:You'll also be pleased to know that I resisted the temptation the reply to your last message at 01:00 this morning. :) '''''[[User:Banes|<font color="darkblue">Ban</font>]]''[[Wikipedia:Esperanza|<font color="green">e</font>]]''[[User_talk:Banes|<font color="darkred">z</font>]]''''' 17:52, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
:You'll also be pleased to know that I resisted the temptation the reply to your last message at 01:00 this morning. :) '''''[[User:Banes|<font color="darkblue">Ban</font>]]''[[Wikipedia:Esperanza|<font color="green">e</font>]]''[[User_talk:Banes|<font color="darkred">z</font>]]''''' 17:52, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
::Sorry, I declared myself insane a year ago. :) As it happens, I've never fallen asleep at the computer. But I'm quite used to staying up all night, in fact, I enjoy it. I did it a lot last year because of my need to cram before exams. I must just tell you the worst of late night computing, I once, at 01:00 on wikipedia (in harsh edit war with vandal) I was drinking coke to keep me going. I was so dozy that I sleepily picked up my coke, and poured it all over my keyboard and my own lap. lol, what an idiot. Good luck with your studying, see you later, much later. :) '''''[[User:Banes|<font color="darkblue">Ban</font>]]''[[Wikipedia:Esperanza|<font color="green">e</font>]]''[[User_talk:Banes|<font color="darkred">z</font>]]''''' 18:03, 23 January 2006 (UTC)
Hi! I'm really sad that you're leaving us (well, leaving to all intents and purposes) but please could you elaborate on why reverting vandalism is anti-Christian. I see it like picking up litter. People drop llitter, it's the job of everyone else to pick it up. That's the Admins job here: picking up the litter that thoughtless, misguided or malicious people drop in the form of vandalism. Please explain.
I can however empathise with your second reason, that of spending all of your aking hours here. I do the same and wish I could stop! Anyway, all the best, sayonara and good luck! --Celestianpowerháblame14:05, 21 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Hmmm, I'm still not sure I understand fully. Note: I'm not in any way trying to attack Christianity (or your personal beliefs or faith (heck, I'm a Christian myself!). You come into contact with evil every day, on-wiki or not. Plus, surely the evil in vandalism is pretty low on the scale of sins, no? Somebody has to revert it, why not you? As to flirting, I'm sure he/she didn't mean to offend you - a lot of people flirt naturally (whether on-wiki or off). I personally have never got that and have made some really good friends here. Well, anyway, I certainly wish you well fot the future, whatever path you may take. --Celestianpowerháblame14:25, 21 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I'm coming accross as attacking you aren't I? If so, sorry - that really isn't my intention. As to paperclips, would you not rather somebody stole a paperclip from you than killed your family? I know this is extreme but I'm actuially very curious about these sorts of things. Anyway, I can see that you have very strong opinions on this and (even though I disagree with them), I respect them and can understand how these may inhibit your Wikipedia activity. --Celestianpowerháblame14:37, 21 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Ah - I see where your coming from now ;). One last question: Do you not see/hear profanity, swearing, sexually implicit material, sexual inuendo and other such things each day at school or on TV or in books? I'm just curious as to why Wikipedia is any different. --Celestianpowerháblame14:44, 21 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
But how do your parents manage to "protect" you from this material at school. One obvious example (but certainly not the only one) is Sex Education. That's compulsory is it not? --Celestianpowerháblame15:00, 21 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
LOL! I should have guessed. I only ask because I'm a bit worried about what's going to happen when you have to go out and get a job. When you find a boy/girlfriend and get married and leave home if you haven't had any mild experience of profanity ...etc beforehand. Not everyone (in fact most people) do not hold the same vigours as your parents. I know it sounds a bit forward as I don't actually know you but that's just what I'm like ;) --Celestianpowerháblame15:10, 21 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
No, you misunderstand me. About boyfirends, I wasn't talking about that aspect, I was talkiing about after he's got your fathers blessing, you will more than likely want to leave home and live with him. There, there aren't the same restrictions or protection that you would experience at home. My concern is that when you do come in contact with such thigs, you aren't going to be able to cope or know what to do. Perhaps I'm being paranoid or over-protective myself.
Hi ViolinGirl. Thanks for pointing me to that. Please know that you have all my sympathies and prayers, and that I fully support you. Personally, I find a wonderful, almost Benedictine, quality in Wikipedia, in that I can take as much pleasure doing menial work (reverting vandalism) and I can doing more spectacular work (writing articles). I believe that my faith is strengthened through knowledge, and it is for that reason - to help expand my knowledge and that of others - that I contribute to Wikipedia. Love and peace be with you, [[Sam Korn]]14:20, 21 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Re:
I'm sorry to say, I have absolutely no clue what you're talking about. I have two doctorates in theology, I'm an Elder in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and I've been a Christian for all my life, and I can't for the life of me see how reverting vandalism on Wikipedia has anything to do with Christianity at all. For once, I'm completely stumped. EssjayTalk • Contact21:30, 21 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Essjay, I think (maybe wrong on this one, though) that reverting a significant amount of vandalism is like... well, for example, perhaps even very quickly scanning through the "Accounts and aliases" section of the Willy on wheels page could give one an idea of the general ickiness that comes rather naturally with vandalism? *shivers* Then again, I've never reverted vandalism before, so I'm guessing here... Weien22:09, 21 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I see, the problem is that the content of the vandalism is likely to lead one into a life of sin; I suppose that didn't occur to me because at my age, I've seen it all before. Best of luck VG, hope to see you around. EssjayTalk • Contact23:00, 21 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
All hail (our typo queen)! ^^
Since "ViolinGirl/Statement" glows a brighter shade of urgency at the moment, a reply about poetic things will have to come later ^_^. (By the way--if this comment belongs or would look nicer in the discussion of the Statement page, I'll kindly move it).
"No Compromises"
Whenever I think about the topic of distancing oneself from things of detriment (or even from those of seeming neutrality), a bad but amusingly picturesque example comes to mind. Not sure if you're familiar with Middle Earth'sSaruman, but here we have a fictional character whose initial goal was to defeat evil, but ended up swayed (to evil) by it, and very much because of his extensive study of it (See the third-to-last paragraph of Saruman's Characteristics [[1]]). Of course, that's an extreme of what "could happen," but sometimes an extreme is just what we need to understand the gravity of things like, well, compromise. Everything does matter, especially if it has to do with the conscience. With that in mind, and considering that even the smallest fraction of a degree of deviation from what we believe can eventually lead to (as you mentioned) eternal detriment, it is especially important to think about (and if possible only about) "whatever is true... noble... right... pure... lovely... admirable" (Phil. 4:8). Quoting my parents there ^_^. Wish I had more to say about this, but not having ventured very far into the battlefield of vandalism, I think I lack the wisdom to say too much else (though perhaps I can sympathize in my few "ACK!! ALT-F4!!!" Wiki-experiences :\).
"Solo violinist in Italy"
I do feel your pain in this area, though ^^ (and very much so). What can I say? Wikipedia is addictive! And devoting even a small part of the self to the inner workings (leadership, community, business, etc) of it seems to multiply its, um, allure (from what I'm starting to see, at least); I mean, with a living wage and a spill-proof keyboard one could live their entire eat-drink-sleep lives at the desk of The Wiki. That, unfortunately, precludes said individual from significant success as a solo violinist in Italy.
Since convincing doesn't seem to be what you're looking for, I'll just try to keep this short (haha). Honestly, I am a self-professed Excessivist Literalist Fatalist (i.e. someone literally who tends to do things in extreme excess, often to fatal results XD), and I have a dreadful history of obsessions and icky withdrawals to show for it. With most of those "addictions" interactive and online activities (with things like Utopia, Gunbound, Imperian, and Risk Your Life--wait a minute, those are all computer games! Ugh...), I can see how Wikipedia could be a similar threat. Indeed, I'm already getting sucked in XD. But my best advice is to be wary of anything that 1) potentially can take a lot of time and 2) would be something that'd be very hard to stop doing. Maybe your parents have asked about your time spent on Wikipedia, which is generally a good sign that you're spending more time than is healthy on one thing; their opinions are definitely valuable, since our minds tend to cloud when we're holding onto the last vestiges of something we value.
However (and finally), remember that you don't necessarily have to force yourself into the realm of typos and minor edits--after all, you've already got the hang of all the markup, conventions, and style of Wikipedia. That's valuable (and I wouldn't be surprised if you've also started getting the hang of IRC commands as well, also a powerful tool)! Perhaps declining the idea of future adminship and a gazillion edits under your name might be the step needed to re-prioritize your life. Of course, that's up to your discernment.
Looks at comment length, groans. Oog, sorry about this ><. Anyway, I hope this arrives as a bit of support, and not as offensive (or simply fluffiness). As always and truly, God bless. Weien21:51, 21 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Re: I knew I had forgotten someone
Heh, no worries. I hope to still see you around, but I would still like to know why you're as you are. What happened in IRC? Send me an email or MSN or something, I'm always here for a chat, please? Take care, — FireFox•T • 21:57, 21 January 2006
You're leaving?
ViolinGirl, I can't say that I won't be disappointed by seeing another appreciated Wikipedian like you leave. However, even though I disagree with some of your views, I respect your decision, as well as your goal of becoming a solo violinist in Italy. Take care, good luck, and do keep in touch. :)Sango123(talk)22:47, 21 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
4th from the top you say... izzat blog, shout or forum? Nat and Joy are in the UK, I don't think you're Joe or Enrico, but fj lives in the same time zone as Adam.... oh wait fj lives in Iowa. hmmm be well, honey ;-D Just plain Bill23:53, 21 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Well it's very unfortunate I think, because I think from what I have seen so far you would be quite a good administrator, but I can understand your frustration totally (had some run-ins with that as well as you probably know *ahem*) But stay, your input is as usual always appreciated. If I should ever become administrator, and if you ever require assistance, let me know and I will see if I can do anything for you. with kind regards Gryffindor16:17, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
No, I know you're not leaving yet, but I can understand that it can get quite frustrating at times. Thanks for your support, I'm still waiting for the coaching from Esperanza, see what they have to say. good luck to you! Gryffindor16:24, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Wow, this came as a shock to me, getting back home and online again... I'm really sorry to hear you are leaving :(, but I understand. I'll always be here as your friend though. You know where to find me. All the best Banes20:21, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
To be honest, I am a little dissapointed about it, but really, wikipedia (and my excessive use of commas:)) isnt everything. I really appreciate that you value my opinion and reaction enough to wait on here for me. It would be nice to hear from you once in a while... Bye then Banes20:33, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I'm sorry, as soon as I saw what you did I reverted you. That will always stay. You know, I just understood why you have stopped the reversions; I myself have learnt curses (not that I use them on a daily basis) from reverting vandalism that I didnt even know before, so I see where you are coming from. However my reasoning is that it is better for me to find and remove swearing and obscene images than for a 10 year old, and relative innocent, to come across them when studying for a geography project. In a way, by reverting you are limiting the spread of the filth. Anyway, it is complicated, and I understand. Btw, I've just been reading your blog, and I am amazed at your faith. Hopefully, you may even see me there some time...My trip was just fine thanks, better than I expected. But that doesnt change the fact that I simply cant stand Johannesburg :) . All the best with your exams, you'll be in my thoughts and prayers. Good luck and God bless. Banes21:04, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Oops, I just realized what the "BS" on the barnstar you gave me stood for. I thought it a little strange, considering the circumstances, for you to put the other abbreviation on my page! :) By the way, I just changed my signature, in your "memory" too. The idea came to my on the airplane. What do you think of it? Is it more... cool? :) Banez21:12, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Well, I had...reloads wikipedia to check VG's last message, sees "new messages"... read some of the other replies on your talk page, and I was refering to the "extreme calling" one. The only problem is that I have a deep down opposition to blogs in general, I always used to think they were really stupid. Until I read your one. So if I can swallow my pride, maybe I'll set one up. I didnt know you had any other one? The sig is in "memory" in, I dunno, just a commemorative (excuse spelling, but its been a long weekend) new sig for the occasion of your "departure", whatever. As far as I know, you cant do that thing with a sig...As for your name, well, for me, that is a special list, your name is in good company and always will be. BS is a commonly used abbrv. for a curse word, thats why I was surprised. Banez21:24, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Wow! I know your surname! Thats it, you've blown away your anonomity! :) Just so you know, my surname is "Hagen", there you go, now I've also lost my anonomity... Yeah, I know you wouldnt have done that abbrv. thing deliberately... For the record, Banes does generally consider personal blogs to be stupid (no offence, I'll have to swallow that sometime when I start my own though :), but Banes's pet hate is blogs where people type out long political rants we've all heard before, know what I mean? As far as barnstars goes, I've actually been rather sulky about them lately cos I only have two, and they are both really small. Really immature I know, but thats me. Gosh, it is getting on, 10 to 12 for me... Nice to talk to you, enjoy the rest of your day. P.S. I'd like some time to ask you a thing or two about your blog content, faith, etc. I'll probably do that on your blog. Cheers Banez21:39, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, please do me a favour (favor for you Americans :))...Would you mind giving me your exam timetable? If you want to, you can put it in my sandbox. Cheers Banez21:40, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
What about monday? I only start my studying on tuesday...Monday starts in 6 minutes...Oh well, you're right, I'll go off now, after seeing if you reply one last time. :) Cheers (Is that a no on the timetable?) Banez21:47, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Life's just too short to spend sleeping! When I was writing my Matric exams a lot of people asked for my timetable to a.) wish me luck, and b.) pray for me. I really appreciated it. I was wondering if you wanted me to do the same? Anyway, cheers Banez21:51, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Okay okay, I'm gone. Finger hovering over the power button on his computer Oops, too late, clock just went 12. Cheers Banez21:55, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
HA!! I actually went to bed, computer off, lights out, teeth brushed. And found that the suspense was keeping me awake. So here I am again, with my last post. "Glad to see your light out, Banes" Fooled you! :) Thanks for the sandcastle, and feel free to let me know on that page. Anyway, I'll be seeing you tidying up the grammar around wikipedia! (There is more to editing than vandal reversion.) Cheers Banez22:21, 22 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Re: Poetry (and much miscellaneous etcetera)
Ever since "Weien! You're blue!" I've been meaning to reply here, but I guess commenting at thine blog and a thought or two on the Statement came first, so... yea, sizable comment on the way. ^^
On Poetry: Well, if that was your first poem (or one of the first), it's definitely a good start. I mean, consider some of my first poems (Dec/3/03 was my second, after one that's not on my site because it's kinda... romantic *turns red* ^^)--just don't consider them too deeply XD. But as for "poetry training," everything I know came from just plain writing poetry (well, and a bit of help from SoundFound too, of course :D), that is until I had the pleasure of taking this class last semester at the local community college. I found that many of the things I'd subconsciously figured out in the past few years had actual names, but (even better) was able to get a lot of good feedback from both the instructor and my fellow students. I don't suppose we'll ever have people saying, like, "Yeah, I CLEP'ed out of Poetry Writing," but it was a really great class with all purely-academic reasons aside XD (though I'm sure the CLEP does look for some basic knowledge on poetic things, like in the English Lit section?). So those are the memoirs of a rhymer.
As for what I confidently hail as "artistic presentation of inter- and intra-stanza enjambment," well... with a good teacher helper, I don't suppose it would take nearly "several pages" to explain (well, maybe nearly ^^). And what better teacher than Wikipedia? So let's start with Enjambement. As Wikipedia says, enjambed lines are ones that don't end with a complete phrase, clause or sentence (example: the first line of "the violin," by ViolinGirl). Compare that with end-stopped lines (e.g. last line of the same poem, where the end of the line is also the end of a sentence). Though the enjambement entry does note (later in the article) that heavy enjambement is generally used to convey a sense of urgency, acceleration, or even discomfort (and I'm guessing that those weren't your intentions with "the violin"), your poem utilizes this poetic tool in a way that actually works (I even feel that the "oh!" in the second stanza captures very much the spirit of the entire piece--that is, the enjambed one ^^). And to add to that, you've even used a template where none of the verses (other than the last) end end-stopped, which is a mindful (whether or not you borrowed things from another poet ^^).
(Re: Side note: I haven't read "The Prodigal's Sister" [2] yet; looks like something I'll want to pick up or at least sit down at Borders with ^^. I was able to read the sample [3]
that they have, though. And yes--I did read about the cancer at his Wikipedia entry. I love the quote they have there!)
Anyway, I'm happy (and love) to comment on poetry, and if I can be helpful while doing it, that's definitely a plus ^^. Hopefully I've explained the enjambment thing to a suitable extent (by the way, I did have to write an enjambed poem for the class, have you seen it[4]? It should give some final enlightenment on the "urgency, acceleration, or even discomfort" business, if anything ^^). Oh, and about thesauri... yes, using one can definitely get you out of a lot of poetry-problem-spots. What I usually have in front of me when I'm writing is thesaurus.com, a rhyming dictionary (like the one here, though that link is only a sample), and Notepad (yea, it's all on the compy for me ^^). At any rate, if you have any other questions, thoughts, or (hooray!) poems, I'd definitely love to have a look (otherwise, for anything that has garnered a "thanks," in return, a hearty "welcome" :D). Keep endeavoring for le mot juste!
Ok, let's see if I can wrap up with the rest (it's getting early!).
About this: Oh no! I'm not completely sure what exactly happened with all of your text promptly zipping away, but I can completely sympathize. Way too many occurrences of losing large amounts of writing have instilled a healthy Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C paranoia in me (yes, all the text in this web form is occasionally being copied to "post.txt" on my desktop XD). At least glad to hear that what you were going to say was mostly in confirmation--I was really hoping that I was typing on the right track concerning your Statement. *phew*
And to lessen the confusion about the Saruman illustration (true, I do suppose it would've been easier to understand having watched LOTR, sorry -_-), yes, you're correct in your guess--basically he was a fellow who studied the enemy so as to better counter them but unfortunately ended up as one of them, since all of his research convinced him that they were the ones who would ultimately win. Definitely an exaggerated example, but... still a fun one ^^. Starts noticing an over-application of the shift-6 smiley, groans.
On other things: Oh, about Solresol; I'm actually not planning to do much on that article; it's actually another (very similar) language called Sarus that I'm interested in. You can read about it here (the first forum thread explains the gist of it). Making a good article out of it will require a lot of research and copyright-gathering, though (it's a language constructed by a single person, Adam Phillips), especially since I've lately been seeing a lot of discussions about topic notability. Speaking of which... have a look at what's been keeping me busy lately (Wiki-wise), an AfD discussion on Bill Gothard [[5]] shiver. Pretty much all of the discussions for IBLP, Bill Gothard, and even the 49 Character Qualities are getting hot.
Sigh. Anyway, time for a bit of sleep before the next day begins. Keep in touch, and hope you have a great day! ^^ Weien10:50, 23 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
PS. About my user page... yea, it's definitely just a placeholder for now ^_^.
Re
You're welcome, it brightened up a very boring day for me. I spent 2 hours typing a poem for Sango's poem subpage...but I guess that beats studying. I only have one day of holiday left sadly...Cheers Banez17:50, 23 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
You'll also be pleased to know that I resisted the temptation the reply to your last message at 01:00 this morning. :) Banez17:52, 23 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry, I declared myself insane a year ago. :) As it happens, I've never fallen asleep at the computer. But I'm quite used to staying up all night, in fact, I enjoy it. I did it a lot last year because of my need to cram before exams. I must just tell you the worst of late night computing, I once, at 01:00 on wikipedia (in harsh edit war with vandal) I was drinking coke to keep me going. I was so dozy that I sleepily picked up my coke, and poured it all over my keyboard and my own lap. lol, what an idiot. Good luck with your studying, see you later, much later. :) Banez18:03, 23 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
