I am half-sick of shadows, said the Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse, 1916.
Hello! I'm Shoebox -- on account of living in a really tiny apartment when I got my first Net connexion, basically. Friends call me Shoe. Fortyish female Canadian semipro writer (ie. real-world admin assistant), inclined to be iconoclastic but doesn't actually bite. Adores cats, chocolate, comedy and history, is fascinated by the fine arts and natural world, makes something of a hobby of classic children's literature, and is just generally a regular browser of the Unusual Articles list.
My Wikiediting philosophy is pretty simple and, I suspect, not unusual: I want to ensure subjects I care about get the best possible representation on the Net's premiere information source...
...well, OK, there's also the "solemn vow to seek out and destroy bad prose wherever it may lurk" thing. Picture a very impressive blood oath ceremony, except with red ink.
So I've mostly just been roaming gnomishly around, helping to buff up any articles of interest I might encounter... until my particular affection for the Horrible Histories TV-verse (somehow...) led me to help raise the parent article to FA status and entirely rewrite the episode list. Before I knew it, I'd also created the articles for the starring cast's new series Yonderland and upcoming film Bill. And significantly contributed to articles for castmember Mathew Baynton and his own major TV project, The Wrong Mans.
Clearly there was no going back, and the next step forward seemed obvious. In March 2014, I graduated as a certified Good Article reviewer under mentor Figureskatingfan. I hope thus to continue to contribute as an active, effective force for article improvement.
Am also cuddling and petting the Bill and Yonderland articles along, with an eye towards possibly someday earning a Four Award. (Never mind the snickering, everyone needs a dream.)
Meanwhile, while on a recent self-imposed break from entertainment/media articles, spent a bit of time on a thorough copyedit of the article on the Birman domestic cat breed. Enjoyed the experience so much I officially joined WikiProject Cats and am currently sorting through the rest of the breed articles to see if I can be of any similar help. Further articles thus (hopefully) improved so far include:
For your sterling work on Horrible Histories. Thanks Span (talk) 00:06, 21 December 2013 (UTC)
The Copyeditor's Barnstar
For your awesome scrutiny and copyediting in Impala. No doubt, you have made a marvel out of it! You really went to the depths of the article! Your lessons will be a profound help to me later on. Congrats, and Good luck for your "WikiJourney"! Sainsf<^>Talk all words 07:52, 27 March 2014 (UTC)
cats' horrible histories
Thank you, editor adoring cats, chocolate and comedy, for quality articles such as Horrible Histories, for copy-editing (smaller and bigger cats) and reviewing, for your "solemn vow to seek out and destroy bad prose wherever it may lurk" and putting things in place, - you are an awesome Wikipedian!
--Gerda Arendt (talk) 11:04, 16 April 2014 (UTC)
