If you are going to post a comment on my talk page please keep in mind the tenets of wikilove and wikiquette. If you are deliberately rude to me I will probably ignore you, I may even delete your comment.

Archives: I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X | XI | XII | XIII | XIV | XV

Each archive has 20 headings, including my archive heading, so each archive has 19 headings of conversation. The exception is archive IV which, for the time being, lost headings to the other archives when the archives were rearranged on April 1, 2005. Posts that I delete from my talk page are not included in the archives, however by and large even the rare heated exchanges are there.

Please post at the bottom of the page

Codes and idioms

On Sylwia's talk page you mentioned that you like idioms and codes. Our language is pretty much a code itself given the number of words and the extensive synonymy. If you want, I could provide you with some examples of Polish vocabulary or Polish idioms. Just pick your poison :) Halibutt 11:11, Jun 12, 2005 (UTC)

Idioms. While I'd love to learn Polish, I;m stickign to the Romance and Germanic languages for now, I do plan on studying Russian so when/if I expand into Slavic languages Ilet you. In my experience with Spanish and French having knowledge about more than one member of a language family only improves your skills at both. I would like to have the Polish, word for welcome so I can and it to my welcome list, or any other language you know the word welcome for that matter. I've proposed creating wikipedia cultural-exchanges in the past. I'm sure the wikipedians from my cultural region in the United States would be interested in such an endeavor. -JCarriker 11:15, Jun 12, 2005 (UTC)

Nothing is simple when it comes to Polish vocabulary ;) Here's a brief overview of the greetings we use:

• Cześć - generally Hi or hello, literally honour, used between friends, family or people of similar age.
• Witam - literally I greet you, Polish for Welcome
• Czołem - even more informal, literally with brow, as in I salute you with my brow, used between friends, slightly old-stylish nowadays
• Dzień dobry - lit. good day - used in most instances where you'd use good morning or good afternoon (but only as a greeting!)
• Dobry wieczór - good evening
• siema - short for jak się masz - how are you, similar to how's it goin' , even more informal than Cześć and used mostly among the youngsters; common diminutive variants are siemka, siemanko, siemaneczko

There are zillions of other such greetings, each comes in a number of variants... Polish can be fun :) As to the Polish grammar - it's much easier than people think. With only three to five tenses it's really quite easy to learn. And the pronunciation is quite similar to Spanish, French and Catalan. ~(BTW, I speak Spanish as well). Halibutt 11:32, Jun 12, 2005 (UTC)

¿Verdad? ¡Español es mi tema menor! En probabilidad usted aprendió castellano, pero estoy aprendiendo mexicano, tan está diferencias gramaticas. Mi gramatica no es perfercto pero mi pronunciation es excelente. Cueste lo que cueste, me encanta conocer.

I've decided witam is the one to use on my page, could you provide the comparable words for Czech and the other languages you speak. Gracias. -JCarriker 12:21, Jun 12, 2005 (UTC)

Dejo estudiandolo desde hace unos doce anos. As to the welcome messages - indeed, witam seems the best choice. Alternatively, you could use witajcie (literally be welcomed, used when you greet a group of people, similar to Spanish bienvenidos). As to other languages: the Czech equivalent of the Polish witam would be vítám (it reads more or less the same, with the differnce being that the Czech vowels might be either long or short, as indicated by the diacrites). Belarusian would be vitaju. Ukrainian would be привіт or privit (hi or hello). I could give you also the Nahuatl equivalent, though I've been studying its 15th century version and not the modern language so I can't say whether it would be correct. Halibutt 14:50, Jun 12, 2005 (UTC)

U.S. regions WikiProject

Thanks for the invite. I'm going to keep an eye on the guidelines at U.S. regions WikiProject in order to better make article edits. I'm not sure whether I'll join the project or not. My recent edits are part of the stub sorting WikiProject to split the US geography stubs category. -- Fingers-of-Pyrex 21:50, 2005 Jun 14 (UTC)

Theo RFA

Thank you for supporting my RFA nomination. I appreciate you confidence. --Theo (Talk) 11:37, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia talk:Polish Wikipedians' notice board

I have suggested to Piotrus that discussion in Polish on that page should be moved somewhere else where they will not offend users. Until that happens, I am willing to translate (within limits, I do have a day job) everything that you want translated on that page. Just send me a message with the text you want translated (I guess that's the best way). Balcer 14:48, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Thanks but that won't be necessary, as you have already provided it. I have seen your response to my post to Piotrus talk and I have responded their and on you talk.- JCarriker 16:18, Jun 15, 2005 (UTC)

I apologize for any offence my post on Piotrus talk page might have caused you, especially for calling you "paranoid" which I know you are not. Sorry. Balcer 16:22, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Please check your e-mail. -JCarriker 16:30, Jun 15, 2005 (UTC)

Likewise. :-) Nohat 16:44, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

You mean my e-mail? Because I rarely read my default Wikipedia mailbox (present status: 1500 spam messages). Balcer 17:11, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Ok, I changed my e-mail address to one that works. If you still want to reach me, please resend. Balcer 17:19, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

No problem. I should have had a working e-mail address configured anyway. Balcer 17:28, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Just a quick note on your proposals. To me setting up an appropriate page on Polish Wikipedia would be the ideal solution. Probably the only reason this has not been done yet is because some Polish users here do not like certain aspects of the way things are done in the Polish Wikipedia community. Balcer 02:30, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I am sorry you find something on the board (presumably?) hostile or semi-hostile. While some users are a bit irked about the language issue, I don't think anybody has offended you (without apology) or anything like that? --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus ^Talk 10:35, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Jay, I am really sorry that you lost your patience with us. I cannot say I don't understand, but I sincerely hope you will change your mind with time. I promise to keep my messages only in English there and hope you will find yourself joining our discussions in future with bigger pleasure. In the meantime I posted my opinion on Protestantism discussion page. Maybe you'll be interested in some diversion. I would appreciate your opinion. Regards --SylwiaS 00:57, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)

• Jay, thanks for your support. It was really good article with just few incorrectness, but someone put there the "dispute notice" without even initially telling his reasons. In the meantime, I gave my opinion on Sola Scriptura and it seems that unwillingly I encouraged the person to give the "dispute notice" again. I hope a compromise will be found.

I read your comment on Piotrus' talk page even before that's why I said I understood your reasons. There is a silence now on our collab board, so it seems that it was a general hump and everyone needs to rest. I am sure everything will be well and all the disagreements were just unnecessary. --SylwiaS 17:24, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)

English usage

This thread (http://mail.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2005-June/024616.html) on the mailing list should help to answer your question. My own opinion is here (http://mail.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2005-June/024637.html) which says I don't think there should be a policy against it, but others disagreed and suggested it would be bad Wikiquette to use other languages outside of the user talk namespace. Angela. 19:21, Jun 15, 2005 (UTC)

Voting after RfA Closure

Policy has been that the votes don't count. Place post-facto votes on the RfA's talk page and put a notice that any additional "votes" or comments should go there. If need be, the RfA could be protected in people persist, but so far it hasn't come to that. -- Cheers, Cecropia | explains it all ® 23:08, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Texas History page

Just wanted to let you know I really enjoyed the Texas history page. I'm a Texan and like reading anything to do with this great state. Awesome job! maltmomma 00:08, Jun 16, 2005 (UTC)

Thank you

Hi JCarriker!

I know this is a bit late, but I wanted to thank you for voting support on my RFA. Thanks to you and everyone else who voted support, I am now an admin! I have used my new powers to further Wikipedia, and I want to thank you for giving me that opportunity. Thanks! Linuxbeak | Talk | Desk 00:09, Jun 16, 2005 (UTC)

Talk:American West

I don't think I can be of much help. I came to this page through the categories History of the American West and Culture of the American West. What I found was a page about a region I recognized, and was born and raised in (Pinal County, Arizona). It's a modern region with big cities, cell phones, and indoor plumbing. Of course this is Wikipedia and anyone can write anything, but I think the Western Frontier concept is covered pretty well in Westward Expansion; although it can be expanded. As for the iconography, that seems pretty much addressed in this article by the definition section and if expansion is needed, it's maybe more appropriate in the American Old West article. The Old West is an era that ended in the 1890s, not a geographic area, although it's the same region as the modern West.

As for the states included in the region, I don't think by any stretch of the imagination you can relegate states like Texas and California to second status in the West. Or for that matter, any Pacific Coast state or the states north of Texas. I can't offer you any firm sources, but I've been to those places too many times to think otherwise. Houston has more cowboy hats than I saw in either Denver or Phoenix. The rodeo there is billed as the largest rodeo in the world. Hardly identified with anything other than the West. The Dallas Cowboys, San Antonio Spurs, Texas Rangers, etc. don't evoke any other image except that of the West. And I could add the Forty-niners and Portland Trailblazers. Fiesta San Antonio is more like the celebrations I've seen in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Tucson than anything I saw in Savannah. You are possibly more traveled in the South than I am, so you may be better informed. I could mention one other state that seems in contention. I've only been east-west across Nebraska once, from Wyoming to Grand Island and then south, but the country along the whole distance is very much western in appearance (Chimney Rock) and the ranches and farms not much different than those in Colorado or the Texas Panhandle.

As I say, Wikipedia is free and open to anyone who wants to write anything about anything, so do what you think best. I only hope the agenda of you and the project is to come up with the best article available. DialUp 04:53, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)

• I prefer working new pages and random pages, trying to help those along the best I can. I'm not prepared or inclined to do the work needed to research this topic enough to add to the article. Houston? Posing? I can't tell sometimes if you're joking or not. Have you ever read the history of ranching in Texas? (see Allen Ranch (http://www.earlytexashistory.com/Pasadena/Allen%20Ranch/index)) I've been to Houston several times and I hope you understand that I believe the people I know in person more than those I only know from their activity at Wikipedia. I do believe you're joking about Calgary not being a western city. They're famous for being exactly that. Canada has a west too. You might try to engage CPret in a more mannerly discussion. Some people are put off by being accused and lectured. DialUp 03:13, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)
  • Sorry for the broken link. It looks like you'll have to go to Pasadena (http://www.earlytexashistory.com/Pasadena/index.html) and click the link to the Allen Ranch. DialUp 03:24, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)

• Many states have more than a single culture or history. My view is that Texas is primarily a Western state and secondarily, that is has Southern cultural influences and important Southern history. It's a personal view but I think it's backed up by pretty strong evidence. My view of what constitues the South is pretty much the same as the conclusions in John Shelton Reed's My Tears Spoiled My Aim (http://xroads.virginia.edu/~DRBR/REED/tears.html). That it's where kudzu grows (http://xroads.virginia.edu/~DRBR/REED/reed2.html) and where telephone listings say Southern (http://xroads.virginia.edu/~DRBR/REED/reed24.html). See, I can do serious humor too.
• I think if I were organizing states into cultural or historical regions, I would include them in the region of primary identification and if the minor identification is about equal or a large percentage, include them in both. Large and equal might be hard to get agreement for though. I would include the whole state's statistics in with the demographics for the region, without subtracting areas that might better fit other regions. The regions statistics therefore would total more than 100% of the actual total for the US. All state have racial, ethnic, and cultural variations and so would the regions. I might mention the variations in the subject region but leave the breakdown of the intrastate demographics to the individual state pages. For states that have only past links to the region, I might mention them, but not include them in the regional demographics. That will be another problem. There will need to be pretty good reasons for including or excluding states based on some sort of empirical evidence because many people will not agree. If the region is only loosely identifiable, I wouldn't use demographics at all. That's my opinion, for what it's worth, based on my experience in organizing engineering projects. Don't hold me to anything, my opinions change. You already know my opinion on using as sources those regional maps developed for other than determining cultural or historical regions.
• The Allen Ranch is what I personally like to see in a stub; a good identification of the subject, a good stub-sorting tag, categories, and an external link. And you even found a page from which to link it. I may add a link to the Texas Handbook Online article though. DialUp 18:11, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)

• • I'm not sure what you mean by pose, but if I were to judge Texas's primary regional affiliation from reading those links, I would say that the answer is in the question. Texarkana wouldn't be mentioning Southern hospitality if it was not unique to that part of Texas, and the book wouldn't be trying to make a case for Texas to be part of the South if it alreay was. From my experience, the Mexican influence is more common than Southern influence across most of Texas. My knowledge of Texas history is sketchy. I only know that Texas is the birth of what is considered the West (The Cradle of the West according to the song) and still remains a symbol of the West. You might ask the Texas State Historical Association about the regional affiliation. They publish the Southwestern Historical Quarterly (http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/), supposedly the oldest scholarly journal in Texas. They may can give you addition information, although most public institution won't take a stance that might be controversial. I wish I had the time to study Texas history, maybe then I could give you a more definitive answer. One more personal observation. Although I've been to Dallas many times and have several relatives living there, I've never see Big Tex in person, but I think it's more emblamatic of the West than the South. DialUp 02:04, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)

• • • Geez Louise. Relax. You're not wrong just because someone disagrees with you any more than you're right when someone agrees with you. If you didn't want my opinion, you shouldn't have asked. If you want dissembling, I'm the wrong person. I thought at least you would think contrasting Big Tex with the mental image of a Southern gentleman was funny. Not rolling-on-the-floor funny, but sill worth a smile. DialUp 03:33, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia Project: Texas

Looks interesting. I don't know how much I would be able to contribute but I'd like to help. So where do I sign up, just put my name up there? maltmomma 16:28, Jun 16, 2005 (UTC)

RE: I hadn't noticed the userlist my first time through; it's rather short on a high-res monitor. Shem^(talk) 06:31, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Why I haven't been weighing in

I happen to be on line at the moment but I am not spending a lot of time on Wikipedia these days. As I've said before, I don't have any strong opinions in this Western US matter, and it doesn't seem useful for me to take a lot of my little time to keep reiterating my lack of strong opinion. I'm backed up 5 days on my watchlist. -- Jmabel | Talk 16:17, Jun 18, 2005 (UTC)

Take a look at Wikipedia:WikiProject U.S. regions/Maps and tell me what you think, all regions are not yet there are mistakes in two (I do get tired). -JCarriker 21:09, Jun 18, 2005 (UTC)

Wikipedia:U.S. Southern wikipedians' notice board

I have now reopened the notice board, if you are interested in contributing new topics, or in nominating articles for the Collaboration of the Week, which also received a revamp. Please post on the project's talk page if you show interest. Mike H 02:45, Jun 19, 2005 (UTC)

Apology, Apology

I'm real sorry about the note that was put on Jmabel talk page. My roommate was bored today, and he decided to get on my computer and stir up trouble. I hope that my apology will be accepted as we continue to move on for the Wiki cause. Flgook 22:22, 19 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Hatshepsut

Sure. I'm eagerly looking forward to seeing what you'll do to the poor old girl. I have no plans not to be around, and if she crops up on my watchlist, I'm sure to take a peek and see. –Hajor 02:00, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Sorry to take so long in responding, Jay, but please help yourself to working on this article. Possibly the best 1st step would be to list it on Peer Review, since the last time I looked at Hatshepsut I thought it was in fine shape. However, I've been mostly busy for the last few months on Ethiopia-related articles, few -- if any -- are even satisfactory, let alone worth considering for FAC status, so I might not have the best perspective for judging. -- llywrch 19:16, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)

My RFA

Thank you for supporting my RFA. Guettarda 23:36, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)

And mine too :)  Grue  06:27, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Marshall, Texas article

I read the Marshall, Texas article and noticed that you contributed a lot to it. I just want to say that it was well done! Mostly, I enjoyed the history section since it was very detailed and well written. Overall, I am impressed at the content of materials in the entire article. You have motivated me to do the same for the Sugar Land, Texas article, but of course the history section is not as well written/thought out and detailed like yours. Do you have any suggestions on how I can improve the Sugar Land page? Also, I am thinking of writing a history for the Houston article to merge on to the main page since there really isn't one for Houston. The one they have now is on a separated page with just a whole bunch of sentences put together in one paragraph per decade and its a mess/all over the place. I am excited to see that you started an article on the history of Texas. Currently, there really isn't much on the main page. The main page has a few categories with no materials at all. I was shocked to see nothing on the history of Texas. Anyway, did you know that the U.S. Census made Marshall a micropolitan area as of 2003? Just thought you would like to know, if you didn't know already. I guess that's why they separated Marshall away from Longview MSA. UH Collegian 07:42, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Inclusion not Deletion

(AIW) can you take a look at Wikipedia "apartheid"? There is a movement to delete a two-word inclusion that is fact and true. It's gotten to the point that everyone is focused on the disputing editors and not the edit itself.

" Deletionists are disputing the following statement: "South Africa was settled initially by the Dutch, Germans and French from the 17th century onwards. English, other European settlers, and Diaspora Jews followed in the 19th century." This statement is true, and it therefore should not be deleted.69.217.125.53 15:10, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Apartheid

Thanks!69.217.123.174 19:08, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)