I was thinking that the accents indicated Bu in a rising tone and Yao in a decending tone, which is pretty perfect. But I am totally guessing on that.

I was thinking that the accents indicated Bu in a rising tone and Yao in a decending tone, which is pretty perfect. But I am totally guessing on that.

That is correct. They have roughly equal emphasis. Normally bu gets a descending tone too, but not before another character with a descending tone.

What fascinates me is that Chinese has no word for "No". ("Bu" is a negation, but pretty much always gets paired with a verb or adjective, so "not" rather than "no") and I'd never even realised this would be an issue, but of course it is: What do Chinese toddlers say? And now I have my answer. They say " DO NOT WANT".

I desperately want to dicker on merchandise with someone who speaks Chinese now, just so I can say that.

I am so easily made happy.

I've been trying OK Cupid. Not much success so far. Sent out a bunch of messages, but almost no one has responded. And a few of the ones who have responded have said that they only want to date an atheist or agnostic.

Well, religion can be a biggie. Any dating site is hit or miss; I found Dan, slightly used but a FANTASTIC bargain, on OKC, but I'd tried that, Nerve and Match.com.

Couple of dates off of Nerve, couple off of OKC and nothing from Match, which makes sense, given my geek demographic.

I'm also kind of puzzled at how many people say that they won't date a vegetarian or vegan.

I'm also kind of puzzled at how many people say that they won't date a vegetarian or vegan.

What's so puzzling? Lots of vegetarians and vegans won't allow meat cooked in their house. Aside from that it limits where you can go out to eat. (Especially vegans for breakfast.) It's more complicated to make meals with that person.

It's certainly not insurmountable (JZ is vegetarian/pescetarian - and I do all the cooking) but it does affect the life of the person who isn't vegetarian.

I'm not arguing for that point of view, I just don't think it's puzzling.

Hil, keep it up. My experience has been that guys are impressed with girls who make the first move (what fucking decade is it again?). If you answer a bunch of questions, it (supposedly) improves your matches. I mean, I certainly had mixed/bizarre experiences on OKC, but on the whole I liked it better than Match and it is free. It's where I met the dude who wouldn't tell me how to pronounce his name, but it's also where I met StW. ::shrugs::

Behold my fearsome frugality! I overspent at the market yesterday (no regrets - fanTAStic pecans for $10/lb) so instead of buying dish soap I grated a scrap of bar soap I don't like, added a bit of HE laundry liquid, and just a splash of Citrasolv. Added hot water and whisked with a fork repeatedly, and voila! Works just dandy. With that and postponing buying Dr. Bronners, I've made up for at least $10.

I'm also going to alternate my morning coffee with morning tea, since I have a bunch of Yorkshire gold to go through. Now to menu plan and see what I *have* to buy at the grocery store.

I also *finally* did all the dishes and cleaned my kitchen and bathroom sinks, and wiped my computer screen, iphone, and bedroom mirror with a microfiber cloth.

It just seems odd to me to have that as a "definitely no" thing. It seems more like an "it would depend on the person" thing.

Some things are just dealbreakers. I wouldn't date someone who wasn't a reader (you know what I mean; like a fairly avid reader.)

I didn't respond to a lot of messages on OKC because I would look at their book list and it wasn't there, or it was shite.

Judgmental? Sure. But why set myself up for failure? And really, who would message me when my profile was basically BOOKS GIVE ME LADYBONERS.