User:Lar

I recognize that this user page belongs to the Wikipedia project and not to me personally. As such, I recognize that I am expected to respectfully abide by community standards as to the presentation and content of this page, and that if I do not like these guidelines, I am welcome either to engage in reasonable discussion about it, to publish my material elsewhere, or to leave the project.

Hi! My real name is Larry Pieniazek and I am probably not notable. I like LEGO(r) Brand building elements.

Outside interests Avocations I'm a LEGO community activist, I guess you could say, getting involved in lots of LEGO related projects... some might say more to the detriment of the project than the benefit! Lately I've been involved in BrickWiki a MediaWiki based wiki concerned with LEGO, LEGO fans, and LEGO creations. My personal website is Milton Train Works. (yes I realise that the WP:MoS says LEGO isn't to be written in all caps. I'll do my articles that way, but this is my user page!!! Deal!) I'm a gamer. Board games, computer games, fusball. I like trains. Real ones, and models (especially LEGO ones) I like cars. At one time we had 8 in our family but we're doing better now. I like planes. Always wanted to get a license, don't have one, but am always willing to spring for gas or rental if you'll take me up in yours. I like music. Especially live music. All kinds but especially blues, rock, classical, and things that mix one or more of those together.

Contact info Email via WP mail link AOL LarryPieniazek (IM only. Not a mail address. Rarely on.) MSN larrypieniazek(at)hotmail(dot)com (IM only. Not a mail address. Rarely on.) Yahoo Larry_Pieniazek (IM only. Not a mail address. Rarely on.) Stolen from User:Kelly Martin

Vocation Professionally I am a System architect, working on data and application integration projects and I travel for work a lot (most of the states and countries below are due to work related travel). I live in Michigan with a wife, 2 kids, 0-2 exchange students depending on season, 4 cats, 1 dog, 3 cars and a horse that doesn't live with us. Beliefs I believe in WP:NPOV so these beliefs are listed so you know how I feel about stuff and (VERY IMPORTANT) you should call me on any editing that looks like I'm POV pushing!!!! Seriously. Please do if you see it. Mostly I edit technical stuff so hopefully it's not that big an issue, but if you see it, call me on it. Politically I'm a libertarian, or a freedom advocate. I come out in the far upper right on the Nolan Chart almost to anarchy. I don't think government is good socially for much of anything except protecting our individual liberties. I've belonged to the ACLU on and off for years. Economically I'm a libertarian too, or a free market capitalist if you prefer. I don't think goverment is good economically for much of anything except protecting people from fraud and theft and suchlike. I'm pro choice on *everything*. Legalise everything and expect people to do the right thing, or suffer the consequences. I'm an atheist, or at best a very skeptical agnostic. Personally I think religions as a whole have done more harm than good, overall, to society since we've been civilised. I oppose any sort of state imposition of a particular religion, but if you want to have one, by all means, be my guest. Just don't impose your views on me and mine. Wikipedia I'm a Wikipedia novice apprentice journeyman administrator, with only a few a few hundred less than just over two three four five thousand edits to my credit, mostly typos I spotted and WP related advocacy in Wikiproject space, but I have created a few articles here and there. I think Wikipedia is great but it can take up a LOT of time so I've held back. (ha!) I am an inclusionist but not enough to join an association. User:Karmafist identified me as a metawikipedian. He's probably right. I may (see above) have a bit of editcountitis (d'ya think??). When I get too proud of my edits, I need to go look at WP:1000 Some comments: Feel free to mail me with comments or concerns, my mail link should work. One annoying habit I have, I forget to hit preview before save, or preview, but miss some typo causing multiple edits. I hate that! If you need access to a Wikipedia article that has been deleted, ask me. If it's not a copyright violation, libel, or personal information, and has not been deleted as a suspected biographies of living persons violation, I will userfy the article for you. Note that using the text to recreate any deleted article may automatically qualify them for speedy deletion, and copies of previously deleted content that are being used solely for long-term archival purposes may be subject to deletion because Wikipedia is not a free web host. We have a list of alternative sites which may be used to host your content. Projects Maybe too many projects to do right by any? Awards What a pathetic little collection! Less than serious department I award you this amphibian with fins for working so hard to get rid of the strange things on Wikipedia. —pschemp 00:18, 5 March 2006 (UTC) Barnstars department No barnstars directly to me yet but maybe this one counts? The Minor Barnstar For taking time to vote in a Request for Adminship, it's a minor thing that helps keep this site ticking. Oh, and yes, it passed :) Tawker 06:14, 10 April 2006 (UTC) Bragging about various things This is probably too long... I do go on at length when bragging... Articles I am proud of having had a hand in David_B._Steinman Niagara Cantilever Bridge Svinesund Bridge Articles I created that I'm officially proud of! Several of my articles have been selected for Did you know? To read more about them, see: User:Lar/DYK Articles I created that I am not sure I am proud of yet, but for which I have high hopes (DYK's get their own section, none of these are DYK articles) Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge (made public 21:28, 19 December 2005) Poughkeepsie Bridge (made public 22:30, 19 December 2005) Redridge Steel Dam (made public 01:50, 23 December 2005) Theodore Cooper (made public 23:14, 24 January 2006) Articles which may never amount to much more than they are now but which are fine for what they are Peach Drop (Atlanta, Georgia) (made public 10:45, 13 December 2005) Goofs because I can't spell User:Lar/Industrial_Archeology There is a perfectly fine Industrial Archaeology article out there which I missed... think I merged it all in now. SuperSTUBS I am working on that might be articles some day Bridges & related User:Lar/Merritt-Chapman & Scott key demolition/salvage/underwater construction company. (now in mainspace and nomed for DYK... we'll see) Buildings People George Gaylord (maybe.. not sure he's notable enough) Sites User:Lar/Domai.com ... :If Aaron doesn't get to it first! Images I have uploaded (Some taken by me, some found, and since I'm using special:contributions, some are just wording/license tweaks on images by others... should I build a gallery? Message me if you care one way or the other) en.wikipedia: special contributions image list page Commons: special contributions image list page Useful Links and notes Guides, tools and essays Guides, References, and Examples Wikipedia:Merging and moving pages It's actually not that hard but following the recipe means it gets done right. MediaWiki User's Guide: Using tables because I just can't remember table sytax Template talk:Ref How to do footnotes (better example than at Wikipedia:footnote, actually as it explains multiple cites). {{Geolinks-US-streetscale|47.147291|-88.763180}} Geolinks code for the map references {{Infobox Conditionals}} all kinds of conditionals, using {{qif}} and Wikipedia:hiddenStructure {{TestTemplates}} A big list of Templates for dealing with vandalism. Wikipedia:Template messages/General a BIGGER list of templates. Wikipedia:Categorization The ins and outs of categories Wikipedia:Blank maps maps to mark up (for when TIGER can't do what you need) Wikipedia:Welcome templates for when you want something a little different. Wikipedia:IRC channels Guide to IRC channels Category:Wikipedia image help covers: making better images, seeking permission and loads of other stuff Help:Magic words Magic words (like subst:, msg: etc)... Tools Wikipedia:Tools/Navigation popups The popup page, popups are one of the greatest things since sliced bread User:Titoxd/Flcelloguy's Tool A good tool for evaluating contributions of candidates for things. needs clientside install Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-12-26/Wiki tools A shedful of good tools User:Trilobite/Tools Need to enhance my .js with this stuff... a BUNCH of good javascript stuff, like add a purge tab!!! (much already added) Wikipedia:WikiProject User scripts cool script stuff that needs looking at Interiot's contribution tree walker (already pointing to me) Interiot's edit counter (has distribution info, looks like based on Kate's tool) (already pointing to me) User:Dragons flight/AFD summary for statistics geeks, policy wonks, Deletionist Scum, people with grudges against articles, and those noble, heroic or angelic inclusionists out there (all 3 of you), this tool is for you. Here it is embedded, courtesy of User:Dragons flight. :-) Requests for adminship and bureaucratship update No current discussions. Recent RfAs, recent RfBs: (successful, unsuccessful) Thought Provoking Essays and Neat Links User:CatherineMunro#Why am I here? CatherineMunro is an old hand. Her essay on what participation means to her is thought provoking and very well written. There's something in it for just about every conscientious editor. User:Geogre Geogre and I seem to be on the opposite side of just about everything we've both been involved in. But this is good stuff. The section dealing with how one should vote in AfDs is really well put, and the musings on article quality and why no article is better than an inadequate article seem very apt. I need to remember to reread these every so often. The Wikipedia Creed User:Essjay/Neutrality Not sure anyone could be that neutral but worth striving for! User:Essjay/Rules also thought provoking! Don't whinge, fix it yourself (something I could do to remember more often) User:Karmafist/wikiphilosophies a bit more "cynical" but pragmatic view of how stuff gets done... Meta:Academic standards disease this is a counterpoint to the stance I've been taking that experts should be shown deference or at least given the benefit of the doubt by default. User:Vaoverland Just an enjoyable read. Lots of little tidbits on how to be a better Wikipedian and interesting background facts about stuff he's worked on. I hope if I ever get as prolific as he is, that this page is half as good. User:Anthere/Values "For any article you vote to delete, vote one to keep, or improve one which is on the border of being thrown in the bin." Wikipedia:Xiong's stats Some fascinating analysis of number of edits/articles/sizes/growths and the correlations among them... not sure what it all means but it seems significant. More as I find them. but I'm lazy, so feel free to suggest some! Cool stuff THIS IS AN ENCYCLOPEDIA One gateway to the wide garden of knowledge, where lies The deep rock of our past, in which we must delve the well of our future, The clear water we must leave untainted for those who come after us, The fertile earth, in which truth may grow in bright places, tended by many hands, And the broad fall of sunshine, warming our first steps toward knowing how much we do not know. Catherine Munro inspired by This is a printing office, by Beatrice Warde Picture of the day The acorn woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus) is a bird in the woodpecker family, Picidae. It is found across Central America, as well as the western United States and parts of Colombia. A medium-sized bird, it has a length of around 20 cm and is mostly black, and adult males have a red cap starting at the forehead and females a black area between the forehead and the cap. As their name implies, acorn woodpeckers are heavily dependent on acorns for food, which they store in small holes that they drill into trees, known as "granaries" or "storage trees". This acorn woodpecker was photographed in the grounds of California State University, Chico, United States.Photograph credit: Frank Schulenburg Tip of the day... Using templates Templates are a type of page that contain boilerplate text that is intended to be displayed on more than one page in Wikipedia. This Tip of the day box is an example of a template (there are several versions actually), and besides being displayed here it is displayed on many userpages as well. Template names start with the prefix "Template:" followed by the page name. The main version of the template you are reading right now is called "Template:totd". To display a template on a page, go to the target page, click "edit", and add the template's name (with or without the prefix) surrounded by double curly brackets to the page's source text. (The text you see in the edit box when you click edit this page is called "source text", because it is a lot like programming code, which is called "source code"). Including a template on a page in this way is called "transclusion". Here's an example: To include the Template:Philosophy topics, type this at the end of the philosophy article you wish to place it on:: {{Philosophy topics}} Prior tip – Tips library – Next tip Read more: Help:Template   Become a Wikipedia tipster To add this auto-updating template to your user page, use {{totd}} Neat and silly things States and countries I have visited All my userboxes Silly things people have given me (feel free to add more...)

<div style="font-size:120%; font-weight:bold; width:px;">Rouge-o-meter

Green: Stickler for the rules.

Vandalisms: 1st