User talk:AbdiViklas

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:::::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]]
:::::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 — literally — dreaming. I was up really late last night. {{User:Gafaddict/sig}} 19:52, 2 December 2005 (UTC)
::::::Like I said, I think I was — literally — 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)

Revision as of 19:53, 2 December 2005

Contents

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.

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. --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! notstrongorbad 04:49, 1 Oct 2005 (UTC)

Petition

We, the undersigned, do beleive it would be is very cool to see a AbdiViklas user page. Moreover, we sincerely thank notstrongorbad for writing such an amazing user page! (Feel free to initial somehow for revision.)


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—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! — 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. --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." — 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." — It's dot com 07:42, 1 Oct 2005 (UTC)
Ditto. Ok where did all of my original ideas go? --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

     Absolutely. First of all, the links that bkmlb left on your talk page are good reading; Help is mostly on how to do things, 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 User:Lapper/help.
     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 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 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.
     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 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 continue the debate.
     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.
     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. --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, THE SMOKING MONKEY 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 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.")
     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?)...)? — 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 The Descendents and the 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, 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! — THE SMOKING MONKEY 12:56, 7 Oct 2005 (UTC)
LOL—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.) — 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. THE SMOKING MONKEY 02:45, 10 October 2005 (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'. 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. — 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...?) —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. — 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. — 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... —AbdiViklas 02:41, 10 October 2005 (UTC)
That better? —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? ;) ) — 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 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! —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. 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. --Jay v.2024 (Auld lang syne) 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? —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!"} --Jay v.2024 (Auld lang syne) 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. —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.}
     This is another of those "4th Wall" issues that tend to get me talking at length. I can feel it coming.
     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).
     On the other hand, several recent episodes have contained reminders of Strong Bad's authorship; he wrote himself into Episode 9, and now—now—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.
     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. —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 IRC chatroom sometime. It's much easier to get to know folks, and one can ask questions to his or her heart's content. — 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! —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. — 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.--The Kooky One(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! —AbdiViklas 20:50, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

Note to Self

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

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 page. (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.) —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 ~~~~! 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. —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 Witchesbrew82's talk page.—Exhibit A 23:15, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

Wow—thanks for picking that up. (By the way, is there any rule against creating user pages that simply redirect to another wiki?) —AbdiViklas 23:18, 16 October 2005 (UTC)
None at all. Rogue Leader / (my talk) 23:23, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

Dude...

I have been a member of the Fanstuff HRWiki for the longest time, I know the rules.--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.) —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! --Ed500 12:23, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the thanks! Do you know about the related fanstuff wiki? If you have H*R-related comics, you can share them there! —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 ~~~~; 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. —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 ;) TTD Mocha! Bark! 01:29, 18 October 2005 (UTC)
Yeah, that's how I separated my name from the date on my welcome template! —AbdiViklas 01:43, 18 October 2005 (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, Heimstern Läufer 23:58, 18 October 2005 (UTC)

Cool. —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! —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. Heimstern Läufer 04:30, 24 October 2005 (UTC)
LOL!! Homestravinsky Runner—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—perhaps venturing into psychoacoustics?—would be what intervallic structure, invented or otherwise, may have subconsciously influenced his output?) —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. — It's dot com 04:49, 24 October 2005 (UTC)
Hm—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—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. —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. 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.) —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, 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. —AbdiViklas 19:36, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

arguments???

I don't give arguments to back up my edits!--Stephen923/24.24.226.13

Oh. If you're talking about my 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 (<!-- sic -->), 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—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. —AbdiViklas 20:12, 22 October 2005 (UTC)
No, it's about the Marshie history page.--Stephen923/24.24.226.13
I see. Still, 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.) —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. -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 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!) —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)--Stephen923/24.24.226.13
Yes, I know what you're talking about. My reply is four paragraphs above. —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!! 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!! —AbdiViklas 22:41, 22 October 2005 (UTC)
Ok, thanks for the advese...advise. 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. — 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! —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 "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!) —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 page (although I was also partially rebelling against the one-word "dotcom" variety from the edit summary on the STUFF page). — 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? Rogue Leader / (my talk) 18:58, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

Yup. I'm supposed to type {{subst:User:AbdiViklas/welcome|~~~|~~~~~}}. In a hurry, I often forget the /welcome part. —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. Rogue Leader / (my talk) 19:03, 29 October 2005 (UTC)
Yeah, I suppose I could. It's one step longer than subst, but fool-proof! —AbdiViklas 19:05, 29 October 2005 (UTC)
I have been doing it 150 times. No problems yet! Rogue Leader / (my talk) 19:07, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the welcome. Almost as fast as we do at WikiFur (and, truth be told, somewhat more polished ;-). GreenReaper 05:26, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

Thanks! I know we've got at least one Furry enthusiast around here, Furrykef, although he hasn't been around much lately. —AbdiViklas 05:33, 31 October 2005 (UTC)
*chuckles* - yes, I know furrykef, he used to hang out with us in #wikicities. Been a fortnight since I've seen him - maybe he's gone on an online poker binge . . . 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. — THE SMOKING MONKEY 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 The Blue Cross, but the best-known, and arguably best, piece of fiction he ever wrote is the novel The Man Who Was Thursday. —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. — 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—there isn't any kind of browsing setup that would keep someone from seeing the "new messages" banner, is there?) —AbdiViklas 06:17, 1 November 2005 (UTC)
I'm confounded as well. My hunch was that he or she 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. — 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 trolls post the dardnest things. It would be a hit don't you think? --Stux 05:57, 1 November 2005 (UTC)

It would be hilarious... but don't you think people would then try to get in it? — 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. --DorianGray
EDIT CONFLICT (or whatever): 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. 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?)
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). —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 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 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> :) --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. --DorianGray

Note

It's not "What am I supposed to do?", but "What I'm supposed to do?". — It's dot com 20:04, 3 November 2005 (UTC)

Oop. Thanks. That makes a little more sense. —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. ;) — It's dot com 20:37, 3 November 2005 (UTC)

Solfège...

Humming RE-MI-DO-DO-SOL, eh? What does that refer to? Heimstern Läufer 01:42, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Aliens contact Earth—and choose moveable do as the best method of communication. (Seriously—they even know the hand symbols!) —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. Heimstern Läufer 01:57, 7 November 2005 (UTC)
WHOA no you don't—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. —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. 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—preferably emulating the physical instrument—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!) —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. 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—"La, la, la, la..." Not to mention moveable na, doot, and doo. —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. 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. — 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—but I'm pretty inconsistent with clarinet. And, frustratingly, the human voice! —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. 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 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."
     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 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 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. —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. 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—which gets pretty funky in Db (or Gb!). —AbdiViklas 03:23, 15 November 2005 (UTC)
Wikipedia:Pitch (music)#Historical pitch standards. -- Tom 02:24, 15 November 2005 (UTC)
Amen, hallelujah, preach it. Also http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1305.htm. —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 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 Fundamental_frequency and Harmonic series. Hmmm, maybe I don't have anything to contribute...
I like shiny things. (There, that's better!). --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 response to that concern). —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 --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 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—with major composers' mud-slinging, name-calling, old-school/new-school (Ars nova, seconda practica), East-coast/West-coast-style invective, rampant rumors that certain virtuosi did in fact "serve satan," and audiences that simultaneously awarded their favorite vocalists with lives of fame, free love, and 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—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—"reality opera," if you will! —AbdiViklas 04:45, 15 November 2005 (UTC)

Hallrunner

Awesome job on Hallrunner! --Stux 20:44, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

Thanks! I was bored, and using "random page" until I found something worth editing. —AbdiViklas 21:50, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

wiki defender thing...y

Hey abdi, thanks for the trophy!! — talk Bubsty edits 16:27, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, thanks, dude! That's was awesome to see first thing in the morning! 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! —AbdiViklas 23:01, 12 November 2005 (UTC)
Thanks also from me. :) I didn't do much, but I appreciate it. - 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. --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 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 Lara St. John cover; her eyebrow alone was enough to sell me), and have harbored a crush ever since. —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. 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. ;) — 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 music recommendations; the story of her convergence with 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 Nadja, and sometimes I want that. I'd actually prefer both artists for different pieces. —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 ;) — 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. Heimstern Läufer 18:58, 14 November 2005 (UTC)
LOL—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 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. —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?" Heimstern Läufer 03:11, 15 November 2005 (UTC)

I know I am not supposed to, but

I need to talk again... -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. —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. -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 AbdiViklas? Because Sweden is totally my favorite country ever. Because I used to live in Sweden before we moved to Seattle. — talk Bubsty edits 03:08, 16 November 2005 (UTC)

No no, I'm no more from Sweden than MC Lars is actually "Straight Outta Stockholm." For what it's worth, I'm a hardcore fan of Swedish folk music, especially the group Väsen. —AbdiViklas 03:16, 16 November 2005 (UTC)
Never heard of it. — talk Bubsty edits 03:17, 16 November 2005 (UTC)
Not an acceptable situation! Check out particularly their second US release, Whirled (even though it's from, like, '96, it's still their best single album). —AbdiViklas 03:20, 16 November 2005 (UTC)
I'll take a look at it. Thanks. — talk Bubsty edits 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?

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 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) 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 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 Recent changes and noticing the questions you were asking on discussion pages.

I have some questions for you, actually!

  1. 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—a "s" sound, a "k" sound, or a "ch" sound?
  2. I think we're all a little confused about your gender. You mentioned that your name translates to "Nick," but 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."
  3. Umm... I guess I only had two questions, but a two-number list didn't seem like a real list. —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.
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. 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? --DorianGray

I personally think Strong Bad should abandon the "Prof. Tor Coolguy" moniker in favor of "Dr. Snot Bag". 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. --DorianGray
Holy cow—what storm have I unleashed?? Those are supoib, guys. —AbdiViklas 23:35, 19 November 2005 (UTC)

A Reply

Hi. I just wanted to thank you for caring. I appreciate it. Homsarroks 18:22, 19 November 2005 (UTC)

Don't mention it. In fact, it could be considered a school assignment, since I'm currently reading 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. —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 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 __TOC__ and __NOTOC__ 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 __FORCETOC__ might be more of what you need. This page explains more in depth the different Magic Words available for use in the wiki. I hope this is helpful and informative! --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. —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? — Image:kskunk_fstandby.gif KieferSkunk (talk) — 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. --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 [1]. 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! —AbdiViklas 17:42, 21 November 2005 (UTC)
(I almost put this in the wrong section) Jibney claims to have been 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. --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 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 Timmy nor Jibney has ever been blocked here. The user Jibney was created, actually, at 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 Marshieman has anything to do with him. His 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. [2], [3], [4], and [5]), which he has subsequently 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 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. —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! :) --Stux 04:36, 22 November 2005 (UTC)

Welcome template

Quick question: When I use {{subst:welcome|~~~|~~~~~}} 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? — Image:kskunk_fstandby.gif KieferSkunk (talk) — 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 {{subst:User:AbdiViklas/welcome|~~~|~~~~~}}). —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. — 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. —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:

Upper case Lower case Upper case encoding Lower case encoding Notes
Ă ă &#258; &#259;  
 â &#194; &#226;  
Î î &#206; &#238;  
Ș}} ș}} &#536; &#537; s with comma, not widely supported
Ş ş &#350; &#351; s with cedilla, alternately
Ț}} ț}} &#538; &#539; t with comma, not widely supported
Ţ ţ &#354; &#355; t with cedilla, alternately

Are you romanian Abdi? (Or of romanian descent?) My old roommate is Romanian. --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!! —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. --Stux 05:41, 23 November 2005 (UTC)
The word was (and here I get a chance to use some of those characters above) "lămâjie"; 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—"luhmooyay." —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 ;) --Stux 05:54, 23 November 2005 (UTC)
So where your hosts like really mad or were they cracking up? --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.) —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!) Heimstern Läufer 06:05, 23 November 2005 (UTC)
LOL; I'm sure he tries. —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. --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. --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 "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 list of Atlanta public high schools shows only Mays. What's the deal—the others are suburban schools with nice budgets? —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! — talk Bubsty edits 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 my User page is haunted! —AbdiViklas 00:52, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
Weird, man. --Stux 01:14, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
Ok, problem fixed! Curse lifted :p. Binary Searches sure come in handy. --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? —AbdiViklas 01:33, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
Well it didn't involve shotguns that's for sure... If you check out this diff you'll see that there were a few template inclusions that were not closed, making everything be template text. --Stux 02:17, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
*Dances for the computer genius man* doo-doo! doo-doo! Thank you stux! you rule! Doo-doo!— talk Bubsty edits 02:19, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

Lovett and Westminster aren't on there because they're private schools. Fancy-shemancy. --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,

Sir Strong Bad

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 conversation above). But since I impersonated a Swedish prince on your talk page, I find it only fitting to use an image of one to represent me. —AbdiViklas 07:26, 29 November 2005 (UTC)
I bet you are a hit with the ladies Mr. Swedish Prince. :) --Stux 18:50, 29 November 2005 (UTC)
Woah, that picture totally looks like me! — talk Bubsty edits 05:48, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

GVBAoA

Pretend its golden, since I'm already pushing the one-personal-image rule.

Abdi, you've just earned yourself the GVBAoA:
Gold
Van
Buren
Aaward
of
Awesomeness
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! - KookykmanImage:kookysig.gif(t)(c)(r)

Whoa!! What an honor! I have so many people to thank—I'd like to thank the academy; I'd like to thank The Cheat, for helping me to cheat—oh no, wait, I shouldn't say that...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, Pretty weird person Swedish Prince, for giving me an awesome trophy and for just being cool.

So here you go! Thanks!

talk Bubsty edits 05:49, 1 December 2005 (UTC)
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 guy in a purple suit trying to look sultry but failing because his eyebrows and mustache entirely obscure his face. Oh-oh-oh, the Swedish thing...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... —Gafaddict Image:Gafaddict sigpic.gif (Talk | Contribs.) 13:32, 2 December 2005 (UTC)

Interesting. No, we don't have any record of that happening. Who did you hear that one from? -- 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** I R F 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. --DorianGray
Who's Matt Wilson, and what cartoon does he make? He sounds like a not-so-nice person. Heimstern Läufer 19:39, 2 December 2005 (UTC)
Matt Wilson writes the Bonus Stage webtoons. He doesn't think much of his fans, I think, the wiki in particular. But the cartoons rock. --DorianGray
Like I said, I think I was — literally — dreaming. I was up really late last night. —Gafaddict Image:Gafaddict sigpic.gif (Talk | Contribs.) 19:52, 2 December 2005 (UTC)
...which reminds me that I really spend too much time on the computer. Dreaming about the internet, wow... :/ —Gafaddict Image:Gafaddict sigpic.gif (Talk | Contribs.) 19:53, 2 December 2005 (UTC)
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