User talk:KirbyPuckettFan

Welcome
Hello KirbyPuckettFan, and welcome to Wikiversity! If you need help, feel free to visit my talk page, or contact us and ask questions. After you leave a comment on a talk page, remember to sign and date; it helps everyone follow the threads of the discussion. The signature icon in the edit window makes it simple. To get started, you may
 * Take a guided tour and learn to edit;
 * Explore our learning projects;
 * Browse our portals, schools, and research activities;
 * Read and help develop our community policies；or
 * Chat with other Wikiversitans on #wikiversity-en.

And don't forget to explore Wikiversity with the links to your left. Be bold, and see you around Wikiversity! --Countrymike 10:15, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

Bienvenue, etc.
If you need any help, just ask. I speak French, but am being REALLY lazy right now. The Jade Knight 05:21, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Remember to toss your time zone up on the Mentoring page; I figure it would be ideal to match people according to time zone in addition to proficiency. The Jade Knight (d'viser) 04:08, 15 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Already taken care of. Thanks for getting involved.  The Jade Knight (d'viser) 20:30, 21 October 2008 (UTC)
 * No problem. Just let me know if I can do anything else for you.  The Jade Knight (d'viser) 21:40, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

fiction
I need to work on separating myself from what I write <-- one was to do this is to participate in collaborative writing. What kinds of fiction and topics do you enjoy? --JWSchmidt 14:50, 22 October 2008 (UTC)


 * "posts are a bit messy" <-- we live in a messy world. For some things, chat is better (quicker) than posting on wiki. I wonder if you ever use IRC chat...normally I hang out in #wikiversity-en but an abusive channel op recently banned me from that channel (no discussion, no warning, no reason for the ban) so you can find me in #fiction-wikia, a chat channel just for collaborative fiction writing. Science fiction is my main area of interest in fiction writing, not sure if you saw Science Fiction Challenge...I'm looking for collaborators at Mnemtronium and The nanoepitaxy of Susanne Marie. "struggle with pinning down specific details" <-- a nice feature of collaborative fiction writing is that some people can focus on "the big picture" while other more detail-oriented people can worry about the details. "pure fantasy worlds" <-- I've never been able to get interested in writing fantasy. I seem to need to retain a few more connections to reality than do people who thrive on fantasy. "Asimov, but I could never be as technical as him" <-- he wrote an amazing range of fiction, some of which was less technical and specifically created with young people in mind. One of my projects is actually a kind of "Asimov fan fiction" in which I am making a sequel to one of Asimov's novels (see). "focusing on the 'hero' or 'heroine'" <-- Another Wikiversity participant who collaborates with me on fiction writing (User:Davichito) and I were recently talking about this in the #fiction-wikia chat channel. I have a real problem writing about traditional hero-type characters...or tradition "bad guys", for that matter. It might be fun if we could collaborate on a story that shows an interesting character "working through the psychological effects his or her tumultuous past"....Davichito is particularly interested in psychological issues. We are working on a story about a character called "Kalid" who has an amazing past that could be expanded on. --JWSchmidt 00:29, 23 October 2008 (UTC)


 * >Another Wikiversity participant who collaborates with me on fiction writing (User:Davichito). Yep. That's me. I read your post to JWSchmidt and I also like Asimov a lot. I think you could collaborate with us. The good writer is JWSchmidt, I am just a beginner on this and I have learned much things about fiction writing thanks to him. So, if you want to join us, you could practice too teach us things too. All of us are learning, I guess. Your knowledge about Star Wars could help to Kalid story; it is similar in some fashion: there are mental powers (not exactly the kind of mind control that Jedis use, there is telepathy), there is a Galactic Empire, there is a wise character similar to Yoda (Kalid is human but he is a Grand Master of the Osiris Order and he is very special in some things). I recommend http://ficcion.wikia.com if you want to upload your science fiction stories to the world, in case you have not done it yet.


 * I also saw you have an interest in French. Est-ce que vous êtes francophone? Je parle français comme seconde langue. Je vous attends à Ficcion Wikia, je veux savoir ce qui vous pensez sur Kalid. Davichito 01:06, 25 October 2008 (UTC)

We miss you at IRC. Davichito 16:01, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Subterrestrials
"mutation of the original alien species" <-- Genetic engineering is one of my favorite themes for fiction. Two interesting examples of this kind of fiction are the aliens in "Assignment Nor'Dyren" and M. A. Foster's "Ler". The "Ler" are genetically modified humans. One type of genetic engineering that is fairly common in science fiction is efforts to change other species such as chimps into more human-like variants (for example, David Brin's "Uplift" fictional universe). Recently, Davichito and I have been talking about Animism and Animal worship and "Subterrestrials" got me thinking about the idea that humans might try to make genetic variants of the human species that are similar to other species such as large felines. --JWSchmidt 13:54, 25 November 2008 (UTC)


 * "my idea is not so much about mutating humans" "Saurok-earth cat hybrids" <-- If it is possible for Sauroks to mate with Earth cats then I doubt if Sauroks could originate on another planet by a natural evolutionary process. However, as discussed here, it might be possible to make the story include the idea that the Luminads and Sauroks are actually of terrestrial origin. I started by imagining that Luminads might actually be humans, but another alternative would be that millions of years ago a cat species was taken off of Earth and genetically engineered to become human-like (in the sense of having human-like intelligence and the ability to use advanced technologies). If you do not like that kind of approach, then I think it would be very hard to have anything like a "mutation" spreading from alien Sauroks to "Saurok-earth cat hybrids" and then on to humans. An alternative would be to have some kind of infectious agent that could spread from an alien life form to life forms from Earth, but it is difficult to imagine how such an infectious agent could have a specific behavioral effect like making the infected animals "more predatory". What I am struggling with is finding a way to stay within the confines of "hard science fiction". If you are satisfied to have "Hollywood-style science fiction" where "mutation" does not have to actually follow any biological rules, then you can do anything you want to do! --JWSurf 04:24, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

Mentoring
We now have four native French speakers signed up to tutor at the French Mentoring program. Xionbox is available at about 3pm CST, and speaks English co-natively. The others speak intermediate English and are probably available earlier in the day (but who knows...) Do you have preferences for a Mentor? The Jade Knight (d'viser) 17:00, 4 November 2008 (UTC)
 * I use Pidgin to handle all of my IM and IRC. It's more limited than most IM programs, though, so you may not prefer it (it cannot currently handle voice or video chat, for example).  The Jade Knight (d'viser) 09:16, 5 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Have you established contact with Xionbox? How goes the search for a Mentor?  The Jade Knight (d'viser) 10:59, 8 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Try the "email this user" function. The Jade Knight (d'viser) 12:18, 9 November 2008 (UTC)

IRC
To enter #fiction-wikia you can go to http://irc.wikia.com and connect from there, they have a dropdown list of channels. Or you can go to http://java.freenode.net and fill the nickname and channel fields. Or you can do as I do: use chatzilla from firefox browser.

For the wiki interface, you click More (at the top right) then Manage Widgets. You click the right arrow until you find Shout box. Then you click in the green + button and you are ready to use it. It is placed at the left of the screen.

Davichito 02:50, 5 November 2008 (UTC)

Mentoring
Would you be willing to Mentor Soroush? He/she is a beginning learner of French located in UTC+3, whose native language appears to be Farsi, but evidently speaks English at an "intermediate" level. The Jade Knight (d'viser) 04:56, 24 November 2008 (UTC)


 * Would you be willing to take on additional students? If so, how many?  The Jade Knight (d'viser) 06:39, 28 August 2009 (UTC)


 * It is natural, I think, that some fall by the wayside as they get busy, etc. I have not heard anything from Soroush, so I assume he/she is still yours, unless you would like to relinquish mentorship of him/her.  In the meantime, would you be willing to take on any others?  The Jade Knight (d'viser) 05:58, 30 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Could you please Mentor Jpaagt, then? He/she is in Bogotá, Columbia, putting them in UTC -5, same as you.  He/she appears to speak English well, though it's probably not their native language.  He/she is a beginning French student.  The Jade Knight (d'viser) 20:42, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

Salut
Salut
 * Je suis heureux de voir que vous pouvez me apprendre Francaise. Est que je vous connais plus et je veux savoir que quand et ou je peux vous voir?
 * Merci. à bientôt.--Soroush 21:06, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

bon jour!
salut, j'etais indisponible pedant quelques semaines, dsl de repondre que maintenant... ravi de fair ta connaissance et j'aimerais bien t'aider a ensegner ta classe. keep in touch!


 * I'm more familiar with Voltaire, Robespierre, and Mirabeau, but I would also include Moliere, he's pretty important in 18th century French literature...more like the French equivalent of William Shakespeare, but it's reallly neat from what i've seen so far, and hopefully next time I'll have a little more time to get a better glance.


 * Look forward to workin with you as well, but hopefully after winter break, I'll have lots more free time. You can email me at francolucien @ ymail .com
 * --Jfrankc08 16:57, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
 * salut!