Ask Trutharchivist (Basically) Anything!

[Trutharchivist]

So, at first I didn't want to make one of those, among other things because: a. Asking questions seemed to be something I'm good at, but I'm not sure about answering them, and b. The FAQs of AMAs seemed too generic to me, and I doubt I'd get any other questions; I'm not the most active or well-known sharder, to say the least. Most of my threads die pretty quickly.

Now, I wasn't sure what exactly I had against the "generic" questions, as I dubbed them. I still don't completely know, but I think that part of the reason is that those question don't do what I assumed they were meant to do: they didn't initiate discussions. And then I thought, what will initiate discussion? And, as I wrote in the Ask ANYONE Anything thread, I think that "why" questions do that far better. So, ask away. even if you won't ask why, I will try my best to tell you why anyway. You may begin.

[Lego Mistborn]

Who is your favorite active sharder with Kaladin in their username that must start with a t?

[Robin Sedai]

Cats or dogs?

Which mod do you find the most approachable, and why?

Favourite colour?

What's your preferred web browser?

British spelling, American spelling, or a mixture of the two?

Which Sharders do you most enjoy interacting with?

Edited April 8, 2022 by Robin Sedai
added a question

[Trutharchivist]

9 hours ago, Ta'veren Kaladin said:

Who is your favorite active sharder with Kaladin in their username that must start with a t?

None. I don't have favorites in that area, since I don't really know many Sharders like that. 

I'm sorry, but I didn't interact with you enough to just give the obvious answer. Though your username is interesting - I didn't read all of WoT, but I know what Ta'veren means. There is some interesting resemblance between Radiants and Channelers - the first signs for both are extremely good luck. My answer may change with time, or if you change the "have Kaladin in their name" to "have a strong connection to the name Kaladin" (in the latter case, it'd probably be Tesh. I interacted with her quite a lot, and she owns a budgie named Kaladin).

2 hours ago, Robin Sedai said:

Cats or dogs?

Which mod do you find the most approachable, and why?

Favourite colour?

What's your preferred web browser?

British spelling, American spelling, or a mixture of the two?

Which Sharders do you most enjoy interacting with?

Cats. I have somewhat of a phobia of dogs - not a really strong one, but it's there. One of the reasons us that when I was a little boy, I was chased by wild dogs near my house. They scare me. I was rarely ever attacked by cats - they are far less territorial than dogs in that respect - and they're usually cute. Well, kind of.

Which mod is the most approachable? I rarely ever (read: never) approach mods, at least in relation to them being mods. I never had the opportunity to, or the need to. Anyway, if I needed I'd probably go for Ene. When I lurked here I saw her activity before she became a mod, and she stroke me as a very nice person. Everything I saw from her since just reinforced it. I don't really get the people who found her intimidating, really.

Favourite color... Hmm... A hard question, that. Lately it seems to be violet or purple, because I see this colour as magical, somehow. There are some areas of my life that for me, give off an aura of purple/violet for some reason. Mostly things related to mystery and things like that. I find that fascinating. The mystery, the wonder in the world, unending depths... That's the feeling this color gives me, and that is why I like it.

Preferred web browser? Chrome. This is the one I use now, and they'll block me if I say otherwise. Joking aside, I usually use Chrome, because it's comfortable, works well, and because of the dinosaur game. I'm relatively good at it, I think - my highest score is around 4800. I sometimes use Firefox, and never use explorer or any Microsoft-related browser - they're the devil's company (something I picked from my father). I don't use those because I rarely use Windows, and because I remember that explorer had a reputation for being slow.

British spelling? American spelling? I can never really remember which is which. I spell things the way I remember as the right spelling, and correct if it seems wrong. I'm probably using a weird mixture of both. The reason, obviously, is that I don't remember which is which usually, and the reason to that is... Umm... Probably that I don't really care that much. I care about spelling correctly, but not about spelling correctly according to some specific kind of spelling. As long as the spelling is right somewhere, I'm fine with it, thank you.

Which Sharders I most enjoy interacting with? A hard question, and a somewhat dangerous one. This, along with your second question and Ta'veren's question, asks me to compare people to each other and choose s favorite. Such things usually lead to envy (not that anyone would care about my opinions, I'm just speaking generally), and in a way, I might hurt you if I don't include you. I don't regret my answer to Ta'veren - when you rig your question, you deserve such an answer. I'm not sure about my answer to your second question. There are many mods, and I actually read posts of only a handful of them. Still, the question was about approachableness for me, so the answer stands. No one will care much.

Part of the reason I dragged of that speech is because I'm not sure that I have an answer, so going on about how the question isn't fair is far easier than trying to answer. Also, I ignored the fact that all your questions were about favorites and comparisons. Anyway, to actually answer your question: 

A. Knight of Iron, JesterLavorre and Tesh (and Salad too, I guess). It was very fun to work with them on world building the LGFaD world, really. Knight was our Realmatic theorist, Jester and I invented a weird Realm of ideas that Knight couldn't quite get, and Tesh and Salad worked in the dragon department. Because DRAGONS. Also, Salad was our unofficial meme maker, and I'm honored by that fact.

B. Channel knight Fadran, Condensation, Random Bystander, Kingsdaughter... In short, the people I RPd with. Most of them, if not all, are amazing people, and I'm sad that we didn't get to continue any of the RPs. I'm only on relatively dead RPs, nowadays. Also, the people who were in my crew. Thank you for bothering to join. (Many are in both this group and the previous one already, but some, like Counselor and Bearer, aren't. They're nice people, too.)

C. Ixthos, Nathrang, and others I got to discuss religion with. I guess you, Robin, can enter this group too. It's interesting to do so. Silva is kind if in this group, too, but she belongs more to the next one, probably, which is:

D. Discord! People I mostly interacted with through Discord, including Truthshaper, Fritz (partly... Not much interaction), Silva, and many more. Really, it was a pleasure.

Also, I guess there are a lot more I enjoyed interacting with that I forgot to write. Chances are they belong to one if those four groups, but those who aren't also exist. Can't say I have any one specific favorite. So there's your answer, I guess.

Thank you for reading, and have a good day/night/other!

Also, yep. This post is long enough to get the standard signature. Oh dear.

Edited April 8, 2022 by Trutharchivist

[Robin Sedai]

13 minutes ago, Trutharchivist said:

and in a way, I might hurt you if I don't include you.

Oh, I'm not! We haven't interacted nearly enough for me to stand out to you.

6 minutes ago, Trutharchivist said:

Also, I ignored the fact that all your questions were about favorites and comparisons.

You're not ignoring it now

Huh, that is true. I hadn't noticed that till you pointed it out. I guess that's what my mind defaults to when thinking of questions to ask.

All very interesting answers. Thank you!

[Lego Mistborn]

2 hours ago, Trutharchivist said:

None. I don't have favorites in that area, since I don't really know many Sharders like that. 

I'm sorry, but I didn't interact with you enough to just give the obvious answer. Though your username is interesting - I didn't read all of WoT, but I know what Ta'veren means. There is some interesting resemblance between Radiants and Channelers - the first signs for both are extremely good luck. My answer may change with time, or if you change the "have Kaladin in their name" to "have a strong connection to the name Kaladin" (in the latter case, it'd probably be Tesh. I interacted with her quite a lot, and she owns a budgie named Kaladin).

Worth a shot. I actually haven't finished yet either, because I'm busy, but I'm working on it.

[The Wandering Wizard]

1. What is your favorite part of history?

2. What is your favorite kind of science?

[Trutharchivist]

44 minutes ago, The Wandering Wizard said:

1. What is your favorite part of history?

That, quite frankly, is a good question. Which is what I usually say when I don't have an answer. Lately, I find myself busy with the period about two to three centuries ago, give or take, so that's a period I take interest in. Generally, the beginning of the modern era. Those were times of change and new things for Europe, which is what we learn about in schools. I'm also somewhat romanticizing the middle ages, but admittedly, this was a horrible time to be a Jew at. And so, the beginning of the modern era it is!

51 minutes ago, The Wandering Wizard said:

2. What is your favorite kind of science?

You go for the hard ones, don't you... I learned physics in high school, and don't know much chemistry or biology. Not interested in them too much either. I enjoy mathematics, partially due to the fact that given all of the axiomes and enough time, anyone can solve every problem. In theory. I thought so for a time, but realized that the time part is a big problem. And the axiomes might be, too. I'd have gone for social science, but... Well... I'm not sure about that. I don't really intend to learn those for now. I have some mild interest in Linguistics and Anthropology, with an emphasis on the "mild". I don't think I'll fully learn them, but for some reason, ancient, lost cultures are of interest to me. Perhaps because I belong to a nation older than most modern nations. Or that just a weird part of who I am.

[Trutharchivist]

Alright. For no particular reason, I decided to double post and revive this thread using my necromancy abilities! Please try to ask me questions. Two simple points before we continue:

1. Think before posting a "favorite ______" question. No matter how it's phrased, if a questions asks me to compare two or more things and choose a favorite, please try to consider how important this question is. You should think about every question that, but favorites can be a sensitive topic.

2. Expect long answers and explanations on why I answered the way I did. It's in the OP, but hey, no reason to not restate it!

So go ahead, ask me some questions!

[Lego Mistborn]

What aspect of Christianity that is not in Judaism do you find most curious (This can mean straight up interesting, strange to you, what sounds cool to you, whatever you interpret it as)

[Trutharchivist]

First, I'd like to mention that my knowledge of Christianity is somewhat limited by the fact I lived all my life among Jews, in a Jewish education system. What it means is that the first things I learned about Christianity were more stereotypes, though I slowly learned more in history and by talking to people here. And possibly a bit by reading stuff on the Internet.

Now, the differences I find curious... Hmm... An interesting point will be the way Christianity ignores most of the Torah's commandments, yet in the middle ages, some specific ones were taken as "but that should be kept". I really don't know much about this point, but to my knowledge, Paul declared that in order to be a Christian you don't need to be a Jew or circumvent. Plus, there are 613 commandments in the Pentateuch (what we call the Torah, usually), and most of them aren't really much kept in Christianity, from what I know, but witches were burned, because the bible says so! And people nowadays talk against homosexuality, because the bible forbids to man to be together like this! But, there are quite a lot of other commandments in the bible Christianity just ignores. It's forbidden to eat ham, or everything that comes from the sea that doesn't have both fins and scales, or blood. It is required to sit in a Sukah for seven days. Deuteronomy is full of references to "the place that G-d will choose" and what should be done there, but I never heard of Christians trying to work in that direction. That's not necessarily what I find most curious, though, just one point.

Also, viewing Jesus as G-d is kind of weird. In Judaism, G-d has no body nor the likes of one, and is ultimately One with no second. The whole trinity stuff... I don't know.

But here's an interesting point I thought of lately, relating to my first one: to my understanding (correct me if I'm wrong. Maybe I should tag @Ixthos for that...), Paul said that gentiles don't have to convert to Judaism to be followers of Jesus. Does that not mean that if Jews convert to Christianity, they're still obliged to the original rules of Judaism? Because throughout history, Jewish converts abandoned all practices of Judaism in favour of Christianity.

My answer isn't very well organized, sorry. Hope I didn't come off as attacking anyone - generally I'm in for religious discussion, there are threads for that though and we can elaborate more there.

[Ixthos]

I have been summoned! 

([Editing this post down a lot - I turned my reply into a bit of an essay! Keeping only the relevant bits)

 

On 8/27/2022 at 7:32 PM, Trutharchivist said:

But here's an interesting point I thought of lately, relating to my first one: to my understanding (correct me if I'm wrong. Maybe I should tag @Ixthos for that...), Paul said that gentiles don't have to convert to Judaism to be followers of Jesus. Does that not mean that if Jews convert to Christianity, they're still obliged to the original rules of Judaism? Because throughout history, Jewish converts abandoned all practices of Judaism in favour of Christianity.

My answer isn't very well organized, sorry. Hope I didn't come off as attacking anyone - generally I'm in for religious discussion, there are threads for that though and we can elaborate more there.

There is certainly a lot that can be said on this topic  I actually have a book given to me on my birthday a few years back I need to get back to reading but it covered a lot of the general beliefs of Messianic Jews. I'm also friends with one Messianic Jewess in particular, so I'll ask her more directly on this soon, but I believe scripture is fairly clear on this, and the general gist I've gotten on this from those I know in person and those I've heard about and from, but basically a Jewish Christian is still a Jew and still lives the life of a Jew, but one who has seen the fulfilment of the promise and is awaiting Yeshua's return, and so they see both the value of the traditions but also understands how they apply to Yeshua and what He has done and fulfilled, and so they still in general - as all people are different, but these are general practises - keep Kosher, honour the Shabbat, and circumcise their males at the appropriate time after birth, but don't require this of their believing Gentile Brothers and Sisters. Others may try to push them one way or another - there are Gentle Christians who feel Jews need to become Gentiles now, a deeply flawed ironic reversal, and one just as false as Paul's opponents' claims - but either way in Christ we are all one, but being one doesn't make us identical, and Jews are free to be Jews, and Gentiles free to be Gentiles, but all are still the Church, which must be made of both - and the Jewish people are by no means removed from the LORD's plans.

(There is a lot more to say on this, and this post has already become rather long, mainly because I rambled on a semi-relevant section at the start, but I'll end this section with one particular note - I personally don't think all the interpretations of Kosher laws are actually being applied correctly and may actually be being applied overzealously, but ultimately this, as Paul noted, is a matter of conscience, as is honouring one day in the week or all days. I do think that cheese and meat should be fine to eat together though - if Abraham offered them together to G-d when He visited, it probably is fine for us to eat too )

Edited August 29, 2022 by Ixthos

[Trutharchivist]

Hey, so... This exists! You can ask me stuff, I suppose. You can even ask things that promote elaborate discussions like tge one above! Only, maybe going to a PM over the "long" part is a good idea.

Which just reminds me I still didn't answer Ixthos... I'll get to that eventually!

Anyway, ask away! The OP has some stuff about preferences for questions.

[Trutharchivist]

It probably interests no one, but it never hurts to try! And I refuse to start a new thread. So, if you have questions - I'm willing to answer them, as an Israeli religious Jew who likes to elaborate in his answers.

 

(Yeah, I did have to say that! Thank you for asking.)

[Lego Mistborn]

Are you staying safe over there? If I understand, the fighting is mostly moved out of Israel, but still.

[Trutharchivist]

Thank you for asking.

"Staying safe" is a rather vague notion. I'm not intentionally endangering myself, if that's what it means. I do still have some connection to the IDF and can be called to serve, but I'm not in the fighting forces either way. Instead, I find myself lately having to deal with... Those who did not come back from the battles, let us put it this way.

I do think I'm doing my best to stay safe, though it's not my only priority currently. And the fighting wasn't really in Israel except for the first day, when the attack came - at least, to my understanding.