Hello! My name is Andy. I live in Louisville, Kentucky, was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, and also lived for about 6 years in Buffalo, New York where I went to Canisius College. I am an artist, a "knowledge buff," and a future history teacher. I imagine that's what spurred me to start editing here at Wikipedia... the idea that I could learn a lot, while also contributing in my areas of expertise. Anyway, that's the short version! See below for the "more interesting" stuff.

Background

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Some information on me, that you may better understand what has led me to the various positions I hold.

Idiosyncracies

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  • In case you couldn't tell by now, I am an unabashed geek. I enjoy RenFaires, I study Viking runes and Sindarin Elvish, and my DVDs and comic books are alphabatized. I went in costume to 2 Harry Potter midnight release parties, the first time as Sirius Black and the second time as Severus Snape.
  • I have been known to utter the exclamations "great googly-moogly" and "sweet sassy-molassy."
  • I can be shy in person, but I treasure good conversation. I truly value the friend with whom I can talk for hours about any number of topics.
  • I am not particularly into sports, but I do like baseball, especially the Cleveland Indians. A guilty pleasure of mine is professional wrestling, but I prefer it as an art form, a la Ring of Honor, rather than a specatacle, a la WWE.
  • I hate hate and do not tolerate intolerance. I have no patience for groups like the Ku Klux Klan or neo-Nazis.
  • There is nothing wrong with cultural or national pride, but xenophobia and knee-jerk patriotism have got to stop. I consider myself first and foremost a citizen of the world. I believe that we, meaning humankind, need to embrace our similarities and celebrate our differences. Remember, variety is the spice of life! There are so many things we can learn from each other, if we just give people a chance.
  • I have gotten more involved in politics lately, both domestic and international. I am Liberal, to the surprise of no one. In my opinion, the world is sort of a scary place to live right now, as there are a lot of unbalanced world leaders in power, as well as sweeping changes occuring in many countries. I keep a close eye on dictators, as I absolutely abhor their human rights violations (a big reason why they are my favorite subjects for caricature). Some of the scariest people in power on the planet, in my humble opinion, include Hugo Chávez, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Robert Mugabe, and Bashar Assad.
  • I despise book burning, as well as these modern-day witch hunts that televangelists seem to always be on. If you actually believe that the Harry Potter books are a vehicle for Satan, I think you need to calm down. And while you're at it, leave the homosexuals alone.
  • While I love lots of different kinds of music, I especially appreciate music with thoughtful lyrics. There are far too many great lyricists to list here, but chances are, you will find several in the "Quotes" section that follows. In my mind, combining moving music with poetic and thoughtful lyrics is a talent on loan from God. Along those lines, I believe that Bruce Springsteen is the Poet Laureate of the American working class. All of that said, crappy lyrics still have their place; I do have a soft spot for AC/DC after all.
  • Having never had an inaccurate reading, I believe in the divinatory properties of Tarot cards. I also love the artwork on these cards, and I am currently designing my own deck.
  • I love the guitar as used in all types of music, but in my mind, it is put to its best use in progressive rock and power metal (which is no surprise, given that those are my favorite musical genres). John Petrucci, Alex Lifeson, Herman Li, Yngwie Malmsteen, et al, are minor deities in my opinion. As for me, I have been practicing heavily to improve my shredding, and hope to be back on stage in a metal band sooner than later. I have gotten good at alternate picking, but my sweep picking still needs work. Until I have mastered that, my arpeggios will be mediocre at best.
  • I love the women of heavy metal: Cristina Scabbia, Sharon Den Adel, Simone Simons, Amanda Somerville, Floor Jansen, Anette Olzon, Liv Kristine, Tarja Turunen, et al.
  • Caricature is my favorite art form, both to create and to view. Some of my favorite caricaturists include David Levine, Al Hirschfeld, Bill Plympton, Mort Drucker, and Sam Viviano.
  • There are several words that I want to come back into the common vernacular. "Swarthy" tops this list. "Chicanery", "fisticuffs", and "tchotchke" are not far behind. "Defenestrate" is a another great one, but hard to really use in everyday life. "Houdafrey" is a great word that isn't actually real. So is "doofosery." I suppose they are neologisms.

Quotes and maxims

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From the thoughtful to the absurd:

  • ”The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.” - Brennan Manning
  • "Semper ubi sub ubi." - traditional Latin joke
  • “You show me a communist and I will show you someone who will be upset if I eat his sandwich. You show me an anarchist and I will show you someone who calls the cops when he finds me rooting through his closet at 3am. You show me an atheist and I will show you someone begging for God's forgiveness when they taste their own mortality.” - J. P. Chilensky
  • "Better the pride that resides in a citizen of the world, than the pride that divides when a colorful rag is unfurled." - Neil Peart, from the Rush song Territories
  • "[On being Jewish in the American South] All the parents see you as is a jew; I'm a jewish kid. I'm like a f—king alien to them, you know, I'm a freak...so If I slept over a friend's house, I'd always have to deal with these questions in the morning, like, you know, Mom coming in going <southern accent> "David, I'm so sorry to have to ask you this, I'm so sorry, um...I'm fixing to make breakfast for everybody and I certainly wanna include you...and I'm just having some questions I was hoping you could answer...do y'alls people eat oatmeal?" What? yeah. Is there something in the Torah that says we shouldn't eat oatmeal? "No, it's just that I don't know much about y'alls people, that's all, I just don't know--I know y'all hate Jesus! I know y'all hate Jesus, that much I do know...aand, I know y'alls have seven jew bankers that control the world's money supply, right? In a bunker somewhere about a mile into the earth's core? Is that right? Yeah? And y'all do dances in the woods, y'all wear cloaks and do secret services and burn potions and whatnots, and y'all have horns--that's all I know about y'alls people!" - David Cross

Wikipedia stuff

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What Wikipedia is...

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Contributions

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This editor is an
Apprentice Editor
and is entitled to display this Service Badge.

I spend a lot of my time as a WikiGnome, adjusting grammar and fixing typographical errors. When I sit down to really contribute, though, I spend a lot of time on Music pages. I love History pages, but they are generally pretty good and don't usually require a lot of attention. Music pages, on the other hand, can be all over the spectrum with regard to quality, so I try my best to "standardize" their look, whatever that means. Most of my music work is done on Power Metal and Musica Latina pages (a crazy combination, I know). I am also a very active member of WikiProject Metal in an effort to assess and improve the quality of metal articles.

Articles that I've contributed to (as more than a WikiGnome):

Others

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Heritage

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North American travels

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Spent years:

     

Days to Months:

                                       

Hours:

   

Idea and layout hijacked from User:MARussellPESE, who took it from User:jpgordon, who borrowed it from User:Calton, who appropriated it from User:Salsb, who stole it from User:Guettarda who borrowed it from User:White Cat

Eventual world travels

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Having thus far only traveled in the USA and Canada, the following is a list (more or less in order) of the countries I would eventually like to visit:
                                 

All rights released to all text
I agree to release all rights, unless otherwise stated, to all my text contributions to the English Wikipedia, enabling anyone to use them for any purpose. Please be aware that other contributors might not do the same, so if you want to use my contributions under free use terms, please check the Multi-licensing guide.