1190: "Time"

[tman2nd]

There are so many people on right now.

[Whizbang]

Enhance!

Spoiler:

[FullOfIt]

Looks vaguely like Hiragana, but I have no idea if these are actual Hiragana characters.

The second one does look like "so" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/そ).

Edit: The URL didn't work...

[ofvn2vw1872]

Is it part of the Voynich manuscript?

My thoughts went there... right after the music, and I don't think so, based on one photo of a page I pulled up, but I'm no expert.

It also doesn't look indus (based on wikipedia glancing)

But Voynich would make so much sense, and be rather unhelpful.

[BlitzGirl]

The first and last symbols are mirrors of one another, except for that degree-looking dot.

[mscha]

And now that I'm back in the Present, here's a Present Present for all y'all:

TimeWater
(to the tune of Code Monkey, by Jonathan Coulton)

Spoiler:

TimeWaiter get up, get coffee;
TimeWaiter go to Thread.
TimeWaiter have lengthy ketchup
(Or could do fry sauce instead).
Much rather stay up, skip the coma and
Stay here posting links
But sadly brain not seem to work that way
Without sleep, I can't think.
TimeWaiter see brilliant comics from BlitzGirl,
yappobiscuits set to song;
TimeWaiter see talent such by;
TimeWaiter feel humble, but try.

TimeWaiter like Cuegan!
TimeWaiter like cake and cupcakes too!
TimeWaiter always Wait for It -
Just post in the OTT -
TimeWaiter stay true.

TimeWaiter suddenly is pagepope.
Try to make decree nice.
All posts must claim something is made of
Semencancerbabiesonice.
Nobody pays any attention, 'cause
We're too busy for that.
We're having Lego debate again
And, "LOOK OUT", raptorcat!
TimeWaiter have long wait under the Stars, predicting
Thousands of years hence.
TimeWaiter drop Lego debate;
TimeWaiter just sit here and Wait;

TimeWaiter like Cuegan!
TimeWaiter like cake and cupcakes too!
TimeWaiter always Wait for It -
Just post in the OTT -
TimeWaiter stay true.

TimeWaiter hopes no more mustard
Will OTC deface.
TimeWaiter detecting molpies
Raptors too, just in case.
We know the way that they've been traveling:
We all thank edfel's map.
We hear the "chirp"s and "Pffthh"s and "Pthuh"s and "bye"
And we hear Megan's THWAP.
TimeWaiter think someday we will know everything,
even who is LaPetite.
TimeWaiter just Waiting, for now;
TimeWaiter say someday, somehow;

TimeWaiter like Cuegan!
TimeWaiter like cake and cupcakes too!
TimeWaiter always Wait for It -
Just post in the OTT -
TimeWaiter stay true.
TimeWaiter stay true.

Very ⁴!
(I'd never heard of Jonathan Coulton before Time... I'm glad I do now, after at least three people have ottified some of his songs!)

[libra]

Looks vaguely like Hiragana, but I have no idea if these are actual Hiragana characters.

No. Nor are they katakana, kanji, Korean or Chinese.

I just checked. Nothing like it in the Voynich Manuscript, nor in The Codex Seraphinianus. I think I'd need more samples before I can take a stab at a lexical analysis.

And it's definitely not Klingon.

[JGeezer]

I think I got it!

Spoiler:

[GerardE]

The first and last symbols are mirrors of one another, except for that degree-looking dot.

Well spotted. I vote for this indicating that the characters inside are meant as a question.

[Eutychus]

Is it part of the Voynich manuscript?

My thoughts went there... right after the music, and I don't think so, based on one photo of a page I pulled up, but I'm no expert.

It also doesn't look indus (based on wikipedia glancing)

But Voynich would make so much sense, and be rather unhelpful.

This has already been quoted on the OTT, but seems relevant again...

(half-ninja'd)

[pelrigg]

_______________________________/\_______________________________

Spoiler:

A representation of my idea of related languages sinking.

[frakhorsestaplers]

If this is at all based on cursive Hebrew, I can recognize four of the letters. The first letter (right to left, as Hebrew is generally read) could be a zayin, the second word's first letter is possibly a tet, the second letter of that word would be daled, and the final letter would be gimel. However, Hebrew would only make sense if combined with something else, since the second letter of the first word (assuming right to left reading) is not a letter in Hebrew at all, not even with wild extrapolations like those needed to call the first letter a cursive zayin.

[Angelastic]

⁷, another of my predictions seems to be coming true! I agree that one of the characters looks like そ, but none of the others are hiragana.

I think they're saying, 'Huh? Weird.' or 'Speak properly!' or 'I seem to be having a dreadful problem with the position of the towel between my toes. You don't happen to have any kumquats, do you?'

[mscha]

TRANSCRIBE!

Spoiler:

[BlitzGirl]

TRANSCRIBE!

Spoiler:

[Exodies]

It's nice to have more Knights Temporal about. And fitting that the knightings should happen during the Long Night of the OTC.

So, does that mean that Kdawnings are in order now?

{P983}
Or even Gdays.

[Angelastic]

TRANSCRIBE!

Spoiler:

Well, that proves it! GLR does read the thread!

[ofvn2vw1872]

The first and last symbols are mirrors of one another, except for that degree-looking dot.

Well spotted. I vote for this indicating that the characters inside are meant as a question.

Or that the pitch is to be lowered one half-flat (half flat to full flat) over the course of the phrase.

This has already been quoted on the OTT, but seems relevant again...

The problem is that the drawing of the Voynich characters in that comic are pretty spot on, and these would have to be pretty approximate to fit.

[Eutychus]

'I seem to be having a dreadful problem with the position of the towel between my toes. You don't happen to have any kumquats, do you?'

How about "I seem to be having tremendous difficulty with my lifestyle"?

/surely not obscure here

[SinusPi]

I don't think we'll find a match, even searching all of Unicode. It would give us a pretty precise geographical location, and I don't believe that'd be what Lord Randall would want

[Angelastic]

'I seem to be having a dreadful problem with the position of the towel between my toes. You don't happen to have any kumquats, do you?'

How about "I seem to be having tremendous difficulty with my lifestyle"?

/surely not obscure here

I was actually thinking of that very quote, but I wan't sure of the exact wording and couldn't be bothered looking it up, so I just started the phrase in the same manner and then continued with whatever monkey-taco-pseudorandom nonsense I happened to think of. Towels were naturally not far from my mind.

[Exodies]

Any opinions on which atmosphere would take more time, and more effort, to terraform? My money's on Mars being faster, but I have no real basis for thinking that.

Would that be with the Mark II or Mark III Teraformer?

[Whizbang]

Well U+202c didn't work, and now I am out of ideas.

Maybe there is something in the javascript.

[Eutychus]

Angelastic:

The context of the quote seems very appropriate here. I've wondered several times whether there wouldn't a some point turn out to have been an "unfortunate error of scale" whereupon Cuegan are swallowed by a small dog...

[CFS]

I think the key to discovering this language may start with identifying what language use that kind of open & closed inquisitive marks. I'm looking right now, but I don't know much about this kind of thing.

[libra]

The first and last symbols are mirrors of one another, except for that degree-looking dot.

Well spotted. I vote for this indicating that the characters inside are meant as a question.

Sounds like you have a tentative argument here. If the same structure appears in a future frame, with different characters between them, then this would be a reasonable conclusion. Roll on more data.

[BlitzGirl]

Well, Cuegan probably doesn't know this language, if it's the same as the one etched into the wowtrees:

Spoiler:

...

[ucim]

TimeWaiter

(I assume the title in your post, TimeWater, is a typo, but it could also be subliminal, I suppose!)

Mongo cool! (that's like "neat", only moreso). Also neat is that Jonathan Coulton does a song a week... all GPL. That's a lot of new songs! Wonder if he'd be interested in seeing your ottification - he sounds like somebody who would enjoy the thread.

I think they're saying, 'Huh? Weird.' or 'Speak properly!' or 'I seem to be having a dreadful problem with the position of the towel between my toes. You don't happen to have any kumquats, do you?'

Nah. They are saying that their hovercraft is full of eels.

Good prediction btw.

(the "problem...lifestyle" quote seems to have some mememity... hmmmm.

Jose
edit for tag fail. Twice.

[sford]

Hmmm. A couple characters look like Hebrew script and at least one character looks Greek but otherwise looks gibberish-y to me.

Darn you! Yes, the first character looks a bit like a backwards Lamed:

Spoiler:

That, combined with the kippot:

Spoiler:

I think the first person said, "You're a scarecrow, you should eat something."

ETA: alas, I don't know Hebrew script. But Wikipedia does, and some of them look pretty close. (But not enough to be conclusive...)

Spoiler:

[edo]

Hebrew? First looks like gimmel, last like zain?

[BlitzGirl]

At this point, it would not surprise me if GLR took symbols from four or five different scripts, mustarded them up a bit, and used that as Beanie-ish.

[CameronCat]

CameronCat to the Present, CameronCat calling the Present...
Blintz continues. BlackCat flight now passing NP1029, have crossed shadow post from the past. Progress and arrival delayed to encountering extreme headwinds from Outside. Continuing on course as filed; unable to predict arrival due to slow travel and destination moving farther away.

PIREPS: @YappoBiscuits

Spoiler:

PIREP: Unusual music heard over comms vicinity NP1002. Slightly clipped British accent, easy beat, plenty of boom de yadas. Loved it.

But what do you mean by "clipped"? Do you mean the audio is clipping (i.e. distorted)? Because I try hard to avoid that

The audio is great. My term "clipped" refers to your particular British accent and the way you handle certain vowels and final consonants. It is neither the broad (or posh) version nor the nasal twang of, say, Manchester or --Randall help us! -- Glasgow.
I'm guessing you're perhaps from the Midlands?

PIREP: Returning the favor for jjjDavidson

Spoiler:

Oh. . . my. . . word. . . CameronCat, you just gave me the single biggest laugh I've had in the last 3½ months (and there've been some good ones). I laughed so hard my wife came out of the bedroom asking, "What have you done to the cats now?"

I skimmed over the paragraphs you quoted, having seen them before, then started on your last bit. Somewhere about "...would have a clue in hell what that meant," I found myself thinking, Wait, what? And I backed up and reread BlitzGirl's paragraph, and realized that I hadn't noticed a chirping thing odd about it, either when I first read it or when you quoted it.

And I utterly, completely lost it. I'm still out of breath.

For all you have contributed to this congregation and the Tabernacle, I am happy to have brightened your day a bit.
"Seeing ourselves as others see us" and all that...

BlackCat flight proceeding, with Information Ucim. Anticipate straight-in approach perhaps to November Papa one zero three eight or three nine.

[yappobiscuits]

Back from t'outside. Ooh, weird other language! If Beanie-ish is indeed a completely fictional language, that makes it pretty much certain it's set far in the future OR in a strange Randallverse.

We won't eat you.

Which in due process will unfortunately become mistranslated as "We won't your "

We won't ch*rp your m*stard? (Excuse my language)

"... ho, it's off to work we go"?

I thought that "Heigh-Ho" was pronounced "Hi-Ho," not "Hey-Ho."

Who can say for sure? Mysterious are the ways of the Dwarves.

"Heigh-Ho" could in fact be something really sinister in Khuzdul...

If my hat can be a book, then there is no excuse for unoriginality, regardless of lack of resources. But yes, their uniform-ness does suggest minions or sorts, doesn't it.

All that comes to mind...

Spoiler:

Randallspeed on your blitzquest, Minim! You can do it!

*salutes*

(I don't even know why I'm doing that, but oh well)

*returns salute* What ho, Minim of the future when you eventually read this! Hmm, my sigcouragement did have a slight militaristic air to it I suppose... Good show, pip pip, carry on!

TRANSCRIBE!

Spoiler:

The audio is great. My term "clipped" refers to your particular British accent and the way you handle certain vowels and final consonants. It is neither the broad (or posh) version nor the nasal twang of, say, Manchester or --Randall help us! -- Glasgow.
I'm guessing you're perhaps from the Midlands?[/spoiler]

Nope, Cumbria (Far north-west, on border with Scotland). I don't have a particularly strong accent for the area though.

[nsub1]

I've been trawling through Unicode code sheets, and I can't find a set that includes all of our mysterious characters. If they are a real language (not invented by GLR, that is), it would either a) have to be one where the written form can vary significantly (which is many, to be honest) or b) one not represented in Unicode. The closest I came was aboriginal Canadian syllabics, but I really don't think they match well.

At this point, it would not surprise me if GLR took symbols from four or five different scripts, mustarded them up a bit, and used that as Beanie-ish.

I'd generally agree. I wish he didn't mustard them up, because then we could use them as they were in the OTT. As it is, I tried matching most of them up to no avail (or, at least, not close enough to satisfy me).

[libra]

Well, Cuegan probably doesn't know this language, if it's the same as the one etched into the wowtrees:

Spoiler:

...

By Crikey, you could be onto something there!

If they did read those words, she most likely never heard the language - and while we are reading those characters, we neither know what they sound like, nor does Megan have access to the written script in that speech bubble.

What if these people cleared out this area, and erected those towers to eavesdrop and monitor the people below? Think it was a prelude to something like an invasion?

End wild speculation mode.

[mscha]

It could, of course, be the case that Beanong is actually a perfectly normal current-earth language – might as well be Dutch – but simply one that Cuegan doesn't know. So, they hear gibberish, and thus we see gibberish.

[CFS]

I'm going to say that I think this is a real language, although it may be an obscure one. We need to get a picture of this on some linguist forum and see if someone recognizes it.

[spamjam]

Since what's being said is shown in these strange characters, then it's from the perspective of the speaker, not Cuegan. I'd like to see this from Cuegan's perspective, i.e., written in English characters to show what is sounds like.

ETA: slightly ninja'd by last coupl'a posts.

[thirds]

I examined all the unicode transliteration tables and there is no match. There are some close calls, like Tibetan and Amharic, but no match.

[CasCat]

Cueball can climb faster because his leg isn't injured.

I wonder if they'll speak the same language as the people she sees.

"Hello. My leg is hurt. Can you help?"

"Qu'avez-vous dit?"

Hah! Called it! (Can't remember if I was first to suggest this, though)

CasCat

Edit: PagePope! Wow, I've never been PagePope before....

Um...

Upagain, upagain
Climbing the mountop
Megan and Cueball
Meet people unknown.

Papal degree comes down:
Ultrapoetic'ly:
Post double dactles
With thoughts of your own!