janetlin | (no subject)

Eeee.... Not sure what you mean by that as none of ten meanings of "throw off" that I found in the dictionnary seems to be suitable. Was it something like if I like that grammar? Or if I do not understand it? The last one seems closer to what I found, probably.
I can more or less understand it, as I already have a bit experience with this kind of English. But still often have problems with that. Maybe I'm not a pirate enough... It seems yeaterday was an important pirate day, and I fell out completely, all in my work and bloody upset by non-delivered passport. The courrier guys promised to deliver it tomorrow.
Though in whole I'm very fond of pirates.

throw off = confuse, disconcert. My dictionary gives me "сбивать" ~ Я считала, а вы меня сбили = "I was counting and you threw me off."

See, I learn new verbs when I teach you, too! Yay!

Funny, I didn't have this meaning in my dictionnairy. Thanks for explanation.
You know, Sierra, you and I seem to be rather complementary in terms of languages;-))))) Each of us two explains language tips and customs of the particular culture to the other. I'm really glad I met you virtually and hope will meet one day in real life.
*hugs and cheesecakes*
Alchemist

Yes, we work rather well together, don't we?

And if for some reason you can't come to NAAMA '07, I'll have Alan _take_ me to meet you, wherever you are.

And while we're on the topic: this came up in a few of the sentences I was trying to write for tonight's homework... how would you say "I like to jump in leaves" (piles of them)? We're still doing months and seasons and whatnot and a couple times it asks things like, "Что вы любите делать осеню?" and I want to say, "Я люблю прыгать в листах," is that right? Prepositional case, like that?

If so, it's kind of funny because зимой I like to go skiing, and лыжах and листах are so much alike.

Oh, and люблю is like the most fun word to say, ever!

Yeah, you can say Я люблю прыгать в листьях, that's a correct phrase though sounds slightly unusual to me (maybe because in Moscow where I lived there were always lots of dirt everywhere so heaps of leaves did not really provoke a wish to jump in them...). I would say Я люблю ходить по листьям or Мне нравится собирать опавшие листья (I do really like that very much!;-)))
Myself often confuses words like awesom and awful, things that sound and are spelled pretty similar. That's one of the difficult things about learning another language - not just remember, but remember exactly and precisely.
By the way: Я ненавижу кататься на лыжах. That's what I really feel. I just had too much of this stuff on a compulsary base. And I always had problems in the process, like loosing one ski in the middle of the race, and other similar things;-(
Но зато я люблю лепить снеговиков и снежные крепости, а еще играть в снежки!
Люблю is a meaningful word...

Thanks!

"loosing one ski in the middle of the race..."
Did you race downhill or cross-country? I cross-country raced for two years in high school, though I wasn't very good. And there should be only one o in "losing one ski," "loosing" is, like, turning loose, which is usually voluntary. Having your ski fall off your foot is seldom voluntary.

My dictionary doesn't have снеговиков, but I'm assuming that's "snowman." And does the г in that sound like в, the way it does in сегодня and things like моего? (what an odd morphology, that)

No, that letter sounds like "г", well, in this case the sound and the spelling are the same, the root here is снег, and that last letter sounds very clearely, same as in word "снегa" (which is a poetic multiple form with meaning "many snows", sounds rather odd;-)
And yes, the meaning is exactly as you guessed - "snowman".
As for skiing - downhill is ok for me as it usually goes as one move in same direction, but when you just go around a big circle on physical training school lessons, and you have stupid skies with very stupid lock - the bloody thing just suddenly fall out in the most inappropriate moment, and you fall down, and everybody behind you get very angry because they have to go through the same ski path as you, an you are lying across it. That's my usual experience with skies.

Oops, that was me with reply, just forgot to log in:-)))

Wow, I never actually skied _at_ school. My dad would drive us (me and him) an hour up the mountain to get to the snow so we could ski. I'm sorry you had a bad experience with it. When I decided to quit racing, because it was taking too much time from the rest of my life and I realized I didn't really want to work hard enough to get to the champion/Olympic level, Dad was very upset with me, so neither of us even touched our skis for a whole year (the wax stayed on mine the whole time, which is very bad for skis, but neither of us wanted to bother with it). But things are much better now and I enjoy skiing so much more when it's not competitive and I can just enjoy the scenery and not have to worry about perfect technique.

I guess it's just not as enjoyable when someone is _making_ you do it.

(bah, never mind that other post. I'd forgotten to sign out of my RP account)

I've been skiing all my life, but I only enjoyed it in early childhood, when I was doing it by myself, on a little hill near the building where I lived, and I had nice green skies with white rabbits drawn on them. Those skies were of old type, which means they had to be attached by elastic ribbon, and they always stayed ok.
Then for school my parents bought me new skies with plastic ski-binding, and the problems started. Every time at physical training lessons in winter the same thing was happening: everybody put their skies on and go work in the circle. I stay for the whole lesson and try to fasten the bloody binding, as mine are different from what everyone has, and very stupid, you need to be a Hercules to cope with them. My dad said I need to practice fastening them at home, and I did, but the problem is - with first step outside the little holes on the soles get full of snow - and the little pins on the skies have no space to get into. That means the ski and the boot are not tightly joined, and there is no way you can fasten it. At home - no snow, everything fasts easily. My dad offered me to fasten the thing by pressing it with ski stick's handle. I did successfully at home. I did then in school. The rest of the lesson time I spent with the nurse who was curing and dressing my wounds. One move - and my hands just scratched along the bloody fastening stuff. It was impossible to deal with the whole thing while wearing gloves, so I took them off, and that one move made me bleed quite a lot.
Oh, did I say that I always got bad marks for those lessons? Because from the teacher's point of view I was idling while others were working hard.
Later at school I became stronger and was able to fasten the bloody thing (though it usually took about 10 minutes, and nobody ever expressed a wish to help). But it was often unfastening in the middle of something, and everybody around were always angry.
In Uni I had not much skiing (lucky me!), and the skies were provided by Uni, as well as boots, so I had no problems, but still already didn't like the ski stuff.
P.S. That other account looks cool;-)

It's for

men_of_vision, a Harry Potter RP set five years after Voldemort's death. I play both Narcissa and Arthur Weasley, who is the new Minister of Magic (yay!). It scratches the roleplaying itch, though there are some things about it I don't like - Harry and Draco being lovers, and Harry's character in general. But Narcissa is so much fun to play. Recently she got so pissed off with Draco that she actually threatened his life and kicked him out of the house. Both me and the girl who plays Draco were crying by the end of it.

Pretty. I got interested. Planning to read a bit more when I'm not at work (especially minding the specific of the content;-)))
Harry/Draco is not that scary. I was once wondering around the net looking for HP stuff, and bump to a site with fics. One of them had pairing Snape/surprise. I got curious - what could be a surprise. Now I know: warnings are made in order to listen to them! The surprise was Dobby.
By the way, I've read somewhere that maybe in the last book Harry will die. Looking at how it goes in thest three books - quite possible. If he does - the fandom will be the only consolation for the fans;-( But I hope he will live. Too many has already died.

"The surprise was Dobby."

Eeeeewww.

I have had the opinion for years now, that Harry would die in the final book. This is only strengthened by this latest news about Horcruxes - I think Harry is a Horcrux, and if Voldemort can only be killed after all the Horcruxes are destroyed, and one of them is Harry.... Plus there's a very strong theme running through the books about the power of love. The reason Harry didn't die in the first place was because of his mother's protective love. So Harry dying makes _extra_ sense because "greater love hath no man than this: that he lay down his life for a friend." Harry would be dying so that his friends and all of the wizarding world can live.

So I think it's either Harry or Ron who will die in the last book. Ron is a possibility because in the very first book, when they had to play the chess game to get through, Ron sacrificed himself so that Harry could capture the king and beat the challenge. Ron sacrificing himself in the final battle, out of friendship and love, could be just the kicker that enables Harry to defeat Voldemort. Remember that he had needed his parents' help when he faced Voldemort in the graveyard in GoF, and Rowling very carefully lays her parallels and foreshadowing.

Anyway, that's just my theory. You're welcome to join the game; we would love to have you. We're a very small group right now.

That's amazing theory! Sounds very much like true. Well, I'm staying in assurance that Harry will die for years too, but I just HOPE he will not. However, I agree with you: doesn't look like there will be no more deaths of important characters. More likely - who will live at all in the end? Some fics provide the idea that both Ron and Hermione die, which makes Harry particularly lonely and unhappy. I think this option is not unlikely too. So nice that it's only one book left to wait. Though after it everybody will regret that everything is over;-) But we still have fandom.
By the way, when I watched "The dead man's chest" I saw huge number of things that I have already met somewhere in fics made after the first "Pirates". Maybe it's just something in events and characters that appears logically, otherwise I could think that movie creators read fanfics too. Actually, why not?
Thanks for invitation, I'd like to join, but will need to read more first as I'm always too embarrassed to join somewhere before reading the previous stuff, and I know it annoys people when someone does it. How exactly is the whole thing structured? I looked around but didn't find where it actually plays. Or do I need to join first to see that? (that's what I assumed)

Play usually happens through chat (generally on AIM, though a few of us also have Yahoo). Most of what's happening right now, though, is Lucius Malfoy's competency hearing, and since that involves most of the characters and it's tough to get everyone online together, we're commenting and replying. It's working pretty well so far.

menofvision_mod is, as it sounds, the mod journal, and has more detailed rules, available characters, and I think a synopsis.

And the plural of "ski" is "skis" ... "skies" is the plural of "sky."

I can totally understand why that would put you off it, though. Yuck. By the time I was racing, I had the bindings that you just press your toe in and it clicks and life is good. But my mom had a pair of skis with those three pointy things, which sounds like what you're talking about.

Yeah, exactly. Well, I guess nothing can be liked when its technical side gives mostly suffering.

I ended up hating every single book they _made_ me read in school. Which is really terrible because I _love_ reading and anything that can make me hate it must just be pure evil.

I have exactly the same situatin. Oh, I know: the governments are trying to put their people into depth of ignorance by inculcating them disgust for reading by approving such programs in schools!

"Inculcating" is such a wonderful word!

And I hope I'll be able to come to NAAMA 07 and meet you there, but it was a great pleasure to read what you said. Thank you so much! *hugs*