I saw a man on a hill with a telescope

I've been going through a bunch of posts, old and new, to catch up on what's been going on and get a historical perspective.

I noticed quite a few disagreements have begun by people not understanding what the other person was saying because they had different perspectives. I may interpret something one way and someone else interprets it another.

Take the following sentence for example: I saw a man on a hill with a telescope.

What exactly does that mean?

  • There’s a man on a hill, and I’m watching him with my telescope.
  • There’s a man on a hill, who I’m seeing, and he has a telescope.
  • There’s a man, and he’s on a hill that also has a telescope on it.
  • I’m on a hill, and I saw a man using a telescope.
  • There’s a man on a hill, and I’m sawing him with a telescope.

??????

16 Likes

GET DOWN! There's a man on a hill with a scope!

14 Likes

None of the above. It's just some old fart looking at himself in a mirror, through a telescope. :grinning:

2 Likes

How high is the hill? And is there another hill, or a "mesh of hills" that I am on that would allow to see the man "more reliably"? Is it a beaming telescope or just an "old school" telescope that I need to poll to see through? Are there any trees on the hill that could cause interference with me seeing the man???

Questions over questions.... Not one situation is the same as the other.....

4 Likes

Is the telescope on a rifle?

1 Like

It's the NSA.

How is he automating the telescope?

7 Likes

No no... it's a 50 cal on a automated turret with a remote visualizer (scope) for remote PTZ and triggering :slight_smile:

Dang ... I need glasses ... looked like Captain Ahab with a harpoon in hand standing atop the great white whale :thinking:

1 Like

How do we know the person on the hill self identifies as a man?

2 Likes

He isn't asking for directions.

11 Likes

“Alexa, close my blinds!”

4 Likes

Good post man. So true.

5 Likes

Why did we all go along with it being a man on the hill? This post is sexist. It could just as easily have been a woman. Or neither... like somebody who identifies as a telescope.

2 Likes

If you feel that strongly about it, wouldn’t it have saved time to not reply to this thread at all?

9 Likes

I thought is was unique to this forum.

Next time I'll ask your permission before I post. Do you have a website or something I can submit my thoughts to?

10 Likes

No one is forcing anyone to respond to any topic they have no interest in.

And yes, I was bored at the time I originally responded, that’s how this post got my interest in the first place.

8 Likes

I do this stuff as a hobby. Aren’t we all here because we’d be bored otherwise? It’s a DIY home automation forum, not a coronavirus vaccine research forum...

6 Likes

Just gonna preserve this beauty of a post since it’s already been flagged into oblivion.

Also as we’ve already established, I’m bored so I thought of something else to write.

Wouldn’t it be ironic if this post was actually intended as a joke/sarcasm, but we all took it to have a serious (and therefore condescending and meanspirited) tone?

That would just demonstrate the OP’s point even more that it’s easy for people to miscommunicate in online forums like this, LOL.

I should probably stop ignoring my family now.

5 Likes

Only if they stop ignoring you too :wink:

2 Likes