'Earthisms' to be avoided, and their alternatives

NJ, m'dear, think about what ultra-sound is. I'm not talking about the procedure I'm talking about ultra-sound waves. I think you'll get the answer. I'm afraid to even think of a BB in the GFFA.

 

Well, the way ultrasound works is by converting mechanical vibrations into electrical signals by means of materials that are piezo-electric. These materials can also turn electrical impulses into mechanical energy. It's sort of like the way sonar works, or echolocation, where sound shoots out, bounces off the object, and returns to the source. The speed at which the mechanical vibrations return to the wand is used in determining the depth of the object in the medium.

I'm pretty well-versed in ultrasound, since I'm a biomedical engineer who aced the lab on the subject back in college, but I need to know if they call it anything DIFFERENT from ultrasound in the GFFA. That's all. I don't want to flub it, but if I'm the first person to ever use this in a fanfic, I guess I get to fudge accordingly, don't I?

Jae Angel

 

I believe the word you are looking for NJ is harmonics. You could say maybe Harmonics sensors as a way to describe Ultra sound.



And you darn well I know what Piezo electic means NJ. I dropped a fuel tank today. Thats all abour pressure and electricity. And unfortunately there are no wrenches in GFFA but they do use british terms for some tools. Like spanners are actually wrenches. But as a auto Tech we use scanners, Diagnostic equipment. Short finders and infrared Lazers for juging distance and alignment angles.
So if you need help give me a holler.

 

Thanks Beez. I think I may use harmonic scanners or sonic sensors as an alternative.

Jae Angel

 

Who/What/When/Where/Why/How on Corellia

Yeah, I think that's fine, as long as it's someone from Corellia. I just know I've found myself almost writing 'What on Earth?' and then thinking 'Wait a tick..'

-sj loves kevin spacey

 

"What in the world?" also sounds weird to me. Which world? It's probably Earth.

Jae Angel

 

Kitchen... I'm pretty sure the proper term for a ship's kitchen could be galley, since that's the term used on Earth's sea ships. An apartment's kitchen? I don't know. Would the GFFA use the term "apartment" or would they just say "(Name's) rooms (or chambers)"?

"Earth to (name)" could be changed to "Base to (name)" or "(Speaker's name) to (name)", as long as the context is clear.

 

I've got a question about the GFFA equivalent of Earth bound vices. Specifically cigarette smoking.

I know there was a Deathsticks referance in ATOC, but the connotation there seemed to be of a hard drug, basicly Coricaunt's heroin or something simliar, not a widely avalible and legal vice.

Another Earthism I have a question about is the GFFA equivalent of a refrigerator.

The reason I'm asking is the fic I'm working on is basicly Cowboy Bebop done Star Wars style, and as any fan of the show knows, the crew of the Bebop spent a lot of time looking in an empty refrigerator and smoking like oil fires.

 

Well, as far as cigs go, in the cantina scene in ANH the twin sisters with the braids were smoking.

With the 'fridge, good question. Haven't a clue.

 

So you think just calling them cigerattes is fine?

 

I invented my own term: called them nicsticks. Anyone heard of the "official" term?

 

I admit to making up techno-sounding stuff. In action scenes I have to keep checking myself because I want to use "radar" when I really mean "sensors" or "repeating blaster" for "machine gun" - the problem with the latter is "repeating blaster" is cumbersome and I usually have soldiers refer to them as "repeaters" except on Earth, "repeater" was a Civil-War era term for a rifle that could fire multiple shots without reloading rather than being a muzzleloader, so it sounds weird to use a term from that era in a SF setting.

I've got a question - anyone know what they call the days of the week in the GFFA, at least on whatever the standard calendar is? It always feels weird to constantly say "three days later" or whatever because I haven't a clue.

-Tim

 

Oohh...That's a good one.

Any other suggestions?

 

For days of the week, I know the Fanfic Writer's Help and Information thread had a bunch of pages discussing the calendar in the GFFA, as well as holidays, and I think there are links to other helpful sites as well.

 

I thought the official term for cigerettes was cigarra but I may well be wrong.

Fridge has always be a fridge to me.

Honestly, unless the 'earthism' jumps out and bites you on the eye, trying to find Star Wars words isn't worth the effort. In fact often made up "Star Wars" terms throw you out of the story more then anything else.

Kithera

 

Fridge might be 'cooler'. It's a less-used Earthism but I haven't seen anything really that is equivalent.

 

I thought cigarra was the official term too...


Refrigeration unit might work for fridge. I tend to just call things what they technically are.

I don't know if there are official names for days and months. THere might be in some sort of RPG source, but I've only ever seen those things numbered.

 

Fridge is Conservator, it's mentioned in I, Jedi, during the scene when Corran enters there apartment and sees that a bowl of fruit's been taken off the table and put in the conservator. And apartment is apartment.

 

Here's what I use:

Fridge: refrigeration unit. Like Yubs, I don't spend my time looking through canon and just call it what it is. Besides, you're not supposed to put fruit in the fridge, I thought. At least not bananas.

Cigarettes: I just say the character is "having a smoke". The one time I had a character smoke, I spent more time describing the appearance of the burning chartreuse stick than I did the name for it. I do like nicsticks, though, but it's awfully close to nicotine. Who says the drug is nicotine?

Jae Angel

 

It's SW fruit, not Earth fruit NJ, and didn't somebody say something about damn not being used as a random curse word? Well in WS Wedge uses it as "I'll be damned they did it." Which isn't the way they used it.

 

Han also uses "Damned slavers"

In front of his three year old... I'll never figure out how Leia let him survive that one.

 

You could also make the argument that a conservator is the Star Wars equivalent of a crisper. If you make those kinds of arguments then you're basically saying writers can make whatever rules they want, as long as the words are different.

But remember that topatoes just sounds stupid, so don't just rearrange the letters.

Oh, and Han said "I'll see you in hell" right in the beginning of Empire, so that curse is backed up in canon.

Jae Angel

 

Tomacco! Everyone knows about the nine hells of Correllia!

 

Good thread.

I thought cigarra was the official term too...

Right. In Dark Force Rising, Luke and Lando run into a smuggler who is puffing on a cigarra. Later, Luke recognizes him by the 'faint whiff of Carababba tabac and armudu.'

I agree you can go too far in trying to find alternatives. To me, 'cooler' sounds better than 'conservator' for a refrigerator.

Though I remember in the ANH novelization, Luke thinks about a dog he used to own. Now that really jumped out at me as sounding way too Earth-like.

 

Cigarra is the term used in the books, but I think nicsticks sounds cool. And of course it sounds like it has niccotine. Stim caf (sw term for coffee) sounds like it has caffine in it too; that's the whole point.

I've used "what in space" since seeing Timothy Zahn use it in the HoT duology. And I don't see anything wrong with "what in the world" Almost every character is from one world or other and it could either mean their homeworld or the world they're at when saying it. Either way, it makes every bit as much sense used in the GFFA as on Earth.