User:Toniskids

Greetings, fellow Wikipedians!

I just realized a few days ago that I have absolutely nothing on my User page. So, I thought I would add a few items of interest for any of you who have felt the surge of curiosity to click onto this page.

Demographics. I am an American. I live in the western suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, and have lived in the Midwest/Great Lakes region (of the USA) for most of my life. I am married and am in the thirty-something age group. The first half of my Wiki username, Toni (female type), is also my first name. It's rather unusual (as a girl's name) - just like me.

Introduction. I LOVE Wikipedia. I have been absolutely entranced with it ever since I discovered it about 4 years or so ago. In those early days, I never dared to think that I would actually create or edit Wikipedia pages. After all, the articles I read here were clearly written by seasoned experts on the subjects - what contributions could I possibly have to offer?

Catalyst to Action. Needless to say, the site has grown by leaps and bounds since then. I began discovering pages that were badly written, poorly sourced, had false information, and worst of all, articles that were directly plagiarized from other websites. So I decided that, in certain cases, it was time to do something about it.

Clarification. I do not generally initiate new pages. (Got "burned" the first time I tried, when hours of typing and editing an article resulted in near-instant deletion by an administrator.) Mainly, I enhance existing articles, add references, and correct information I know to be wrong (and can cite the source information to back it up). This means that I usually stick to the subjects that I know. These Topics include:

Food. Probably my favorite subject. Cooking, chefs, classic recipes, diets, ingredients, and TV chefs and their shows. Knowledge of edible plants - fruits and vegetables - and how to grow, choose, and cook them.
Vegetarianism. I have been a vegetarian (ranging from lacto-ovo to vegan) for over 20 years, and have learned quite a bit about both the practice and the philosophy behind it.
Genealogy, and genealogical research methods in the U.S., Britain, and several Western Europen countries. This includes major study on certain surnames and their histories in a particular country or geographical area.
Music. I enjoy both classic rock of the 1960s and 1970s and classical music, among other types. I also sing, compose and play several musical instruments.
History and geography, especially British. I also know a fair amount about selected American and British cities, towns, and villages, particularly those where my ancestors have lived.
Foreign languages. I have varying degrees of fluency in German, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Japanese, and Latin, and so I may add Chinese or Japanese characters or Cyrillic (Russian alphabet) spellings to an item even if I am otherwise not familiar with the subject.
Linguistics. I majored in Linguistics and the Chinese language in college. From time to time I like to try to get some use out of that expensive education, since it certainly isn't terribly helpful in obtaining a job. ;-)

Closing: I will add other topics and remarks as they become pertinent. Now, enough about me - let's get back to learning on Wiki!!! :-) Toniskids (talk) 21:37, 4 October 2008 (UTC)