RyanCConnelly

TWO more Ohio people today?! THERE ARE DOZENS OF US. DOZENS!

To be fair, it IS so much! But in Europe, as many others have said, the hourly pay is enough that there is no need for 20% tip. While working in Italy I actually hung out with some people who were waiters/bartenders and did so as a career, and they were proud of it, and had every right to be! They also explained that when a tourist or nonlocal tipped them (more than a Euro or so as another poster noted) it was kind of offensive because it implied that they needed the extra money because their job was bad. While I knew that it was not appropriate to tip there, it was still such an interesting different view to see how it could be misconstrued to someone who is used to doing it and would be getting an angry glance or even some choice words from a server.

It's interesting, a lot of people in the US are also getting fed up with tipping, there have been several restaurants that I have heard of doing away with it, and instead paying their employees a living wage. Like all big changes, I think it's going to take a while before it will be very different, mostly just a few here or there. The problem that I have always seen is that there is such a huge gap in education between regions here in the states about tipping etiquette. For most establishments in the US a tip of about 18% is seen as "good service." I usually tip 20% because I have been in the service industry before and I know how hard it is to make ends meet sometimes... also I'm lazy and the math is easier. However, living in the midwest for several years has taught me that there are a LOT of people who think that a tip of 10-15% is not only acceptable but is a great tip! I don't have a solution for the problem unfortunately, but I do agree that tipping is an odd practice that we really ought to do away with, and I would very much support paying servers living wages, even if that means paying more for the experience of eating at a restaurant. Serving is very challenging, especially when working at finer restaurants where your knowledge of cuisine, alcohol, and pairings really matter, and not being compensated for that appropriately is really a shame.

Definitely could be an affectation. I also so rarely use IPA for English anymore, I've been living in German/Italian language for the past couple months so I'm used to using open and closed o a lot more! In the name of Pedantry I took a look in one of my textbooks and uploaded a couple pages: http://imgur.com/a/fzDGH Now these books are for a little more "proper" English because it's intended for classical singing, so they agree with what I said before, but even in repeating some of the examples given I can see where in a more American dialect like the one I use in everyday speech I could almost use them interchangeably.

No, the second o in robot would be an "open o", which is [ɔ]... ugh although now that I'm repeating it out loud I'm not sure that it wouldn't be an [a] PEDANTRY!

I agree! I like it as a little bumper. I've enjoyed all the recent little musical interjections lately actually, I absolutely loved the Wizard Jam remix!

GENIUS

This sounds so absolutely badass. You very much live up to your username!

AHHHH you're right! I don't know why but I always get those mixed up. Same with voiced and unvoiced th vowels. One is ð, one is θ and I can never remember which is which!

I got this! I'm a native English speaker with a bunch of IPA in multiple languages for work. There is no ue/Ü in English, but it is very easy to teach. You are very close with your description, the method in one of the textbooks I learned from says that to make a correct Ü vowel, which in IPA is [y], you say the vowel (like the vowel in the English words beat or meet), but with your mouth in the position of [o] (like the English word food).

That's awesome! It really is a cool thing, and does not require too much knowledge beforehand to really enjoy! I love going to see new shows for this very reason.

I'm a little late to the convo, but I am long distance often due to work with my wife of almost three years. We've been that way from the beginning. It's hard work for sure but so doable! I wanted to just put in my two cents to offer a little hope.

HAHA It's a thing, for sure. I am, however, the very definition of a starving artist sometimes. It's still fun though to make loud noises and play dress-up though haha!

Hi guys! I made this account during the kickstarter campaign, but was terrified of forums and interacting with people for some reason and never posted. So I'm finally joining the fray... I've actually been mentioned on the podcast, because of my website through Squarespace, and through an email I wrote that was mentioned and never read... I still write in often hoping to one day make the cast haha! People seem to be saying what they do and what they play, so here goes: I'm a professional opera singer, freelancing around the country and playing games backstage and in my free time. I play mostly PC and 3DS, I've been playing a LOT of the latter because I was just on a 2 month contract. Looking forward to posting more!