User:StoneColdCrazy
| Warning! | This user once kissed a girl, but his doctor said he would be fine. |
| Danger! | This user is borderline incompetent and frequently has to re-edit pages he has just altered. |
| Oh no! | Basically, this user doesn't have a clue, and spent ages just trying to get this table right. |
Contents |
Hello!
| Wikipedia:Babel | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|||||||||
| Search user languages | |||||||||
Hello. Hi. How're you doing? Fancy that, me too. I have a talk page that I never really check, but that's all right as it's not really used. It can be found here, just under the TV Licence paperwork and the wigs. If you do leave anything there it'll literally be years before I notice, so my apologies since I don't log into or edit Wikipedia much any more and this page is usually forgotten about.
[edit] "Stone what?"
For anyone brimming with curiosity about just who (and quite what) I am, I was born Paul Dean on February 12th 1980, on the same day as my favourite actress, in Surrey, England, at the same hospital as a certain member of the Royal Family, with the same name as a certain Canadian rock star with dodgy hair (the name is also shared by a baseball player, a British MP and a dermatologist). If it matters to you, as it doesn't much to me, I am roughly one quarter Scottish, or even Irish-Scots, and perhaps three quarters English, although a family tree investigation soon reveals large hints of Welsh too. Since 2001 I vaguely remember being a freelance journalist and writer covering computer and video games, film history and a few other things for a variety of magazines, websites and broadsheet newspapers. I'm a Philosophy graduate and still spend most of my time reading, writing, analysing and researching whilst also being severely fiscally challenged. My dissertation, was on Simone de Beauvoir and, since a young age, I have always had strong feelings about topics such as women's rights, gender equality and so forth. I think sexism is ridiculous.
|
I have used the handle Stone Cold Crazy/StoneColdCrazy/SCC or whatever since first joining the Internet in 1998. The nickname refers to a song written by the band Queen, which you can find on the album Sheer Heart Attack. Sometimes it has morphed itself into various different forms (such as CrazyColdStone), although more recently I have been known to use my nickname Pollicino for some account names. Now you can go and find me doing all kinds of stuff across the internet, which is fine, as I was fairly conscious of internet privacy, even as a teenager back in the mid 90s, so I know most of what I've put out there.
I'm not really sure how to describe myself and certainly can't get around to saying everything that I want to or feel I should. I am an idealistic, bookish writer type and so dream about composing stories and spend my spare time thinking about characters and narration and lessons learnt, and how I could shoehorn all of the things I know and that I want to say (and perhaps even teach/advise people) into a fantasy novel. I spend altogether too much time putting together situations and stories and speeches in my mind. Writing matters so much to me, as it's what I do all the time, it's all I can ever really do, it's all I ever really want to do, the fundamental building block of my life. I never cease to wonder about how good books are written and what it is that has enabled people to make life and the world more wonderful with their work. I am amazed by art. Sometimes I tell people my ambition in life is simply to create something beautiful.
I have lots of interests, which are listed below. I also like to eat pizza, watch people walk their dogs, browse dusty old shops and stay up until the sun rises. I might possibly be responsible for some of the more unusual noises that have graced the world.
I forget why I came to Wikipedia originally, but I noticed there was no page about John Cazale and I couldn't leave without first doing something about this terrible injustice. My first edit was made on 14 July 2004 and I signed up mere moments after. My masochistic tendencies have always seen me produce vast bodies of work for absolutely no money at all and since I seem to write either to earn money, to relax or just to express myself, this seems to be yet another way for me to gush forth the many words that daily threaten to burst my head open from the inside. However, growing bureaucracy and administrative guff have largely turned me off Wikipedia, so I hardly ever contribute any more. Regardless, I still think the site represents an astonishing, amazing achievement and as I believe in free knowledge and free education, Wikipedia is still something I am enthusiastic about. The notion of information provided, for free, for anyone, anywhere to refer to or learn from is something that, I feel, reflects the best we can offer. To be able to contribute in even the tiniest of ways to this endeavor is surely significant.
[edit] News
I've no real interest in keeping a news section here any more. I attended London Metropolitan University to study Philosophy, under the tutelage of such minds as Dr Rodney Pickering and Kate Soper. It was, in a word, hard, but then I have set high standards for myself. The content of the course was pretty mind-boggling, but I like being challenged both conceptually and ethically. I think everyone should study Philosophy, at least to some extent. At degree level, though, it can be extremely challenging. London Metropolitan employed me and then burped me out after a while, during which it had its share of controversy and financial disaster. None of that was my fault. I think.
I'm presently living in London, near Tottenham, no longer in a freezing, overpriced bin of a basement, no longer in a wonderful, quiet and well-maintained house, but now in a half-decent flat. I may still be a dude from Circumstances, but changing living arrangements and life events appear to have mitigated this somewhat. I used to do volunteer work, but this hasn't happened in some time.
[edit] Penny
Dogs are the most wonderful pets. I have uploaded one of my many images of my favourite photography subject now that I will no longer be able to take pictures of her. Penny was a rescue dog who became a member of our family for five and a half years. I urge everyone to take the best possible care of their pets, because you will reap the rewards tenfold. Animal abuse is a very real problem, and it manifests itself in negligence and irresponsibility, as well as physical abuse; far too many people do not know how to properly treat or look after the animals they keep. Make sure you give your pets the love, care and attention that they deserve.
[edit] Wikipedia...
| I think |
 |
| is a wonder of the modern world. |
...is quite special. Seriously, I think Wikipedia is the finest that the internet has to offer. It's a superb resource, literally a fountain of knowledge and one of humanity's finest collaborative undertakings. As far as I'm concerned, it's probably one of the wonders of the modern world. I used to get very passionate about it and the potential it had, not that it hasn't already achieved a great deal, though I'm a little more restrained in my attitude now. I did have here a list of some of my work on Wikipedia but, to be honest, my contribution is the tinest slice of what is present and I did not come here to blow my own trumpet (much). If you really want to see what I've done, rifle through my drawers here.
If you think Wikipedia is wonderful too, feel free to add this simple, tacky logo I've made to your profile. In fact, if somebody could make it into a template or somesuch for me, I'd be very grateful. I'm too scared (and incompetent) to do so myself, since I'm not sure it's a valid reason to create a brand new template from scratch.
[edit] What's that, you want to contribute to Wikipedia?
Wikipedia's encouragement to its readers to be bold really is sound advice. Be active, be brave and get involved, because Wikipedia's success is down to proactive, passionate people making an effort. You don't have to research topics and edit pages, as Wikipedia also needs its contributors to watch for vandalism, to debate on topics such as article mergers or deletions, to fix broken links, to translate articles, to provide photographs or images and to do many, many other tasks.
Whatever interests you, do not be afraid to contribute and to take action. Not sure if an article should or shouldn't be nominated for deletion? Have a go anyway, as it will get people discussing the issue and perhaps improve the piece or re-work it to affirm its validity. Confused about the factual accuracy of a piece? Raise the issue on a talk page. Wikipedia works because people are proactive and they make an effort. Sometimes contributors are wrong about something, sometimes their work needs improving and sometimes sections of Wikipedia are downright shoddy, but nothing will progress if we do not try and if we do not persist. Don't be scared, either of being ridiculed, of being mired in administrative quicksand or of having your contribution instantly removed, destroyed or ignored, because nothing will come of nothing. It is better to try than not to.
When you contribute to Wikipedia, be aware that all your work will be freely available to anyone and everyone, as well as open to editing, re-writes or perhaps even reshaping beyond any recognition. Wikipedia is not for egocentrics or control freaks* and you should be ready not to take modification of your work personally. Indeed, you can even learn from it. If you're happy to be part of what is possibly the world's most remarkable collaborative endeavor and content to give it the benefit of some of your time and your skills, then please do hop on board.
- Although, saying this, don't be surprised if people do want to aggressively replace your content with their own, be that paragraphs, pictures, tables etc, even if there seems to be no need to replace one item with another. It will happen to you at some point. Again, you must be ready to accept that these things do happen.
[edit] A few of my interests
- The irony inherent in the sentence "This user can help out at an advanced level of Simple English."
- And before you mention it, of course I'm stringent with professional grammar. How can you be professional and not stringent?
- Movies, new and old (especially Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Network, Ringu, This Is Spinal Tap and Buffalo '66), among many others.
- Philosophy, including some of Hume, Descartes, Foucault and Wittgenstein, as well as a little feminism. Bertrand Russell is fun.
- Role-playing games, tabletop or electronic.
- Anne Frank.
- Photography, my Flickr account can be found here.
- The Internet, its culture, expansion, sociology, anthropology and... well, all of it.
- Consolevania and Videogaiden. Lovely.
- Sharks.
- Playing the drums and guitar. I have recently started (re-)learning piano and discovered I know more about it than I first thought.
- Conspiracy theories, regardless of the fact most are rubbish.
- History, especially 20th century history.
- Chris Morris.
- Edinburgh.
- Reading and writing, both factual and fiction, though this should be obvious for a Wikipedian. My favourite author is the sadly missed Kurt Vonnegut and a few of my favourite books include Slaughterhouse Five, Dubliners, Snow Crash, V for Vendetta, Breakfast of Champions, The Left Hand of Darkness, Ghost in the Shell, Valis and Carl Sagan's Cosmos. Other authors I like include Philip K. Dick, Alan Moore, Borges and Lovecraft. Making a list of everything here would take too long and, boy, would you just look at the time?
- Chinese food.
- Dogs.
- Anything unintentionally (or even intentionally) camp, cheesy or tacky (William Shatner might fit into this category).
- Neon Genesis Evangelion.
- Cute sword-wielding girls.
- The paranormal.
- Le Show.
- Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, Queen and a lot of folk and 'classic' rock music (Although I do find myself listening to many different things, you can find my last.fm page here).
- Roger Taylor, of the above band, Queen.
- Ancient Egypt.
- Travel, I've only visited a handful of other countries so far, though:
- Canada.
- Denmark.
- Estonia.
- Finland.
- France.
- Holland.
- Ireland.
- Italy (and The Vatican City).
- Malta.
- Norway.
- Scotland.
- Sweden.
- Switzerland (oh so briefly...).
- The United States of America.
- Wales.
- The former Yugoslavia (Specifically, Croatia, with a little bit of both Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as a short trip to the then heavily manned border of Albania).
- ...And a whole host of other stuff.
(NB: Any edits from the IP 213.78.15.47 are likely also by myself.)
[edit] Useful links and such
In my toil I often find the following resources lighten the terrible burden I bear, and provide a brief, transient illumination against the overwhelming darkness of being.
