Thursday, December 17, 2009

I don't understand...

1. The phrase "that is true." I think the first time i heard it said with any frequency was late in high school, but people say it all the time. I mean, why not just say "yea"? (and is that question mark supposed to go inside the quotes? I wouldn't want to put in, because then it seems like the quote itself is "yea?" which is a question, i dunno). It just seems like such a weird thing to say, and people sound so un-natural saying it, like maybe they should have one of those old tobacco pipes hanging out of their mouth while they say it or something. At least that's the mental picture I get.

Even worse than "that is true" is..."THIS is true." What's interesting about this one is that people use it the same way as the first. This doesn't make any sense! If I say "Wow it's cold outside!" and you answer "that is true," then I get that what you are referring to with the word "that" is the statement I made. But when you say "this is true" to my statement, why would you use the word "this"? (again, not sure about that damn question mark placement). People generally say "this" when they are referring to something they are holding or wearing, or something right in front of them (i mean, i guess i can see how people say "this city is huge" though). But if I say something, and you are using "this" to refer to my statement, i just think that "that" is much more appropriate, considering that my statement is not something tangible, not something on your person, etc. It's like if I'm wearing a cool coat, and I say "this jacket is tight!" (obviously by tight, i mean extremely cool, I say this a lot...), you wouldn't say "yea this jacket is," if anything you'd say "yea that jacket is." Clearly this is a very important topic to be discussing, moving on...

2. Negative questions such as "you don't want to grab lunch do you?" The reason I find these weird is that if I answer "yea," that often times is interpreted as me saying "yea I want to grab lunch." And if I answer "no," that is interpreted as "no, I don't want to grab lunch." The problem is that if the question is "you don't want to grab lunch?" then answering with a "yea" would seem to be affirming the question (as in yes, i don't want to grab lunch). No is negating the sentence, saying that it is incorrect (no, i DO want to have lunch). And yet most people answer in the affirmative with a "yea" and the person who asked the question knows that he means "yea I want to have lunch" when what it should mean is "yea, I don't want to have lunch." I guess this is just the way people speak, but it seems odd since I think most people understand what the yes and no answers mean when written, and yet when spoken they take on a different meaning.

3. Prices at little 24-hour shops in the city. They will sell a bag of chips for the same price as at the grocery store, and then i go to buy Oreos and Teddy Grahams (obviously cinnamon) and the total comes out to $13. I mean seriously, wtf. I understand that as the store is open 24 hours, it has a certain convenience to it which should be reflected in the prices, meaning that the prices should increase since the store's hours are so convenient for late night shoppers (I guess that's where "convenience store" comes from, wonder if any of those aren't open 24 hours, if not they must be convenient in other ways). So while I agree the prices should probably be higher at the dinky place next door b/c of the 24 hour availability, why are many of the products sold at the normal price (even when the product doesn't have a price already written on it or anything) and yet some odd products are way more expensive? I would expect uniformity, but who knows what the reasoning is. I went to one of these places and they said it was $10 for a 12 pack of diet pepsi (aka the elixir of life), maybe the guy just didn't like me or something but that is ridiculous!

4. Why are people proud of how much water they drink? Obviously not everyone is, but I find that a lot of people will proudly tell me that they drink X amount of water bottles a day, like I should be impressed. I mean, i guess it's healthy and all, maybe it's just something easy to do that makes people feel good?

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