Wikipedia

Kilyle

Joined 2 January 2006

On the TV Tropes wiki, they came up with this definition for Wikipedia:

Giant website that seeks to be the repository for all the world's knowledge. Spends much of its time hosting arguments about what qualifies as "knowledge".

I think they pretty much pegged it.

Language Skillz

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I'm debating what to do about the many other languages I've studied...I may add them as 0 entries, because for most of them I know the grammar but don't have enough vocabulary to hold significant conversations. This gives me the ability to take up the language later, but also to parse through texts as long as I have access to a dictionary. This is especially the case with Portugese, which I can basically read without ever having studied--because I have studied Spanish, Italian, French, and Esperanto.

As of this date, I am working on Finnish, Russian, and Spanish... not fast, but at least focused on those three. I found a Finnish version of Final Fantasy VI on BitTorrent, so now I play that in Spanish for a bit and then replay the same section in Finnish and hope to grasp some of the vocabulary and/or grammatical constructions. Do check that torrent out, because there are a lot of languages available for FFIV and FFVI (and some of the non-English releases as well).

Furthermore, I conlang, and I consider it anything but a waste of time.

Math and Programming

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In college I memorized Pi thus far:

3.14159 265358 979323 846264 338327 950 288 419716 939937 510 5820

...using which scheme I wrote a poem, which unfortunately did not make it into the Vibrations art publication at the college.

Nowadays, I've regressed, and can only quote it to the first zero (which is fine, because that's the point at which every single digit has been used at least once). I'm debating about memorizing E next.

Oh, and I know the logs from one to ten, can work out in my head other logs (albeit not quickly), and am trying to get my mom to memorize the first ten, of which she already has the 301-602-903 pattern down. Go Mom!

I could really use a template for my specific math style: I add (and subtract and multiply) in chunks, rearranging bits of numbers in my head, e.g.:

836 + 782 + 3651 + 134 = 3000, plus 800+800+650+100 (1600+750 (2000+350)), leaving 36+1+34 with a deficit of 18...

...so 5350 plus 60+10+1 still deficient by 18, so 5400 plus 21 minus 18, or 5403.

Oh, and that 800+800+650+100 is more like "8,8,6 1/2,1" with the understanding that they're of a certain unit (100 in this case).

Similarly, I subtract largest to smallest:

8297 - 2376 = 8000 - 2000 (6000) plus 300, minus 3, minus 376, so the 300's cancel, leaving negative 76+3, or 79, thus 6000 minus 79, thus 5900 plus (100-79), or 21: 5921.

And yes, I'm out of practice, so I do check myself, but I'm usually right, and when I'm wrong it's usually in the smaller units, not the largest, or I'm off by 1 in the largest unit. On the most complex problems, I sometimes lose track of units, which makes for larger problems...I need to get back in practice.

I started way back in GW-Basic when I was like 10, went thru Q-Basic, finally encountered Visual Basic, and then had to go to college classes just to figure out how to deal with the minor details, after which point VB became insanely easy and familiar. I'm a little less practiced in C++.

I also program in GML for Game Maker, which is very pleasant to use, and I'm planning to learn the language behind RPG Toolkit.

Reading

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Oh, and I read manga in the original Japanese. I also prefer subs and reject dubs, except in the case of Shinesman, which has an amazingly comedic dub version.

As soon as I figure out how to make templates, I'm gonna make one (or more) for positions on Snape. It's looking rather remote by this point, but it's still possible to explain his actions--still possible that he is loyal to the side of good. And whatever his allegiance, my enjoyment of the final book will be significantly focused on learning more about him and the explanations for his involvement in the previous books. ETA: Yeah, should probably update this section by now. Heh.

Since I'm trying to make these darned userboxes move into a more sensible formation, let's see if I can't inflate this text section a little. Here's a list of books I would recommend that you consider reading (mostly Young Adult, because even though I'm almost 30 with two college degrees and highly above-average reading skills, I still enjoy YA books better than most Adult books).

  • Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
  • This Time of Darkness by H. M. Hoover; also, Away Is a Strange Place to Be
  • Invitation to the Game by Monica Hughes; also, Space Trap
  • The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm by Nancy Farmer
  • Village of the Vampire Cat by Lensey Namioka (actually, any of her ronin books, and this isn't the first, either... but don't read White Serpent Castle first 'cuz it sadly brings out a major character point that I enjoyed better after really getting to know Zenta)
  • All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor (who by the way has an award named for him that celebrates Jewish literature)
  • The Good Master by Kate Seredy
  • The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde (quite the tearjerker... and probably the only story of his that has anything like a happy ending)

And for a few classics:

  • The Three Musketeers... unabridged. I can't tell you how many times I read this as a child.
  • Little Men... why in the world do people make this a footnote to Little Women? I never grow tired of reading about the boys... especially Demi and Dan. I am incensed whenever a new movie version rewrites Mr. Bhaer's lines during the "Dan's come back" section and makes out like he never said "This proves to me that we have a hold on his heart... I would no more turn him away now than I would my own Rob."
  • Freckles... yeah, its Aesop is a bit outdated ("You're a good man I can marry because now I've proven that you have good parents!"), and its heroine is a definite Mary Sue, but really, it's a fun read with colorful characters and a powerful sense of the feel of a huge, weighty, and dangerous forest bursting with color and life and unexpected treasures.
  • Les Miserables... sweet. Also, goes on beyond the ending of the movie.
  • Watership Down. It's about rabbits. They go on a grand adventure. They pass many perils and finally settle down into a peaceful new home, beginning to enjoy their newfound era of unequaled prosperity. They then realize that they brought no women along, and have to head out to correct that problem.
    • Go read it... seriously, just go read it. And if you find the first couple of chapters boring or confusing, just keep slogging through it, because I had to pick the book up dozens of times before I got into the action, and now it's one of my favorite stories of all time.

Games

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So many games...and I'm working on crafting my own games, too, though I haven't gotten very far yet. Actually working on a card game at present... five suits, twelve rank cards and three face cards apiece. Used for storytelling. Programming a computer version has proved far more extensive than I expected (take 75 possible cards, times two states (upright or reversed), times the card they're playing against (e.g., Hero vs. Villain) which also has 150 possible settings, times possibly a Setting card between them... it gets big fast). On the up side, this proves that my deck is properly equipped to dish out a huge number of possible plots and character relationships, so it's looking good. Of course, the dreaded Procrastinatron is rearing its ugly head, so who knows how far I'll get before I move on to another project? Hrm.

Miscellaneous Interests

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By the way, don't forget to check out the site TV Tropes. It's excellent, both for writers and for lovers of stories and story elements. You can find it at TVTropes.org so get over there and get clicking!

Contribution

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My contribution to Wikipedia? Expect to see:

  • Correction of Spelling
  • Correction of Punctuation

I am very good at both of these, and I do not expect to make many if any mistakes in these areas.

  • Correction of Grammar or English Usage

I shall try not to be pedantic (and shall do my best to refrain from switching "different than" to "different from" even though it bugs me). Due in large part to learning Japanese, I am very good at spotting subjects and objects, and noticing when they get mixed up, or when the subject changes (a recent example: "Tall, stocky, and losing his hair, Charles was born...").

I do not expect to make many grammatical errors, and if I do make an error, I would love to be notified about it on my talk page (since it's an opportunity to learn!).

  • Correction of Wiki Code
  • Correction of Links

I'm learning to use Wiki; I'm a pretty quick study, but still, expect some errors. Several times now, I have edited code, only to realize that I used the code incorrectly myself; this is the most common explanation for various double and triple edits I've made.

  • Correction of Factual Errors

Not as likely, but here and there I can help, especially in an area I am very familiar with. These are likely to be very small errors, nothing ground-shaking. Some grammatical errors fall under here, for example when an inappropriate conjunction leads to a factually incorrect sentence.

  • Improvement to Style

I hate reading long paragraphs. The net is made for skimming, not scanning (or poring), and long chunks of text make my eyes glaze over (even though I am an inveterate reader). Hence, I will break long paragraphs into shorter paragraphs or lists, or split the information up into smaller sections. I much prefer sensible segmenting to long alphabetic lists, since it's easier to deal with large amounts of data in small connected segments (e.g. instead of an alphabetical list of city mottos, try breaking them up by state).

Info on Me

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I am (first) very busy and (second) fairly new to Wiki. Hope to update once I figure out what the heck I'm doing.

Kilyle

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