User talk:Vaoverland

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Welcome to my Talk Page. Please use the box above, or manually enter new messages at the end of my page. Normally, I try to check for messages frequently. If you should not get a reply, feel free to ask again, as I sometiomes forget. (I promise not to be offended if you ask me more than once). Vaoverland (talk) 23:48, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedian Vaoverland (aka Mark Fisher)

New talk page, older messages archived

Once again, older messages from my talk page have been moved to an archive. I DO NOT believe in censorship except in extreme cases, such as when someone is using foel language excessively. Generally, I remove No TALK messages even when some show me in a bad light. So, we have a track record in my archive directories of virtually everything that was ever said or done and covered there. Depending upon your perspective, these archive directories collectively are either valuable history, a collection of nonsense, or perhaps a combination of both extremes. Please do not delete, however.

Archive directories

• Message about my admin election are at Archive 1.

• Messages prior to 4/2/2005 are located at Archive 2.

• Messages 4/2/2005 to 8/1/2005 are located at Archive 3.

• Messages 8/2/2005 to 11/1/2005 are located at Archive 4.

• Messages 11/2/2005 to 9/24/2006 are located at Archive 5.

• Messages 9/24/2006 to 12/16/2006 are located at Archive 6.

• Messages 12/17/2006 to 5/27/2007 are located at Archive 7.

• Messages 5/27/2007 to 6/28/2008 are located at Archive 8.

• Messages 6/29/2008 through 6/30/2010 are located at Archive 9.

NOTE: Images: Message from Vaoverland

New Wikipedia policies are causing many images uploaded correctly in this past to be revisited, and many notices to me which imply that I must act. I do not intend to spend time defending most of these, as I think other Wikipedians can do a better job with images, and I prefer to work on content, where I think I have more to contribute. Thanks to anyone who wants to help justify or replace images I uploaded in the past, all of which I feel were done properly copyrights-wise at the time. I am going to delete messages from the bots performing these tasks from my talk archives beginning in July, 2010, as they are cluttering it up. Mark Vaoverland (talk) 08:12, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

My two new articles

Would you be willing to check out my two newest Wikipedia articles? I recently added one for Temperance Flowerdew and a second one for Gideon Macon. Both lived in the 1600s in Virginia.

Fiddle Faddle has suggested that my article for Temperance Flowerdew does not have a neutral tone. I would appreciate it if you could offer any suggestions regarding how I could improve the article with respect to that issue. If you are unable to help me with it, could you recommend someone else who might?

Thanks very much Bskaat (talk) 15:24, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

REPLY posted 7/16/2010 Some comments: I think she was notable enough to have the article. The fact that she is the namesake for a current historical feature alone passes that basic test, IMHO. I like articles that flow chronologically, and you could improve on that. You could use more dates, which also might lead you in the direction I just mentioned. All in all, I think it is fairly neutral in the presentation. I believe that the simple fact is that the English settlers really screwed the Powhatan people, but you haven't done anything to present that unfairly. You can improve the article (I took the liberty of a few minor changes) but it seems well-referenced for the average and better than the average Wikipedia article. Within my personal style, which I think is Wikipedia compliant, I like to italize the first instance (only) that we mention the name of a ship or publication, do not care for extra spaces (such as you have used between paragraphs) and I highly recommend the free and easy ieSpell program which has saved me from spelling errors a bunch of times.

I don't focus on Good or Featured Article goals anymore, so if that is the criteria upon which you have been getting some criticism, I can't help much in those areas. Best wishes. Vaoverland (talk) 00:25, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

George C. Gregory

Hi! What a surprise to find such a wonderful article on my grandfather. All look good except the part about Grandmama returning to CA. Please contact me for the details. Thanks, S. Gregory98.140.59.190 (talk) 01:17, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the kind words. I can only leave you this message here because you aren't registered as a User for Wikipedia and hope that you get it. It would be easier to communicate if you would register. You can do this in a very basic non-intrusive way by just picking an ID for a name, and you don't have disclose any detailed personal information, etc. Once you do that, having your own talk page and retaining it becomes much easier even if you and I were the only ones who ever access it. While I would prefer that, as an alternative, my email is vgn700@aol.com and you can write to me at that address, and be assured I will respect the privacy of any email address you would like to provide me with. May I request that you be sure to put "George C. Gregory" in the subject line so that I can be sure not to accidentally miss it? Also, at least once, edit here and just let me know to watch for an email from you (for the same reason).

I need to know what information is correct and ideally be able to offer a notation a source regarding your grandmother and California, as well as anything else you may wish to correct or have me consider for adding to the article. Because the source of the apparently wrong information about her is not sourced (and it might be me who made that error), I can't advise the source, should it be one where they would like to know (and you would want them to know). We are trying more and more to provide sources, to add to the credibility of Wikipedia. When remove incorrect information, I especially need to be able to provide a source listing for the corrected information source, to maintain that goal/standard. From what little I do know of your grandfather, I can imagine he would have been one of the strongest believers in that concept.

Should you wish to know much about me, this talk page is linked to several Wikipedia user pages so that you can easily read a little more. (zzzzz). Use this link: User:Vaoverland/aboutme.

I know virtually nothing more about the Gregory family than what I dug up and included in the article. They (you?) were no longer residing there when I first moved nearby, and I never heard much, except about the fabled streetcar line to Bon Air and of course, about Father Gregory, who I presume may have been your uncle. I was a Richmonder for many years as well as a city school employee. I knew of his progressive work, for which I for one, am grateful. I recall that he was brave and outspoken when many people were less courageous. I also compiled and presented much of the Wikipedia article on him, as well as your grandfather. [1]

I will share a few personal items not listed there which I suspect you will find interesting. With the hope that these may bring you some memories and enjoyment, I am going to informally write as many names and details as I can recall within a few minutes in this message, and they are mostly about the house and adjacent property, realizing that you may know all of that (assuming my recollections are accurate) and that there is of course, some sadness about the fact that your family had already left the house before I ever moved nearby.

Due to a combination of personal and family health needs and an early retirement from a company business which failed, I now live near Williamsburg and and retired. However, the part that may interest you is that my parents purchased a home and lived virtually within sight of what we all knew as the old Gregory Mansion for many of the years from August 1958 until June 2005. The house was already vacant the first time I saw it which was in the summer of 1958, within a month of my 7th birthday, although someone (a caretaker person I believe) was living in a mobile home that had been placed adjacently to the back left of the main building at that time. Much of the driveway apparently leading to what they later called Hill Drive was intact. A 9 hole (or perhaps par 3) golf course had been the primary use of most of the surrounding land in the years immediately prior to creation of what is known as the Cherokee Estates subdivision. a new road called Turf Lane was cut through the land not too far from the rear of the property and the double driveway was still extant in front, and crossed another new road, now Piney Branch Road, and continued to what became known as Granite Hall Avenue. I am not sure where the double part originally terminated, but at the time of the subdivision, there was still a single lane of gravel driveway (I think this part is still there; it was as recently as 2005) all the way across what is now Rockfalls Road to Hill Drive, where it came out across from the McCray (or McRae?) Estate overlooking the river from a high bluff, then (and still) occupied, and where horses were still maintained as I grew up in the 1960s. Other families whose residency predated the subdivision whose names I believe I can recall include Pearsall (sic, immediately west of the McRaes), the Holts (Dr. Holt and his wife and their famed Pekingese dogs and Shetland ponies, who occupied the big white house overlooking the quarry which is fronts on Rockfalls Road (which may have earlier been called Club Road?), their caretakers, the Greens who lived adjacently (and with whose children I went to school with), the Smiths, who lived in a home set back in the woods behind the Holt place, and the Weavers, who had grown children, were related to the Smiths, and lived in a brick home west of the Smiths and east of the golf course land along what was earlier called Club drive and is now known as Chellowe Road. The Weavers had grown children, and their son, who attended VPI, died in a car wreck, perhaps going to or from Blacksburg, not long after we moved there. The former frame club house building attached to the golf course became part of Southampton Baptist church when it was formed around that time, and remained intact after their first structure was built, only demolished some years later when the church, now known as Bainbridge Southampton Baptist Church, expanded with a larger building.

All of there houses were still in place as of the Google Earth view I looked at not too long ago, which had aerial photography showing a 2007 date. When I was small, although the Gregory home was vacant, it was secured, although we were able to sneak in an explore, and while in need to some restoration at that point, it was still basically intact and had obviously been a lovely home when the family lived there. There was bamboo outside the yard proper on the west and south sides, and probably still is, knowing the propensity of bamboo to persevere once established. It wasn't long before the portion of the double driveway past Piney Branch Road was gone as new homes were built. However, I do know that a few years later, a family (perhaps named Bliss?) had done quite a bit or work to the house itself and was living there.

I wrote a lot of this with the thought that you may be somewhere far away, but would find this type of stuff meaningful. It has been fun to spend 30 minutes and just write it. I know of nowhere that most of the preceding is actually published, not that it would mean much to most folks. The last time I drove past, my recollection is that the Gregory home itself is still being maintained very nicely, as is the much smaller one my parents and I watched being built nearby in that hot summer of 1958. The Gregory home is visible via Google Earth at approximately coordinates 37 33 04 67 N, 77 31 47 64 W. I could still see the remaining portion of the circular drive in front when I checked it a few minutes ago. I suspect some update Google photos won't be too long in coming; they recently updated the area where I live now and there as of the 2010 version, are a lot more and better photos from the circa 2007 ones.

I hope you have good memories and that I will hear from you. Of course, as you probably know, you can edit Wikipedia yourself, but also, I would enjoy and be honored to improve the article about your grandfather.

With my best wishes,

Mark Fisher, Williamsburg, VA

Summer 2010 USRD newsletter

Volume 3, Issue 2 • Summer 2010 • About the Newsletter
Departments Assessment roundup News in brief	Features Infobox road upgrade Editing needed near bottom of leaderboard Junction list updates	State and national updates Project reports
Archives • Newsroom • Full Issue • Shortcut: WP:USRD/NEWS

— JCbot (talk) 02:16, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

Portal

Hello, User:Kerem 233 is it new creation ; Portal:Trucks to be useful ? I have french version to page fr:Portail:Camion Is my creator. you welcome. --FrankyLeRoutier (talk) 20:27, 2 September 2010 (UTC)

Happy Vaoverland's Day!

User:Vaoverland has been identified as an Awesome Wikipedian, and therefore, I've officially declared today as Vaoverland's day! For being such a beautiful person and great Wikipedian, enjoy being the Star of the day, dear Vaoverland! Peace, Rlevse 00:09, 14 September 2010 (UTC) A record of your Day will always be kept here.

For a userbox you can add to your userbox page, see User:Rlevse/Today/Happy Me Day! and my own userpage for a sample of how to use it. — Rlevse • Talk • 00:09, 14 September 2010 (UTC)