Butiki

Hello John. My regards to Lut if I may call her by her name..and I am so happy that the tiktiki story was appreciated....and don't worry about inappropriate content...we just remove them and their so called spottings, ruthlessly. So, these days the guys are adding those as comments ...and comments run a high chance of escaping detection. That is why users have to be vigilant...thank you for patrolling your page so well. Rangers don't have areas...so a country is not assigned to anyone ...we just need to see the offending post. Take care and I look forward to seeing lots more spottings.

Good morning Sukanya,
apologies for not answering your last two comments, yesterday evening. I saw some notifications on my screen just as I was closing down for the night, but being rather tired, I did not check to see who the messages were from. Anyway, regarding your second from last comment, I had no idea that you had closed down the nasty comments, I just assumed it was Mark. I could see that they originated from India and that such things would normally come under your jurisdiction, but I couldn't bring myself to ask for your help, because of the content. You also mentioned that you dealt with "the earlier ones". I had no idea that there were any earlier ones and I am so sorry that you have to deal with such vulgarity. I owe you a huge debt of gratitude for everything you have done, not just for me, but for Project Noah and all that it stands for. Now, as you said in your last comment, "on a lighter note", what a wonderful story about the ancestral Butiki. I would like to just add a little more. When I showed your comment to my wife, this morning she said "How interesting, that's just like us, isn't it". I asked what she meant and she was surprised that I did not know. "Butiki" is the Tagalog (Filippine national language) name for this little house Gecko. My wife's local dialect is "Zambal" (we live in the province of Zambales). In Zambal, the Butiki is called "Tiki", just like it is in Bengali. In all our almost 40 years of marriage, I have been calling it "Butiki", trying to be correct and thinking that the local people were just taking a short cut. No one ever pointed out my mistake. But the most important part of your story is that now Lut (my wife) and I know how to tell if somebody is telling fibs. Thank you again, Sukanya. Best Regards from us both. John B. and Lut.

OH and on a lighter note, in Bengal (the part of India where I live) Butiki is called Tik-tiki because of the sound it means. And if it makes the Tik Tik sound as we say something, we knock thrice saying Theek-Theek-Theek...meaning Correct-Correct-Correct and it means you have spoken the truth. it is believed an ancestral Butiki swallowed the severed tongue of a female astrologer called Khona...because her pronouncements were more accurate than those of her father-in law ...so patriarchy frowned and she " sacrificed" her disobedient tongue that dared to be better! So poor Butiki cannot keep quiet when it hears truth spoken and called out!!!

Dear John,
I did see the comments and yours...and I took them out; like I did the earlier ones too. Any ranger would have done that; even without your comments. That is part of our duties. I am sorry, I hadnot realized the red cross will not work the same way for Rangers and users...I had used it many times for my own comments and kind of assumed...Sorry.
I am also SORRY that your numbering issue has not been resolved but my Ranger powers do not extend to being able to resolve issues like this one. I fear I have reached the far end of my powers by bringing the issue to light-I think that it may be a computer thing that may or maynot be easily-resolvable. I would request you to Please continue using your Noteboook/computer records...who know one day we may be able to match it against PN's records and catch the duplication.

Thanks again, Mark. I appreciate all the help you have given me, especially with identifications etc., but this latest one was just awful. I didn't like it and I certainly didn't want to burden you with it. Best, John B.

Good evening Sukanya,
thank you for joining my conversation with Mark. First, let me say that I hope you did not see the three "comments" before Mark deleted them. They were obscenities and I could not let my wife or anyone else here in the house look at them. I have used the little red cross in the corner of the comment box, one time when I realised that something I had said might be misunderstood and then I replaced the comment with an explanation. It seemed to have worked just fine, but I am certain (as Mark just explained) that it is only possible to delete one's own comments, unless you are a ranger. It is obviously important that rangers can step in and put a stop to any bad behaviour which my take place. However, if I might change the subject, I would like to update you regarding my problem with Project Noah's tally of my spottings always being one more than the correct total. As it stands this evening, I have posted a total of 724 spottings, but PN shows 725 Wildlife Spottings. I really do not like making a fuss about such a small problem, but it has become a major inconvenience for me. At my age (old age is a good excuse), I tend to be forgetful and the old grey matter isn't quite so sharp. So, I like to write things down. When I started with Project Noah, I knew that I might get in a muddle if I did not organise myself properly. So, I started a notebook in which I listed all my spottings in numerical order (not PN's numbers which appear to be random), but a simple numbering system starting at #1 and I have now reached #724. The notebook has expanded to several volumes and somewhere along the road, it proved to be inadequate. So, I copied everything into my laptop, and then included the picture numbers and dates for each spotting etc., etc. So, I was able to find any spotting very quickly by name, number date, category and so on...but now my numbers don't make any sense and I am in the muddle I was trying to avoid because somewhere, something caused PN's total to be in disagreement with mine. I have now abandoned my record keeping, but hope to rehabilitate it when PN's tally agrees with mine. Of course, you will have realised back at the beginning of this rather long and rambling comment that head office of PN have not yet fixed the problem. I am now concerned that I may have made some awful mistake which caused all this, but I am also slightly upset that your rapid reaction and efforts to help, back at the beginning, have not yet borne fruit. I feel that I could never burden you with such problems again, but I am sure that you know how much I appreciate the urgent attention you gave to this situation. I place no blame or complaints on anyone. I am sure that there is some perfectly valid reason for the delay. Enough of this, I have taken far too much of your time already. Thank you for all your help and I will let you know what happens. Best Regards, John B.

Thanks Mark, for deleting all of these abhorrent "comments". I fully understand why the ability to control comments (between PN members) is restricted to rangers and I'm fine with that. I look forward to the changes which you mentioned. Thanks again. Regards, John B.

Also John please don't feel bad at all if you need to call on a ranger to help. We are always very glad to help.

Sorry JohnB but one user cannot control another here unless they have ranger status. Unfortunately active rangers are few and far between at the moment and of course
- we can't be watching all the time
- a crime must be committed before we can act.
There should be some worthwhile changes to Project Noah coming in the not-to-distant future though.
In the meantime you can still notify us indirectly via comments.

To: Mark Ridgeway,
Good Afternoon Mark,
Here I am again with yet another problem - sorry. Please delete, for me, the three nasty and inappropriate comments from a fake PN member on this spotting. Also, if you can find a moment can you please let me know if there is anyway that ordinary members, like me, can delete this kind of stuff. I find it quite unacceptable. I know that it is probably impossible to prevent these people from setting up accounts, but I really don't want this vulgarity to appear on my computer and I hate having to ask for help everytime it happens. I look forward to hearing from you. Apologies and Best regards, John B.

Yes the scar looks like ours here where some are lucky and some not so. I was surprised to read somewhere that the 'new' tails are not the same as the originals.. no bones or something?
The spider is also one we have here so ID was easy.
It's like permanent winter here.. more like Macquarie Island weather and it looks like La Nina is trying for a third season. I guess cold isn't much of a consideration for those in las Filipinas.. just other minor events like typhoons, volcanoes, another Marcos etc ;-) Hope things are all good with you.

Hi Mark, just to confirm you were, of course right. This Butiki has a new tail. My 2014 picture shows a tail with no scar tissue. So no replacement tail there and my harebrained idea goes in the trash can. Sorry. John B.

Hi again Mark. your two comments on the Butiki just arrived while I was answering you about the spider. I like your splat idea. The "new tail" was my first reaction also, but I'm not so sure. I didn't mention it in my spotting to give myself a little more time to research. I have a feeling that this species always looks like that (the other Butiki, Hemidactylus frenatus only has the "join" showing when it really has just grown a new tail. I saw a Gehyra mutilata in Francis Floe's collection and it has the "join" and I am pretty sure I have one from 2014 that also has it. I intend to dig out the old one this evening and have a look at some more on the internet just to square it away. Thanks again. John B.

..looks like this one has already dropped one tail at least.

Nice notes John.
They also make a certain sound when they fall flat from the ceiling to the floor. Maybe they could also be called 'splat'