Archive 1: June to December 2004

List of Polymaths

You deletion of Ken Jennings was wrong. A polymath by definition is "a person with extraordinarily broad and comprehensive knowledge". Ken Jennings is that. His success in Jeopardy! was because of his...to quote your words "knowing insane amounts of trivia". Knowing "insane amounts of trivia" is the same as having an " extraordinarily broad and comprehensive knowledge" Thus Ken Jennings is a polymath.

Replied on User_talk:67.131.36.99. Mindspillage | spill your mind? 03:16, 1 Jan 2005 (UTC)

You know I never thought of it that way Mindspillage. We should talk of a compramise.

My grandmother and I both agreed that Ken should be listed as a polymath.

I had to laugh

Hi Mindspillage,

You should have heard me laugh just now. Great minds think alike, LOL. I had just finished a draft of Jean Françaix, posted it and got an edit conflict with your version! Yours looks very good though. Have you found his official site (www.jeanfrancaix.org) which contains a bit more not covered by the Grove (it's in French though). By the way I have the 1980 complete 20 volume Grove; do you have access to the more recent one? It might have his biographical information after midlife. (IMHO the 1980 article is NOT one of their better biographical articles; it's rather rare for them to be so un-thorough on the biography. I particularly want to know what he did during the Second World War.) Anyway, happy editing, and keep going! Antandrus 05:21, 2 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Hey, thanks for the barnstar! I'm touched. :-) The new year brings good things. Your Françaix article reads better than mine. I just banged out a quickie article here based almost solely on the Grove and the Slonimsky (which is even shorter), and I'm frustrated by the lack of biographical info after the 1930s. Being a bassoonist, you must have played Françaix's music (it's really witty, light-hearted, and utterly anti-apocalyptic ... very refreshing). The article in the 1980 Grove is by Arthur Hoérée, so they must have replaced it completely with Muriel's article. GOOD.  :-) Thanks again and have a nice evening! Antandrus 05:57, 2 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Françaix's one of the first composers I liked when I was a kid but I wasn't a wind player so I didn't get to play! Probably you have some acquaintanceship with Poulenc as well then. --Btw, nice work on the Madeleine Dring article; I just now noticed it. (Coincidentally, I just put up an article on another Madeleine--Maddalena Casulana, the first female composer in western music history to have music published). Stetson, huh? :-) How's the music department there? Good wind programs? Antandrus 05:24, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)

You read Proust too??? Impressive.  :-) Yeah, I live in Santa Barbara. Got my masters and doctorate at CCM in Cincinnati. Hey, happy editing, and hope you enjoy starting classes (tomorrow already??) Antandrus 06:00, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Dallapiccola

Nice job on Dallapiccola! I'm glad you have some time to edit this week.  :-) (I have to work. pffft.) Antandrus 04:11, 5 Jan 2005 (UTC)

This may be utterly perverse, but I thought the GRE was fun. Do they still have a music part? But I see you were a quizbowler ... you'll have a good time! Antandrus 04:48, 5 Jan 2005 (UTC)

No, no quizbowler here ... always wanted to do that but we didn't have a team at my high school. The music GRE had lots of fun trivial-pursuit type questions too, like: "the following note (E below middle C), in concert pitch, is the lowest note in the range of the a) kazoo b) English horn c) bassoon d) alto flute." Oh man it was fun. Antandrus 05:04, 5 Jan 2005 (UTC)

List of percussionists

Hi. I noticed that you alphabetized this list and wondered if there was some Wiki-Magic-Utility way to do it or did you have to do it the old-fashioned way. hydnjo talk 03:30, 6 Jan 2005 (UTC)

OK - the manual way then. I just found it curious that all of the lists that I had come across in my short life here had been alphabetized and I didn't think that a community this size could be that neat :), and then I came across your edit. hydnjo talk 04:11, 6 Jan 2005 (UTC)

The depiction there doesn't look like you - must be the hat ;) hydnjo talk 05:11, 6 Jan 2005 (UTC)

GEB Chinese title

Hi. The Chinese translation of the book was published by The Commercial Press in Beijing in 1996. Their website used the character '壁'(wall) which was what I based on. It appears to be a typo, as the records from the Commercial Press in HK and the library of Fudan University both suggest '璧'(jade). Sorry for the confusion! By the way, is exquisite the word Hofstadter used? The character '异' means different or strange, and usually doesn't have an implication of delicacy. I don't have the anniversary edition so I can't check myself. --Alaz (talk) 14:23, 7 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Ah, yes

Oh how embarasing, and from a foremer speling champoin tu. Whut next. LOL. (Not quite ready to repent yet, and sit in front of a TV though.) By the way, thanks for all the category fixage (that's laborious, and exactly the kind of work so many here shun because it's so unglamorous) and nice job on Daniel Read --it's great to see someone else interested in that old American stuff. Oh, here's a literary trivia question for you (based on above): what unites Gödel, Escher, Bach and Finnegan's Wake? Happy editing! Antandrus 02:05, 8 Jan 2005 (UTC) -- Oh, how did the GRE go?  :-) 02:09, 8 Jan 2005 (UTC)

They actually gave you the results that fast? Very fine! When I took the test there were four parts: Q, V, analytical and a music subject specialty. --Finnegan's wake uses a three-letter acronym (HCE) which permeates the whole work, and permutes continuously; it was quite clear to me when I read GEB that Hofstadter was doing the same thing with GEB, EGB etc. Curiously, MC Escher shares two of the initials of Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker (also Here Comes Everybody in the Wake). Hofstadter makes the Joyce connection clear in a couple ways, one of which you already saw.  :-) Antandrus 03:40, 8 Jan 2005 (UTC)

If you read the Wake -- (and you might want to read the Portrait and Ulysses first) -- read it out loud, at least in parts; it makes it ten times easier to decipher the pun-language. Which is diabolically funny, and utterly rich and delicious. --Joyce is one of my heroes; I think he's one of the most brilliant writers of the last century. Btw, another Hofstadter I loved was the Mind's I (which I see you know) -- unfortunately my copy went with an ex-. Alas. Antandrus 03:59, 8 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Daniel Read

Thanks, Mindspillage, for your careful work on Daniel Read. Opus33 22:23, 9 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Handstands

Hello! Nope, first time editor. Though I've been lurking on Wikipedia for a while. I never really felt compelled to add anything until I was shocked into it by the dearth of information on handstands, which are a recently acquired hobby of mine. I plan to add more in the future, but slowly, as I've barely even started and I see that this site has much more potential to devour my time if I don't watch out. Good luck! OneMoreTime 13:27, 13 Jan 2005 (UTC)

note

I chuckled at your 'hidden' note; honestly didn't think anyone would ever notice that. LOL. (To my great surprise, redlink had had an article already--a redirect to the wikipedia space article.) Have a great day! Antandrus 15:48, 19 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Mikrokosmos

Looking forward to your article on Mikrokosmos! That would be a fun one to write :-) Oh well, have to "work" today. Antandrus 17:48, 20 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Mignone! Good catch!  :-) Do you like Camargo Guarnieri 's music (another wonderful Brazilian). In fact, the area of Brazilian composers is rather underdeveloped ... (he says, hoping the wiki is on good behavior today ...) Antandrus 18:41, 22 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Slonimsky

Ah, you discovered the "failed Wunderkind ... who determined to excel beyond common decency ..." article! It's a fun read. (I just found it online here: [1] ... I wonder if he really wrote the painstakingly researched "Sex and the Music Librarian" ... LOL ... ) Antandrus 17:35, 25 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Thanks

Thanks for the correction on my user page. I'm fixing it now. And thanks for the compliment too :).

BTW, most people will have no problem with others editing their user page for spelling, grammar and the like. Pakaran 21:05, 27 Jan 2005 (UTC)

(Blush)

Thanks for the warm fuzzy. Dpbsmith (talk) 20:36, 30 Jan 2005 (UTC)

New Mathematics Wikiportal

I noticed you've done some work on Mathematics articles. I wanted to point out to you the new Mathematics Wikiportal- more specifically, to the Mathematics Collaboration of the Week page. I'm looking for any math-related stubs or non-existant articles that you would like to see on Wikipedia. Additionally, I wondered if you'd be willing to help out on some of the Collaboration of the Week pages.

I encourage you to vote on the current Collaboration of the Week, because I'm very interested in which articles you think need to be written or added to, and because I understand that I cannot do the enormous amount of work required on some of the Math stubs alone. I'm asking for your help, and also your critiques on the way the portal is set up.

Please direct all comments to my user-talk page, the Math Wikiportal talk page , or the Math Collaboration of the Week talk page. Thanks a lot for your support! ral315 02:54, Feb 11, 2005 (UTC)

Ney Rosauro

Hi Mindspillage! Hope all the academic stuff is going well (assuming you're busy since I haven't seen you around much ... ) I just started a stub on Ney Rosauro to save a non-entry "hey look at this website" from being speedied, then I noticed it was on your to-do list, so hey there you go! Have fun! See you around, Antandrus 02:30, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)  :-)

References and external links

References and external links are VERY useful to verify accuracy, resolve disputes and find further information. Internal links (part of wikification) is also good for following one's interests. Thank you for your excellent additions to wikipedia. (P.S. If what I just said only makes you want to forget about contributing, then forget I ever said it.) 4.250.198.254 20:22, 28 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Once again, thank you for your concern. To ensure compliance with copyright policy I will gladly review and add the necessary documentation to all appropriate images. Thank You for taking such an interest in my contributions. Alberia Torkenkluven 00:40, Mar 9, 2005 (UTC)

Response

The file in question has been edited to reflect appropriate copyrights. Thank you for bringing this matter to my attention. Alberia Torkenkluven 23:57, Mar 8, 2005 (UTC)

It would be helpful if you specified the image names so I can investigate. Thank You. Alberia Torkenkluven 23:45, Mar 8, 2005 (UTC)

"Greetings! I've noticed you uploading several images and tagging them as GFDL. I think you may have misunderstood what is meant by that license; several of the photos you have uploaded appear to be under the copyright of someone else. I will be listing your contributions on Wikipedia:Possibly unfree images; if you can claim some of them as being in the public domain, they can be kept, but otherwise images in violation of the copyright policy will have to be deleted. We welcome your efforts to contribute to Wikipedia; please do consider contributing your own photos and text and materials not under copyright. Mindspillage (spill yours?) 23:32, 8 Mar 2005 (UTC)"

My adminship

Thank you for voting for me for adminship. I appreciate the confidence you showed in me. I do try to be thoughtful and reasonable, and it's done quite well for me so far.— Knowledge Seeker দ 08:20, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Ah, I always wondered what it's like to spill some mind. It feels good. Let me second what Knowledge Seeker says! Thank you for your support vote and for the kind words on my adminship nomination. Kind regards, — mark ✎ 21:15, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Awesomeness

You are awesome! Especially the libertarian, quiz bowler, and geek part. Keep up the great work here on Wikipedia. Bonus Onus 05:38, Mar 16, 2005 (UTC)

Nomic

Just thought I'd let you know that I'm going to open WikiNomic tonight. In case you're interested. Kelly Martin 23:25, Mar 17, 2005 (UTC)

Yes, of course you may invite others. The more the merrier. Kelly Martin 06:27, Mar 18, 2005 (UTC)

Mersenne

Yes, he's pretty interesting, and did a lot of work in music theory! I noticed you editing him before (good improvements!) I love polymaths.... By the way I just learned what an Extropian is from your userpage; I might even have to tack another label on my own name now.  :-) Happy first day of spring, Antandrus 20:18, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC)

How to win an argument

I love it!! it's great!!! perhaps. There's great corollaries to be had in other fields of human, um, endeavor, such as driving: Pass on the right. What else do you think that wide shoulder is for? Go through red lights when no one is coming; why waste your time and everyone else's by blocking traffic? Two lanes are merging into one: blast by and pass everyone and get in front! Why get in the middle of the mess and hold everyone else up?

Actually it would be fun to include an item about using the logical fallacy of your choice... :-) Antandrus 18:06, 21 Mar 2005 (UTC)

New Mathematics Project Participants List

Hi Kat, (nice hat!).

In case you didn't follow the discussion on here: , I'm writing to you to let you know that I've converted the "WikiProject Mathematics Participants List" into a table. It is now alphabetical, includes links to the participant's talk page and contribution list, and has a field for "Areas of Interest". Since your name is on the list, I thought you might want to check and/or update your entry.

Regards, Paul August ☎ 15:05, Mar 22, 2005 (UTC)

Thanks

Hi Kat, thank you for supporting my adminship nomination. I really appreciate it. Best, SlimVirgin 00:05, Mar 24, 2005 (UTC)

ha ha ha

Hi Kat, I was wondering if anyone would catch that.... wouldn't want to offend any guitar-lovers, now, would we?  :-) Antandrus 02:48, 27 Mar 2005 (UTC)

exactly... it's what they're playing. There's some contemporary guitar music I really love, so I decided to delete the comment as being a little over-the-top. By the way, I loved your "common sense" section, as well as the Tansman article (was he in Paris in 1939? Did he only leave for the U.S. in 1941? there must be a story there) Antandrus 03:13, 27 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Your competition

Hi. I just recently joined Wikipedia. It pisses me off when I look up an article and it has vandalism all over it, so I thought I'd help out to get rid of it. I swear, I don't understand people sometimes. Thanks for the complement though :) -TheGWO

Russian Christmas Music

Thanks for your kind words about Russian Christmas Music—I think I'll write an article about Variations on a Korean Folk Song next :-) --bdesham 04:36, 28 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Apatheism vs. Apathyism

I'm a NUG Wikipedian. If you wish to see what I was trying to do, please check the Discussion page of Apatheism. I'll now try to do it in a different way

RE: Caring about Apathyism

re: Caring about Apathyism

Thanks for the response. I have always been a person who "pushes to the edge of the envelope." I have read through many of the articles on contributing to Wikipedia, but I have still not digested their content and assimulated the concepts. As I said I'm an apprentice or NUG in Wikidom.

Now instead of starting a new article stub with Apathyism, I will expand the existing Apatheism article. The distinction between the two forms of the word are important to me. Other than the Rauch article, I can find no other word or concept that expresses my position on belief systems. I just have to find the time to lay out the page properly, and more importantly to lay out the two concepts in an "unbiased" way.

Thanks again.

DrBobStirling 19:32, 28 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Variations on a Korean Folk Song

That's a pretty funny coincidence about the concert! And feel free to start John Barnes Chance; I think I'll stick to the songs :-) --bdesham 02:02, 29 Mar 2005 (UTC)

My undying, well at least Apathyistic, thanks

Thanks for the help. I still feel as though I'm "baling the boat with a spoon", but it continues to be a learning experience. I've added some content to Apathyism and registered my vote to Merge it with the Apatheism page. My first solo page is a flop, but I always keep in mind that Thomas Alva Edison failed in business seven times before he founded Edison Electric on the incandescent bulb. I still have hopes of finding a niche in Wikidom. DrBobStirling 03:16, 31 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Thanks, and yes

Hey, thanks for Loys, and for letting me know! And yes: my one-year anniversary is next Monday, so I decided I'm probably "ready." I won't be able to answer the questions until after I'm home from work though (this evening) -- can it wait at least until then?  :-) Antandrus 17:05, 31 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Hello familiar face

Yes, I remember you. And I see you're really into this 'ere Wiki. That's cool. I'll see you around, in a way. And let Mikhail know about this odd little contact.

Thank you

Thank you for supporting my adminship — I vow to use my super powers for good not evil. Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 09:47, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

thanks for Category:Musical_software --Nkour 12:30, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Dustbuster

Alas, as a result now my house will just become that much dustier; but thanks much, and especially for persuading me to do it at last (hope I don't live to regret this, LOL ... :-) Antandrus 04:24, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thanks

Thanks, its awesome to hear that. Hyacinth 06:15, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Lili

Nice job on Lili Boulanger! And now Lili's article is longer than Nadia's ... hmmm ... :-) Antandrus 16:07, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Adminship?

At the risk of dragging you further into the morass of Wikipedia policy, are you interested in being an administrator? I'd be happy to nominate you if you're willing, please let me know. --Michael Snow 17:01, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)

The Speedy Mop and Magic Bucket are kind of cool and useful (to say nothing of the Wand of Swatting). I was going to ask as well but didn't want to follow too quickly on the heels of your asking me ... :-) Antandrus 17:16, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Okay, I've posted the nomination. My best wishes for grad school as well—may you get that Ph.D. my dad never quite finished. --Michael Snow 18:17, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thanks

Thanks for the eloquent words on your user page (which I have taken the liberty to copy to my Wikiphilosophy page.) Kosebamse 21:30, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Good luck

I'm glad to see you've been nominated, Kat. You're exactly the kind of editor and admin that Wikipedia needs, so I wish you the best of luck in your nomination, though I don't think you'll need it. Best, SlimVirgin ^(talk) 21:54, Apr 11, 2005 (UTC)

Masterly use of language is universally appreciated

and vice versa (see Wikipedia:Simplified Ruleset. --Theo (Talk) 16:00, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thanks

Thanks for supporting my adminship nomination, judginf from all the thanks on your talk page, you'll make a good admin too --nixie 03:05, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thank you!

Thank you for supporting my nomination on RfA, it failed because of Wikipedia's minority rule system, although I thought 21/8 support was sufficient. It was also cut short by 12 hours. But your vote of confidence is greatly appreciated, now let's build an encyclopedia! --Bjarki 14:05, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Your welcome

Many thanks for your welcome to a clueless newbie. It's kind of you to say that it looks as if I know what I'm doing! --RobertG 08:55, 16 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Congratulations!

Congratulations! It's my pleasure to let you know that, consensus being reached, you are now an administrator. You should read the relevant policies and other pages linked to from the administrators' reading list before carrying out tasks like deletion, protection, banning users, and editing protected pages such as the Main Page. Most of what you do is easily reversible by other sysops, apart from page history merges and image deletion, so please be especially careful with those. You might find the new administrators' how-to guide helpful. Cheers! -- Cecropia | explains it all ® 18:21, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)

And congratulations from me too: welcome to the cabal (even though I keep forgetting the secret handshake). You will find the Dustpan of Testiness and Wand of Swatting to be trusty companions.  :-) Antandrus 18:46, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Hey Kat, congratulations and you're more than welcome. It was my pleasure. I'm glad to see you were given a resounding vote of confidence with no oppose votes (none that "took", that is, lol). SlimVirgin ^(talk) 20:52, Apr 18, 2005 (UTC)

Congratulations! I know you'll be a fine admin! — mark ✎ 21:01, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)

And did I mention I think you're perfect for the job? --Oh, the microwikibreak was quite wonderful; went to San Diego and saw a great production of Vanessa; it's about despair, suicide, misery, and shattered hopes (pretty standard stuff for opera, LOL). Antandrus 21:56, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Congrats from me as well, this page lists all the cool stuff you can do now you're an evil cabalist. :) Rje 00:10, Apr 19, 2005 (UTC)

Congratulations! Zzyzx11 | Talk 00:17, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)

DC trip

Please list all your available dates in the table at Wikipedia:Meetup/Wikipedians of the East Coast field trip#Date. Thanks. --brian0918™ 18:42, 18 Apr 2005 (UTC)

More congrats!

Congrats - no probs on the support either - you're a good editor and will make a fine admin. BTW, you wrote: I think I've seen your edits everywhere and then some; I admire your patience and hard work (or maybe just masochism?) with the stubs. - put it down to being an obsessive-compulsive with slight control freak tendencies :) Grutness|^hello? 00:51, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Congratulations, and you're welcome! --Merovingian (t) (c) 03:18, Apr 19, 2005 (UTC)

• Kat, it was my pleasure to help nominate you. In fact, I rather like your talk page as well! A friend of mine is a bassoonist and my best friend from kindergarten played bassoon in the school band when we were growing up. I ought to drag out my trumpet and try the street corner thing myself! Anyway, congratulations on the promotion. You deserved it. - Lucky 6.9 03:20, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)
• Congratulations and good luck. --Theo (Talk) 05:54, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Hey

Hey dipstick, I was expecting you.. plus you left your phone here. --Gmaxwell 04:31, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Congrats

For me it was an honor to support you. I am very careful when it comes to giving my support to a person, I know that you'll do a great job. Good luck! Tony the Marine

seconded, glad to see you approved... I already have work for you :)  ALKIVAR™ 09:01, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Support for your administrator nomination was just so plainly the right thing to do. Congratulations! --RobertG 13:40, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Congratulations and thank you for your thank you! Your turn. ;-)--Bishonen | talk 15:03, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)

You're very welcome. I'm sure you'll have no troubles. Unsurprisingly, there's a number of quiz bowlers and former quiz bowlers on Wikipedia. Raul654 is probably the best-known. I've been off the circuit for a couple years myself, but I still moderate occasionally. Fun stuff. Anyway, good luck and happy editing! Isomorphic 01:24, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)