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© Copyright 1999, Jim Loy
All sorts of people write to me, about these WWW pages. Most are complimentary. Many say that they have bookmarked my pages. Some say that they and I have a lot in common. Hm. Oh, I guess they mean that they and I have similar interests. Some say that my pages are their favorite site. This kind of thing keeps me going. I have to admit that I thrive on praise.
A few people have thanked me for providing exactly the information that they were looking for. It still amazes me that they were able to find the appropriate article. Many people ask for more information. Most of these involve looking up the info in a dictionary or encyclopedia. I have been known to retype an entire page of an encyclopedia, for these people. Hey, glad I could help. Maybe they don't have any encyclopedias in the town where they live.
My Egyptology Pages, My Bridge Software Review, My Checkers Pages, My Mathematics Pages, and My Science Pages attract lots and lots of email. My Egyptology pages seem to be my most popular pages.
A surprisingly large number of messages (3 or 4 a year) come from people asking me to design Egyptian hieroglyphic tatoos, for them. One of them wanted "his and hers" tatoos, for a wedding. I don't like tatoos. They always come out ugly and permanent, in my opinion. So I have been reluctant to help these people, just pointing them to the appropriate pages in my Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary.
I received email, just a few days after I uploaded my article on Taking Square Roots, from a person who had been frustrated because a programming language that he was using did not have a square root function. He searched the Internet for such a function, and found it above.
I even wrote an article about Owl Pellets. And I received two emails asking where to buy owl pellets. I recently received a catolog from Delta Education, which offered sterilized, individually wrapped owl pellets.
If a person writes to me about my WWW pages, I may consider it a "letter to the editor" (depending on the content), and may publish it (without the name of the sender unless permission was granted to give the name). My article Is Checkers Solved? was the result of email concerning a comment I made that despite what many chess players think, checkers is not solved, and no computer can play perfect checkers. The reader told me not to say things like this without proof. When I published his email, he wrote back telling me not to quote him. He complained that I was quoting him out of context. On the contrary, I quoted his and my email in full (but without the repetitious requoting of previous email that clutters up email). I compromised, by not giving his name.
Here is an amusing email message (concerning Did We Land Men On The Moon?):
"Men never went on the moon! It can fool people 40 years ago or people who understands nothing about physics(like you sir) but it can't fool me!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Quadrilateral With Two Nonadjacent Right Angles, in my Mathematics pages, is the result of a question that someone sent me by email. So is Do You Want To Be An Egyptologist?
Addendum #1:
Here is some recent email:
why are you a geek?
ben
I asked what that was about. Here is the response:
well your page, look at it, nothing personal k? i don't want you to hate me or not hang out with me any more o.k. well anyways i gotta go, ben
Another (entitled "you suck"):
dear,?
I just looked through web page and its not bad.please stop putting to much information .its making me mad
From:!
Kids. Gotta love 'em.
Some people type in all capital letters. This is known as SHOUTING, and is considered obnoxious. This email is a little obnoxious too. Maybe enough question marks turn a declarative sentence into a question?:
yeah i just want 2 say that y in all yer stuff about egypt u dont have any thing about tombs or parymids ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???please fix yer stuff and add it in and rite me back thanx bye ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????
At least, that one said "please." Some people are very demanding, beginning with "Send me everything you have on..." or "Send me a book on..." or do this or do that.
A very small portion of my email is abusive. See Abusive Email (rated R).
Addendum #2:
Here is an email (after a friendly email calling my Egyptology pages "outstanding") from a gentleman named Ted:
I get the distinct impression you are a self-serving, arrogant ass. How wrong am I? To be honest, I was being polite. Your web site is not all that good. You could improve it by looking at some other, well-designed sites.
I informed him that his assessment of me is right on the money, but that my WWW pages are mostly very good.
Another person sent me email, in all caps (LIKE THIS). I responded, and informed him that typing in caps is called shouting. He responded:
TYPING IN ALL CAPS IS ALSO CALLED BEING ABLE TO READ WHAT YOU WRITE. IF IT'S ALSO SHOUTING, COVER YOUR EARS.
A little touchy, there.
Also see Some Entertaining Email in my Pseudoscience pages.
Addendum #3:
Here is some cheerfully constructive email:
you don't really have anything better to do in your life do you? than make a cruddy website that nobody cares about
what is the point in complaining about something that you are'nt gonna do nething about
loser
I assume the last line is meant to be a comment, not a signature. I prefer the following email:
Just a note of thanks for the entertainment your site has given me ! Absolutely fantastic!
Trouble is, I'm off work recovering from a hernia operation from last Thursday, and your sense of humour just cracks me up and that really hurts!
Your skill in conveying ideas is remarkable - your language is clear and simple and that is so refreshing. And your subject matter is fascinating. I've learned so much about things which I didn't even know I wanted to learn about. Now I do. So I'll keep on reading your site!
Thanks mate,
Here is another pat on the back:
Hello!
I just wanted to thank you for your excellent pages about Egypt. I am very interested of Egypt and your pages gave me so much more information about it. I would love to be egyptologist but I live in Finland and we don?t have education in here. But now I know (thanks to you) were to contact. Your pages did really inspire me a lot and hopefully someday I will be an egyptologist.
I didn't fool this girl:
Your a dope!