Category: Quora Answers by me

Have you ever quit a job and walked out without giving any notice? What caused you to leave so urgently?

Have you ever quit a job and walked out without giving any notice? What caused you to leave so urgently?

Well I did one time, because the boss who was also a close friend (which can be complicated) got many months behind on paying me. This was “constructive dismissal” in the jurisdiction concerned so I could leave the moment I liked. I didn’t want any discussion so I just came in at a weekend, fished the fish out of my office fishtank and took them home, and took all my other personal belongings home. I took the computer and car from the company that I had been using as lien against the debt, and later we agreed on a payment plan which involved me taking ownership of those assets as part of paying off the debt to me and me forgiving part, and an instalment plan with interest for a third part, but already I had to work elsewhere. Obviously I had got the new role sorted prior to walking out the door.

I did not steal his clients or run on his business although some who wanted to come to me did come over and I declared these in every case.

Ten years down the line I am trying again with the same boss, as he seems to have learned his lesson and we both missed the good times we had working together. But he knows how I will react if he ever does that again, and so he will make every effort not to.

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What do the British call a television?

What do the British call a television?

The British native languages – especially Celtic.

Among the British languages we have Teledu in Welsh and in Breton the endearing term Skinwel, although despite Britannic it isn’t spoken in the UK. I couldn’t find the Cornish term, but another commentator has it. Nor Manx, although presumably they have them. Irish Gaelic is Teilifís, Scots Gaelic is telebhisean, and the Lowland Scots article in Wikipedia says “Televeesion” although I am not such if that’s official usage, and as far as the Old English word they use, I think we can be pretty sure that’s an anachronism.  As Abe Lincoln famously said, “don’t believe everything you read on the internet”. In that vein the Pictish term for TV is VOD as this enables you to “pict” what you like, when you like.

An early form of television from Chaucer’s time, needing a huge machine underneath to get it working and even then the screen was only in blue.  Legend has it that in the UK, in order to get that effect in “The Wizard of Oz”, they had to carry out your old black and white minstrel television and bring in a Sony Trinitron actually during the film.

British dialects of English

If you are thinking about British versions of English and the regional or slang terms, I can’t think of any regionalisms. “Telly” is an informal way of talking about television as a service or the actual set, and further slang words for the set exist such as “the box” or “the gogglebox”. The term “tube”, hwever, was not widely used in British English slang and is more of an Americanism which I am not sure many of us would have understood prior to YouTube popularising it.

Community languages

Immigrant communities in the UK exist and the Poles have telewizja, while the words in Indian languages are mainly recognisable as something sounding like the original Standard English word (ie Greek roots put together in such a way that Oedipus could have forgiven his father) but written in their own alphabets and there are quite a few of them.

You can probably get by in the British Isles just using “television”, this weird partly Greek partly Latin word which was put together in the UK by an inventor whose command of physics was clearly many metres per second better than his command of philology.

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I am a Hindu girl but my boyfriend is Muslim, he keeps complaining about my clothes that they are too modern and I should wear hijab whenever I meet him. He says that I should not show my face to other boys it is a sin. What should I do?

I am a Hindu girl but my boyfriend is Muslim, he keeps complaining about my clothes that they are too modern and I should wear hijab whenever I meet him. He says that I should not show my face to other boys it is a sin. What should I do?

He seems to be picking and choosing what bits of his religion apply to him. He ought not to be marrying a non-Muslim girl and he ought not to be dating without any intention to marry.

Mixed-faith romance often ends in tears.

If he is so concerned about the issues of haram and halal, then he should be consistent and choose a jeevan sathi who shares his deen.

I think if you are wise you will marry someone who shares your cultural and philosophical outlook. If he cannot find the integrity to be consistent and end the relation with you, you can help him out.

One Muslim reader then replied:

The Hindu girl should think twice if they want to continue their relation. If she is really interested in marrying a Muslim she should immediately convert to Islam. Let her future husband lead and guide her.

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How can you help a dying betta fish?

How can you help a dying Betta splendens fish?


I don’t believe in euthanasia, for animals just as for humans. I do believe in dying with dignity which means not surrounded by other fish pecking his eyes out before he is even dead. So I would give the fish normal conditions in which it would be comfortable if healthy, low light, and solitude. Once it is really dead you can feed the body to other fish, flush it down the toilet, whatever. But the life, while it is there, is sacred, and should have dignity, even for a fish.

Whatever science could say about its neurones and synapses, he was your pet.

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What do I do when a girl rejects a kiss?

What do I do when a girl rejects a kiss?

Respect the decision

Respect her decision but don’t take it personally.  She may just happen to be in love with someone else or you may not be her type. Don’t be upset about it, however don’t be suddenly very different with her than you were before.

I am not in favour of asking, you have to be able to gauge it with eye contact, smiles and then do the lean-in. You cannot really kiss someone by stealth, or even if you can, you shouldn’t.

People don’t walk around with this sign on their clothing, normally. If they did, there may be fewer misunderstandings.

Something to exclude first

Always worth as well checking you don’t have a breath issue. Just to exclude that as a reason why, in the absence of any more obvious reason.

Kissing onus

The onus is on the girl to help you to create a situation where you can repeat it if she actually would like to be kissed and was simply taken by surprise.

No biggy, you’ll see

 

But the main thing is, don’t treat it as anything major. It is a minor thing, really minor, as you will know for sure in due course even if your cheeks are burning today. No biggy; it is a smally of the smallies.  You may feel that you have lost face, however, unless the person concerned was glanding some powerful acid that she herself was immune to, that is not likely to be the case in actual fact.

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