May I share with you a client-facing idea?

Whenever you visit a Four Seasons or Ritz Carlton hotel, you will never hear the phrase, "no problem." Never. Instead, their staff will say, "my pleasure," "with pleasure," "absolutely.". They always use positive words. They are very specifically trained to avoid the phrase, "no problem."

If you ever hear a staff member of either of those two chains using the term, "no problem," please let me know. I will pay you $5, and you have zero downside.

So, in the future, try to avoid using a very negative phrase, "no problem."

I honestly feel like Jennifer Aniston in the "pieces of flair" discussion right now.

If he has never been told in his life, that the proper way to wear a hat is with the bill facing front, then I and all others should apologize.

4a. A reasonable person could interpret Rodney's actions as showing a lack of respect. Not wearing the uniform as it's properly intended shows a lack of caring enough to do the little things that shows you care. It is not a sign of disrespect.

And the fact that you don't get that Jennifer Aniston was showing lack of respect is part of the problem. She wasn't disrespecting the uniform(and to be fair, that company didn't deserve respect because of the silliness of the rule and other reasons) but she was showing it lack of respect. Mind you in that particular case it was a very minor lack and it takes a really uptight tight ass to make a problem with it.

Respect the uniform? No, respect Rodney's right to act as an individual. Even if it does make him look like a drunk Charlie Callas.

I am surprised to hear that people think it makes someone like Rodney, a 36-year-old African American, look like a member of a boy band, who were pretty much exclusively white teens.

Whenever you visit a Four Seasons or Ritz Carlton hotel, you will never hear the phrase, "no problem." Never. Instead, their staff will say, "my pleasure," "with pleasure," "absolutely.". They always use positive words. They are very specifically trained to avoid the phrase, "no problem."

So, in the future, try to avoid using a very negative phrase, "no problem."

A reasonable person could interpret Rodney's actions as showing a lack of respect.

We open the door for women and the elderly as a sign of respect. There is no rules saying we have to, there is no law or anyone forcing us to do this, it's just something we do as a sign of respect and common courtesy. Sure there are people who don't do that, and it doesn't mean they disrespect the group, but their actions do carry some weight when other people see it.

Note: I should have used the word lack of respect instead of disrespectful. Disrespectful implies an active action of showing lack of respect. I.E. as an atheist, if I wanted to be a dick, I would go into a church and turn all their crosses upside down, that is disrespectful and it's a moral failing.

I honestly feel like Jennifer Aniston in the "pieces of flair" discussion right now.

cardsafanboy, I disagree with everything you are saying. Well, except for the part where you get to tell everyone how to act. I wish I could tell people how to act during the national anthem - they just stand at attention like trained dogs staring at their master's hand waiting for the next command. This is the USA! When we are told to do something, we think of a creative way to tell them to shove it.

What does race have to do with either of those? I've heard "my bad" (and seen it written here) countless times by whites, or are you saying that it's a white expression only?

Really, Jack? I've nearly always heard "my bad" used to mean "my error/mistake/stupidity/bad pass",...

...as opposed to "my thoughtlessness/rudeness/etc." And the people who use in the second sense are likely to be the sort of people who earn a living ghostwriting for bureaucrats who like to say "mistakes were made".

I have not here been considering the literary use of language, but merely language as an instrument for expressing and not for concealing or preventing thought. Stuart Chase and others have come near to claiming that all abstract words are meaningless, and have used this as a pretext for advocating a kind of political quietism. Since you don't know what Fascism is, how can you struggle against Fascism? One need not swallow such absurdities as this, but one ought to recognize that the present political chaos is connected with the decay of language, and that one can probably bring about some improvement by starting at the verbal end. If you simplify your English, you are freed from the worst follies of orthodoxy. You cannot speak any of the necessary dialects, and when you make a stupid remark its stupidity will be obvious, even to yourself. Political language -- and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists -- is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. One cannot change this all in a moment, but one can at least change one's own habits, and from time to time one can even, if one jeers loudly enough, send some worn-out and useless phrase -- some jackboot, Achilles' heel, hotbed, melting pot, acid test, veritable inferno, or other lump of verbal refuse -- into the dustbin, where it belongs.

Even if it is something that originated among blacks, are we not allowed to think that certain styles that originated or are popular among blacks look stupid or idiotic?

took off into the mainstream after the movie Clueless used it in 1995. Of course all this is from the first page of googling, not from any great research effort.

Why try to parse formal/informal? You can't change it.

The suspicion is that people think that certain styles look stupid or idiotic because they originated or are popular among blacks. I didn't want to bring it up in this thread.

...I'm still patching up the bullet holes I got during the Great Disinterested War of 2013.

In a thread this pedantic, NO ONE has yet pointed out that 'disrespect' is not a m#####-f###### verb?

The colleague in [103] is absolutely right on 'no problem.' It's simply unprofessional because it's widely perceived to be; looking for logic in these kind of social norms is a fool's errand. Call it stupid all you like, in a business setting you're very likely to run into someone who feels that way eventually, so why not stick to professional diction? Why try to parse formal/informal? You can't change it.

Speaking of movies, I just caught the last part of Saving Private Ryan. I wanted to check out how Spielberg shot the other long battle scene that with D-Day brackets the film--the fight for control over the bridge-- and I noted in around 12 minutes of film at least 125 separate cuts, and a lot of those involve one or two shots of a specific action, meaning the number of different scenes he had to set up and match was ridiculous. I don't think it's often you have to start storyboarding on maps, but he must have done with the end of Ryan.

9. It's Such a Beautiful Day (3 animated films by the same creator/director combined in 2012 to make one, coherent film).

Doesn't move my needle much. You can be right about it being a word, you still run the risk of grating on an old fart like me by using it.

edit: Clueless was a lot of fun. One of those movies that take you by surprise, the way Galaxy Quest did, or Dale & Tucker vs. Evil.

This is also a guy who once threw out another colleague's red pen in the middle of a meeting because "red is the color of losses". He's just weird.

It takes every fiber of restraint in my being to not ask "what kind of moron are you?" when I see a guy wearing a wool knit cap on a 110 degree subway platform in August.

10. Autumn

The British zombie movie? Presumably not. Though of course I liked it, zombie movie aficionado that I am.

10. Autumn

The British zombie movie? Presumably not. Though of course I liked it, zombie movie aficionado that I am.

What do you think of Warm Bodies?

Speaking of movies, I just caught the last part of Saving Private Ryan. I wanted to check out how Spielberg shot the other long battle scene that with D-Day brackets the film--the fight for control over the bridge-- and I noted in around 12 minutes of film at least 125 separate cuts, and a lot of those involve one or two shots of a specific action, meaning the number of different scenes he had to set up and match was ridiculous. I don't think it's often you have to start storyboarding on maps, but he must have done with the end of Ryan.A damn sight better than the earlier attack on the German machine-gun post. You can't tell WHAT the heck is going in that scene.

Also,

9. It's Such a Beautiful Day (3 animated films by the same creator/director combined in 2012 to make one, coherent film).
Don Hertzfeldt is brilliant.

Why do I suspect that the guy who wrote this would still object to the very positive phrase "it's all good"?

worst. thread. ever.

Gotta say, every time I see Edward Norton in something, my repsect for his talent grows. He held Stone together, and Primal Fear, which is an ordinary Richard Gere vehicle that even swallows Laura Linney's formidable talents (and buries Frances McDormand under a mop of drab, greasy brown hair), only shines when he's on-screen. He doesn't have DeNiro's presence, or Pacino's hyperkinetic manner, and doesn't have that thing that makes a huge star, but he's one hell of an actor. Is there anyone better these days?

I still think there's a ton of room for straight zombie flicks. Dead Set was a solid horror-thriller. The 28's are exciting and inventive, and I thought their focus on character was what made them so bloody good.

can you rec any other animators/films? I've just gotten back into indy animation after 20 years and I'm amazed at some of what's being done, but I don't really know what/who to look for.

Dammit. Just checked, & Dead Set isn't available for rental or streaming over here, as far as I can tell. *sigh*

I've seen since, god help me, well over 250 of the things.

Any offbeat stuff to reccommend?

At the risk of firing up a 5000 post thread, when films are unavailable and you don't have the option of giving the distributor your money, do you have an objection to going to certain websites and watching them stream, or downloading them for later, non-profit viewing?