User talk:.Raven/Archive 1

Archive 1

Archive 2

no problem! [wossi] 17:29, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

Raven?

As in my brother, Cyggfrain Myddrael Joserlin... that Raven? --Orange Mike | Talk 18:30, 22 February 2013 (UTC) (Inali)

The self-same corvid. Also recently started blogging! Hi, Mike! – _•Raven ^.talk 19:15, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

(Posted at User talk:Orangemike#Userpage advice:) Mike, in the wake of our "that Raven?" exchange, I've written myself an actual userpage to answer that question from others... but with substantial misgivings, and I'd appreciate your advice as (1) an experienced Wikipedian (2) who knows me, and will take into account I left that page only one line long for six years. I dislike boasting; I detest braggarts; and the whole Essjay affair ought to have left everyone permanently wary of claimed expertise, especially as argument ammo. I've never brought up such things in arguments, only pointed to resources and asked people to go look for themselves (e.g. in Talk:Theban alphabet). To say, now, "Yes, I'm that Raven, the one who did that and that, and that over there, and yes, that too, and yes, who'd have guessed it, the same Raven who did that...." could easily sound as much like a brag as a statement of identity or background or interests. And all the past years I've spent not mentioning such things won't be applied to my credit, once I do mention them. Or so I worry. Please look, reassure me, or suggest improvements in approach. Thanks! – _•Raven ^.talk 22:15, 26 February 2013 (UTC)

Your userpage looks most exceedingly sound to me: lets the reader know who this guy is and what he's into. Congratulations! My only quibble is that perhaps you should use the Babel boxes to let folks know where they may find an editor who speaks the languages you do, some of which are far more obscure than my own Esperanto and blazon.

Lazy person that I am, I lean too much on userboxen to disclose my own (strongly-held) positions; and my userpage is perhaps a little autobiographical (though nobody's ever asked me to trim it. --Orange Mike | Talk 22:27, 26 February 2013 (UTC)

(1) Writing Systems (scripts) interests are quite separate from languages spoken, especially in cases like Khitan, whose last recorded surviving speaker/reader/writer was Genghis Khan's imposing advisor Yeliu Chutsai * — his lineage had been the fallen empire's royal family. The vocabulary we know of is similar to Mongolian; I won't say "amazingly" because the peoples lived in the same area, and I think it likely Khitan as the overlapping older empire's language influenced (≈ "was related to") the younger one's. Talking about Khitan like this is one thing; but putting up a Babel box and claiming I speak it?! pfffft.

(* Respected, oh yes, but not a hero to this unhappy singer.... "Do-ora Tengri-de, anda-nar, chilugetai unu!")

(2) Again, post-Essjay, it goes against the grain to make any such claim about any language, script, or topic at all. Either what I'm saying (writing) demonstrates some discernible degree of fluency / familiarity / genuine research, in which case the claim is unnecessary, or else not, in which case the claim is foolish. Besides, if I were here all the time for people to find me, hanging out my shingle might make sense (if people could trust shingles). But I'm only intermittently here; people shouldn't wait around for me. What I do is show up where I feel I have something to contribute, and contribute it (as at Talk:Theban alphabet)... and you'll notice even that has been met with dead silence — I'm sure it's simply because, like me, all those other people simply aren't on all the time; the next time they get on, *I* will be on hiatus, and so forth... the debates will simply take place at a far more glacial pace than the Internet usually affords. – _•Raven ^.talk 06:36, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

(3) Ah! The bell rang! I remembered what your phrase reminded me of! "... use the Babel boxes to let folks know where they may find an editor..." — Did you ever read Barry Hughart's Bridge of Birds, set in mythical China? The village's children have fallen ill, strong young man Number Ten Ox is sent into the city to find a detective, and in the Street of Detectives he sees sign after sign after sign advertising the symbol of the Open Eye, all of them equally all-seeing, how is he to choose? But then he sees one sign with a Half-Open Eye: some things I see, it seems to say, some things I don't. And this is the detective he chooses. Wisely, as it turns out. – _•Raven ^.talk 07:00, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

(* Until I linked and read the article for the novel, I didn't know there were sequels! Hurray! And already, just from a quote in the first sequel's article, I believe I've spotted a bilingual pun against post-modernism! Hurray!) – _•Raven ^.talk 19:56, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

Small world. You might remember me, too, but not by this handle. —Tamfang (talk) 23:57, 19 May 2023 (UTC)

Sorry to see you inactive

I notice that you've ceased editing here, and that your blog too is inactive. I hope you are well. --Orange Mike | Talk 03:52, 16 September 2014 (UTC)

My inactivity...

'Twas brillig, and a slithy tove / Did grind my hard drive's gyre and gimble;
Whereafter all my data-trove / Had access not so very nimble.
Alas, a borrowed 'board I use / Until my own is fix'd aright;
'Till then I hope I may amuse / Whene'er I briefly here alight. – _•Raven ^.talk 17:02, 20 October 2014 (UTC)