answers, but I do want to comment.

The issue is that the color and tone of your flute fulfills the salient (that is the important/identifying) aspects of a clarinet and not a flute. For most people, the playing position of the instrument (side-blown verses end-blown) isn't the most salient aspect. Rather, the shape and timbre of the instrument tend to be the most salient (in my estimation).

Since this particular forum allows rambling, I will ramble..

I enjoyed the following section from a blog post of a friend of mine. She worked with a group of individuals from different parts of Africa and they were discussing metaphors, proverbs, and idioms...

"Then I had them think of common metaphors from their own language, and the rest of us would try to guess what they meant. It came down to what the salient quality is, in our minds, of the thing that something or someone is being compared to. For example, one of the students said that in their language they might say "Women are like sheep." We tried to guess what that meant. In my culture, sheep are meek, they're fluffy, they're followers, they're innocent (ex "wolf in sheep's clothing"). But in this man's culture, sheep are thought of as forgetful. So, "Women are like sheep" means "Women are forgetful." See how easy it could be to create a misunderstanding?

Here are a few others from the class, for fun.

1 ) "That child is a tortoise."
2 ) "He goes like water."
3 )"This child is a cow."
4 ) "That man is a solitary monkey."
5 ) "She is a chicken."
6 ) "That man is a crow."
7 ) "Shaasa is a person."

A couple that are proverbs:
8 ) "A man is medicine."
9 ) "To be big is to be a stone."

Answers after the jump.


I've hidden the answers below. In order to see them, you will need to highlight them with your cursor, sort of like when you want to copy/paste text. Since not everyone is very computer savvy... If that doesn't make sense, just press the "Ctrl" and the "A" button at the same time and they will be revealed :
1 ) Tortoises eat only vegetables. So, "That child eats a lot of vegetables."
2 ) Water runs quickly. So, "He runs quickly."
3 ) Cows are foolish.
4 ) A solitary monkey is selfish and does not share with anyone.
5 ) Chickens go to bed early.
6 ) A crow is fearful and runs from people.
7 ) A person is good (not like an animal).
8 ) It is important to have a man around the house in case of any emergency.
9 ) Adults are depended upon by their younger people.

Which ones surprised you the most? I love that the salient quality of chickens is that they go to bed early (not that they're easily scared), and that the important thing about tortoises is that they eat vegetables (not that they're slow and steady).

A thing which I find most curious. TBH, I've never had that problem for some reason, but to see it in a musician is even still more curious to me, because one would think their having been around the block would count for something. To repeat myself, it's not seeing the forest for the trees. But that's why we help them along, isn't it.


For me, "A man is medicine" was probably the hardest to intuit (although they were all pretty opaque). "Shaasa is a person" was the most intuitive.

_________________
"Time is the wisest counselor of all." - Pericles

"I remain not entirely convinced of it." - Nano

The one about a man moving like water; ergo, he is fast. Granted, water typically does move along at a rapid clip...but I once had a PT instructor who, if he thought someone needed to pick up their pace, would admonish them for "moving like pond-water." As Nanohedron said, those examples were all rather opaque.

_________________
Whistle No.1: Walton's Irish, soprano D
Whistle No. 2: green Feadóg Original, soprano D

At least the image of pond water for sluggishness is clear. When I hear "He goes like water," I think first of effortlessness.

_________________
"Time is the wisest counselor of all." - Pericles

"I remain not entirely convinced of it." - Nano

In Chinese, one of the worst things you can call someone is a turtle egg. If I have it right, there's a story of a turtle who was unfaithful to her mate, so calling someone a turtle egg is basically calling them a basmati.

The thing I find bizarre about this is that AFAIK, turtles don't mate for life (or even more than one season), and neither of the parents has anything to do with raising the little ones. I don't even know of any species that protect their eggs.

_________________
Charlie
Whorfin Woods
Don't blame me, I voted for Cthulhu

Well, we say "sweat like a pig". But pigs don't sweat.

_________________
"Time is the wisest counselor of all." - Pericles

"I remain not entirely convinced of it." - Nano

And "happier than a pig in..." erm, slop. But pigs are usually pretty clean animals.

_________________
Whistle No.1: Walton's Irish, soprano D
Whistle No. 2: green Feadóg Original, soprano D

If they have lots of clean straw in a concrete pen, yes. But not if they have a chance for a vigorous mud bath on a hot day.

Curiously, "He goes like water," was the only one I got without peeking.

Also, Nanohedron; I have on order a 6-keyed flute in mopani. I’ll let you know if it gets mistaken for anything. I doubt anyone will guess clarinet, but it will be interested to see what responses it gets.

The mopane could be mistaken for some kind of rosewood, in which case customs could impound it.

This isn't a post to ebay, but we have a bottle of aloe lotion, which says on it, "100% pure*"

"contains only aloe vera and other necessary stabilizers."

The list of ingredients on the back is as long as my arm and includes things like FD&C yellow 22 ( one of, about three artificial dyes in the stuff), PEG 8-12 (polyethylene glycol with 8-12 ethylenes per unit), various alcohols, and a dozen other things that have nothing to do with stabilizing it.

To paraphrase Inigo Montoya, I don't think (necessary stabilizers) means what you think it means.

_________________
Charlie
Whorfin Woods
Don't blame me, I voted for Cthulhu