Editing User talk:AbdiViklas

=='''Explanatory note'''==
On Oct. 9, 2005, I changed my name from '''notstrongorbad''' to '''AbdiViklas'''. This was prompted by the fact that MediaWiki 1.5.0 wouldn't accept uncapitalized usernames, but motivated by a long-standing wish for a different name. So you'll see a lot of "notstrongorbad" signatures below; that was me. I've changed a few instances, especially when they link, to AbdiViklas.

==Toolbox==
For my use and whoever else finds it helpful:
*[[Wikipedia:List of XML and HTML character entity references|HTML character references]]
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thanks abdi--[[User:Valf|Valf]] 14:50, 23 April 2006 (UTC)
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== Welcome! You've Got Mail ==
Hi! Greetings!  I'm just stopping by, here to say a friendly 'hello'.  I also wanted to give you a friendly reminder about putting up a User Page about yourself so that we may know more about you ;).  No pressure, we're all busy. Hmmmm, but a petition/guestbook asking you to write a user page might be cool.  Feel free to remove this if you feel it to be obstrusive. --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 03:19, 1 Oct 2005 (UTC)

:LOL--you guys are incorrigible! I just wish the real world worked that way--you walk into a party: "Hi." "Who is this fascinating stranger? You must tell us all about yourself!" Seriously, I'll get to work at once! [[User:notstrongorbad|notstrongorbad]] 04:49, 1 Oct 2005 (UTC)

=== Petition ===
We, the undersigned, do beleive it <strike>would be</strike> ''is'' very cool to see a [[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] user page.  ''Moreover, we sincerely thank ''notstrongorbad'' for writing such an amazing user page!'' (Feel free to initial somehow for revision.)

*--[[User:Stux|Stux]] 03:19, 1 Oct 2005 (UTC)  ''KL''
*&mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]]
*--[[User:DorianGray|DorianGray]]
*{{User:Some HSR themed username/sig}}
*{{User:The Paper/sig}}
*{{User:Pertmywert/sig}}
*[[User:Thechamp|Thechamp]]
*&mdash; {{User:Lapper/sig}}
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=== Yay! ===
I haven't had time but to skim it so far, but I wanted to go ahead and leave a note to say thanks for letting us know about yourself. I myself was a music ed major in college (actually a double major with Spanish&mdash;and now I'm a graphic designer). I primarily played horn, but I also had to learn all the other instruments, including violin, as part of my degree plan. Cello was my favorite stringed instrument. Well, it's late, so I will give your user page the closer read it deserves in the morning. Talk atcha later! &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 07:01, 1 Oct 2005 (UTC)

:Whoa! A graphic designer who can speak Spanish and play every instrument! You should, like, write an opera in Spanish and record every part yourself, then design the CD cover!
::LOL. Nice. --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 07:09, 1 Oct 2005 (UTC)
:It's funny you say that, because that's a lot of what I do. I don't write operas, but I help publish a music educators magazine for our state association. I still speak Spanish (although not as much as I should to remain fluent... gotta get on that), and I just recently finished a CD cover. If I did write an opera (and it was hard enough just writing for theory and comp classes), I don't think I could record every part myself... that is, I can play brass instruments pretty well, but my best song on the violin was "Go Tell Aunt Rhody." &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]]
::I've given it a second read (I didn't wait till morning like I said I would), and although the lateness of the hour precludes my being especially witty or profound, I do have one remark: I hope that what you really meant for the last line was "The Beginning." &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 07:42, 1 Oct 2005 (UTC)
:::Ditto.  Ok where did all of my original ideas go? --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 08:29, 1 Oct 2005 (UTC)

== Can you help me? ==

What is this STUFF and everything you were talking about? And can you see what this little 15 year old punk did? Every move I made he reverted, even though all but the first email one was valid.

-Mortacai
:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Absolutely. First of all, the links that bkmlb left on your talk page are good reading; [[Help:Contents|Help]] is mostly on ''how'' to do things, [[HRWiki:Standards|Standards]] more on ''what'' to do. But they're kind of a lot to take in; I just today noticed some excellent details on how to make some stuff more easily at [[Help:Contents#Specific Help]].<br>
:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;But to answer your question: [[HRWiki:STUFF]] is a sort of formal voting process. Using the most recent email as an example: usually when an email comes out, disagreements will arise about what they're saying; at first people will talk about them in [[Talk:geddup noise|that email's Talk page]], and if there are two clear sides, or if it's an important issue, someone will move the fact being discussed into [[Template:STUFF/geddup noise|Stuff]], using the process described in [[HRWiki:STUFF]]. There it'll be voted on; even if it's declined those votes and arguments will be archived forever and can be found. Voting tends to be pretty restrictive, i.e. not much gets by; if I'm really interested in an e-mail I'll check the archived Stuff arguments. For instance: the possible bit of trivia expressed in [[Talk:Teen_Girl_Squad_Issue_9#Byrds_reference]] is way too speculative to appear in the official, user-end page for that 'toon, but it's helpful to know.<br>
:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;By the way, I know it's frustrating being repeatedly reverted, but dramatic actions to the official, front-page part of an article are simply met with equally dramatic reversal. When that happens, just move your point to the less public Talk or Stuff venues, and see what majority opinion is. You might be overruled, but you always have the right to express your opinion (there, at least). For example, in [[do over]], there was a LONG and HEATED debate about a possible [[Talk:do_over#Change_of_Pace_.28ACCEPTED.29|Family Guy reference]]. Jay was strongly against it, and in the end was voted down; he had to live with it, but was able to [[Talk:do_over#IMMEDIATE_contesting_of_an_Accepted_fact|continue the debate]].<br>
:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;So yeah, what Camalex did wasn't really unusual or rude, just the way it's done. Also, this Wiki is an amazingly civil and democratic place; conversation is (usually) done politely, and someone's age doesn't really have much to do with it. There are quite a few amazingly mature, articulate, ca.-12-yr-old users who keep the place shipshape.<br>
:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;I know this is long, but I just wanted to say great edit on [[guitar]]. I can't believe no one had caught that earlier. --[[User:notstrongorbad|notstrongorbad]] 05:31, 4 Oct 2005 (UTC)

==Tha Lyrical Flow==
Hey, '''notstrongorbad''', just dropping you a line. So, you're the master of the violin, eh? My girlfriend plays one of those things in something called an "orchestra," but that just sounds like crazy music-talk to me. Dozens of musicians all playing a variety of instruments at the ''same time''? Can it be ''done''? Furthermore, do you get in bragging rights fights with the viola people? Have you ever played "the word's smallest violin" for someone?

I myself only play the electrical guitar and the electric bass, and I have zero formal training in either. Needless to say, I would never call myself a "guitarist." But, for the style of music I play (punk), ''no'' talent is necessary! Anyway, I dig your long-winded, rambling comments. There's too much succinctness, terseness and brevity at the wiki, and running up the word count rules. Cheers, {{User:Thesmokingmonkey/sig}} 12:46, 6 Oct 2005 (UTC)
:Yeah, I used to play in a couple of community "orchestra"-contraptions until this thing called '''grad school''' (imagine [[origins|jittery green text]] plus "lurking horrors" sfx) happened. And yeah, I don't know about bragging, but violins and violas get in some good jokes at each others' expence. ("Which is bigger, a vln. or vla.? Really they're the same size; it just looks that way 'cause the violinists have such big heads." "How do you tell when the viola section is at your door? '''No one knows when to come in.'''")<br>
:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;But punk's more fun. Now do you mean old-school, The Clash-type punk, or one of the many offspring of punk's indiscriminate liaisons with other genres (hardcore, loudcore, punk-pop (wha??? shouldn't that be a contradiction?)...)? &mdash; [[User:notstrongorbad|notstrongorbad]] 09:05, 7 Oct 2005 (UTC)

:::'''nsob''', I knew there was some "good-natured ribbing" going on between the violin/viola sets. That's good to hear, no pun intentionally meant! As for my "craft" I was raised on the smooth, soulful sounds of [[Wikipedia:The Descendents|The Descendents]] and the [[Wikipedia:Dead Kennedys|Dead Kennedys]], so there's more than a little post-surf punk going on in my stuff: tight, sometimes sliding (you know, those surfy "twang") riffs, semi-melodic vocals, and drums that try to mix it up beyond the straight 4/4 (see the "snooty independent record store" easter egg in [[comic]] for more insight on that). My friend (and owner of one of those cute, fledging start-up labels that will be putting my "music" out) calls it "electro-punk", since I use a drum machine. Ah, the Alesis AS-16. So much, ''much'' easier to deal with than an actual drummer.

:::For my next "album," an EP, I'm basically paying tribute to one of my recent punk favorite adoptees, [[Wikipedia: The Alkaline Trio|The Alkaline Trio]], except without all the macabre imagery. Just plety of relentlessly fast guitar work and songs clocking in under two minutes. In fact, I'ma go blaze through a set right now. Thanks for responding and giving me a chance to rant about my music! &mdash; {{User:Thesmokingmonkey/sig}} 12:56, 7 Oct 2005 (UTC)
::::LOL&mdash;yeah, there's also a joke about that new drum machine, an emulator ''so'' authentic that it shows up half an hour late for rehearsal and then asks to crash at your place because its girlfriend threw it out! (By the way, you can tell when the punk drummer is at your door because... the knocking speeds up whenever it gets louder.) &mdash; [[User:notstrongorbad|notstrongorbad]] 19:35, 7 Oct 2005 (UTC)

::::'''Abdi''' - man, is that odd - thanks for the drummer-related laughs. Incidentally, I've worked with about half a dozen drummers, and their biggest crime was being too professional (i.e., ''prima donnas''), but perhaps one day I can work with the guy kicked out of his place by his girlfriend. That, indeed, would be rocking and scary at the same time. {{User:Thesmokingmonkey/sig}} 02:45, 10 October 2005 (UTC)~

:::::nice. just nice. next there'll be a guitar that gets hangovers and doesn't even ''show up'' for practice. {{User:Seriously/sig}} 17:47, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

== Heimstern responds! ==
Glad to see someone noticed my new user page! Yes, here at UCSB, most people start the Ph.D. program immediately after the bachelor's. Glad to hear that you remembered the Tristan chord; that is a personal fascination of mine. That being said, I am hoping to look into 20th-century tonal and/or centric music. I haven't decided on a dissertation topic yet, though. Anydangway, keep on tranglin'. [[User:Heimstern Läufer|Heimstern Läufer]] 03:50, 8 Oct 2005 (UTC)

==New name==
Heh. Oops. You should move your welcome to your new name. It will create an automatic redirect from the old name. &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 02:28, 10 October 2005 (UTC)
:I had the impression we weren't supposed to create subpages if we can help it; are you saying I should move it to User:AbdiViklas/welcome? I just changed the references to myself and have been subst'ing it same as ever; seems to work okay. (I'm a little lost by what you mean about an automatic redirect...?) &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 02:30, 10 October 2005 (UTC)
::Yes, if you're abandoning the old name you should move it. You'll see what I mean about the redirect once you move it. Also (and I don't know whether it's too late), but you should also see [[HRWiki:Changing username]]. &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 02:33, 10 October 2005 (UTC)
:::See the "move" link at the top of the page? That's what you're looking for on your welcome page. &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 02:39, 10 October 2005 (UTC)
::Hm; apparently I didn't move that correctly. I guess you meant using the formal "move" procedure... I'll look into that, just a sec. But meanwhile, the old one's been marked for deletion... EDIT CONFLICT okay, thanks for the help; I'll see what I can do... &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 02:41, 10 October 2005 (UTC)
:::That better? &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 02:43, 10 October 2005 (UTC)
::::Yes. And I thought the procedure was necessary because other users' pages were linking to your old welcome, but now I see that no pages link to it. I can just delete the old one now, I suppose. (And isn't it more fun to do something the prescribed way instead of the duct-tape way? ;) ) &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 02:47, 10 October 2005 (UTC)
::Yup! (Unless some doctor could prescribe duct-tape... I haven't found one yet.) Also, yeah, I saw [[HRWiki:Changing username|Changing username]] after it was already too late. But I had my preferences back in a few minutes, and I linked to my old contributions from my user page; I don't see that I'm missin' much. If there's anything I've missed that's a problem for the wiki, not just an inconvenience for myself, let me know! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 02:52, 10 October 2005 (UTC)

== Hi from Schuminweb ==

Thanks for the welcome message.

I've actually been familiar with the HRWiki for quite some time, and had a username on here at least as recently as September when I did an edit on Senor Cardgage.  Then I attempted to log in to make these most recent edits, and my username was gone (go figure).  So I reregistered my same name.  Again, go figure.

Otherwise, though, I definitely do know my way around, not only here, but I'm quite a regular Wikipedian.

Still, I don't understand how I lost my username.  Ah, well.  Life goes on.  [[User:Schuminweb|Schuminweb]] 22:49, 10 October 2005 (UTC)

== Capitalization... It used to be so coooool... ==

It is NOT the standard on this Wiki to write TGS issues in all-lowercase, even though Strong Bad does. --{{User:Jay/sig}} 02:01, 11 October 2005 (UTC)
:Thanks! I didn't get an answer on that! So... what gets capitalized? Proper nouns like Nick at Nite? &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 02:07, 11 October 2005 (UTC)
:: Anything that would normally be capitalized, in general: proper nouns, first words of sentences, and, of course, anything Strong Bad writes in AAAAAALL CAPS!!! ''{said in the same fashion as "SOOOO GOOD!"}'' --{{User:Jay/sig}} 02:11, 11 October 2005 (UTC)
::What about surprising instances; e.g. in the 'toon proper Manolios capitalizes all of his business, "Manolios Ugly One's Lectro-Pawn," but in the easter egg he leaves "Lectro-Pawn" capped and uncaps the rest? Or maybe at that point it's getting too nitpicky. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 02:14, 11 October 2005 (UTC)

== Rant re TGS 10 ==
''{The STUFF'd fact about the Coach's voice not being Strong Bad's prompted the following entry. Jay quite rightfully got it off the STUFF page, which is hardly the place for it, but I was kind of fond of it, so I moved it here.}''<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;This is another of those "4th Wall" issues that tend to get me talking [[Talk:geddup_noise#Rant_Re:_Reality|at length]]. I can feel it coming.<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;As something Strong Bad authors, TGS is a fiction ''within'' the fiction Strong Bad exists in. Since its origins in [[comic]], it's been in some ways moving away from an awareness that it's being created by Strong Bad and bleeding into the exterior H*R world (by being listed on Toons, for instance). The increasing frequency of voices that don't sound like Strong Bad would fit this trend (or you could argue they're simply Matt running out of voices).<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;''On the other hand'', several recent episodes have contained reminders of Strong Bad's authorship; he wrote himself into Episode 9, and now&mdash;'''now'''&mdash;we have the first appearance of the exterior H*R world in a TGS episode. Although this would seem to contribute to the "bleed" in the previous paragraph, it in fact does the latter; it emphasizes TGS as an interior fiction when we see it lying there on the table. (Of course Strong Bad's makey outy action just throws the whole thing for a loop: first he draws himself ''into'' the interior fiction, then causes his representation ''in that world'' to interact with its characters, then interacts ''himself'' across the existential boundary.) The relative reality (within H*R) of TGS wobbles dramatically during this episode: Strong Sad reduces it to "looose leaf," while Strong Bad gets drawn into its fictional reality (figuratively and literally). The introduction of color and fancier animation is no accident, either; they of course heighten the perceived reality of the TGS universe. Enough to make all our minds spin 360 degrees.<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;So where does that leave me on this vote? Honestly, I dunno. This is sure as heck not the ''first'' time (Mr. Pitters, the vultures that eat him, and others are arguably un-Strong-Bad-like), but whether such voices are in fact '''not''' Strong Bad has to do with how rigid the authorial connection of Strong Bad to TGS has become. If anything, this episode simultaneously weakens and cements that bond. So....  NO. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 02:07, 11 October 2005 (UTC)

==STUFF nuances==
Hey AbdiViklas (I'm still not used to that). The instructions on the standards page read: "If there's any reasonable doubt, ... please add it to the Talk page or the STUFF page before adding it to the article." Well, that's exactly what Kookykman did, so I don't think it's necessary to list that on the STUFF page. Also, the comments section isn't really for communicating with specific users. That's one of the reasons we don't sign comments, to keep a little distance between the comments and the commenter (and so that we don't degrade into personal attacks (we used to have a ''huge'' problem with that)). Perhaps your comments to Kookykman would be better suited for his talk page. Just a thought. All in all, you're getting the hang of it... just remember, in STUFF, the shorter, the better. This is kind of changing the subject, but while I'm thinking about it, you should join us in the [[HRWiki:IRC channel|IRC chatroom]] sometime. It's much easier to get to know folks, and one can ask questions to his or her heart's content. &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 02:24, 15 October 2005 (UTC)
:Thanks for the tip! Yeah, the difference between "Talk" and "STUFF" hasn't been entirely clear to me. And yeah, I'd love to hang out on IRC, except that I really ought not to spend even as much time on the Wiki as I do, and can't really bring myself to justify IRC time. Maybe around Thanksgiving break or the likes! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 20:48, 15 October 2005 (UTC)
Hey there. How are ya? When there's more than one STUFF revision, it's not necessary for you to completely move your vote. You should just decline one revision and accept the other. (You could also decline more than one revision, should you choose.) When one of the votes is close, it's actually better if you don't remove yours from the list. The only thing that isn't currently allowed is for someone to ''accept'' more than one revision. &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 05:21, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

== Thank you for the welcome. ==

I've actually been around for a while here, (and was at Wikipedia before that) but I guess I brought some attention to myself by STUFFing that fact. I wasn't expecting an acceptance, which is why I STUFFed it instead of putting it on the page. Thank you for your kindness in handling the matter.--[[user:Kookykman|The Kooky One]][[User talk:Kookykman|(talk)]] 12:31, 15 October 2005 (UTC)
:Cool; it's not the first time I've welcomed a non-newcomer, but I figure better that than accidentally let a real newcomer go unwelcomed. I'm big on the whole idea of being "welcoming," obviously. Thanks for responding! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 20:50, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

== Note to Self ==

Cheat talk standardized through Puppet Time. [[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 03:40, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

'''Pages that need serious work, or completion, if I (or anbody else for that matter) happen to be bored:'''
*[[Happy Trogday]]
*[[Everybody to the Limit Visuals]]
*[[Ballad of The Sneak#DVD Version]]

'''Issues to check in on from time to time:'''
*[[Mellow Mushroom/The Sun Almost Rises]]
*stripe-ed etc.
*teenage variations

== Duffrence ==

Can you make a Hilary Duff reference????? RHRN the Zerg Jigglypuff

:If you mean say something about her on my user page, probably not. But you could mention her on your own user page! Just read [[HRWiki:User space]]. (But make sure it doesn't turn into a Hillary Duff fansite; it should mostly be related to the wiki, but mentioning her as one of your interests is appropriate.) &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 22:06, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

No no no! I mean without insulting her like TBC? RHRN

:Sorry--I still don't understand. (By the way, I have nothing against Hillary Duff; I'm 25, though, and a little old to be enthusiastic about her "hawtness.") Also, unrelatedly, you can sign your name real nifty-like by typing <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>! Three leaves your name, four your name plus the time (like I'm about to do), and five is just the time. Here I go now. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 22:21, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

I understand. You're not the one insulting her. That's the point. And I wouldn't. RHRN the Zerg Jigglypuff. Make sure accounts that do insult Hilary Duff blocked until they stop for a week.


== slight mistake ==
Just wanted to let you know, you accidentally copied your User page onto [[User:Witchesbrew82|Witchesbrew82's]] talk page.&mdash;[[User:Exhibit A|Exhibit A]] 23:15, 16 October 2005 (UTC)
:Wow&mdash;thanks for picking that up. (By the way, is there any rule against creating user pages that simply redirect to another wiki?) &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 23:18, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

::None at all. {{User:Rogue Leader/sig}} 23:23, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

== Dude... ==

I have been a member of the Fanstuff HRWiki for the longest time, I know the rules.--[[User:Witchesbrew82|Witchesbrew82]] 23:25, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

:Cool. Didn't mean to offend! (Also, I didn't notice that that was ''our'' Fanstuff; I thought it was just some random H*R site.) &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 23:28, 16 October 2005 (UTC)


== Thanks ==

Im glad that you were the first person to see me, so your objective of a teacher is verry cool, in fact im a bit of a comic maker and inventor, so anywhey tanks a l07!
--[[User:Ed500|Ed500]] 12:23, 17 October 2005 (UTC)
:Thanks for the thanks! Do you know about the related [http://fanstuff.hrwiki.org/ fanstuff wiki]? If you have H*R-related comics, you can share them there! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 12:39, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for welcoming me. I thought that was very nice of you. I'm adding you to my favorite users list. I've been looking around the wiki for months now and only just created an account, so I know what some things are, but not much. Anyways, thanks. -Brightstar Shiner
:Cool. Yeah, I ''used'' the Wiki for a good year and a half without really doing much editing. By the way, you can sign your name simply by typing <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>; it makes it link to your user page. Three tildes yields just your name; four is name plus date (as I'm about to do), and five is just the date. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 01:07, 18 October 2005 (UTC)
::Five tildes makes the date? 01:29, 18 October 2005 (UTC) FIle that under "Things I Didn't Know About MediaWiki"! Anyhoo, thanks for the warm welcome. I'm somewhat active on Wikipedia, so I know my way around a wiki. I came here for a bit of fun ;) {{User:Thetorpedodog/SIG}} 01:29, 18 October 2005 (UTC)
:::Yeah, that's how I separated my name from the date on my welcome template! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 01:43, 18 October 2005 (UTC)
Thanks AbdiViklas! (just so you know, I was the one who created the real-world references for DVD version on [[garage sale]], but if you look in recent changes it shows an IP) I realized you left me a welcome message on my talk page (I am on2see, I can't get Firefox to remember wiki cookies (any help appreciated)) Thanks again! [[User:On2see|On2see]]
:Glad you got a username! Now then&mdash;you mean you're having a problem staying logged in because Firefox won't use the cookies? <small>(And by the way, brownie points and good karma to ya for using Firefox!)</small> For me, if I go to the '''Tools''' menu, then '''Options''', then the '''Privacy''' tab, I find the controls for cookies. My settings are "allow sites to set cookies," "for the originating site only," and keep "til they expire," and it seems to work fine for me. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 20:34, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
::Well, I changed my settings, but now on some pages it shows I am logged in (ex. on the page that shows right after I log in) and, well, ''sometimes not...'' (ex. right now as I am editing your talk page, it shows my ip address and also says '''create an account or log in'''... But thanks for the quick response! You're my favorite Wikipedian (really!) Thanks, [[User:on2see|on2see]]
:::Thanks! But what you're experiencing is still odd, and it would be nice to get it tracked down. One other thing: when I sign in, I usually select the "remember me" checkbox (since I'm using my own computer in my own apartment); if I hadn't, I'd need to sign in each time I re-open my browser. If you're using a private computer you might try that. Beyond that, you'll need the help of those who know more about these superboxes than I do, to figure out why your cookies are crumbling. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 16:25, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

== Strong Bad = Marzipan ==

Hey Abdi! Yeah, I originally heard the song say "Strong Bad ''is'' Marzipan" also... I, too, thought that was weirder than weird. So, you're not alone. Crapfully yours, [[User:Heimstern Läufer|Heimstern Läufer]] 23:58, 18 October 2005 (UTC)

:Cool. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 06:22, 20 October 2005 (UTC) ''{comment continued in next thread}''

== T-shirt pitches==
Hey, as a theory type, I was just muddling over whether there were any rhyme or reason to the pitches selected for the t-shirts in the store? I was on the verge of doing a set analysis, but somehow my sense of perspective must have put in an unwonted appearance. I mean, it's probably just Matt humming whatever he wants into a mic--but wouldn't it be cool if it turned out to accidentally fit some complicated explanation! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 06:22, 20 October 2005 (UTC)
:I wondered that myself. For awhile, I thought it was a whole tone scale, but I found that wasn't correct. So, after reading your question, I decided to use my theory chops (and that neat little trick called absolute pitch) to find out what it is. Here's what I got: A-B-C#-D#-F#-G#-A#-C-C#-D-Eb-F-G-Bb. So, there are some whole-tone segments, but it's certainly not entirely whole tone. Not to mention that I swear a few of them are some kind of quarter tone. I can't really find any good pattern for it at all (if only it had been octatonic! A little Homestravinsky Runner!) Geez, the other, normal, non-music-nerd people on the Wiki are going to have no idea what the heck I'm talking about. Anyway, that's the answer I've got for your question. [[User:Heimstern Läufer|Heimstern Läufer]] 04:30, 24 October 2005 (UTC)
::LOL!! Homestravinsky Runner&mdash;''there's'' something for Fanstuff. (How 'bout what would have happened if, instead of They Might Be Giants, they had outsourced [[different town]] to, say, Philip Glass? "''Towanisqatsi'': You'll Think You're Pea-Buried Alive!") But I'm going with the "Matt humming whatever he wants into a mic" analysis. (Though more interesting&mdash;perhaps venturing into psychoacoustics?&mdash;would be what intervallic structure, invented or otherwise, may have subconsciously influenced his output?) &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 04:42, 24 October 2005 (UTC)
:::I don't know where this fits into the discussion, but I think they recorded the sound once and then modulated it up and/or down. Other than the pitch, the sound effect is uniform from one T-shirt to the next. &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 04:49, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

::::Hm&mdash;true. Which would actually make it ''more'' likely that the resulting pitches are intentional. Hm. On closer inspection (and note, we're talking about the lineup in [[Flash Store]] here), I hear the last pitches from D through G a half step higher than you (Bb I hear the same). If this were true, and it were reduced into prime form&mdash;crap, it still wouldn't be chromatic. I'm not taking the time to think through this very carefully, but I ''think'' prime form would be G#-A-A#-B-C-C#-D#-E-F#. This would be chromatic for the span of a perfect fourth and octatonic for another perfect fourth; there, that makes as good a sense as any. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 17:17, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

::::: "Rondleman is my D-S-C-H!" Abdi, that is, IMHO, ''at least'' as good as Homestravinsky Runner! You crack me up! Crack! me! up! As for the pitches, you may be right (one thing that was driving me crazy was that a lot of them sounded like they were between two semitones). It's as good a theory as any. This has to be one of the weirdest intersections of Homestar Runner addiction and music nerdiness ever to appear on the Wiki... it's awesome. Maybe I should suggest that the other Homestar fans at my department read this. They'd probably think I've been smoking something. [[User:Heimstern Läufer|Heimstern Läufer]] 01:07, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

::::::Yeah, in particular that D and/or D# for the TGS shirt. If we take that to be a D, it gets even cooler: chromatic G#-D, one tritone; whole-tone D-G# (by implication), the remaining tritone!! (And yes... there needs to be a Trogdorcon-style segment of Strong Bad making fun of anybody who'd do what we just did.) &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 01:35, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

So, I just found out that I wasn't even looking at the same set of pitches as you. I didn't realize the T-shirt pitches even existed in the new store and was using the old store t-shirt pitches. So, there may be a bit of difference because of that (notably, the old store had more pitches). That being said, I'm a little busy reading ''Stravinsky and the Rite of Spring'' right now to make any comparisons between the collections (although Prof. van den Toorn might be pleased if I found some octatonic/diatonic intersections in the collections...) Anyway, as always, I remain, [[User:Heimstern Läufer|Heimstern Läufer]] 19:30, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

:No, I realized we were talking about the [[Flash Store]] when you cited 14 pitches, and my comments above have been in connection to them. I would guess that, even ''if'' there was a musical motivation in their pitch-shifting decisions for the 14-shirt lineup, the pitches that exist in the current store are simply a result of which t-shirts have been dropped. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 19:36, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

== arguments??? ==

I don't give arguments to back up my edits!--[[User:Stephen923|Stephen923]]/24.24.226.13
:Oh. If you're talking about my [http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php?title=User_talk:Stephen923&diff=175892&oldid=169416 post on your talk page] about [[pizzaz]], then no, I don't normally post to people's talk pages when I edit either. In this case, though, you had already made the edit and I had reverted it several times, so I thought explaining myself might have been better than reverting at each other in silence. Incidentally, since then, I noticed somebody else (I forget who, but I think a sysop) put a "sic" in an html comment (<nowiki><!-- sic --></nowiki>), saying he didn't like seeing them in the transcript. So your edit was actually a good one (although we should still put it in a comment). Unfortunately&mdash;since you ''don't'' give arguments to back up your edits, even by using the "Summary:" box, all I could tell was that you didn't know what ''sic'' means. Perhaps next time an edit summary would be helpful. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 20:12, 22 October 2005 (UTC)
:No, it's about the Marshie history page.--[[User:Stephen923|Stephen923]]/24.24.226.13
::I see. Still, [[HRWiki:Standards#Always use the Summary box|using the summary box]] is a good idea. (Actually, more than just a good idea.) If you make an edit, you probably have a reason for doing so; explaining that reason might make others less likely to revert it, or at least let them know you're making thoughtful edits and not just trolling. (Getting a user name helps in the same way; props in that regard.) &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 23:16, 22 October 2005 (UTC)
:::Um...was this suppossed to be for me? That's what it says...if this is about the edits I have made with no summary, it was because I accidentally clicked "save page" before putting in the summary. -[[User:Sbemail|Sbemail]] 23:21, 22 October 2005 (UTC)
::::No no, sorry 'bout that; I confused the two "S" people who posted on my page today. I was talking to [[User:Stephen923|Stephen923]]. (And you don't have to tell me about the perils of clicking "Save page" too early; I need to learn to use "Show preview" more often. Then I'd have fewer consecutive edits where I correct my own spelling or add periods. And less crushed spirits, too!) &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 23:31, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

::::From the Marshie history page, ''(Reverted edit of 24.24.226.13, who perhaps will give us some argument to back up his edit, and changed back to last version by DorianGray)''--[[User:Stephen923|Stephen923]]/24.24.226.13
:::::Yes, I know what you're talking about. My reply is four paragraphs above. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 02:31, 23 October 2005 (UTC)

== Ooooooops!!! ==

I guess I should have looked the word "pronunciation" up in a dictionary before i changed it...sorry about that!! [[User:Sbemail|Sbemail]] 22:37, 22 October 2005 (UTC)
:S'cool! By the way, if you're using Firefox (if you're not... '''do!'''), there's a nice plugin called DictionarySearch that lets you right click on a word and look it up instantly in a dictionary. (I also used Firefox's "keyword search" function on www.m-w.com's search box, so I can just type, say, "mw pronunciation" into the address bar and go straight to the definition. Just two more examples of why Life Is Better With Firefox!! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 22:41, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

::Ok, thanks for the advese...advise. [[User:Sbemail|Sbemail]] 22:43, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

== Verse ==

I'm cool with making that read like poetry. I just copied it from the WP article. But is it a poem? I thought it was just a saying. &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 06:30, 28 October 2005 (UTC)
:Again, I assume it was in German at first. I added the slash because it was the only thing I could figure the semicolon was thinking of. It ''is'' a rhyming couplet; although it's certainly not "a poem," a lot of folk wisdom sayings are expressed in rhyme. I think the fun fact could do just fine without the slash, though; just so long as there isn't a semicolon there! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 06:34, 28 October 2005 (UTC)
::I just figured whoever put the semicolon there did so because of all the commas before it, in an attempt to separate it. But the solidus is fine with me. By the way, it's "[[User:It's dot com|Dot com]]." :) 06:43, 28 October 2005 (UTC)
:::?? I.e. if I'm going to drop the "It's" you'd prefer I capitalize the ''d''? But don't you prefer the "It's" be included anyway? (I was being a little informal in the summary; sorry!) &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 06:46, 28 October 2005 (UTC)
::::Hmmm... I think all would be best explained by a trip to the first line of my [[User:It's dot com|user page]] (although I was also partially rebelling against the one-word "dotcom" variety from the edit summary on the STUFF page). &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|Dot com]] 06:52, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

==Welcome==
Hey AbdiViklas.  I was just wondering how you are welcoming people with your user page instead of a welcome.  It is obvious that you are doing it by accident.  Do you use a sub page? {{User:Rogue Leader/sig}} 18:58, 29 October 2005 (UTC)
:Yup. I'm supposed to type ''<nowiki>{{subst:User:AbdiViklas/welcome|~~~|~~~~~}}</nowiki>''. In a hurry, I often forget the ''/welcome'' part. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 19:01, 29 October 2005 (UTC)
::Why don't you just copy and paste it?  Thats what I do, and it has been working pretty well.  {{User:Rogue Leader/sig}} 19:03, 29 October 2005 (UTC)
:::Yeah, I suppose I could. It's one step longer than ''subst'', but fool-proof! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 19:05, 29 October 2005 (UTC)
::::I have been doing it 150 times.  No problems yet! {{User:Rogue Leader/sig}} 19:07, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

----

Thanks for the welcome. Almost as fast as we do at [http://furry.wikicities.com/ WikiFur] (and, truth be told, somewhat more polished ;-). [[User:GreenReaper|GreenReaper]] 05:26, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

:Thanks! I know we've got at least one Furry enthusiast around here, [[User:Furrykef|Furrykef]], although he hasn't been around much lately. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 05:33, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

:: *chuckles* - yes, I know furrykef, he used to hang out with us in [irc://irc.freenode.net/wikicities #wikicities]. Been a fortnight since I've seen him - maybe he's gone on an online poker binge . . . [[User:GreenReaper|GreenReaper]] 05:39, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

== Sid and Marty Kroft Present: G.K. Chesterton ==

Abdi, because of you I now know of G.K. Chesterton. If I ever come across a "Father Brown" story, I'll know the truth - the truth embodied in a large, walrus-like British author/journalist. I now consider myself just that much richer in spirit. Next order of bwisness - determining the fate of Mayor McCheese. &mdash; {{User:Thesmokingmonkey/sig}} 13:17, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

:Seriously. You should see me when I find out that there's some out-of-print story of his I haven't read! I do a little dance that certain NFL touchdowners have been known to refer to as "vulgar excess." So yeah, if you like detective stories, Father Brown is a great way to start (particularly ''[http://www.ccel.org/c/chesterton/innocence/title.html The Blue Cross]'', but the best-known, and arguably best, piece of fiction he ever wrote is the novel ''[http://www.ccel.org/c/chesterton/thursday/thursday.html The Man Who Was Thursday]''. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 17:55, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

== Losing the will to check the edits closely ==

I knew that would happen. Earlier today I had to force myself not just to hit the revert button, and actually examine the edit. Why won't this guy talk to us? On an unrelated note, I have, upon reflection, decided that compromise might be the best avenue for the New Boots/different town non-reference. It's too bad B left so quickly, before we could have a chance to really discuss it. &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 05:52, 1 November 2005 (UTC)
:Indeed, it's perplexing. I can't figure out whether he (or she, but he in the future for simplicity) is an extremely zealous, extremely well-meaning, extremely misguided individual, or a one-trick troll. Some of his edits really are improvements, like correcting something to reflect what SB really typed, but others seem to just add !s where there are few and take them away where there are many. But no, in the final analysis I think he must be well meaning. My only explanation for the silence is either that he's a true "gnome," who tries to do good but is shy and prefers anonymity, or that he's a user so new he hasn't discovered his own talk page or Recent changes, and is simply selecting emails at random. (Say&mdash;there isn't any kind of browsing setup that would keep someone from seeing the "new messages" banner, is there?) &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 06:17, 1 November 2005 (UTC)
::I'm confounded as well. My hunch was that he <s>or she</s> was never getting the message, hence my test on the sandbox, but I was able to receive my message to myself just fine as an anonny. And this guy's not even experiencing the weird IP changes I was, so that shouldn't be an issue. No, I think we're being ignored. &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 06:22, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

== On Trolling and other Isomorphisms... ==

Don't mind my nonsensical banter... I am currently (''not'') working on writing a statement of purpose for my fellowship application (properly read: ''avoiding it'').  Don't ask when it's due, otherwise you'd be shocked.  Anyway, I was thinking we should make up a section called ''[http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php?title=bedtime_story&diff=187594&oldid=187593 trolls post the dardnest things.]'' It would be a hit don't you think? --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 05:57, 1 November 2005 (UTC)
:It would be ''hilarious''... but don't you think people would then ''try'' to get in it? &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 06:01, 1 November 2005 (UTC)
::Hey, I'd read it. Several times. In fact, I'd print it and read it offline. Now I'm excited. I really hope this is able to be done ''somewhere''. I'd love helping this thing. Please tell me you had even an iota of seriousness in that suggestion. --[[User:DorianGray|DorianGray]]
::EDIT CONFLICT <small>(or whatever)</small>: Yes, people trying to get in might be bad... Perhaps it'd be better to not broadcast the idea.
::I think they would want to get in. I admit that I've gotten an occasional guilty pleasure out of reading the ridiculous things trolls write (and I'm always thinking to myself, "This is vandalism! I'm not supposed to find this funny!") Anyway, it would just encourage trolls to keep vandalizing if they hoped to get featured somewhere on the Wiki. [[User:Heimstern Läufer|Heimstern Läufer]] 06:07, 1 November 2005 (UTC)
:I'm reminded, for some reason, of the Simpsons (or was it Futurama?) spoof of Bill Cosby's similarly titled show. What if this were done somewhere off-wiki? (I.e. on somebody's website or blog?)<br>
:Stux: What manner of beast is said fellowship application? It sounds like the sort of thing that carries high stakes. Me, all I have to do is transcribe some field notes and make some lesson plans, but I've been putting it off all day and so will stay up all night to make up (yeah, that's how I work). &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 06:09, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

:''(DorianGray): Please tell me you had even an iota of seriousness in that suggestion.'' A hint of seriousness yes, an iota, I am not so sure ;).  Unfortunately, yes, this could serve as an incentive.  But have any of you guys ever read [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Bad_Jokes_and_Other_Deleted_Nonsense|Bad_Jokes_and_Other_Deleted_Nonsense]] (or rather perused through it)?  We'll always have trolls you know, just not as many as the big 'pedia, but even an increase might be 'enough'.   As for the fellowship, it is a [http://was.nd.edu/gem/gemwebapp/public/gem_01_100.htm summer-work] type program that links you with industry and helps you pay for your grad school. I'm *finally* getting momentum, esp now that I found my grad school application essay and realized it will likely help me finish what i need to do! <insert *evil grin* here> :) --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 07:10, 1 November 2005 (UTC)
::I actually ''have'' gone through the Deleted Nonsense stuff on the big wiki. It's amazing... And I'm sure we have our fair share of weirdness... I know I've seen some. Now then. Back to the All Hallow's Eve toon. --[[User:DorianGray|DorianGray]]
:::wow, i just looked at that page. hours of wierd things about evil squirrels and chocolate covered raisins......{{User:Seriously/sig}} 23:15, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

== Note ==

It's not "What am I supposed to do?", but "What ''I'm'' supposed to do?". &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 20:04, 3 November 2005 (UTC)
:Oop. Thanks. That makes a little more sense. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 20:32, 3 November 2005 (UTC)
::Or a little ''less'' sense, depending on how you look at it. I guess it makes more sense for Homestar. ;) &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 20:37, 3 November 2005 (UTC)

==Solfège...==

Humming RE-MI-DO-DO-SOL, eh? What does that refer to? [[User:Heimstern Läufer|Heimstern Läufer]] 01:42, 7 November 2005 (UTC)
:''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075860/ Close Encounters of the Third Kind]''. Aliens contact Earth&mdash;and choose moveable do as the best method of communication. (Seriously&mdash;they even know the hand symbols!) &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 01:46, 7 November 2005 (UTC)
::That would explain my lack of recognition. I haven't seen that film. And am not missing much, apparently, if it features moveable do. I really dislike moveable do. Talk atcha later. [[User:Heimstern Läufer|Heimstern Läufer]] 01:57, 7 November 2005 (UTC)
:::WHOA no you don't&mdash;knock moveable do and then just postpone the discussion!!! (For onlookers, this is what music nerds fight over. It's like which Elvish language is better.) And them '''is''' fightin' words. I'm not going to go into my rant on the subject at the moment, but it's very entertaining (as long as I don't break anything). On the other subject, you ought to see movie; if you like sci-fi it's a classic, but even if you don't it's a well-shaped movie for its time. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 02:03, 7 November 2005 (UTC)
::::That's it, man! We are dueling to the death! A PLAGUE UPON MOVEABLE DO! No, just kidding. It's only a personal dislike, not a pedagogical philosophy or anything like that. But, since I have absolute pitch, I don't find it very useful. I prefer a system that always calls a C a C. I actually just use the German names of notes (since they're all monosyllables). I guess a lot of people find moveable do useful, but I was always annoyed that my teachers made me use it too when it isn't my ''modus operandi'' at all. Anyway, that's my philosophy. Talk to my man with the green and white stripes. [[User:Heimstern Läufer|Heimstern Läufer]] 02:12, 7 November 2005 (UTC)
:::::Actually, that ''is'' my objection to fixed do (one of them); as long as we're using these letters, it's simply a redundant system. If we were French it would be different, but at the moment we already have a system tied to absolute pitch. (Learning it for the purpose of international communication is a different matter; I have a Korean student whom I use it with since he grew up with it; but for sight-singing purposes it doesn't really bring anything new to the party, where as moveable brings an opportunity to engage tonality.) I guess, in pedagogical contexts, its supporters are putting a higher priority on developing absolute pitch than on developing sensitivity to tonal function. Personally, preferring a less eurocentric view of musics, I'm not as wed to a 12-note, octave-based, equal-tempered system as the be-all and end-all; I think training students to critically match a provided pitch is the most important. (I keep having dreams of writing a piece of ear training software with string instruments in mind that uses some midi controller with a slider&mdash;preferably emulating the physical instrument&mdash;to adjust the user's pitch to match a generated one, with visual representation on-screen and a little "you win!" message when it matches!) &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 02:28, 7 November 2005 (UTC)
:::::: I suppose you're right, it's just that I've never used real fixed-do, just my German system (which I usually consider a variant on fixed-do). I don't really have any use for old do, re and mi except when singing ''The Sound of Music'' (which I don't really ever sing). For me, sightsinging is much easier with an absolute pitch system, so I sing "ah, ha, tseh, tseh, deh" (for the Glance motive from ''Tristan'') or whatever for whatever notes I need. [[User:Heimstern Läufer|Heimstern Läufer]] 02:44, 7 November 2005 (UTC)
:::::::Personally, for my own use, I prefer "moveable la." (Something we used to joke about in college&mdash;"La, la, la, la..." Not to mention moveable na, doot, and doo. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 02:52, 7 November 2005 (UTC)
''{conversation continued in next section...}''

Oh, something just came into my mind about this earlier today: About the first pronouncement I ever heard on the topic of moveable-do (or any kind of solfège) was from my fabulously musical mother, who bluntly told me, "Solfège is stupid." So, I was probably biased against it from the beginning, and that surely contributed to my bad attitude about it for the rest of time. [[User:Heimstern Läufer|Heimstern Läufer]] 07:01, 18 November 2005 (UTC)

==...And the Absoluteness of Absolute Pitch==
I really don't have anything useful to add to this conversation, other than to say I understood it, and to agree with AbdiViklas, because moveable do makes way more sense in the sense of teaching singing within a key or when a particular key isn't important (I realize that's a strange concept to someone with perfect pitch (which I don't have, but I wish I did. I do have pretty good pitch memory, so if you ask me to sing an F, I can usually hit it or at least get within a half step, but I can't hear a note out of the blue and immediately say, Oh, that's an A-sharp)). I still, however, think both AbdiViklas and Heimstern Läufer are cool. &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 20:46, 12 November 2005 (UTC)
:And the sentiment is mutual. I have this weird thing that I've heard referred to as "acquired pitch"; i.e. from playing the violin so long I've developed pitch-identification ability within its range, but my skillz have an abrupt cutoff at the bottom note of the violin. Also, certain instrumental "voiceprints" completely throw me for a loop. I can ID a pitch on piano, flute, oboe, saxophone&mdash;but I'm pretty inconsistent with clarinet. And, frustratingly, the human voice! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 23:11, 12 November 2005 (UTC)
::I hear about people being able to identify pitches only on certain instruments all the time. I've never had that experience; to me, a pitch is a pitch, whatever instrument it is. I've actually often wondered what it would be like not to be able to identify and produce pitches at will, and I admit that it baffles me as much as it must baffle the normal people to know that I can do so. Oh, and Dot com, you may not want to wish you had absolute pitch. It's a really neat party trick, but it can be really frustrating. If someone starts singing a song in a key other than the original, it really grates on me. Then there's period-instrument recordings: while I certainly respect their intentions, I really can't listen to them because they play everything too low. So, those are the disadvantages of absolute pitch. [[User:Heimstern Läufer|Heimstern Läufer]] 03:30, 14 November 2005 (UTC)
:::Ah, now I don't have that problem. I can ''tell'' when something isn't aligned to a modern, Western, equal-temperament A-440 scale, but I don't suffer under it. After all, our selection of A-440 is so arbitrary (unless there's some kind of acoustic principle I don't know about, like the circumference of the earth divided by the distance to da mooon on the winter solstice equals A-440), and, although there are some mathematical arguments for our division of the octave, I prefer to engage the scale systems of other cultures on their own terms. Admittedly, it is a little hard for me to listen to a [[Wikipedia:Gamelan|Gamelan]] and remember that it's not just "out of tune," that they tuned it to those pitches just as carefully as I do, but if it's a 10-minute piece I get acclimated before long. The alternative is the colonial British attitude that dismissed the Carnatic system as a primitive "folk music" because their "poor intonation" was "indicative of a bad ear."
:::&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And yeah, I played in Eastman's baroque ensemble for a couple of years (I didn't realize at first what a resource I had there, or who [http://www.esm.rochester.edu/faculty/?id=115 Paul O'Dette] was!), and it really throws you for a loop to play roughly an exact half step down. After the first 10 minutes of the rehearsal, though, I just get recalibrated into "Baroque mode." (But when listening to my prized [http://www.barockorchester.de/englisch/e_orchest.htm Freiburger] CDs, I still mentally identify what I'm hearing as a half step below what's written, and if I try to think about it it screws me up. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 02:08, 15 November 2005 (UTC)
::Arbitrary A=400 is indeed, yet it is completely ingrained into my ear. I guess it wouldn't make a difference if the Baroque ensemble were playing a piece I didn't know, since I wouldn't know its real key (although it sounds odd to me to hear a Baroque piece in Db major, since that was a rather uncommon key during that era.) The biggest problem is anything well-known: if it's ''The Messiah'' or a Brandenburg concerto the lower pitch is just going to sound wrong to me. Ahistorical and arbitrary, but still part of my congnition. [[User:Heimstern Läufer|Heimstern Läufer]] 03:03, 15 November 2005 (UTC)
:::Yeah, same here. I have the problem of kind of subconsciously imagining the physicality of the note, i.e. the fingering they're doing&mdash;which gets pretty funky in Db (or Gb!). &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 03:23, 15 November 2005 (UTC)
::::[[Wikipedia:Pitch (music)#Historical pitch standards]].[[User:Tom|<nowiki></nowiki>]]  --  [[User:Tom|Tom]] 02:24, 15 November 2005 (UTC)
:::::Amen, hallelujah, preach it. Also http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1305.htm. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 03:23, 15 November 2005 (UTC)
::::::Hi guys! I've been following this conversation for a while, and I figured I may have something to actually contribute: I have this vague recollection from my physics II class that the reason 440Hz is used is in part due to resonance qualities of the material. That is, that would be why we'd use 440Hz and not 439 or 441. (????) I'm trying to find out more about the subject, then again reading about [[Wikipedia:Pitch_%28music%29#Need_to_standardize_pitch|Pitch standardization]] suggests that I remembered it wrong, and that the resonance frequencies have to do with all the ''C'' frequencies being the same, and the pitch really IS arbitrary. (Apparently they tried to set A at 439 once but it being prime was really hard to reproduce). While reading i'm learning about such big phrases as  [[Wikipedia:Fundamental_frequency|Fundamental_frequency]] and [[Wikipedia:Harmonic series (music)|Harmonic series]]. Hmmm, maybe I don't have anything to contribute... <br>I like shiny things. (There, that's better!). --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 02:37, 15 November 2005 (UTC)
:::::::But don't assume we ''really'' play at A-440 today. We had an Israeli/French/German conductor at Eastman who routinely tuned us to 442 or so. I hear it's fairly popular in Europe (but what do you expect from people who drink Warm Ones). I hear also there's some concern about pitch just continuing to rise "out of control" (see a [http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/2003/2003-January/001455.html response] to that concern). &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 03:15, 15 November 2005 (UTC)
::::::::Wow! Did I just read that correctly? Fines by the Italian government for tuning forks outside of 440!? O_o --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 03:57, 15 November 2005 (UTC)
:::::::::Proposed, proposed. And as I read more I'm getting very confused; I'm not sure what connection [[Wikipedia:Lyndon LaRouche|a guy]] who tried to run for president from jail has to the Italian senate, or whether any bill with his name on it would really be taken seriously. On the one hand, it must seem remarkable to the general onlooker that these music nerds are ''at'' each other's ''throats'' over a half-step, but on the other hand the whole "Slatkin serves Satan" thing and the absurdity of all these shenanigans are vaguely pleasing to me. They renew my faith that the "classical" music scene has not simply ossified into an arena for the performance of 18th-century works with 19th-century sensibilities amid 20th-century conventions of a darkened, hushed audience composed mainly of nursing home excursions and tobacco heiresses trying to assuage their inherited guilt by donating to a cause that is both ostensibly societally uplifting and effectually exclusivist. Rather, it offers hope that the sheer ''messiness'' we see in music history&mdash;with major composers' mud-slinging, name-calling, old-school/new-school ([[Wikipedia:Ars nova|Ars nova]], [[Wikipedia:Claudio Monteverdi|seconda practica]]), East-coast/West-coast-style invective, rampant rumors that certain [[Wikipedia:Niccol%C3%B2_Paganini|virtuosi]] ''did'' in fact "serve satan," and audiences that simultaneously awarded their [[Wikipedia:Farinelli|favorite vocalists]] with lives of fame, free love, and [http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/collection/international/painting/a/plate_ipa00014.html gratuitous jewelry] that rival any modern-day blingster, and then gossiped obliviously through the operas to the point that even their pet stars, when their arias came, had to come out to the edge of the stage, grab the spotlight, and gesticulate broadly to wrest their attention&mdash;is not dead. (If you didn't follow that sentence, leave out everything between the dashes.) In a way, it's almost a performance art of sorts; LaRouche, his critics, the respective governments, and the colorful, vicious, vivacious rhetoric form one big, societal piece of entertaining pageant&mdash;"reality opera," if you will! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 04:45, 15 November 2005 (UTC)

== Hallrunner ==

Awesome job on [[Hallrunner]]! --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 20:44, 11 November 2005 (UTC)
:Thanks! I was bored, and using "random page" until I found something worth editing. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 21:50, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

==wiki defender thing...y==

Hey abdi, thanks for the trophy!! {{User:Bubsty/sig}} 16:27, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, thanks, dude!  That's was awesome to see first thing in the morning! [[User:SparkPlug|SparkPlug]] 19:47, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

:Hey; that seemed to me to be the clearest example I've seen yet of what it was meant for. But you know, with a little extra effort it would have been chock full of Steak-umms! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 23:01, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

::Thanks also from me. :)  I didn't do much, but I appreciate it. - [[User:KieferSkunk|KieferSkunk]] 23:47, 12 November 2005 (UTC)
:::And many ''mahalos'' from me too. I think that was the ultimate recognition I've always wanted on here... Thanks, man. And I'd just about had it with that trolling toaster. So I stepped in to fix it. --[[User:DorianGray|DorianGray]]

==Hizzlary Hahn==

So I just got back from a Hilary Hahn concert. She stuck around afterwards to sign CDs; I cursed myself for not bringing mine, and for not bringing a camera. Can you imagine how a photo of me 'n' Hilary would look on my user page?! (If you're having trouble understanding the significant beautification that this would represent for my page, examine [http://www.hilaryhahn.com hilaryhahn.com].) You have to understand, she's like exactly my age; when I was 16 I bought her solo Bach CD simply because she was on the cover (and no, we're not talking about a [[Wikipedia:Lara St. John|Lara St. John]] cover; her eyebrow alone was enough to sell me), and have harbored a crush ever since. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 04:34, 13 November 2005 (UTC)
:This may actually be the first time I've heard of anyone having a crush on a famous ''classical'' musician. I can't say I've ever had one of those myself. At least I'm glad to hear that not ''all'' the heartthrobs have to be no-talents like Britney Spears. Anyway, that's cool you got to see Hilary Hahn in concert; I hear she's great, although I haven't yet heard her myself. I probably don't listen to as much violin solo music as you do, since I'm a horn-player-turned-tenor. [[User:Heimstern Läufer|Heimstern Läufer]] 16:37, 13 November 2005 (UTC)
::They say you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but if she plays half as hot as she looks, then you had an extremely enjoyable concertgoing evening, to put it mildly. You should have drawn a picture of her and handed it to her after the concert. She would have posted it on her website. ;) &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 16:34, 14 November 2005 (UTC)
::::Ah, but she does, that's the marvel of it. Her strong suit is an absolute, impeccable, superhuman purity and perfection of tone and intonation. You could have a competition in which all the major violin supastars play only one note each, and she'd win, for her bow control. Others may have a tone that sounds perfect from 10 feet away, but then you could put it under a microscope and you'd find the tiniest jitter or bump in their sound and none in Hilary's. >>''Edit'': Wait, I just found an Amazon page that puts it well: "Her tone has the directness and intensity of a laser beam and the unblemished purity of fine-spun crystal." (That page, btw, is her own [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/580596/ref=ed_mus_mysh_qp_hahn_1/102-4070132-3504108 music recommendations]; the story of her convergence with [[Wikipedia:...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead|And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead]] is quite amusing.)<< That Her weakness is that her artistic persona and interpretations are fairly reserved, poised, collected, and cool. Not like she's a cold fish, or lacks emotive expression; she can bring it; but she's not all-over-the-place, blood-'n'-guts melodrama like [http://www.nadjasalernosonnenberg.com/ Nadja], and sometimes I want that. I'd actually prefer both artists for different pieces. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 02:38, 15 November 2005 (UTC)
:::By the way, Heimstern (can I call you Heimstern?), I played horn too! I'm immensely glad I chose it (due to its superiority over all the other brass instruments (I'll insert that qualifier there since this ''is'' AbdiViklas's page, and there's no need to be a bad guest here)), but the real reason I originally selected horn over trumpet is that this hot girl was also in the section. Another ;) &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]]
::::Yes, Dot com, please do call me Heimstern. I find it overly formal and awkward when people address me by both first name and surname (if those terms really apply to a pseudonym like "Heimstern Läufer"). I always did love the horn, and I picked it because I liked the instrument, not for any ulterior motives. (I also thought I'd have advantages finding the right notes because of absolute pitch.) Then came college and the teacher from the abyss. We were ''not'' meant for each other at all. So, I'm now a tenor. Let me tell you, the world of vocalists is ''miles'' away from the world of instrumentalists. Half of them seem to seriously believe that singing the right rhythm is optional. I've actually been working on a Schubert song, "Auf dem Strom", which features a horn part in addition to voice and piano. It has to be one of the most beautiful and heartrending songs ever written. It alone proves your point that the horn is the greatest of brass instruments, since no trumpet or tuba could ever be so lyrical and full of ''Sehnsucht''. [[User:Heimstern Läufer|Heimstern Läufer]] 18:58, 14 November 2005 (UTC)
:::::LOL&mdash;I had a tubist friend at Eastman who would be up in arms at that. Thanks to his friendship, I know far more about tubas, tuba rep, and where to buy tubas than I'll ever need to. I've also had the joy of hearing the last movement of the [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00006LWQH/qid=1132021791/sr=1-17/ref=sr_1_17/102-4070132-3504108?v=glance&s=classical Mendelssohn violin concerto] (listen to track 3) arranged for tuba!! "Bopbopbopbop ''boop'' boodeboop boop boop boop boop boop..." It's something like watching a hippo do a tap routine on a tightrope: astounding, but you wonder why it had to be done. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 02:38, 15 November 2005 (UTC)
:::::: Well, tubists just exist in a completely alternate universe to us, anyway. My thought about them is the same thing all we tenors think about basses: "Why would anyone ''want'' to sing/play that low?" [[User:Heimstern Läufer|Heimstern Läufer]] 03:11, 15 November 2005 (UTC)

==I know I am not supposed to, but==

I need to talk again...
-[[User:Thechamp|Thechamp]] 13:51, 13 November 2005 (UTC)

:Well, you did it the right way this time. Forum ahoy! (Though I can't be much help; I'm leaving in half an hour for a big music teachers' convention.) There are plenty of smart folks over there, though, who can take my place. I will at least check up on your edits at the forum before I leave and when I get back Monday night. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 14:19, 13 November 2005 (UTC)

Hey again, I sent a message to you in the forum, send a repply when you get the chance.
-[[User:Thechamp|Thechamp]] 20:19, 15 November 2005 (UTC)

==A telegrammaparcel==

It is I, '''Sir Strong Bad!''' '''STOP'''

I bid you greetings from the year 1938! '''STOP''' 

I'm rather new at this whole electronic communication system. '''STOP''' 

So I am just making aquaintances. '''STOP''' 

Feel free to leave me an electronic message. '''STOP'''

Farewell, you buffoon! '''STOP''' 

'''Sir Strong Bad'''
==Sweden??==
Judging by that message you posted on Sir Strong Bad's talk page, are you seriously from Sweden, or are you just saying that 'cause your name is Abdi'''Viklas'''? Because Sweden is totally my favorite country ever. Because I used to live in Sweden before we moved to Seattle. {{User:Bubsty/sig}} 03:08, 16 November 2005 (UTC)
:No no, I'm no more from Sweden than [http://www.mclars.com/ MC Lars] is actually "[http://mclars.com/laptop_lyrics.html#stock Straight Outta Stockholm]." For what it's worth, I'm a hardcore fan of Swedish folk music, especially the group [http://www.noside.com/Catalog/CatalogArtist_01.asp?Action=Get&Artist_ID=45 V&auml;sen]. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 03:16, 16 November 2005 (UTC)
::Never heard of it. {{User:Bubsty/sig}} 03:17, 16 November 2005 (UTC)
:::Not an acceptable situation! Check out particularly their second US release, [http://www.noside.com/Catalog/CatalogAlbum_01.asp?Album_ID=101 Whirled] (even though it's from, like, '96, it's still their best single album). &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 03:20, 16 November 2005 (UTC)
::::I'll take a look at it. Thanks. {{User:Bubsty/sig}} 03:23, 16 November 2005 (UTC)

== Message from Nikolce Kocovski ==

Hey there Abdiviklas, how have you been, i've noticed you mostly answer my questions in the discussion pages, lets get to konw each other:

1.Whats your real name?

2.What do you do for a living?

3.How did you get the name "AbdiViklas"?

4.How long have you been on Homestar runner wiki?

5.How did you find me?

[[User:Nikolce Kocovski|Nikolce Kocovski]] 06:17, 19 November 2005 (UTC)

Hey there, just so you know, you can get some of the information you want from Abdi's [[User:AbdiViklas|user page]]. A person's user page is usually the best place to start if you want to know about a user. Hope that's helpful! (And, Abdi, hope you don't mind my butting in.) ''(grins sheepishly)'' [[User:Heimstern Läufer|Heimstern Läufer]] 06:25, 19 November 2005 (UTC)
:Not at all; I've been doing it a good bit myself recently! And he's right, Nikolce; my [[User:AbdiViklas|user page]] explains questions 3 and 4 pretty well. As for #1, I prefer not to use my real name on the internet if I can help it. And for #5, I found you by watching [[Special:Recentchanges|Recent changes]] and noticing the questions you were asking on discussion pages.
I have some questions for you, actually!
#How do you pronounce your name? With friends with international names, I like to at least make an effort to pronounce them correctly. I know it's hard to explain in writing, without being able to speak, but at least could you explain the "-ce" ending: does the "e" have much of a sound? If so, is it more of an "ey," like "hey," or "e" like "wet"? And what does the "c" do&mdash;a "s" sound, a "k" sound, or a "ch" sound?
#I think we're all a little confused about your gender. You mentioned that your name translates to "Nick," but [[User:Sir Strong Bad|Sir Strong Bad]] adressed you as a lady. (Here "Nick" is usually a guy's nickname, short for Nicholas; the female equivalent is "Nicole." I've never known a girl named "Nick," though I think I have heard of one who went by "Nicky."
#Umm... I guess I only had two questions, but a two-number list didn't seem like a real list. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 23:03, 19 November 2005 (UTC)
:1. The way you say my name is would be like the same way to say Europian names: Nikolce Kocovski-Ne-kol-che Ko-cho-v-ske.<br>
:2.I'm male, its just that Nick is easier to say then Nikolce, I've never been called Nicholas or Nikky, but you can call me that if you wish. [[User:Nikolce Kocovski|Nikolce Kocovski]] 04:36, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

== More Anagrams ==

Now look what you've done. That anagram thing you showed me is massively addicting. But there's one in particular I wanna share. "Strongbadia" can be arranged to spell "A brat's doing". Don't you love it when they work out and mean something relavent like that? --[[User:DorianGray|DorianGray]]
:I personally think Strong Bad should abandon the "Prof. Tor Coolguy" moniker in favor of "Dr. Snot Bag". [[User:Heimstern Läufer|Heimstern Läufer]] 06:32, 19 November 2005 (UTC)
::But who among us will agree that Strong Mad is "Most Grand"? Although Strong Bad would agree that Strong Sad "Drags Tons", I'm sure. --[[User:DorianGray|DorianGray]]
:::Holy cow&mdash;what storm have I unleashed?? Those are supoib, guys. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 23:35, 19 November 2005 (UTC)

== A Reply ==

Hi.  I just wanted to thank you for caring.  I appreciate it. [[User:Homsarroks|<span style="color: #ff4500;">Homsarroks</span>]] 18:22, 19 November 2005 (UTC)
:Don't mention it. In fact, it could be considered a school assignment, since I'm currently reading [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0807746096/qid=1132443884/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-4070132-3504108?v=glance&s=books&n=507846 The Challenge to Care in Schools: An Alternative Approach to Education]. I find it a little alarming that the idea of giving a crap can be described as "an alternative approach," though in fairness it gets into way more than that. It's about creating a supportive classroom community that doesn't just announce the tenets of "character education" without really believing them, but models and values true... well, caring. Much more fun. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 23:48, 19 November 2005 (UTC)

== On TOCs and other nuances ==

Hey Abdi! What's up? I wanted to brief you on TOC oddities since you asked about it [http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php?title=Talk:Coach_Z&diff=202369&oldid=202367 here].  Basically, what Mediawiki does is that it hides TOCs for pages with less than 3 titles (i think it's 3 at least), however there are special commands such as <code><nowiki>__TOC__</nowiki></code> and <code><nowiki>__NOTOC__</nowiki></code> that make the TOC be placed in that precise location and have the TOC always be hidden, respectively.  I think that toc can make a TOC appear in short pages, but I think <code><nowiki>__FORCETOC__</nowiki></code> might be more of what you need. [http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Magic_words This page] explains more in depth the different Magic Words available for use in the wiki. I hope this is helpful and informative! --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 21:52, 20 November 2005 (UTC)
:Cool. I thought it had something to do with the titles, and added one at the top of the page (thinking the important thing was that the page start with one); that must have bumped it over three, since a TOC appeared. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 21:55, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

== Jibney ==

Looking at Jibney's edit history, it looks like he's always been a little off-the-wall.  It wouldn't surprise me if he decided he just wanted to start making gibberish edits here and there.  But then again, it's also possible someone is trying to make him look bad.  Any ideas? {{User:KieferSkunk/sig}} 17:31, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

:I think he was immitating president bush when he signed your guestbook.  I think he just wants attention and wants it bad. My guess is that he either thought it would be ok to deface a vandal's ip user page, or it might even be his own and doesn't know he can't prove that it's his ip. --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 17:38, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

::'''(Edit conflict):''' Yeah; he ''has'' demonstrated an ability to write in at least semi-standard English (e.g. his last few responses on his user page). I'd prefer to give him the benefit of the doubt, since he has made legit article edits like [http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php?title=Strongbadia&diff=prev&oldid=199670]. Remember several of our power users started out rough, with a block or two. ''{after edit conflict}'' ...and I would think it would be more in his interests to prove it's ''not'' his IP! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 17:42, 21 November 2005 (UTC)
:::''(I almost put this [[Talk:The_Brothers_Chaps%27_Fansite_Acknowledgements#Possession|in the wrong section]])'' Jibney claims to have been [[User:Timmy%21|Timmy]], who used to be a vandal. (Not a Visigoth)  But yeah the changes are recent enough that it would be best that they are not his.  But remember he doesn't have to explain that (innocent till proven guilty?), just explain his current actions. --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 19:52, 21 November 2005 (UTC)
::::Yep. And he also identifies himself as one Marshieman on the Fanstuff wiki, who apparently wore out his welcome there for general obnoxiousness in Aug and was blocked for a year. See [[User talk:Jibney#Hello, Marshieman.]]; apparently [[User:Thatkidsam|Thatkidsam]] has some bad blood for him (see also [[User talk:Jibney#Heh heh...]]). Obviously he has his past, but I'd prefer to hold out hope whenever possible. A mentor orchestra teacher I know has several stories of kids that she would have paid money to get out of her class, who she didn't believe had ''any'' musical talent... who went on to attend conservatories and ultimately become music teachers themselves. Besides, unless blocks are made binding unilaterally across the wikis, he should be judged simply by what he does here.
::::To the best I can tell, neither [[User:Timmy!|Timmy]] nor [[User:Jibney|Jibney]] has ever been blocked here. The user Jibney was created, actually, at [[User:Kerrek_slaya|Kerrek_slaya]]'s suggestion when Timmy couldn't remember his password and didn't have an email address (see [[User_talk:66.169.119.137]]). And to avoid confusion, I strongly doubt that ''our'' [[Special:Contributions/Marshieman|Marshieman]] has anything to do with him. His [[Special:Contributions/Marshieman|edits]] consisted of a spree of obscene, offensive page moves roughly 5 hrs before Jibney's first edits. Timmy/Jibney's style tends to be at worst nonsensical or puerile and involve heavy AOLspeak. Jibney was created 5 hrs too late to give him an alibi, but I really don't think it's him. If I'm right, it wouldn't be the first time someone has tried to make bad edits appear as his; the "Heh heh..." section of his talk page linked above seems to involve some such occurrence on fanstuff. Additionally, both here and on fanstuff, occasional runs of brazenly vandalistic and heavily misspelled edits have been made (e.g. [http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php?title=bedtime_story&diff=prev&oldid=185999], [http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php?title=bedtime_story&diff=prev&oldid=186003], [http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php?title=bedtime_story&diff=prev&oldid=186005], and [http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php?title=bedtime_story&diff=prev&oldid=186011]), which he has subsequently [http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php?title=User_talk:66.169.119.137&diff=prev&oldid=186037 explained] as his little sister gaining access to his computer. Although Thatkidsam doubts his veracity rather sneeringly, compare the semiliterate raving of those edits to his explanation; although uncap.d, etc, it shows a different style. And the edit 2.5 hrs [http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php?title=Talk:boring_%28really%29&diff=prev&oldid=185897 before] the suspicious ones was even more prosaic. Bottom line: the guy makes things hard on himself through AOLspeak and impulsive editting that seems to make more sense to himself than to others, but I see in his saner edits the desire (or at least potential) to be a constructive member of the the wiki, and I'd prefer not to oppose that desire in anyone as long as it remains at the forefront. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 03:33, 22 November 2005 (UTC)
:::::Wow! That is the most thorough analysis of a user I have '''ever''' seen! I didn't even know how many colons to use to indent this thing! Oh yeah I should reply to this too shouldn't I? Well basically you've summed up Jibney's mystery into ... another mystery! :) --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 04:36, 22 November 2005 (UTC)

== Welcome template ==

Quick question: When I use '''<nowiki>{{subst:welcome|~~~|~~~~~}}</nowiki>''' to greet new users, where does the template come from?  Did the change you made to your Welcome template (with the Tour) also affect that tag? {{User:KieferSkunk/sig}} 20:17, 22 November 2005 (UTC)
:Nope. What you're using is [[Template:welcome]]; I took that and made a personalized version which I keep at [[User:AbdiViklas/welcome]], and that's what I editted. You can do the same if you want; you'd use the same code to implement it, but substitute its location for the word "welcome" (e.g. I type <nowiki>{{subst:User:AbdiViklas/welcome|~~~|~~~~~}}</nowiki>). &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 21:40, 22 November 2005 (UTC)
::Or, if you think the tour should be added to the main welcome template itself, you could just add it there. If you decide to do that, however, it might be a good idea to announce your intentions on [[Template talk:welcome]] first. &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 21:45, 22 November 2005 (UTC)
:::Personally, I think it should be incorporated into [[HRWiki:Introduction]] first, and then the Introduction should be linked in the welcome template. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 21:47, 22 November 2005 (UTC)

==HTML Romanian codes==
For my own reference, and the curiosity of anyone who happens by, how to create some of the characters in the Romanian alphabet:
{| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4" style="text-align:center;"
|- bgcolor="#eeeeee"
! Upper case
! Lower case
! Upper case encoding
! Lower case encoding
! Notes
|- 
| Ă
| ă
| &amp;#258;
| &amp;#259;
| &nbsp;
|- 
| Â
| â
| &amp;#194;
| &amp;#226;
| &nbsp;
|- 
| Î
| î
| &amp;#206;
| &amp;#238;
| &nbsp;
|- 
| {{Wikipedia:Template:unicode|&#536;}}
| {{Wikipedia:Template:unicode|&#537;}}
| &amp;#536;
| &amp;#537;
| s with [[Wikipedia:Comma (punctuation)|comma]], not widely supported
|- 
| Ş
| ş
| &amp;#350;
| &amp;#351;
| s with [[Wikipedia:cedilla|cedilla]], alternately
|- 
| {{Wikipedia:Template:unicode|&#538;}}
| {{Wikipedia:Template:unicode|&#539;}}
| &amp;#538;
| &amp;#539;
| t with [[Wikipedia:Comma (punctuation)|comma]], not widely supported
|- 
| Ţ
| ţ
| &amp;#354;
| &amp;#355;
| t with [[Wikipedia:cedilla|cedilla]], alternately
|}

Are you romanian Abdi? (Or of romanian descent?) My old roommate is Romanian. --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 05:06, 23 November 2005 (UTC)
:Nope; no connection except that I went there two summers in a row with teams from my church. I tried to pick up a little language, but really had only an ornamental vocabulary (enough to say something in Romanian just so I'd be saying something in Romanian). I got myself into '''BIG''' trouble, evidently, when I tried to order a lemon Fanta (they have different flavors over there, many of which are awesome), and mispronounced the word for lemon. My hosts' eyes got ''really'' big and they turned bright red; when they regained the power of speech all they could manage was "Don't... ever... say that again...." Me: "Why, what? What did I say?" Them: "You... ''{pause}'' you don't want to know." To this day I don't know what word that sounded like!! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 05:38, 23 November 2005 (UTC)
::Lol! Well if you transliterate (is that a word) what you wrote perhaps I can ask my old roommate this weekend. --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 05:41, 23 November 2005 (UTC)
:::The word was (and here I get a chance to use some of those characters above) "l&#259;m&#226;jie"; that "a" with a circumflex, as I understood it, was supposed to be something like the "oo" of "wood" but closer to the "ou" of "would," a hint of the "oo" of "boot" creeping in. I way over-emphasized the latter, and then gave the final "e" too much of a Spanish "ey" sound&mdash;"luhmooyay." &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 05:50, 23 November 2005 (UTC)
::::LOL i'll see what I can do... I think I have enough to explain to him the word ;) --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 05:54, 23 November 2005 (UTC)
::::So where your hosts like really mad or were they cracking up? --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 05:58, 23 November 2005 (UTC)
:::::Either cracking up or kind of embarrassed or both, depending on their personality. (These were teenagers; the 15-yr-old guy thought it was the funniest event of the 21st century, though even he demurred to tell me what it meant; the shy girl looked like she thought it was funny and felt guilty for thinking so.) &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 06:03, 23 November 2005 (UTC)

::::::Not that this really relates to Romanian, although it does relate to language mix-ups and the current season: My favorite mistake in a German essay by an American student was "An Thanksgiving esse ich die Türkei", which means, "On Thanksgiving I eat Turkey" (i.e., the ''country'' of Turkey!) [[User:Heimstern Läufer|Heimstern Läufer]] 06:05, 23 November 2005 (UTC)
:::::::LOL; I'm ''sure'' he tries. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 06:09, 23 November 2005 (UTC)
::::::'''Edit Conflict''' Ohhh it's possibly slang then.  My old roommate moved from there when he was 8 and i don't know if he knows all the slang. --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 06:07, 23 November 2005 (UTC)

== A wery new electronic reply! ==

'''For Sir Viklas. Hi?'''

'''1. Prehaps! I'm've was to make football often times. Play? Know. Best football results twice again.'''

'''2. Every age I have seen out as a baby. I think I has the solution: width times height.'''

'''3. As a wery old, I can fathom the scene to be with me. Looking always as I ever did. It was not came's. He borrowed mine.'''

'''Okay, Viklas, one would certainly wish that would answer your questions. I do believe that we're on the same page. Unfortunately, yours has a large F on it.'''

'''— Sir Stark Dålig '''

==Marching Bands (not of Manhattan)==

I said "marching bands". Most schools near me have bands, but none I know have marching bands. I live in the same city as TBC. --[[User:Thatkidsam|Thatkidsam]] 23:20, 27 November 2005 (UTC)
:That's reassuring. And frankly, I'd rather they had a sit-down-an'-play-music band than a put-on-a-purple-thing-and-dance-around band. (Or better yet, how about Strings and Choral programs?) But seriously, I'd be very surprised if a city the size of Atlanta didn't have a fair number of HS marching bands. In fact, a cursory Googling reveals that [http://www.marching-band.net/news/ "The Official" Metro Atlanta Battle of the Bands] on Oct. 14, 2004 included bands from the following schools:
::Southwest DeKalb
::Morrow
::Redan
::Westlake
::Columbia
::Towers
::Mays
::Stephenson
::Martin Luther King
::Pebble Brook
::Cedar Grove
::Riverdale
::Lithonia
:However, cross-checking against the [http://www.atlanta.k12.ga.us/our_schools/schools_list/school_list1.html#high list of Atlanta public high schools] shows only Mays. What's the deal&mdash;the others are suburban schools with nice budgets? &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 23:36, 27 November 2005 (UTC)
::Woah, there's a actully a real school called Riverdale high? In those old Archie comics he's in riverdale high school, for those of you who don't know. That's awsome! {{User:Bubsty/xmasig}} 00:41, 28 November 2005 (UTC) PS: For some reason my sig isn't working on this page. Or my new x-mas themed one. Whats happening?
:::Man. Now [http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php?title=User_talk:ISlayedTheKerrek&diff=prev&oldid=205706 my] User page is haunted! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 00:52, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
::::Weird, man. --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 01:14, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
:::::Ok, problem fixed! Curse lifted :p. Binary Searches sure come in handy. --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 01:28, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
::::::That Stux is a computer genius man! (Let's do a dance for the computer genius man.) Btw (not in the tone of trauma that would continue the quote), what did you do? &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 01:33, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
:::::::Well it didn't involve shotguns that's for sure... If you check out this [http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php?title=User_talk:AbdiViklas&diff=prev&oldid=206819 diff] you'll see that there were a few template inclusions that were not closed, making everything be template text. --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 02:17, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
::::::::<nowiki>*</nowiki>Dances for the computer genius man* doo-doo! doo-doo! Thank you stux! you rule! Doo-doo!{{User:Bubsty/sig}} 02:19, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

Lovett and Westminster aren't on there because they're private schools. Fancy-shemancy. --[[User:Thatkidsam|Thatkidsam]] 21:11, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

== An electronic request! ==

Greetings, Sir Viklas! '''Stop'''

I once again come to you asking for a favor! '''Stop'''

Might I trouble you for a photograph? '''Stop'''

Because you are being inducted into my honorary members gang! '''Stop'''

Dapperly yours,

{{User:Sir Strong Bad/sig}}

'''PS: If possible, please make it a B/W photo. My telegramophone doesn't seem to handle the colored genre oh too well. Regards!'''

:I'd rather not use my real picture, for the same reason that I'd rather not use my real name. Also, I'm not actually Swedish (see [[#Sweden??|conversation above]]). But since I impersonated a Swedish prince on your talk page, I find it only fitting to use an [[Wikipedia:Image:Ducele_de_Halland.jpg|image of one]] to represent me. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 07:26, 29 November 2005 (UTC)
::I bet you are a hit with the ladies Mr. Swedish Prince. :) --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 18:50, 29 November 2005 (UTC)
:::Woah, that picture totally looks like me! {{User:Bubsty/sig}} 05:48, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

== GVBAoA ==

[[Image:Pewtervanburen.PNG|right|Pretend its golden, since I'm already pushing the one-personal-image rule.]]
Abdi, you've just earned yourself the '''GVBAoA''':<br>
'''G'''old<br>
'''V'''an<br>
'''B'''uren<br>
'''A'''award<br>
'''o'''f<br>
'''A'''wesomeness<br>
for helping me get off the ground when I was a newbie, and for being an all around nice person. There are only five in the entire world! - {{User:Kookykman/sig}}
:Whoa!! What an honor! I have so many people to thank&mdash;I'd like to thank the academy; I'd like to thank The Cheat, for helping me to cheat&mdash;<small>oh no, wait, I shouldn't say that...</small> &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 05:07, 30 November 2005 (UTC)
==The "Yet another award" award==
:Just kiddin. It's the '''thank you award'''. I present this thank you award to AbdiViklas, <s>Pretty weird person</s> Swedish Prince, for giving me an awesome trophy and for just being cool.
So here you go! Thanks!
:{{User:Bubsty/sig}} 05:49, 1 December 2005 (UTC) [[Image:Thankyouposter.PNG|thumb|Thank You Award givin to '''AbdiViklas''']]
::Presenting: the '''"No, thank ''you''!" award'''! For being an expert trophy-giver and encourager. People who affirm good stuff in others are themselves ''good stuff''. G-E-W-D.
::On an unrelated note: when I hear "Swedish Prince" I can't help imagining a [[Wikipedia:Prince (artist)|guy in a purple suit]] trying to look sultry but failing because his [[Wikipedia:Swedish Chef|eyebrows and mustache entirely obscure his face]]. <small>[http://www.lyricsfreak.com/u/u2/141603.html Oh-oh-oh, the Swedish thing]...</small> &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 06:16, 1 December 2005 (UTC)

== "wiki is gay"? ==

I'm sorry, I need to ask this question in order to see if this was just an inane dream or a reality - did Homestarrunner.com temporarily put up a message in their updates section (top-right corner of the main pages) saying that "The HRWiki is gay"? Thanks, this is killing me... {{User:Gafaddict/sig}} 13:32, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

:Interesting.  No, we don't have any record of that happening.  Who did you hear that one from?[[User:Tom|<nowiki></nowiki>]]  --  [[User:Tom|Tom]] 18:49, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

::TBC like us. We're cool. Most of us seem to like members of the opposite gender...so there. **sticks out tongue and gives a rasbery** {{User:Invisible_Robot_Fish/sig}} 19:33, 2 December 2005 (UTC)
:::Yeah, that sounds something more like what Matt Wilson would do... He doesn't like his cartoon's wiki much, and has put things like "the wiki is creepy" in the credits occasionally, and even openly mocked them with a "Bonus Stage Wiki Guy" character in a recent toon. But the Brothers Chaps love us. They sent Joey sketches and stuff. --[[User:DorianGray|DorianGray]]
::::Who's Matt Wilson, and what cartoon does he make? He sounds like a not-so-nice person. [[User:Heimstern Läufer|Heimstern Läufer]] 19:39, 2 December 2005 (UTC)
:::::Matt Wilson writes the [[Wikipedia:Bonus Stage|Bonus Stage]] webtoons. He doesn't think much of his fans, I think, the wiki in particular. But the cartoons rock. --[[User:DorianGray|DorianGray]]
::::::Like I said, I think I was &mdash; literally &mdash; dreaming. I was up really late last night. {{User:Gafaddict/sig}} 19:52, 2 December 2005 (UTC)
::::::...which reminds me that I really spend too much time on the computer. Dreaming about the internet, wow... :/ {{User:Gafaddict/sig}} 19:53, 2 December 2005 (UTC)
:::::::LOL&mdash;yes, that is a warning sign. (I can just imagine Gafaddict doing couch mumbling: "Mbl... hammminbble... Edit conflict...".) Seriously, not only do TBC like the wiki, their record is notably free from the use of "gay" as a generic negative. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 05:36, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

== hey there AbdiViklas ==

How have you been, me i've be doing great, can i ask you some questions:

1.whats your favourite toon?

2.whats your favourite character?

3.how did you find Homestar runner?

[[User:Nikolce Kocovski|Nikolce Kocovski]] 08:52, 3 December 2005 (UTC)
:Two of those are tough. (One's easy; the answer to #3 is on [[User:AbdiViklas#Homestar Runner: A History of an Addiction|my user page]].) For favorite 'toon, I'll have to limit it to sbemails to make it easier. In that case, the three that I ''enjoy'' the most are [[funny]], [[caffeine]], and [[your friends]]. I can't decide exactly what the order should be. I feel a little guiltily lowbrow for enjoying so much the ones that are just straight-up, slapstick, audiovisual gags; I ''appreciate'' the ones that are "clever" too, but I can't help just laughing at loud at these.
:For favorite character: also tough. Of course I like 'em all, for the appropriate reasons. (Strong Bad because he's... Strong Bad; Strong Sad for his good taste in literature, music, art, and intellectual culture; Homestar for his heartwarming naïveté; etc.) If I have to pick a major character, I'll go with The Cheat; I just bought one of the The Cheat t-shirts while they were on sale, and it's the first t-shirt I've bought. But if we're including minor characters, I think What's Her Face is pretty cool, as I once [[Talk:What's Her Face|observed]] in a characteristically wordy post. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 02:25, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
::[[Talk:What%27s_Her_Face#From_the_Paper_.22Teen_Girl_Squad:_Class_Stratification_and_the_Role_of_Otherness_Within_A_Multi-teen_Peer_Group_Dynamic.22|''No wonder'']] you didn't post the entire link that discussion. --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 02:46, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
:::That and the fact that my comment was in response to some above that heading. (By the way, that heading was [[User:Thesmokingmonkey|Thesmokingmonkey]]'s doing; [http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php?title=Talk:What%27s_Her_Face&diff=151263&oldid=151256 originally] I hadn't started a new section.) &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 02:53, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
::::Oh! I [http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php?title=Talk:What%27s_Her_Face&diff=next&oldid=151263 see].--[[User:Stux|Stux]] 02:59, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

== Louisiana residents ==

AbdiViklas: I noticed that you reverted my edit on [[HRWiki:STUFF/Archive/weird dream#Louisiana lingerie?|this page]], which was a removal of the phrase "it could even be a jab at the relative intelligence of Louisiana residents." Let me make the case for my removal, and then I'll let you do with that information as you see fit.

I'm not aware of a stereotype that Louisiana residents are unintelligent.  I ''am'' aware of a false stereotype that people living in the South are "slow."  I'm assuming this is what you're referring to.  In this case, I have little confidence that TBC would propogate this bias--they are from Georgia, about as South as you can get.  (I also have difficulty seeing the connection between askew undergarments and intelligence, although one could argue this point.)

So, I removed your comment because I saw no need to perpetuate an insulting stereotype, especially one which residents of Georgia would be unlikely to defend.  I trust that you'll take these comments as what they're intended to be--an explanation of my position--and not a personal attack. Best, {{User:Trey56/sig}} 15:52, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
:Thanks for your tact! I live in NC myself, so I certainly don't subscribe to the "dumb Southerner" concept (and am concerned about research showing employer bias against Southern accents!). I offerred the comment as illustration that the Easter egg could have meant something other Mardi Gras. In fact, my first thought when watching it, since I didn't make the Mardi Gras connection, was "Ha ha, that one couldn't even figure out how to put it on!" True, Louisiana isn't the butt of such jokes so much as Arkansas; it was jokes like the [http://www.joke-archives.com/youmaybe/arkansasreadingtest.html Arkansas reading test] that I was thinking of. (And I've heard that one ''from'' Southerners, in NC!) I'm not so sure TBC have qualms about perpetuating insulting stereotypes, either; I find it hard to watch Li'l Brudder in light of the physically impaired. (But yes, to their credit, they steer mostly clear of shock humor and using touchy subjects for cheap laughs.)
:As for removing the comment, I just reverted because I thought it was generally frowned upon to edit other people's comments in STUFF or talk pages. (I mean, I once deleted one when someone used a homosexual slur, but for anything less extreme I try to let it stand.) In light of your argument that acknowledging a harmful stereotype reinforces it, though, you can consider it ''my'' deletion!
:Thanks for responding in such a diplomatic and well-explained way! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 21:43, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
::Hey, thanks for the cheerful reply; I probably made a mountain out of a molehill anyway (it's only a STUFF page, after all).  I'll keep your comments in mind before editing arguments in the future.  Have a great week, {{User:Trey56/sig}} 06:31, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

== greetings from Nikolce Kocovski (plus homeschooling) ==

Hey there abdiviklas, how have you been, i've been doing fantastic. anyway onto business:
#do you know a user by the name of elvis?
#did you ever had a bulling problem in school?
#what have been up to recently?
yours truly [[User:Nikolce Kocovski|Nikolce Kocovski]] 11:13, 9 December 2005 (UTC)
:Hey Nik!
:#I think I'd noticed [[User:Elvis|Elvis]] a couple of times on recent changes, but I hadn't looked up his user page until you asked. I wonder how his Elvis impersonation is? I hope it's better than the one on [http://www.ubu.com/outsiders/365/01-1.html this] page (see the entry for Jan. 8)!
:#I was [[Wikipedia:Homeschooling|homeschooled]] from 2nd grade through high school, so I certainly didn't have as many problems with bullying as most students, but even so I had some. Interestingly, one of the guys who used to tease me in really painful ways eventually (like within the same year) realized that he really was hurting me, apologized, and started being nicer. I think he wasn't really so much a true bully; he just thought he was being funny (while I didn't). These days, as a teacher, I'm more concerned with trying to prevent bullying for my students. It's really a serious problem; in the U.S. 75% report being bullied at some point, which means not only are they being denied a fundamental human right, but their education and development are being affected. I'm not sure how much I can do as a teacher to really change bullying, but I intend at least not to be unaware of it or (worse) ignore it.
:#Recently I've been doing a bunch of homework for finals in my university courses. Also I've been visiting a high school where I've been practicing conducting the orchestra in [[Wikipedia:Arcangelo Corelli|Corelli]]'s ''Christmas Concerto'', which has been a lot of fun. Conducting Baroque music has an effect on me sort of like "runner's high"; by the end of the rehearsal I'm a little giddy. Their concert is Tuesday. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 02:50, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

::Abdi, I had no idea you were once a homeschooler! So was I from K-12. I'm still very glad of it and quite appreciative of the sacrifices my dear mother made to teach me (especially since I was sometimes grotesquely lazy). Anyway, keep on tranglin'! {{User:Heimstern Läufer/sig}} 02:59, 11 December 2005 (UTC)
:::Yup. From about halfway through 2nd grade, when my Mom pulled me out because I was having serious problems. I was ADD (not hyperactive) before it had really become well-known, and my teacher couldn't understand why I wasn't getting my worksheets ''<small>{sneer expressing intense teacherly contempt for worksheets}</small>'' done without supervision. Plus I was a real troublemaker, having problems "keeping my hands to myself" (less from agression than from a confusion about the fact that tripping others or swinging my lunchbox into them was not as funny for them as for me). &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 03:14, 11 December 2005 (UTC)
::::Not that it's much to add, but my ex was homeschooled.  I think kids can benefit more through homeschooling. If I have kids, I'd like them to be homeschool as much as possible too. --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 03:37, 11 December 2005 (UTC)
:::::Let me hasten to say that, as somebody about to be employed by it, I'm definitely not anti-public-education-system. The pros and cons of homeschooling versus public would have to do largely with what you felt the purpose of school was. If you adhered to a very traditional understanding of education in which "knowledge" meant a canon of factual information to be "uploaded" from written curricula and direct instruction into students' minds&mdash;in which "school" was primarily about the stuff it seems, on the surface, to be about (Reading 'n' Riting 'n' 'Rithmetic, etc.)&mdash;then yeah, that can be more efficiently accomplished through 1-on-1 instruction. But if you define "knowledge" as socially created, i.e. understanding is best achieved by experiencing something rather than hearing about it, and the transfer of experiential understandings through group work is not simply a side effect of schooling but an asset; if you think that what school is there to provide is not simply the official curriculum but the hidden curricula of social interaction and societal structures, and especially if you place a priority on exposing your child to other socioeconomic groups and cultures, then public school becomes desirable. (Although, contrary to popular opinion, homeschooling isn't typically insular; I had just as much contact with peers via co-opped classes and extracurricular clubs as most public schoolers. It would still be possible to achieve all the benefits above, though in my experience you might have to look outside the homeschooling community for meaningful interaction with other cultures.) &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 03:55, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

:I seem to be a bit late to this conversation, but I just figured I'd also meantion I was homeschooled from grade 2 onward as well. I switched when we moved way up country to Quesnel, and when we moved back south I never went back. I liked it, especially since it's so flexible. A bit ''too'' flexible sometimes too, it is somewhat dificult to stay on schedule. {{User:Thunderbird L17/Siggie}} 20:15, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

::I too, am late in responding, but I will anyway. Yes, I, too, occasionally found it too flexible. My mother can tell many a story of my dreadful procrastination. It still bites me occasionally, but I think I've mostly outgrown that bad habit now. (Of course, finding the Wiki has done nothing to improve my habits in that area...) {{User:Heimstern Läufer/sig}} 07:20, 21 December 2005 (UTC)
:::Yeah, hehe. Perhaps my earlier Wikiing is partly responsible for the remarkable intensity of my finals-period workload, which is why I haven't been on her much in a couple of weeks. Anydangways... I'm back! Missed y'all. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 17:49, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

== An electronic request! ==

Greetings, Sir Viklas! '''Stop'''

I am updating my Honorary Gang Members electronic page and I need the following information. '''Stop'''

What rank would you consider yourself in my gang? '''Stop'''

For example, I am the '''"Brains"'''. '''Stop'''

The Sneak is '''"The Thief"'''. '''Stop'''

And The Strong Man is '''"The Brawn"'''. '''Stop'''

Please try not to use any of those ranks. '''Stop'''

Please respond on my electronic talk page. '''Stop'''

Dapperly yours,

{{User:Sir Strong Bad/sig}}

:Gee, I'm not sure, S.S. Bad. I think I need to rewatch Ocean's 11 for ideas. I'll get back to you, though. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 03:57, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

== The Official "You're Back!" Greetings ==

Hey, what can we say but that we missed you? I constantly kept thinking "Gee, where's Abdi and his amazing replies an' such?" I even tried to fill your niche whilst you were gone (check my contributions. There's at least one marked "An Abdi-worthy reply"), but to no avail. So now we won't be too bored, with so many other people leaving the wiki for the hols. Glad to have ya back, Abdi. --[[User:DorianGray|DorianGray]]
:<s>Oh? You were gone?</s> Er... I mean... glad to have you back too! {{User:Bubsty/sig}} 18:22, 22 December 2005 (UTC)
::Yeah, I noticed you'd been a bit scarce around here. I figured it was school-related. I've been done for over a week now. I'm in Oregon visiting family and friends for Christmas, but I'm still definitely present on the Wiki. So don't worry, either you or DorianGray, I'll be there like shareware. {{User:Heimstern Läufer/sig}} 18:42, 22 December 2005 (UTC)
:::Glad to have you back, man! And I also rememebred you. See my reply over [[User_talk:Thunderbird_L17#Is_it_cardboard.2C_or_is_it_feedback.3F|TB's talk]]. {{User:E.L. Cool/sig}} 18:48, 22 December 2005 (UTC)
You guys are so nice! So&mdash;yeah... guess that was kind of a false alarm, what with not visiting for another week. As you guessed, H.L., my absence up until about the 22nd was school-related, but absence since then was spending-Christmas-with-the-family-related. To be more specific, sitting-around-in-pajamas-eating-chocolate-and-drinking-hot-cider-and-egg-nog-alternately-for-three-days-straight-related. We punctuated the festive lethargy with trips to Narnia and King Kong, which were both just great, in their (very different) ways. Next up: Pride & Prejudice (yes, there ''are'' men who dig it), Harry Potter, The Producers, maybe some Memoirs of a Geisha, and all those things from a while ago like Crash or Zorro that I haven't seen yet. Whew! The worload!! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 17:06, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

== An electronic crisis! ==

Dear, Sir Viklas '''Stop'''

I apologize for being absent for a while. '''Stop'''

The Decemberween season keeps me busy even in the past! '''Stop'''

It is a delight to recollect with the gang during this glorious season! '''Stop'''

However our joyous gatherings may have to end shortly. '''Stop'''

For a complaint has been presented to my electronic talk page. '''Stop'''

Please refer to my talk page and view the complaint from Sir Dot Com. '''Stop'''

If you all agree to the idea he has proposed then the gang may live for another day! '''Stop'''

I thank you all in the most gracious manner and bid you a very merry Decemberween season! '''Stop'''

Sincerely,

{{User:Sir Strong Bad/sig}}

:See [[User_talk:Sir_Strong_Bad#Personal_images]] for more info. &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 05:44, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

== Merry christmas ==

Hey there abdiviklas, how have you been, i've been doing great. i just wanted to say, merry christmas and a happy and safe holiday. thank you for your kind messages, you've helped me quite a bit. We friends right?

merry christmas [[User:Nikolce Kocovski|Nikolce Kocovski]] 05:04, 25 December 2005 (UTC)
:Course we friends, foo! You're my only Macedonian Aussie friend; those are hard to come by! Seriously, I'm really happy that you've stayed involved in the wiki, and I admire the fact that you keep asking about things and improving your wiki skills. Thanks for saying hi for the holidays; it's a little late to return the Merry Christmas, but I hope you have a great New Year's! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 17:17, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

== Happy new year ==

Happy new year and a enjoyable year for you, see you soon.

[[User:Nikolce Kocovski|Nikolce Kocovski]] 05:47, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

== Greetings from M.J ==
Uh, Hi, you may not remember me but I was a long term member of the hrwiki and then got locked out with the changing of sites and re-registering and the no-annonymous-users-can-edit situation.
''{takes breath}'' anyhoo I'm back and I wanted to thank you for your support, I was going to give up on the hrwiki and never return until I got your message on my livejournal account a while back urging me to keep battling on. So Thanks! I'll show myself out -[[User:MJ|MJ]]


== thanks, abdi ==
thanks for reducing the exc. points on my guestbook. ciberdude also seems to have accidently added four 4's instead of three on his signature. that man does not know what he is doing. just like you did to me, i hope we can somehow teach him to be more familiar with the wiki. thanks to you, i'm joining the welcoming commitee. [[User:Seriously|Seriously]] 18:53, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
::''{note: This edit and its reply were made after the entries below them}'' for the record i '''do''' know what i am doing. i used to be a nerd, fixing trolling, reverting stupid ideas, but then when i tried to add to the [[www.hrwiki.org|wiki]] i kept getting reverted on all the references and goofs. so i thought that the wiki must not like too streached references and i started deleting stuff but that went down hill when thise edit got reverted so i realized that all of you are exactally the kind of person [[Strong Bad|SB]] would hate. so i decided to troll and troll and troll and troll and troll  [[User:Ciberdude444|Ciberdude444]] 21:57, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
:::Wow. Um, I assume you changed your mind again. But yeah, the experience you mentioned (getting reverted at first) is so common I put some stuff into my [[User:AbdiViklas/welcome|welcome template]] about it. It's tough, because everybody makes an attachment, however little, between their edits and themselves; praise for their edits is praise for them and an abrupt and ignominious death for their edits is felt personally too. And yeah, you woudn't be the first who's responded to that injury by trolling. But as I'm sure you've experienced, all that reverting at the beginning is really just the result of the wiki learning curve; like people make edits that don't match the standards or that say something that was already said elsewhere. So anyway, I hope you're finding it a little less frustrating now being "the kind of person SB would hate." (Actually, seriously, I don't think he would; he's a pretty big grammar nerd himself. But yes, the kind of personality that makes the wiki work is closer to Adrian Monk's [[Wikipedia:Obsessive-compulsive disorder|OCD]] than Strong Bad's "whatever"-ness. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 22:12, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
:''{responding to Seriously again}'' Don't mention it. And thanks for your response patching things up with Ciberdude (though I took the liberty of moving it from ''User talk:Ciberdude'' to [[User talk:Ciberdude444]]). There are some unfortunate examples on the wiki of users who are still pissed at each other and seriously make life rough; there are also ''daily'' examples of people who might have reason to be offended with each other shrugging it off and being generous about it. I encourage you to keep doing that&mdash;and not just making it so relationships with other users are "okay," but actually actively trying to improve them (i.e. calling them on it when they make a really good edit, or just making them feel good in whatever way you can). It's not just some Hallmark-Care-Bears conspiracy to make everybody feel all warm and fuzzy; it actually makes for a better website (and ultimately better people in real life!). &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 19:09, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
::P.S. In other words, easy with comments like "doesn't know what he is doing." Yeah, literally, we're all learning more about how this wiki thing works every day (like just a minute ago I learned how to resize an image!). But be careful not to be insulting. (Also, I don't think there's any clue about Ciberdude's gender; assuming all online types are male can be dangerous!) Unrelatedly, cool that you're joining the welcoming committee! It's a great feeling when you get to welcome someone (though you have to have a fast trigger finger around here; the past few days I've seen, like, six new users get welcomed by other folks before I had a chance!). &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 19:16, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

nice. real nice. "quick! the carebears are coming! SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE! SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!"
anyway, i don't even know your gender, so i can't say anyting. i'm pretty sure thunderbird is a guy, but i'll have to look into it. i'm guessing......your......a......guy? [[User:Seriously|Seriously]] 19:25, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
:Yup. (Come to think of it, I guess my user page, while it tells ''everything'' else about me, doesn't mention that!) I was thinking of users like [[User:Homestar Coder|Homestar Coder]] who often get assumed to be guys. (And Soylent Green is a hilarious movie.) &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 19:30, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

true dat. in fact, double true. 
if you know what snl skit double true is from, you get a gold star. hint: it's new. [[User:Seriously|Seriously]] 20:33, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
:Ironically, although I ''know'' about the Chroni(what?)cles of Narnia, I haven't seen it yet. (The rap, I mean; the movie was great.) I'm-a go see if I can hunt down a copy hosted by a site my filter won't block. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 20:43, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
youtube.com
:Yeah, that didn't work for me, but I found one that did. Dang; now I want a cupcake! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 21:33, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
two. no six. no twelve. BAKER'S DOZEN!!

dude, is that not the funniest thing you have ever seen? i watch it all the time. in fact, i'ma go watch it right now. see ya. [[User:Seriously|Seriously]] 22:21, 2 January 2006 (UTC) 22:20, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
:Yeah, that was up there with the Cowbell. I think the NY Times (or was it Slate?) was right; what makes it funny isn't just that their whiteness but the extraordinary harmlessness and yuppiness of their subject matter. I'm reminded of Weird Al's ''It's All About the Pentiums''. ("I'm the king of the spreadsheets / got 'em printed out all over my bedsheets...") &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 22:38, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

due, seriously. [[User:Seriously|Seriously]] 22:44, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

==ciberdude444's at it ==
abdi, ciberdude444 has once again reverted my comment on the guestbook. i said it was okay, but i didn't think it would be like this. i don't want to edit something on his userpage, and i doubt he will listen to me. i will try anyway, but i need your help.
:Meh; it doesn't seem to me like it matters a ton either way. The question is who gets "custody"; whether you can't edit because it's his userpage or he can't edit because it's your comment. There's no official rule about it, but it seems like nobody should have to live with stuff on their userpage they don't want, or with their edits misrepresented. I think I'll revert it to your signature alone, which shouldn't be a problem for anybody. But seriously, in the grand scheme of things, I don't think it's a really big deal. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 22:57, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

thanks, ab! abdi! abdivi! abdiviklas! yeah, i just don't like that stuff. it's a tender relationship, we don't him to put stuff that i would assume offensive and start another argument. i just want to take things carefully. [[User:Seriously|Seriously]] 23:02, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
::who needs grammar lessons now? "we don't him to put stuff " whats that suposed to mean?
:Cool. Also, with regard to the age thing, maybe the best thing you could do would be to take your real name off your page. Zillions of people could be your age, but you'd be ''amazed'' how easy it is to trace a person from their name. (In my city, at least, if you've ever voted, the info on how you're registered and your voting history, plus address, is right there on the web for free!) I've got my age on mine but don't give out my name or anything else very personally identifiable. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 23:07, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

== what do you like mostly about homestar runner? ==

Hey there abdiviklas, how have you been i've been doing great, the question i'm asking you is the title. see you around.

[[User:Nikolce Kocovski|Nikolce Kocovski]] 10:07, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
:Man... actually, that's a really tough one to answer. Why ''do'' we&mdash;or I, at least&mdash;like H*R so much? I think it has a lot to do with the form it's in&mdash;relatively short cartoons updated roughly weekly for free, and all accessible at any time. I mean, let's face it; it has nowhere near the same number of laughs-per-week as, say, Simpsons or Futurama, but if H*R were on TV it would mean it would come in 30' chunks instead of 6' max, and (Tivo aside) you could only get to it at specific times, one 'toon at a time. The best time of my life was when I was watching the Strong Bad Emails for the first time, and was spending days at a time just watching them back-to-back chronologically; I think they're actually funnier that way.
:But I haven't ''really'' answered your question. What ''element'' of H*R do I like best? Well... I dunno. Do I like the randomness of its humor, or its relevence (via the "pop culture, mumble grumble" references)? Do I appreciate more its PG rating or the frequent ways it pushes that envelope (which, frankly, are funnier because they're so unexpected than the reliable shock-humor of Family Guy and related shows)? Do I enjoy Strong Bad's wittiness or Homestar's naivete (or Marzipan's activism or Strong Sad's misunderstood artistic sensibilities)? Can't say. I guess it's '''D''', all of the above!! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 17:08, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

i kinda agree with you, the reason i like homestar runner the best on the internet, for its humour, the way it uses pop culture like simpsons a bit, and the characters. but the reason why i like it is:'

because it acts like a cartoon. i'll explain:

you see most of the things you find on the internet are either horrible violent with lots of swearing or lots of adult content. but homestar runner is nothing like it. Do you understand?

[[User:Nikolce Kocovski|Nikolce Kocovski]] 03:13, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

ps: i do aslo enjoy sb emails long or short toons, the characters etc.

==welcoming==
can i join the welcoming comitte? [[User:Ciberdude444|Ciberdude444]] 17:30, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
:Sure! Check out [[HRWiki:Welcoming committee]]; it's got all the details on how to do so. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 17:33, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

== Hey, that kind of proves my point. ==

''"sorry, rv; "hypocrisy" seems to me to have inaccurate connotations. He doesn't *give* a darn, really, whether "jillion" is a real word."''

The fact that he doesn't give a darn is kind of the point.  He holds everyone else up to quite lofty standards of perfect spelling and grammar but doesn't do the same.  That is the definition of hypocrisy and being a hypocrit. "Do as I say and not as I do." <br/>-{{User:Houdin654jeff/sig}} 05:35, 4 January 2006 (UTC)
:Yeah, I see what you mean. But see my [http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php?title=Talk:Strong_Bad&curid=818&diff=230061&oldid=230056&rcid=174751 reply just now] on [[Talk:Strong Bad]], disagreeing somewhat with that definition of hypocrisy. The definition you offer is certainly a common one, but I feel it's a misuse of the word. "Inconsistency" might be better. I also reverted partly because I just felt like, by itself, it wasn't that remarkable; now, if a page gets made, that would be a reason to have a remark saying something like "this is another instance of '''Strong Bad's Usage Errors'''" or the like. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 05:44, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

== An electronic GIF! ==

Dear Sir Viklas, '''Stop'''

Please view the brand new symbol-ma-drawin' I have crafted on my electronic user page! '''Stop'''

Has fun! '''Stop'''

{{User:Sir Strong Bad/sig}}

== Manual of Style ==

Actually, I ''just'' added that rule (and it was because I saw the strip&egrave;d discussion, though I'd been considering it for a while), but it actually works in your favor if you count the fact that (a sentence prior) Strong Bad actually ''did'' write "striped" while pronouncing it "strip&egrave;d". Thus, this one can go either way. --{{User:Jay/sig}} 21:57, 15 January 2006 (UTC)
:I'm not sure I understand the Appetizers/Appe-teasers example. &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 21:58, 15 January 2006 (UTC)
::Well, that was actually a bad example (as "Appe'teasers'" is written in the 'toon in question in an Easter Egg, [[Biz Cas Fri 1]].) But, if we were to assume that nothing was written, then you'd still want to write "Appe-teasers" because that's what was said. There are better examples out there, though... most of what Coach Z says, for instance. That was just the first thing to cross my mind. This has been the unofficial consensus for a while, actually; I was just trying to make it official. --{{User:Jay/sig}} 22:05, 15 January 2006 (UTC)
:::Cool. We've got a lot of back-revising to do on it, then. But maybe before we do, at least with regard to the aspiration-of-"-ed"-suffixes issue, see my hesitance I just added to [[Talk:highschool#Accent on striped]]. I agree that using the diacritical is preferable to "stripe-ed", but&mdash;I can't get over it's funnylookiness. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 22:09, 15 January 2006 (UTC)
::::One more question: What's an example of a mispronounced word where the phonetic spelling is identical to the standard spelling? &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 22:13, 15 January 2006 (UTC)
:::::Just thinking hypothetically, maybe something like pronouncing "bomb" with the final ''b'' aspirated, but not enough to transcribe as "bombuh". You'd have to add a note. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 22:17, 15 January 2006 (UTC)
::::::"Colonel" is a good one. Currently, it's written as such on every relevant page. --{{User:Jay/sig}} 22:21, 15 January 2006 (UTC)
:::::::Ah, now I understand. &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 22:31, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

== Screenshot ==

Sorry. You must be talking about my first upload. Right after I saw it had no copright notice, I went to fix it. I did so for the other 3. {{User:Bluebry muffin/sig}}01:29, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

:Also, will you check to see if this is ok? [[Characters#Other_Alternates]]. The teen versions. Thanks. {{User:Bluebry muffin/sig}}01:37, 16 January 2006 (UTC)
::Looks okay to me! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 02:16, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

== Edit conflicts ==

Hey there, Dr. AdbiViklas. I'm totally cool with you giving 24.239.109.228 [http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php?title=User_talk:24.239.109.228&diff=prev&oldid=239289 extra instruction], but I just want to point out that noting an edit conflict is completely unnecessary in this case. In fact, most times, noting edit conflicts are unnecessary. Crapfully crap, [[User:BazookaJoe|BazookaJoe]] 03:08, 16 January 2006 (UTC)
:Right; I know that the general rule is "if your comment would still make sense in the flow of the page don't note it"; in this case I did note it because otherwise there wasn't much explanation for my commenting at all! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 03:11, 16 January 2006 (UTC)
::Yes, but I think it looks unprofessional to have a note up there. You can easily reword the message and have it flow. I would agree with it. &mdash;[[User:BazookaJoe|BazookaJoe]] 03:12, 16 January 2006 (UTC)
:::That makes sense; I did so and also added a bit about the turn he took. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 03:25, 16 January 2006 (UTC)
::::Heh. You're awesome. &mdash;[[User:BazookaJoe|BazookaJoe]] 03:25, 16 January 2006 (UTC)
:::::LOL; on the wiki I seem to be permanently in schoolteacher mode, in which first-time vandals are suspendees and potential dropouts. (The alarming thing that just kind of clicked for me recently is that these users ''are'' in fact real people, and their interaction with this wiki is a window of opportunity to teach them about how to interract with others. (Yes yes, and about H*R!) That's why, although the squabbles and typos of middle-school users take up time and energy, I'm glad we have them. The whole Seriously/Totebag/Ciberdude deal is a chance for three guys either to learn that nothing's fair, no one in authority cares, and name-calling and petty revenge get results, or to learn that co-operation and community are more than smarmy buzzwords and are actually realisable and effective. Then, realizing that two of those go to the same school: what could be the exponential impact of two kids who actually believed that?) So even though chances are good he'll never come back, and even though it was kind of silly of me to do so, that's why I left that for him; I daydream that maybe he's at a formative moment in his life and the wiki could tip the balance between a life of crime and a career as a school counselor or a Doctor Without Borders or some such. It sounds cheesy, but... maybe it's not too great an exaggeration! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 03:41, 16 January 2006 (UTC)
::::::I just read all of that. I should print that out and save it for posterity. ''print_of_it.exe''. I don't find it silly. That's the perfect way you should treat someone like that. &mdash;[[User:BazookaJoe|BazookaJoe]] 03:45, 16 January 2006 (UTC)
:::::::By the way, I added another note on the the IP user talk page noting that the article talk page (rather than STUFF) would be the best place to discuss the change he wanted to make. &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 03:48, 16 January 2006 (UTC)
::::::::P.S. I was edit-conflicted on this edit. ;) &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]]
:::::::::LOL; thanks both of you. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 03:51, 16 January 2006 (UTC)
::::::Incidentally, what do you mean "three guys [are] either to learn that nothing's fair [and that] no one in authority cares"? &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 03:54, 16 January 2006 (UTC)
:::::::I don't think anyone's going to learn that around here! I just mean that's the burden of responsibility on us. If this place had the atmosphere that a lot of fansites and online communities in general did... well, events wouldn't have played out the way they ''did''. I leave it to your imaginations to conjecture what would have happened (hint: the ''Lord of the Flies'' allusion might not be too far off!). And from a teacher point of view, that ''is'' a lesson kids get in school far too often ("nobody cares", plus they have no agency so why bother). &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 03:59, 16 January 2006 (UTC)
::::::::I ask because my goal as an admin is to always be fair. I sincerely hope that I am not playing favorites with any one of them, instead treating them based on their actions and by the way they respond to instructions. So long as they stop squabbling, I'm willing to leave the past in the past, but if they insist on bickering, a certain train is going to be dropped. I like to think I have a good bit of patience, but I admit it's wearing quite thin. &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 04:05, 16 January 2006 (UTC)
:::::::::It's dot com, you ''define'' fair administration!! Yeah, of course any of the involved parties would bring that accusation (which is explained partly by adolescent developmental psych, a time when you're trying to figure out exactly what your standing in relation to others is), but I'm a witness on this one at least. As far as patience goes, that's one thing that makes me think I might make a good teacher, since I seem to have an unusually high frustration threshhold. But even I've reached it a couple of times just in the past few months of rehearsing unruly orchestras! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 04:12, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

== im back! ==

Hey there abdiviklas, how have you been, i;ve been doing great becasue i was on a 10 day holiday to the gold coast with my family. on the 5/1/06. fantastic. so whats been going on, with you?

Ps:WHats happended to bubsty, when i checked bubsty's user page, all that was written was bye wiki, whats happened?

[[User:Nikolce Kocovski|Nikolce Kocovski]] 03:36, 17 January 2006 (UTC)
:Right&mdash;very sad: evidently he's had to quit the wiki for some reason. See his talk page for many expressions of grief at his leaving, several quite eloquent. (I know you ''have'' seen it because you signed it, but I mean higher up.)
:I'm glad you had a nice vacation; it's summer for you, right? I'm in North Carolina, which is kinda southern US, and we've been having a really warm January anyway; last week it was 68&deg; (Farenheit). But tonight it's back below freezing. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 05:56, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

== looking for an explanation ==

Why did you add the definition for decoupage to "Death Metal"'s "Explanation" section?  I realize it starts with "de" and has something to do with glue.  Those do not seem like enough to bother including the word in the email's wiki page.
--[[User:209.157.156.126|209.157.156.126]] 10:38, 18 January 2006 (UTC)
:Right; not just those, but because of Taranchula's video (some helpful anonymous IP has just now added the lyrics), ''The Decoupage''. Yeah, if it weren't for that, it would be a seriously unnecessary fact! (By the way, speaking of helpful anonymous IPs, your interest in the accuracy of the article and the fact that you knew and bothered to sign your post are a little unusual in anonymous users; have you ever considered [[HRWiki:Why create an account?|becoming a member]]? &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 06:32, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

== Hey sir ==

Thanks about the poster thing. [[User:Bluebry muffin|Bluebry]] 03:08, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

== Fractured discussion ==

Hey there. One of the problems with such a multifaceted discussion is that the replies can get a little (or a lot) scattered. So I just wanted to let you know that I have replied to no fewer times than to [[HRWiki:Guestbooks#Other|your proposal]], [[HRWiki:Guestbooks#Move_existing_ones_to_subpages_and_lock_them|your question here]], [[HRWiki:Guestbooks#Comments|your comments here]], and also [[HRWiki:Guestbooks#Oppose|that big long thread]] with Darth Katana X. I would read them all first before replying, as they kinda form one big thought. :) &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 16:39, 22 January 2006 (UTC)


==''thanks, abdi'' 2: Son of ''[[#thanks, abdi|thanks, abdi]]''==
well, thanks to you and dot com,  i now have a username. thanks a lot, i will join a lot of commitees. [[User:Thatkidyoualllove|Thatkidyoualllove]] 13:16, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

by the way, when i was an anonymous user, you said something about how if i am who you think i am, it's important that i take the plunge. i have a brother who is a wiki user, but i am on my own laptop, so it's not like you could match the ip addresses if you thought i was him. so........just who do you think i am? [[User:Thatkidyoualllove|Thatkidyoualllove]] 13:40, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
:The combination of the fact that you commented on [[User:Seriously|Seriously]]'s talk page and mentioned that someone you knew got blocked suggested that you might know either him or a couple of other users that he had some interaction with. <small>Plus you now say on your user page that he's your brother.</small> If I'm not mistaken, your brother's blockedness is up today or tomorrow; a couple of edits you made to his user page got reverted because we don't really let people (even siblings) edit each others' pages, but he can do them himself then. If he doesn't, bug him to; we have quite a few users who started out getting temporarily blocked and ended up as major contributors (I seem to remember there's some sysop with that story, though I can't find who it is at the moment). I hope your brother and another user who got blocked at the same time do exactly that. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 19:58, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
::[[User:Thunderbird L17|Thunderbird]] is the name you're looking for. &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 20:49, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
:::Thanks; that was my hunch, but I couldn't verify it. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 01:35, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
::::yeah, now i am unblocked, and i feel great about it. by the way, no, i didn't tell him to do those edits (although he said i did) and he really won't be on that much anymore. this website is too cool for him. plus, he said he just wanted to try it out, y'know? {{User:Seriously/sig}} 17:14, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

wait, why did you change the headline to a familiar joke that's on the tip of my tongue? well, you are a teacher, and i am a caps-hating 11 year old with poor grammar (but good spelling!), so you would know it better than i would. {{User:Seriously/sig}} 17:40, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
:[http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php?title=User_talk:AbdiViklas&diff=246006&oldid=246003 LOL]! Perhaps this might be a sign of archival necessities. Even I [http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php?title=User_talk:Stux&diff=prev&oldid=218187 have been asked] to archive... and you're at 70! :) Welcome to the wiki [[User:Seriously|Seriously]] and [[User:Thatkidyoualllove|Thatkidyoualllove]]!! [[User:Seriously|Seriously]]: [http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php?title=User_talk:Yeltensic&diff=246355&oldid=246350 seriously].--[[User:Stux|Stux]] 17:59, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

thank you, stux, but i have been on the wiki since nov. 8. and thank you for the backup on that comment. i just think it should be reworded. also, sice the guestbooks are going soon, please sign mine. {{User:Seriously/sig}} 18:04, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

oh, wait. you already have. thanks. {{User:Seriously/sig}} 18:05, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
:Lol. :) --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 18:28, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

::yeah, if ever evidence that i was an idiot, that was it. ah well. {{User:Seriously/sig}} 23:04, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

Glad you're back, Will; I meant what I said above (and mean it for Ciberdude as well). In answer to your question, I realized that the section heading your brother used originally was the exact same you had used higher on the page, and it confused the browser when it tried to jump to the section. I'm not sure what exactly I'm referencing with the "Son of", other than the stereotypical 30s-monster-movie sequels that get referenced all the time (''Son of Dracula! &middot; Bride of Frankenstein! &middot; Second Cousin Once Removed of Wolfman!''). At least I didn't say ''Electric Boogaloo''. And as for archiving, Stux, despite the recent caving of a prominent holdout, I'm being obstinate. I don't see a particular need to yet, especially since I just recently discovered that ctrl+home and ctrl+end jump to the top or bottom of a page instantly! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 03:44, 25 January 2006 (UTC)
:I hate to break it to you (ok not really) but lemme tell you a little secret... for web pages, Home and End works just as well! ;) Well, the ball is rollin', I'm sure that circumstances (and pressures ;)) will chage... :)--[[User:Stux|Stux]] 06:06, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

== (Not so) random encouragement for your recent efforts ==

<nowiki>:</nowiki>) &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 03:32, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
:Thanks! I've been incredibly busy (like to the point of consecutive all-nighters) for the past week, so I just dropped in and don't know how much I might have missed (though I'm piecing together a picture that involves iPods, sockpuppets, Animal Crossing, and the like. I'm probably going to be similarly sparse for the next week; I don't count on sleeping tonight, anyway! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 03:38, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
::Hey there, hope all's going well for you. We miss you when you're not around. I should probably be pulling all-nighters too (and not all-nighter troll fights, like I did Saturday), with the work I have to do. But I'm not. Anyway, keep on tranglin'. {{User:Heimstern Läufer/sig}} 04:16, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
:::Um, I have 8 words for you: Wow! --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 16:53, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
::::Ok now that I've made my obligatory short random message, on to the real random message.  But i don't have much time to talk so I'll try to be briefer than brief. By um, our standards :). Excellent points on the [[HRWiki_talk:Guestbooks]] article! I like the ideas, though right now I don't have the time nor the imagination to be that creative.  Still, I like it. I brings hope in a otherwise tense and (not) hopeless situation. I brings an alternative to a post guestbook-alyptic world. It's the feel good movie -- er I'm getting carried away.  But seriously, what I'm trying to say is this: to me there seemed there was much tension that arose with the guestbook situation (and certain events didn't help things), more so than with most issues.  Your options and optimism, I think, will help ease those fears and tensions in some of our users. Thanks! --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 17:02, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

==We Are The Wiki==
''This is an expansion of an idea from [[HRWiki talk:Guestbooks#Guestbook replacement activities]].''<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The recent [[HRWiki:Guestbooks|Guestbooks]] phenomenon brought into discussion a tension that has been around for a while. Specifically, many who supported guestbooks felt that HRWiki is, or should be, a place for H*R fans to interact. Others pointed out that it is a "knowledge base," and that its activity should be limited to the upkeep of its content, and pure socializing done in other venues such as the forum. "I'm ... hesitant" about my own position on this issue, and the wording I used in the "Guestbook replacement" suggestions reflects a hope that the wiki's fun (maybe even frivolous?) functions and its documentary function are not mutually exclusive.<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The fact is, though, some of my suggestions (based on current user practices) toy with a fine and elusive line in [[HRWiki:User space]]. My suggestions included saying hi to other users on their talk pages and featuring content on your user page that provokes responses on your talk page. Now a few quotes from [[HRWiki:User space]] include (emphasis added):
*''Your user talk page is for other users to discuss matters ''related to the Wiki'' with you.
*''Generally, you should avoid any ''substantial content that is unrelated to the Homestar Runner Wiki''. Examples include ... ''discussion not related to the Homestar Runner Wiki'' ...  excessive personal information ...  opinion pieces not related to the Homestar Runner Wiki or other non-encyclopedic material...''
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;By a strict reading, this could be taken to mean that ''any'' discussion on a Talk page or a User talk page that is not ''directly'' related to a matter of editing is in noncompliance. I'm not going to take the trouble or embarrassment of linking to examples, but I suspect every user here has at some time been party to a discussion that had nothing immediately to do with H*R or the wiki. However, there are several (intentionally) vaguely-defined phrases in there: Just how much is "substantial content"? How much personal information is "excessive"? How much opinion constitutes a "piece"? But the Great Loophole is this line:
*''Particularly, community-building activities that are not strictly "on topic," may be allowed, especially when initiated by committed users with good edit histories. At their best, such activities help us to build the community, and this helps to build the knowledge-base.''
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;This, dear friends, is the text of my sermon today. This line expresses&mdash;guardedly and with many qualifications&mdash;a recognition that certain "not strictly 'on-topic'" behaviors may in fact be not simply permissible but indirectly beneficial. It does not go on to specify what these behaviors "at their worst" might do, but recent events certainly helped us imagine. So it is with great care, my brothers, yea with gravity and trepidation, that we invoke this clause. It is not intended to justify chaos, or to effortlessly nullify the injunctions above it. Yet invoke it I must, and I do so with sobriety and deference.<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'Nuff preacher-talk. So: what is this clause? Is it a contradiction? Is it a weak concession to the fact that we all chat a little here and there, and it doesn't seem to be killing us? What about that last sentence: "At their best, such activities help us build the community, and this helps us to build the knowledge-base." Do you really believe that, or is it just a pleasant fiction softened by euphemism? What ''is'' this "community" of which we speak so often?<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;(Now, a disclaimer: I don't know a lot about "Wiki" philosophy overall; I've never been involved with Wikipedia and know little of its ideological history. When I say "wiki" I'm speaking specifically of HRWiki, and what I've observed here.) But I'll tell you what I've seen: I've seen people on the Eastern seaboard, the Pacific coast, Texas, Canada, Israel, Australia-by-way-of-Macedonia, and everywhere in between talking, collaborating, and knowing each other's "names" and personalities, not just demographics. I've seen users genuinely broken up over the "departure" of people they've never seen or shaken hands with&mdash;which would be odd behavior for a group of cyber-librarians who just happen to be simultaneously working on a database. I've seen users respond to vandal attacks, some of them massive, not with a language of personal injury ("Oh no, what'll ''I'' do?" "Look at all this I've got to revert!"), but calling each other by name and encouraging each other. I've seen users take great pride in their personal contributions, presumably experiencing the joy of accomplishment and becoming incrementally better defended against the paralysis of percieved incompetence. I've seen users engage in heated&mdash;often turbulent&mdash;disagreement, and learn, albeit by trial and error, how to do so in a civil, productive, and charitable way.<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Let's step back for a sec. What are you doing? You're sitting on your butt looking at a computer&mdash;which is displaying an "opinion piece" about a wiki&mdash;which attempts to chronicle and analyze every minutest detail of an internet cartoon&mdash;which itself consists of some eccentric and anatomically deficient characters saying a few minutes of funny things on roughly a weekly basis. Is this feeding children in Africa? Is it curing cancer? Is it impacting the policies and actions of national or local governments? Well&mdash;hold that thought. My point is: '''what is the ultimate purpose of this wiki?''' Yes, recent discussions have precipitated a restatement that its primary purpose, it's ''raison d'etre'', is to be a knowledge base, documenting H*R cartoons. But its primary purpose does not disallow secondary purposes, and I see its potential for teaching "community" to be a compelling one. If, through this wiki, even one person learns how to work collaboratively with others, to encourage each other's efforts, and above all how do disagree with someone and debate that opinion in an open, respectful, and supportive way, ''and'' if these lessons transfer over into real life, then something much greater has happened than simply transcribing a web cartoon. And it ''could'' very well impact the society and governance of neighborhoods and nations.<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;This brings me to the title of this section. '''We are the wiki.''' The wiki is binary data on a server, yes, but without us it would be static. Furthermore, because [http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php?title=Talk:Sick_Day&diff=157523&oldid=157522 the wiki is a liquid], it assumes the contour of its container, the users. If we were replaced with a different set of users, the wiki would become fundamentally different. A gardening model is not adequate for the wiki&mdash;we are not groundskeepers, who come in and work on "the wiki"; we ''are'' an integral and vital part of it. If there is an analogy, maybe we're like a good sports play&mdash;ahem, sports ''team'': the members of a baseball team all work together on something (the game), but if they all got up and left "the game" wouldn't remain (just a stadium full of very surprised fans). You see what this means? Nearly every user here expresses some desire to "help the wiki," "maintain the wiki," or otherwise contribute to its upkeep and improvement. The most immediate way to do that, certainly, is to edit mainspace articles. But tending to relationships with other users&mdash;cultivating them, pruning them, mediating them, and healing them&mdash;is every bit as much a way of improving the wiki.<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;On the flipside, that's what's so terrible about [[HRWiki talk:Glossary#Miss Nomer 2005|true trolls]] (as opposed to vandals): Just as vandals attack the digital, visible fabric of the wiki, trolls attack the relational, social fabric of it. A vandal simply aspires to scrawl a few lines of graffiti; a troll aspires to tear ''us'' apart. Which is more insidiously devestating? A vandal can be reverted and blocked in seconds. The damage of trolling, if accomplished, is far harder to repair. So if you consider yourself a "troll fighter," take a deep breath and a look in the mirror before replying hastily to another user: when you damage a relationship, ''you'' are the troll. And keep in mind that, unlike the many defensive tools we have against vandalism, our ''only'' defense against this vulnerability is the intentional, calculating, untiring maintenance of our "community" ties&mdash;in other words, working specifically on "being friends."<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;This is where the last phrase of that Loophole gets its justification. "Building the community" does ''indeed'' "help to build the knowledge base." It defends and perpetuates it, and gives it a greater excuse for existing than the Flash-based antics of an Internet phenomenon. And for that reason there ''is'' an excuse for User talk content to go beyond "What's up with this edit?" and "Please delete a personal pic." ''As long as'' the activity is kept within reasonable bounds, and does ''not'' in fact impede the wiki's primary functioning&mdash;and ''if'' it is ''meaningfully effective'' at building relatinships&mdash;then it is not simply irrelevent frivolity; it is in fact... the Work of the Wiki.<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<small>Whew! That was long! If you just read all that, thanks and I'm sorry!</small> &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 05:25, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
:Don't be sorry. What you wrote was true to the deepest. '''We''' are the Wiki. You, me, the gnomes, the admins, the fanstuffers, the forumers, the developers, those who left, those who lurk, those that always complain that they spend too much time on "Dumb animal characters". '''We''' are all part of this, and I know it sounds like a cliché, but we must continue joining together for a common couse. It's hard to write as long as you do, but I just want to say: '''Thank you HRWiki.''' {{User:E.L. Cool/sig}} 10:06, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
::You just said exactly what I've wanted to say ever since I joined this Wiki. At the risk of sounding like a complete nerd, I truly have to say that the friendships I've built on this Wiki are  better than some of my friendships in real life. What I love about this Wiki is that you feel this sense of community that is hard to feel on other HUGE wikis like Wikipedia. Everyone knows each other, everyone participates in discussions, and everyone here has one thing in common: Homestar Runner. Thank you AbdiViklas. Thank you to everyone working on this Wiki, for you are not really working on the Wiki, '''You are the Wiki itself.''' {{User:Has Matt?/sig}} 12:27, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
:::That was by far the smartest thing I have ever heard. Like has matt, That's what I have been so afraid to say all along. It's so, so true. Amazing. You, sir, are in the skys, in the empire of great writers like Jack London, and pretty much everyone who has inspired me. Thank you. {{User: Seriously/sig}}

== Personal Images ==

I draw you attention to [[User_talk:Sir_Strong_Bad#Personal_images|Sir Strong Bad's]] talk page where you offered to take one of Sir Strong Bad's personal images for your own so that he will be in compliance with the image policy.  Please choose one of the following images and claim as your own if you have an image slot to spair by inserting your name into the <nowiki>{{personal-image|Sir Strong Bad}}</nowiki> tag:
[[:Image:SSB's Gang.gif|SSB's Gang.gif]] <br />
[[:Image:SBadiaRula B&W.jpg|SBadiaRula B&W.jpg]] <br />
[[:Image:B and W Swedish Fish.jpg|B and W Swedish Fish.jpg]]<br />
<s>[[:Image:Macedonia B and W.jpg|Macedonia B and W.jpg]]<br /></s>
[[:Image:Homsar Old timey bandit.PNG|Homsar Old timey bandit.PNG]]<br />
<s>[[Image:homestaryodlebw.PNG|homestaryodlebw.PNG]]<br /></s>

I show that you have 2 empty personal image slot. Thanks, have a great day. {{User:Invisible_Robot_Fish/sig}}
:I took the fish. I would have sooner, but I wasn't sure whether it required anything more elaborate than changing the template. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 02:58, 7 February 2006 (UTC)


== Re: Kaption Kontest ==
Yeah, could I follow the rules by making it on my [[User:Seriously/old captions|Archive]]? Also, I strongly disagree with this rule when it's only a bit of fun. There is no con to people editing my userpage; unless it's the ever-hated guestbook signing or vandalizing (obviously.) I would like you to consider letting me keep it as it presents no immediate harm. {{User: Seriously/sig}} 20:47, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

:By the way, why havn't you been on? I miss seeing comments with 100 lines just to fit your ideas. {{User: Seriously/sig}} 20:54, 12 February 2006 (UTC)
::LOL; because the 100 lines have been going into school-related activities. I was far more active in December and January since I had less work. Expect higher involvement in March, declining in April, and nearly non in mid-May, with a sudden spike around the last week. And a 60% chance of rain.
::Now then, about the captions: I guess it's not a hard-'n'-fast ''rule'' per se at the moment, and it's certainly not a matter of ''making'' you move it. What we ''do'' have in the way of suggestions on the topic: It's dot com says in [[HRWiki talk:Guestbooks#Guestbook replacement activities|HRWiki talk:Guestbooks]], "Please note that you should not encourage people to edit your user page, for any reason." [[HRWiki:User space#What can I have on my user page?|HRWiki:User space]] says "In general, avoid editing another's user page without their permission, but feel free to correct any linking errors that might confuse readers. However, some users are fine with their user pages being edited, and may even have a note to that effect." This clearly means that non-owner edits aren't ''completely'' forbidden. It also hints at a possibility that the owner could encourage the edits of others, though from context and when it was written, I imagine it means an invitation to feel free to correct mistakes or improve content (for instance, [[User:FireLily]], [[User:Ppk01#Japanese_Character_Names]], or [[User:Thechamp#Links_and_stuff]]). That would probably result in much less frequent non-owner editing than a recurring feature. So yeah, I'm certainly not "making" you move it, but I still suggest it. Kinda using your argument against you, what would it hurt? Well... I suppose even if you kept the image and an "edit!" link on your user pages, the captions wouldn't be with it. I was thinking there might be some way, via [[Wikipedia:Transclusion|Transclusion]], to keep the content elsewhere, have users edit elsewhere, but have it show up on your user page. I did a test in the sandbox that seemed like that didn't work, but I haven't given up on it yet. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 07:53, 13 February 2006 (UTC)
Update: I wasn't able to get transclusion to work in my brief test. I tried putting <nowiki>{{User:AbdiViklas/welcome}}</nowiki> here, as my only subpage, and as expected it appeared. Then I went and edited the original welcome subpage and saved, but the edit didn't appear here on refresh. I'll have to submit this to those who know more about how this place works. '''Attention: 'elp!''' Is live transclusion (including updates being reflected) only for the Template namespace? Or did my test not work because the changes take more than a few seconds to propagate? &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 08:12, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

:Regarding transclusion: give it another go, but this time instead of a browser refresh, give the page an [http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php?title=User_talk:AbdiViklas&action=purge action=purge].&nbsp;-- [[User:Tom|Tom]] 08:34, 13 February 2006 (UTC)
::Cool. But I was just now trying it with [[HRFWiki:Sandbox]], since It's dot com asked that the contest be moved to Fanstuff, and I guess transclusion doesn't work interwiki? &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 08:43, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

:::Nope, no interwiki transclusion.&nbsp;-- [[User:Tom|Tom]] 08:47, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

::::Ach wohl. (For Heimstern's benefit!) So I guess, unless It's dot com's cool with it being on a subpage, the best you can do is put the image and a link on your user page. You could of course update it manually when someone adds to it over at Fanstuff. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 08:59, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

== guess what happened to me. ==

Hey there abdiviklas, how are you, i've been doing great. About the heading, check out my talk page and user page, and you'll see what happened. Have you every got a similar award?

[[User:Nikolce Kocovski|Nikolce Kocovski]] 07:35, 15 February 2006 (UTC)
:Wow; congratulations! I've got a couple of awards [[#GVBAoA|higher up on this page]], but not pizza-based! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 01:21, 16 February 2006 (UTC)
:Pizza's always better. It also feels good that this trophy is actually taken seriously, as it seems it means much more to users than I thought it did. {{User: Seriously/sig}} 15:23, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

== Google fight? ==

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f343/TheKookyOne/googlefight_kooky_abdi.png<br \>
Well, you've beat me again, comrade! ''(Though, I must wonder, what 22,500 people would want to look us up so bad?)'' =P I'm just stopping by to say hi, considering it's been a while since I was around here. How've things been? - {{User:Kookykman/sig}}
:Egad&mdash;and just browsing the first few pages of those results ''are'' all posts of mine on here (plus a few on various tech support boards)! Is it really possible that I've made over <s>11,000</s> eleventyhundred edits? I'm not sure whether that's an accomplishment or a monumental squandering of time! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 06:52, 21 February 2006 (UTC)
::I'd lean towards "monumental squandering". Except I'm only 300 results behind you. - {{User:Kookykman/sig}}
::: Yeah, well, I beat both of you ''combined''! 'Course it helps that my user name is an English word... :p --{{User:Jay/sig}} 23:48, 21 February 2006 (UTC)
::::Yeah that's cuz you [http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=AbdiViklas&word2=Jay cheated] :-p (at 157,000,000). For non common names I have Abdi and Kookyk [http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=AbdiViklas&word2=Stux beat]: 287,000 to 14,100. But the ultimate winner has to be [http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=It%27s+dot+com&word2=Stux Dot com]: weighin in at 501,000.  Not to be [http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=Tom&word2=Jay outdone], Jay is easily outclassed by Tom at a whopping 539,000,000. Congratulbalatitaitions Tom! --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 02:05, 24 February 2006 (UTC)
:::::But Stux is a Linux program, isn't it? So most of those hits are not you. I get 26,500 hits, and you can guarantee they're all me! {{User:Qermaq/sig}} 02:28, 24 February 2006 (UTC)
::::::Aw, I'm only at 1190 ... [[User:Spell4yr|Spell4yr]] 02:41, 24 February 2006 (UTC)
::::::'''EDC:''' Well... yeah (I'm surprised that you even know about it! I just learned that it existed today!) but I don't mind counting an OS named after me! ;) --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 02:43, 24 February 2006 (UTC)
:::::::Mine is 239,000,000. That's just awesome. But what did I do to get so much? &mdash; {{User: Seriously/sig}} 00:00, 1 March 2006 (UTC)
::::::::Probably the fact that like Stux, Jay, and Tom, your username is also a word (and in your case, a common noun) that Google would find in other contexts. What's entertaining is pitting two [[Wikipedia:Egosurfer|ego-surfs]] against each other; for instance, my brother's name beats mine handily, despite the fact that I actually have a "real" entry (i.e. related to me) in the second page of my Google results, whereas his are all about some middle school and a guy who got the Victoria Cross. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 03:25, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

== Sysop ==

Hey Abdi. It is my pleasure to announce that you have been given [[HRWiki:Administrators|sysop]] privileges and responsibilities. If you have any questions, never hesitate to ask. May you always use your powers for good and for awesome. &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 05:14, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
:Great jorb Abdi. You've deserved it all to much {{User:Dacheatbot/sig}} 05:19, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
::Wow, congratulations. ^-^ Keep on doin' great things. --[[User:DorianGray|DorianGray]]
:::Congratulations man! notstrongorbad just became a bit stronger, but still not badder. {{User:Thunderbird L17/Siggie}} 06:30, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
::::Abdi. My main man. My ace in the hole. Well, a few months ago I would never have thought I'd beat you to sysophood, even by one day. Man, music grad students as sysops? Can the wiki '''handle this??!!''' Anyway, glad you're on board. Oh, and I still hope for Homestravinky Runner to be realised someday. {{User:Heimstern Läufer/sig}} 06:51, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

Congradulations, AbdiViklas, AKA Notstrongnorbad, AKA Professor Tor Coolguy. Your devotion to the project and your long esseys about the site are the glue that keeps us together. You brought happiness and tolarance to the wiki in your own special way. You deserve this promotion. {{User:E.L. Cool/sig}} 11:12, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

:Everyone, didn't I say this would happen? Huh? You and Lapper? In IRC? With excessive question marks?  Hey, congrats. You're a great user, Abdi! - {{User:Kookykman/sig}}

::From the minute you welcomed me, I knew you had syop potential. You're a truly great user, man. I'm glad this has finally happened to you. &mdash; {{User: Seriously/sig}} 14:08, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
:::And two more. Does this mean I have to come up with more H*R-themed "congrats"? Uh... Oh, well, congratulations! --{{User:Jay/sig}} 17:58, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

::::Congratulations!  {{User:Kilroy/sig}} 22:37, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

Congratulations from me as well!  For the longest time, I had thought you were a sysop - you welcomed me (and it wasn't until later that I realized you didn't have to be a sysop to do that), and you've always made outstanding edits to the wiki.  I've certainly enjoyed working on this wiki with you and the rest of the gang <s>up here at Possum Lodge</s> - you're administra-awesome! :) {{User:KieferSkunk/sig}} 04:27, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

:Congrats, Abdi. I wasn't in on the decision (I wasn't back from hiatus until yesterday), but you'll be a great asset to our sysop team. &mdash; {{User:JoeyDay/sig}} 04:29, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

'''OSCAR ACCEPTANCE SPEECH:''' Thank you&mdash;thank you all&mdash;<sob> ... so very much... Seriously, I appreciate youse guys' appreciation and encouragement; you're all swell gents (and... gentesses?). If you haven't noticed, I haven't been around so much lately; my school time requirements have been a lot higher since the beginning of February than they were before. But I still intend to show up ''at least'' once a week or so, and like all things, this crunch shall pass. So, until I poke my nose in again, Chins up! Tifle down! And so on... &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 05:43, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

== hey there AbdiViklas (2) ==

How are you, anything happen to you recently?

[[User:Nikolce Kocovski|Nikolce Kocovski]] 11:42, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

:I'll say! In just the past week I: 1) Got a new dual-chip [http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/entnb_e1705?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn laptop computer] (with a coupon, got one worth $2,800 for $2,000), 2) got into a wreck&mdash;don't worry, I wasn't hurt at all and neither was anybody else&mdash;but my car was totalled and now I have to find a new one, and 3) was made a sysop! (And 4, made some Jambalaya. But it was already a day after Mardi Gras, so as a tribute to New Orleans it was a little late.) &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 00:44, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

::Sorry about your car. Although it's still pretty awesome you were maqde a sysop, so that helps a lot. &mdash; {{User: Seriously/sig}} 14:20, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

== You no old, man! ==

Since when is being over twenty-five old? An emcee that age would be considered very young. You're not old until you start ''acting'' old in my opinion. {{User:Darth Katana X/sig}}
:Well, ''I'' feel old. I think it's when you ''feel'' old that it counts. --[[User:DorianGray|DorianGray]]
::Well, considering that I routinely act about 16, I guess you've got a point, Darth. (That can be a little problematic when trying to ''teach'' 16-year-olds; I keep getting into discussions about Inuyasha...) But it does mean something when your closest friends stop saying things like "So where are we going tonight?" and start saying things like "So good to hear from you! Remind me of your phone number; I seem to have lost it." &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 06:01, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

:::You sound like my mom. She's a teacher, too. Only, my mom likes ''Halo'' more than ''Inuyasha''. She, like, walks right past the bad guys and they don't even notice. She's also smart like you, too. My mom actually liked screamo metal rock before I did, and I started liking it because she listened to it all the time. And Dorian, I feel old all the time, but not right now because I'm on a sugar high...and I feel so alive...for the very first time...and if I have any more cookies I'll probably get so hyper I'll fly, fly (only P.O.D. nerds will get that). {{User:Darth Katana X/sig}}

== totally kill all imposters! ==

Hmmmmm... I have no idea how that happenned.  Thanks for the heads-up.  <span style="font-family: tw cen mt; font-variant: small-caps;">[[User:Ed smildE|Ed smilde]]/[[User talk:Ed smildE|talk]]</span>

== Happy easter ==

Hello abdiviklas how are, how's easter (If you celebrate it?)?

What have you been up to?

[[User:Nikolce Kocovski|Nikolce Kocovski]] 01:54, 16 April 2006 (UTC)
:Hi! My Easter was great; I spent most of the morning playing my violin in church (which isn't exactly like most churches' Easter service; our worship leader is a former R&B guitarist from Alabama, so my playing style in church is less classical and more a mix of Dave-Mathews-type rock and old-timey Appalachian-type sounds). I spent most of the rest of the day working on my taxes (which are due today) and making <span class="plainlinks">[http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/meat-poultry/greekmeatballs-cb.html "Greek" meatballs]</span> (except I mixed ground lamb with the beef) with <span class="plainlinks">[http://www.recipesource.com/ethnic/asia/indian/00/rec0055.html cucumber raita]</span>. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 21:27, 17 April 2006 (UTC)
::Glad to hear it. Let's hope the rest of the year is as kind. (And maybe with a little bit less tax mess. =p) - {{User:Kookykman/sig}}

== Hey, just to let you know... ==

Wiki grrl is my best friend. Pardon her grammer; she'll correct it. I told her about homestar a long time ago and now she finally created an account here. The "bug swallow" thing on her userpage is because one of her favorite quotes from here is the whole routine Homestar goes through when he swallows a bug in Bug In Mouth Disease.  Just thought you might want to know. And don't ask about PEP. I can't tell you. -[[User:Brightstar Shiner|Brightstar Shiner]] 21:54, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
:Cool. I love it when people who know each other in "real life" are on the wiki. And I'm glad she finds [[Bug In Mouth Disease]] funny; I have a hard time doing so. I try, I really try, on a regular basis, but each time I come to the end of the toon feeling a little dissapointed. Funny how one person's favorite can be another's least favorite and vice versa! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 23:23, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

==Typo==
Holy cow.  Thank you a hecka ton for catching that spelling mistake.  I ment to say "Marzipan was originally intended to be Homestar's '''''girl'''''friend."  Thanx for catching that.  Now, should I post the revised fact somewhere on the page? {{User:Ten Ten/sig}} 20:42, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
:My gut says no. The same thing is already said more fully at [[Marzipan]], but there it's speaking of character depth (i.e. just there as a "Homestar accessory"). Putting it in an article about their relationship and wording it as "originally intended to be" makes it sound like she isn't anymore. And I've known people with ''way'' more off-and-on relationships than Homestar and Marzipan who would still refer to each other as "girlfriend" or "boyfriend." &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 20:50, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

==Response to Miscellany copyied directly from my page so I wouldn't have to type it again==

# Thanks. I Like logic (a. 22 b. 25 c 55 d 75..... Well two of them start with the 2 in the tens disget and all except a. end with 5 So logicly the answer is B. kind of logic.) So I look At Homsar And I go all buggy... 
# I have Firefox. I'm kind of mad that They made it so I can't use the Swf thingy For SBmails 1 through SB 129 any more though. upon Reading This Section The Forth or so time About 4 or so Hours later fro The first Time I noticed That One Link... Thanks... That Rocks...
# Yeah I am bugged about that... I like Their advice But I usually Know Most About The Computer Where Ever I go. I don't like it explained in a "That's wrong, This Is right Way" I like It in a "You can do It this way Since it's more effecient But that way works too" I put a couple hours Into That So It bugged me off.
# I Asked a friend about this one. Apparently A jazz bass has a pick up  And a classical doesn't. I've also Seen these basses that are finger board,  Strings And Nothing Else. No body. Just so cords coming out the bottom. I don't know What that's all about. I went Into Some Place Called Guido's And They Had Some Guy Playing An instrment Called The Stick. It had 12 strings And it's really an intresting instrument.No plucking, You Just put your finger down On it. Really cool

Thanks For Your opinion and all :-). Sorry About Capitalizing In Random Places.

--Yoshi minus nothing 02:09, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

== Greetings and explanations ==

First off, thanks for streamlining the not-for-profit thing on the [[space program]] article.  Your edit was what I thought of doing in the first place, but I thought it might be a bit presumptuous.  After seeing someone else do it, I realize I was worrying about nothing.

Second, in response to the comment you affixed to a recent edit of [[band names]], Aerosmith is a misspelling of "arrowsmith", old term for someone who specialized in making arrows.  When M<small>TV</small> did a 10th anniversary special, Mel Gibson did a segment introducing the band Aerosmith, and the segment started off with him making an arrow the old-fashioned way, with a big hammer and stuff, and as he was admiring his handiwork, he acted as if someone off-camera was talking to him and said "what?  oh, the ''band'' Aerosmith? oh..."  I hadn't actually heard the word before that, and I researched it and discovered that that's actually where the band got their name.  It's a fairly obscure term these days, so it's not really a surprise that many people don't know the word (and the wing motif on their album covers coinciding with the "aero" prefix just confuses things even more). - [[User:Uglinessman|Uglinessman]] 10:27, 3 May 2006 (UTC)
:Well, you learn something new every day! Especially my first thought for "someone who makes arrows" is "[http://www.tfd.com/Fletcher fletcher]". It was a little hard to track down, but [http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=Arrowsmith arrowsmith] does appear to be legit, though. (Nonetheless it's still a good candidate for the "two will do" principle; otherwise why not add Boyz II Men, Korn, Weezer, the Beetles, or the zillions of "ska"-derived names?) &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 15:08, 3 May 2006 (UTC)
== Yeah, Music Ed. Majors! ==
Hey!  Thanks for the post on my talk page, I think it's always awesome to meet other musicians.  The world doesn't have enough of us these days - at least, not enough good ones.  Hillary Duff and Brittany Spears don't come close to counting!  What's really awesome is that you studied at one of my top choices for Graduate school.  (I'm getting my Masters and Doctorate Degrees in Performance, and Eastman has quite a track record in the trumpet world!)  I'm also looking at Northwestern, CCM, Juliard, and DePaul, in no particular order.  It's also nice to know that there are other Music people who waste as much time on this as I do, and likely more... {{User:SBLOUNSKCHED!/sig}} 03:58, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

== Strike! ==

I agree w/ you on the [http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php?title=senior_prom&curid=23493&diff=320901&oldid=320874&rcid=269236&hrwiki_mwiki6_session=a5568b8e1e114a5b647cdfc23672fe28 senior prom edit], but could you post what you summarized in the [[Talk:senior prom#Summary/Relevance|talk discussion]]? {{User:Qermaq/sig}} 22:35, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

== (No subject) ==

6 days 'go responded to that on my talk page case you wanted to look at that. I'm starting to sound like Strong Sad here...

Yoshi minus nothing 05:05, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

== Eating The Cheat ==

I think the line about eating The Cheat comes from [[narrator]] where Strong Bad says "surprised Strong Mad hasn't eaten The Cheat already", or something to that effect. Don't you love how someone can find an answer to a question so fast around this place? --[[User:DorianGray|DorianGray]]
:I'm glad you can! Several "site:" searches in Google failed to do it for me. Of course I was searching for "eat", not "eaten", which explains it. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 05:43, 12 May 2006 (UTC)
::I have some sort of urge to make a joke about "eat or be eaten", but I can't think of the wording... Hmm... --[[User:DorianGray|DorianGray]]

== How Do You Do It? ==

AdbiViklas, How do you do it? The long essay-like answers to questions others dare not ask. Your likely answer to this question will be, "It come naturally when your older!" But after further speculation I realized your one of the most astoundingly literate and brilliant people I have ever met. Such brain power is often looked over where I live sadly, but I see that you and a lot of people on this wiki are smart and really deserve to be recognized. Thank you for you time, {{User:Dacheatbot/sig}} 03:38, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

== hello AbdiViklas  ==

How have you been, anything happen to you recently? Anyway, what have been up to?

[[User:Nikolce Kocovski|Nikolce Kocovski]] 07:01, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
:Mostly looking for jobs. I'll be graduating in a week, and want to go ahead and be teaching by the start of the school year. The problem is there aren't that many schools that have orchestra programs and no teacher. There's one about a 45-minute drive from me, and a couple others about a 3-hour drive from me! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 18:07, 9 June 2006 (UTC)



== You're in Durham? ==

I'm in Clayton, less than an hour from you. I'll be in Durham on tuesday, going to a Bulls game. Later this summer, I'm moving to Laurinburg, though.--[[User:Jnelson09|Jnelson09]] 17:36, 17 June 2006 (UTC)
:Ha! How about that? Yeah, Bull games are fun. I should go now that I'm done with school (and before I start again on the teaching end of it!). Minor leage baseball is the way to go: you can get in for roughly the cost of a movie, sit close enough that you can actually ''see'' the players as something other than moving dots, and there's always the $1 concessions days or fireworks shows afterward. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 18:38, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

::Yeah, my team is usually the Mudcats. Anyway, Charlotte murdered them, 7-0.--[[User:Jnelson09|Jnelson09]] 21:37, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
:::Hey, I was ''at'' that game! Yeah, my dad works for the [http://www.heraldsun.com Herald-Sun], and had four passes, so he just called me up that afternoon. It was kind of hard to get into the game when we never scored a run, but hey, I had a bratwurst and a bag of peanuts, and that's what really matters. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 22:04, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

::::No kidding? Both my parents work for the [http://www.newsobserver.com N&O].--[[User:Jnelson09|Jnelson09]] 14:33, 19 July 2006 (UTC)
:::::Heh; I'm just finishing up a year's subscription to them. It would always have seemed a little traitorous before, but since the Herald-Sun was taken over by some outside company and became a lousy place to work, it was okay. Actually, as of this week, my Dad ended his 10 or so years at the paper and is now an editor at, of all things, a magazine for accountants. Yeah, N&O rocks. Sadly, since I'm moving to Fayetteville, I'll be missing it. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 21:37, 19 July 2006 (UTC)
::::::I'm pretty sure you can still get the N&O in Fayetteville. My Dad grew up there, and that's where my parents met, at the Fayetteville Observer. Oddly enough, Laurinburg is less than an hour from there.--[[User:Jnelson09|Jnelson09]] 19:03, 25 July 2006 (UTC)
:::::::Cool; maybe I should look into extending my subscription. I'll actually be renting a sweet, sweet house in Stedman, pop. 600, about 10 minutes' drive east of Fayetteville. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 19:06, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

== Slowly Going the Way of an MxPx Reference ==

When you said that thing about guestbooks "slowly going the way of the buffalo or MxPx" months ago, I didn't get it. Well, my mom and dad came back from dinner a couple of days ago and my mom had bought me an MxPx disc...guess which one? ;) Now I get it. Man...how come you're cooler than me? LOL.

It's a ''really'' good album, too. "Tomorrow's Another Day" is an awesome song. Oh yeah, and did you ever hear MxPx's cover of "Drum Machine Joy" by Joy Electric? I'm hunting down that EP right now just for that one song! {{User:Darth Katana X/sig}}
:LOL; maybe I know about these things because that album came out when I was in high school. I had a friend who was very indie/punk/underground-oriented; he introduced me to Sixpence (which at the time had more the connotation of Whitestripes and less... well, the romantic-comedy-soundtrack staple they became), Five Iron, Joy Electric, Echoing Green, and other much more obscure and long-forgotten quirky groups, while I introduced him to Shostakovich and other kick-butt classical music. In an interesting twist of fate, he's now a drummer in Chapel Hill's healthy indie scene, taking lessons from his childhood idol, Sixpence drummer Dale Baker, who now has a [http://www.newsobserver.com/697/story/454402.html second life as a father and Montessori preschool teacher in my town]. But no, aside from the tracks on ''8-Ball'' samplers, I never heard that much of Joy Electric or MxPx. Five Iron and (yes, I admit) Reliant K are my ska/punk of choice, and I don't really go beyond them. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 16:31, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

::Cool! :) By the way, the lead singer of Sixpence is doing a [http://www.leighnash.com/ solo project] which looks pretty interesting. I'll keep you updated on how that's going. {{User:Darth Katana X/sig}}

== After a hefty hiatus... ==

I, {{User:Sir Strong Bad/sig}}, RETURN to the electronically communicating world of '''2007!''' '''Stop'''

My blasted '''Telly 400''' was swiped from the very comfort of my domecile, and upon it's return.. '''Stop'''

I was shocked to realize that the bloody roustabanks had cut off her '''little toe'''!!! '''Stop'''

What was one to do without the comma key!? '''Stop'''

I had no choice but to begin a quest... or.. send The Sneak.. on a worldwide search for my beloved Telly's little toe! '''Stop'''

To my great delight, it was returned and I can once again begin heckling the inhabitants of the '''post-modern Free Country USA!!''' '''Stop'''

Dapperly yours,

{{User:Sir Strong Bad/sig}}

== An electronic request ==

<div style="width:440px; border:2px solid black; font: bold 100% monospace">
<div style="background:url(/fanstuff/images/d/d7/Supra-modern-telegram-header.png) no-repeat; width: 440px; height: 76px">&nbsp;</div>
<div style="background:#e6e6e6; border-top: 2px solid black; padding: 10px;">
&nbsp;&nbsp;10:02, 24 February 2007 (UTC)<br />
<br />
Dear Sir Viklas STOP<br />

I wish to inform you that some of our gang members have left the Wiki! STOP<br />

I would like to ask you for somewhat of a favor if you feel up to it. STOP<br />

<br />
Dapperly yours, 

Sir Strong Bad
 </div>
</div>

== Not an active thread... ==

...but nevertheless it is nice to know that somebody still visits my page! And yes, obviously I do too. Dang, I guess I need a little bit of an update, don't I? I did the whole public school teaching thing for a year, and the short version is I found out I'm not a good enough "disciplinarian" to do it well, and really don't think I'd be happy even if I were. Basically I had time to eat and sleep&mdash;no, wait, just to sleep&mdash;well, not like every night, you know.... So my wikitivity was pretty limited. Since then, I've gone back to teaching one person at a time, and am much happier. I'm even teaching some freshmen at a well-known university that starts with a "D" and rhymes with "puke".... But I'm still pretty much as busy (it's just okay, because it's busy for my own stuff instead of things I'm forced to do), and don't really expect my activity to go much beyond logging on once a Monday update's brouhaha has died down and fixing anything I might notice. But I just want all y'all to know I'm still around! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 00:17, 28 September 2007 (UTC)
:Hey, here's another ex-teacher who left it - my reason is that I had to make administrators happy before I made kids smart. Not the order of operations in my manual. Anyway, glad you are still around and take care of business. {{User:Qermaq/sig}} 00:21, 28 September 2007 (UTC)
And another update: On Christmas Eve I got engaged! Sadly, my fiancée is Homestar-illiterate. As you can imagine, that won't last long. Also, Heimstern might be interested to know that I'm thinking about a DMA... &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 03:20, 15 January 2008 (UTC)
:Congrats, dude! Abdi may be interested to know that... well, I burned out on my PhD and am not pursuing it anymore. Maybe someday, but not now. At least I got out with that M.A. signed by Arnold Schwarzenegger (interesting thing that happens when you graduate from the University of California). So, I'm not in school anymore, which I think is for the best. If you do decide on getting a DMA, I've no doubt you'll have a great experience. Has fun! {{User:Heimstern Läufer/sig}} 03:22, 15 January 2008 (UTC)
::Hey Abdi! Long time no see! Congratulations on the engagement! I also wish you the best in your DMA (should you choose to pursue it).  On my end, my PhD and MS pursuits are also on hold. If you have time, you should swing by [[HRW:IRC|IRC]] sometime! Cheers! --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 15:21, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

== Signature ==

Is my signature too big to fit the Wiki's guidelines? Thanks!

{{User:Evershiner/sig}} 23:27, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

:Evershiner: It looks okay to me!
:{{sigbox|User:Evershiner/sig}}
:Hope that helps, {{User:Trey56/sig}} 00:09, 21 December 2007 (UTC)
::Alright, thanks! I'm guessing its a tad too big, but I don't think that will make a big difference. Hope not! If any of you think I can't get away with it, please let me know! Thanks so much!

== Baby daddy ==

Combolations! How great for you and Mrs. Viklas! (I'm assuming it is she who'll be doing most of the work.) Do you konw the sex? I'm guessing girl. Keep us updated, and don't be such a stranger! :) &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 15:18, 19 March 2009 (UTC)
:No, it's just 9 weeks along. At 19 weeks, though, I definitely want to spring for the [[Wikipedia:3D ultrasound|3D ultrasound]]! And yeah, somehow we both have a hunch it's a girl... just a hunch. &mdash; [[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 17:28, 19 March 2009 (UTC)
::Abdi! What up man?  Congratulations on the soon-to-be mini-Abdi! I'm sure he or she will be a very healthy baby! Good to see your doing well.  Feel free to swing by IRC if you have free time.  --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 22:22, 6 April 2009 (UTC)
:::Oh: It's a girl!! (We'll resist the temptation to name her What's Her Face. I'm not sure the grandparents would approve.) &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 15:32, 2 June 2009 (UTC)
::::My guess was right! Combolations! You should name her Elizagerth. &mdash; [[User:It's dot com|It's dot com]] 15:36, 2 June 2009 (UTC)
:::::Actually, yeah, Elizabeth Anne! Hm... guess who might have just gotten a new nickname... &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 15:56, 2 June 2009 (UTC)
Hey, man! Congratulations on the new baby, wife, degree, life, and all the other things you recently updated on your user page. I don't know how seeing you name on the recent Cheat Commandos toon talk page brought a smile to my face. How have you been? I myself haven't edited the wiki in also a long time, so I just lurk around. Glad to see an old friend return to visit once more! (My last year or so can be summed up [http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php?title=User%3AE.L._Cool&diff=647851&oldid=550294 here], if you're interested.) {{User:E.L. Cool/sig}} 18:50, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Hey dude. If March 19th was 9 weeks, that would make this week about 40 weeks.  News?&nbsp;-- [[User:Tom|Tom]] 03:24, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
:Wow, somebody gets their merit badge in stayin-on-top-of-things! Yes, due date is Friday, and no, she's still hiding! Any day now. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 13:40, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
::Just went through that myself as my youngest is now just a month old. Congrats. Get plenty of rest! {{User:Invisible_Robot_Fish/sig}} 13:46, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
:::Update? {{User:Invisible_Robot_Fish/sig}} 16:34, 30 October 2009 (UTC)
::::At the hospital now! The baby girl is taking her sweet time. We wanted to avoid induction, but it's start to look like it might be necessary... &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 17:38, 30 October 2009 (UTC)
:::::At the hospital and wiki-ing, now that's hardcore!  I understand man. Ours was 10 days past-due and we didn't want to induce either since it caused problems the first two times. Hang in there.  She knows what to do. {{User:Invisible_Robot_Fish/sig}} 18:01, 30 October 2009 (UTC)
::::::Little Girl was born yesterday by c-section (after 29 hrs of labor) at 8:33 am, and weighed 8 lbs 14 oz! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 16:39, 1 November 2009 (UTC)

== Looking for advice ==

Hi, I've had this account for a while, but I've never really used it. When I joined, you sent a welcome message on my talk page, so now I thought I'd seek your advice on something.
I had an idea for a page and don't know whether or not it's notable enough: Noses. It seems to be a running gag, what with several toons mentioning them specifically, and many characters lacking them. I don't know how many examples I need for it to be a viable page in it's own right. Any advice on this would help. Thanks --[[User:DoctorWorm|DoctorWorm]] 10:48, 30 May 2009 (UTC)
:Gee, I'd never noticed just how much there ''is'' about noses until I searched for them just now! Still, I think that's covered in [[Lack of Visible Body Parts]], both in the sections on "Strong Bad's Nose" and "Other" (Marzipan's nose job). Nice to see you back around! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 15:29, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

== "The Web is Dead"&mdash;how's HRWiki doing? ==

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;(First off, hi everybody! Sorry for being away so much. I've got a baby daughter crawling all over the place now. I checked back in today because I've got a technophilisophilogical musing that seemed at home here.)<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;I was reading this very interesting Wired article arguing that [http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/08/ff_webrip/all/1 The Web is Dead, Long Live the Internet]&mdash;in short, that the open, heterogenous, "broad-not-deep," html-built Web of the 90s has been largely replaced by branded, big-player sites like Facebook and by Internet-delivered apps like Pandora or Netflix that aren't part of the Web proper. My musing here wasn't so much about that premise as about the veracity of one claim in particular. The author cites a statistic, then quotes someone's ''interpretation'' of that statistic:
:"According to Compete, a Web analytics company, the top 10 Web sites accounted for 31 percent of US pageviews in 2001, 40 percent in 2006, and about 75 percent in 2010. 'Big sucks the traffic out of small,' Milner says."
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Is that interpretation true? The implication is that, for instance, Hulu steals traffic from Homestar Runner. After all, in 2003 or so a 3-minute sbemail was about the most entertaining thing to watch on the Internet, but now there's, say, the entire run of Firefly. But the statistic could still be true if the "little" sites' traffic remains the same, but there are just more people on the web, going to Facebook and Hulu (or maybe clicking more often).<br>
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;How has HRWiki's experience compared with this analysis? Of course it's not a rigorous test at all because Homestar himself has a life cycle of popularity that could be unrelated to anything except how many people have seen Trogdor and how many want to see anything more. But the HRWiki seems like a good specimen of the small site that Milner says should be being suctioned out&mdash;after all, this was social media before there was really a Web 2.0. Current hiatus aside, what has the trend been over the past 5 or so years? &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 14:40, 17 August 2010 (UTC)
:Okay, so I haven't had a chance to read the full article but so far these are my opinions:
:*Lately I have had less time to spend on HR, but when new stuff comes out I make it a point to watch it.  With more regular content I'd still be paying close attention to the H*R site I think.  Right now I just go occassionally.
:*About the article in general: Even though the graph shows that movie streams are overshadowing web traffic, I think that the graph at the top can be a little misleading.  Just because these traffic intensive services are consuming a greater percentage of bandwidth doesn't mean that the average user is spending more *time* on these services.  Reading a few stories or news articles can take just as much time but consume less than 1% of the bandwidth a youtube video or show takes.  Even flash animation is probably a few times less bandwidth-intensive than watching a show that lasts just as long.
:*Other considerations:
:**Youtube, while owned by a big player, helps weaken the stronghold that media companies have on video and to some extent, music.  The entertainment in Youtube in general is driven more by user generated content than "big media" content.
:**That article reminds me of [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071853/quotes Monty Python's] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGFXGwHsD_A "I'm not dead yet"] line.  I think this is more then case when one reads the related [http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/08/ff_webrip_debate/all/1 debate].
:That's my current opinon on the matter.  Once I have the chance to sit down and read the entire article and try to relate it to H*R I may be able to give a longer and more informed opinion. --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 09:06, 19 August 2010 (UTC)
::Hey Abdi, how are you doing? You should also drop by IRC some time :) --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 18:25, 3 March 2013 (UTC)
:::Hey! man, almost 3 years since the entry above. I've now got ''two'' daughters, and they're walking instead of crawling. And I'm a couple of months away from being a DOCTOR! (of music. violin.) But yeah, I've never really gotten the IRC thing going. I just stick my nose in here every few weeks in case the next sbemail has happened "when I least expect it"! &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 20:55, 5 March 2013 (UTC)
::::Wow! Dual Progeny! Time sure flies! Congratulations! Doctor! <small><small>([[Wikipedia:Doctor (Doctor Who)|...who?]])</small></small> Ah, well even if not via IRC, as long as you drop by here and there with updates, that's always a good thing. :) So, What's next?  Teach somewhere big and expensive? Lead a big, expensive conservatory? Start a rock/techno/classical fuse band?  --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 13:16, 6 March 2013 (UTC)
:::::Yes, I think I might have to get [http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/f1ed this]. Hopefully the next step is teaching somewhere... ''anywhere.'' Seeing as how I can currently count all the job openings for full-time violin professor positions on one hand, that might take a while. And yes, I would enjoy some kind of jojk/bhangra/bluegrass fusion playing, though I'm more likely to start a baroque ensemble. I've gotten way into the pre-1800 playing on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DipZ53jm1wM&feature=share&list=PLHC_Geh-W9qhTZHc8IzgDsVfzeI2L0el8 "baroque violin"], and I want to start some kind of small group along those lines. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 00:04, 15 March 2013 (UTC)
:::::: I saw the section title and would have to admit that the wiki is in need of some serious difribillation. More anonymous users than nonymous ones posted edits today! And Iv'e only recently been active, but I'm fairly sure it wasn't  this way back in 2005. You're the only sysop that's been on all day! To lighten the spirits I have dampened, I am compelled to post [http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WxB1gB6K-2A |this link]. {{User:Broncotroll/sig}} 00:38, 15 March 2013 (UTC)

== Hello Stranger ==

Hey Abdi,
It's been, like, forever and a half ago! It sounds like you're doing well and surviving this crazy doo-hicky formerly known as 20**.  I hope your family is doing well too. Please let everyone whom I've never met know that I say "Hi!".  I'm also surviving and distracting myself with this wiki in my spare time :). Cheers! --[[User:Stux|Stux]] 08:00, 10 January 2021 (UTC)
:Aye kay arrr!! I lurked in to update the fact that I "have a baby," and she's now 11! Thanks for saying hi, and I hope all is awesome for you too. We're doing crazy things this year: we wound up with two full-time working parents homeschooling two kids. On the whole, I've been really fortunate throughout the whole Covid thing. A few years ago I went to a "coding bootcamp" and got a job in software engineering, which means I've been able to work from home uneventfully while a lot of my fellow professional musicians went nuts trying to draw self-employed unemployment with no concerts to play. :( Cabin fever aside, I'm really appreciative of how good I have it. &mdash;[[User:AbdiViklas|AbdiViklas]] 02:05, 3 March 2021 (UTC)