NOTE: This page is an archive of a former user page and should no longer be maintained. Do not edit it!
Arkyan is the screen name of a casual Wikipedia user. In real life he is an unassuming and generally average sort of person. You know, the quiet, boring sort.
History edit
I was born on January 05, 1978 in Phoenix, Arizona. The next roughly 19 years would be spent living in Phoenix and the immediate vicinity. My life was relatively mundane and unobtrusive, doing well in my studies throughout both elementary and high school. It was during this time that I developed a keen interest in both writing and astronomy. During high school I took my first class in computer programming, finding I had quite a talent for it.
After graduation in 1996 I attended Brigham Young University on an academic scholarship for two semesters before going to Paraguay on November 27, 1997. During that time I lived in several locations in Paraguay, both rural and urban, learning to speak Spanish as well as some Portuguese and Guarani. Currently I retain a useful fluency in Spanish only.
My life since returning to the United States on September 09, 1999 has been chatotic at best. Unable to resume college-level academic studies due to lack of sufficient funds, I have worked in varying positions such as credit card collections, exam proctoring and airport security. I have also lived in or near: San Jose, California; Detroit, Michigan; and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Due to the relative transient nature of my address it is senseless to try and say where I live at any given moment, although I still consider Phoenix to be my home.
About Me edit
I don't do well with these "All About Me" kinds of things but I'll give it something of a shot. I consider myself a fairly average sort of person, relatively quiet and introverted but friendly. I come from a large, religious family which has certainly influenced my outlook on life. However, I am far from religious myself and have anything but a large family. In fact I have no children and tend to prefer it that way. I am also unapologetically homosexual bisexual tired of labels :) People shouldn't have to be judged on what they are rather than who they are.
I currently fancy myself something of a writer, and have been working on an extensive fantasy novel that I hope to someday publish. Up to this point however, I have not had anything published beyond the scope of a winning entry in a school-level writing contest. I still consider astronomy to be a big interest, and hope to get into some amateur astrophotography at some near point in the future. I am also interested in airplanes and flying, and one of my goals is to learn to fly someday. Additionally I enjoy anything computer related, most especially hardware, and on a somewhat related note am also fascinated by automobiles and the mechanics involved. I have a craving for speed, and plan to someday waste some of my money on a way too fast motorcycle.
I also love the outdoors, hiking and camping and the like, when I get a chance.
And, of course, I'm addicted to Wikipedia.
Wiki Involvement edit
I was introduced to Wikipedia some time ago, and since that time I have used it as my first and primary source of encyclopedic information online. I learned that Wikipedia was built by its users and continues to grow though user-generated information, and made my first contribution by writing the Pah-Ute County article. Unfortunately I did not have a user account at the time and thus only was recorded by my IP. My first contribution after getting a user account was to help clean up the [[Paran%E1_River]] article on October 16, 2004, and the first article written by me being [[Luis_Mar%EDa_Arga%F1a]] three days later.
I've tried to keep my contributions to the Wikipedia varied and useful. I had begun a small project of updating information on stars listed on the List of Brightest Stars page, especially by cleaning up some of the more needy articles as well as supplying data for templates in others. Sadly I have not contributed to this much of late.
I have also done some work on various mythological topics from both the Guarani and Mayan cultures.
My participation has been a little less consistent as of late, and the below sections are somewhat out of date.
Pages I have started edit
Not including new redirects I made, only articles that I actually put some content into. Decided to do away with the dates because the list was getting bulky, but new additions are listed first.
- Sipapu Natural Bridge, Aloba Arch, La Santisima Trinidad de Parana, Storm warning, Magnetosheath, Salt River Project, Buckskin Gulch, Lake Pleasant Regional Park, Daykeeper, Wrather Arch, Blood Moon, Ao Ao, Jasy Jaterei, Tau, Kurupi, Intercontinental Peace Bridge, Draconity, [[Luis_Mar%EDa_Arga%F1a]], Pah-Ute_County,_Arizona
Pages I have made major edits to edit
I've decided to be a little picky with what I put here. Only going to include articles which I either made mass revisions to the whole thing or added significant content. In no particular order, either.
- [[Paricut%EDn]], List of brightest stars, Pombero, Zipacna, Xibalba, Hunahpu, Guarani mythology, Xmucane, Parana River, River Paraguay
- Numerous star articles I shan't list here, as that list will be continually growing!
Please see my contributions page for the full list.
Thoughts on Votes for Deletion edit
I have lately been keeping something of an eye on the VfD page, so I'm going to put up a little blurb regarding my stance there. Currently I am declining to declare myself either an inclusionist or a deletionist (although based on my track record on VfD I seem to lean toward the latter) but I do think certain standards for what belongs on Wikipedia and what does not need to be decided upon and adhered to. I am of the school of thought that while every good and useful article deserves a chance, Wikipedia should not be a giant electronic repository for every scrap of information that ever existed. There are plenty of places on the Internet appropriate for such things as small-time bands, product advertisment and fact tables about every primary and secondary school around, but Wikipedia is not one of them. The reason I cannot side with the inclusionists is because while I agree that "Wiki is not paper", I do not think that this equates to "Anything factual stays". Just because a useless article does not consume significant resources does not make it useful. A bar needs to be set and maintained for what ought to stay in order that Wikipedia does not degrade into a mishmash of useless articles and lose its value as a repository of useful, factual, and free information.