User:Antandrus

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View from Gaviota Peak, southeast into Santa Barbara Channel; my house should be visible to the upper left, but it  only takes up about a thousandth of a pixel.

Gaylor Lakes, Yosemite National Park; another place I like to go sometimes. You can't see my house from here.

Discovered Wikipedia in early 2004, and  began editing pretty much immediately. it  was one of the first places I had ever found on the Internet that didn't feel like a waste of time. I've been here now going on three years, and  I'm still writing. It's fun. Some people don't understand, but then I don't understand why anyone would want to sit for hours in front of a television, either.

More than you want to know about me

Ph.D. in music composition; undergraduate majors in both music and  geology; seven years of teaching students (undergrad and  graduate) in music theory, music history, orchestration, ear-training, sight-singing, composition, counterpoint, repertoire, and  various other subjects; violinist and  pianist; former editor of a music research journal; part-time-career as a 21st Century Obscure Composer. After leaving academia, for reasons with which I will not bore you, I have  increasingly become a musicologist; I have  always been fascinated with history, musical trends, the interactions of people and  places and  ideas; I love figuring things out, and  tormenting uninterested friends and  relatives with more  details about Renaissance Ferrara or  Padua or  Venice than they can stand. Mercifully, I discovered Wikipedia, and  they all thank me for it, for the server complains little when I fill it  with abstrusity.

After leaving academia, being unenamored of a life of poverty and  struggle as one of thousands of unemployable people with advanced degrees in a humanities field, I acquired some competence in GIS and  now manage a department in the same at a huge environmental consulting/engineering shop. Once in a while you might catch me writing about GIS, but for the most part I deliberately stay away.

And I write about:

So far I have  mainly focused on writing articles on "early music" (Medieval, Renaissance, and  early Baroque), because I love it, I know a bit about it, and  when I joined Wikipedia, no one else bothered with it. Once in a while I contribute to articles on 20th-21st century composers, music, practice, theory, etc. I usually, but not always, avoid the common practice period, since there are  plenty of other contributors capable of writing in this area; why not focus on a spot where I can use my specialized knowledge? A lot of the time when I'm feeling uncreative I do RC patrol and  eradicate all the vandalism I can find. It's addictive, and  once in a while I have  to remind myself to stop and  write articles again.

Wikipedia:Babel
This user [1] an  administrator on the English Wikipedia. en This user is  a native speaker of English. es-2 Este usuario puede contribuir con un nivel intermedio de español. de-1 Dieser Benutzer hat grundlegende Deutschkenntnisse. This user is  a professional pianist. vln-4 This user is  a professional violinist. vla-3 This user is  an advanced viola player. This user contributes using Mozilla Firefox. This user contributes using Safari. This user runs Mac OS X.
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As a break from music sometimes I write articles on California geography and  history, since I've lived here a while, have  studied geography and  geology, and  have a pretty good library of books on local history. Also sometimes I click on random page and  copyedit, if I don't get hooked on reading. is  anyone else surprised at the sheer amount of things you have  learned on Wikipedia? In my opinion this is  one of the most wonderful things about this project.

Some other random interests: Classics, literature, history, military history, earth sciences, mountaineering, birds, trees, religious traditions, data forensics, European and  eastern philosophy. I read a lot, especially English literature, as well as a lot of stuff in translation. While I'm fairly knowledgeable on topics such as Shakespeare, the existentialist writers, Swift, Greek tragedy, epic poetry, and  European, Middle Eastern, and  South Asian history, I don't usually contribute to articles on those topics; I don't feel my knowledge rises above the high amateur into the "sufficiently expert". There are  other writers here who are  better, and  who know more  than I do, and  for now I'm going to leave it  there. I would politely ask others to at least consider the depth of their knowledge before tackling detailed subjects around which their own experience is  limited; but then who am  I to tell other people what to do? Do as you will, says Rabelais, but prepare to be reverted (not by me, necessarily, but by someone who actually has studied the topic). This is  an encyclopedia, not a trivia site.

Wikipediholic score is  usually in the "productive" range; the scores are  meaningless since people keep changing the test, and  it keeps getting sillier, but it's still fun to take.

My contribs

As of December 10, 2006: 457 articles, of which 369 were from scratch, mostly on Medieval, Renaissance, and  early Baroque composers and  theorists, as well as musical techniques and  forms. 318 of the articles I have  listed are  on early music; 285 are  biographies; 68 are  topical overview articles; 24 are  about individual pieces of music; only 34 are  on 18th or  19th century topics or  people. I'm probably about 25% done with finishing the area to my satisfaction, and  it's starting to seem like all the low-hanging fruit is  gone; now comes the hard work of getting existing articles up to an  encyclopedic level of accuracy, detail, and  prose style. In general, the whole area of early music on Wikipedia still needs a vast amount of information on just how everything happened, and  a lot of articles need to tie in to cultural and  political and  religious history as well.

I take requests. If you spot something that is  missing, or  just substandard, and  it is  in the area of early music--or indeed, in "classical" music in general--let me know and  I'll do what I can to help, if it  is within my area of competence. Since this is  a big area, that's a big "if."

Administrator

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My wikistress level is  just fine, thank you.

I am  an administrator. Drop me a note on my talk page if you need help with something which requires a mop and  bucket. In the interest of transparency and  full accountability – pretty important things on Wikipedia – you may review all of my administrative actions here: [2]

As of September 2, 2006, I have  blocked over 2,000 vandals, and  reverted or  deleted over 26,000 separate instances of vandalism. Some people don't like me for stopping them from having their childish fun with us, but that's OK: whatever happens, whether I burn out or  stay on for a while, I am  confident I have  done some good for this project.

My wikipedia goals:

• Fill out the classical music area in general, and  Medieval, Renaissance and  Baroque in particular, since the early music area was quite undeveloped when I started.
• Starve the trolls.
• Tithe some of my time helping out with anti-vandalism, voting on deletions and  admins, etc., since I think it's a Wikipedian's duty to help out just a bit.
• Stay positive. Laboring in the shadows, unacknowledged, is  hard after a while. But take time to acknowledge the good work of others.
• Drink some more  wikipedihol. it  makes me happy. So there.
• Contribute more  content, do less  RC patrol. I have  a specialized skill, and  reverting vandalism is  too easy; others can do it. It's curiously satisfying, though, as well as addictive.

O my soul, aspire not to eternal life

But rather exhaust the limits of the possible.

Pindar, Odes (Pythian III)

Look round at the courses of the stars, as if

thou wert going along with them; and  constantly

consider the changes of the elements into one

another; for such thoughts purge away the filth

of life on earth.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7:47

Courage is  the price life extracts for granting us peace.

Amelia Earhart

The cultivated person's first duty is  to always be

prepared to rewrite the encyclopedia.

Umberto Eco, Serendipities, "The Force of Falsity," last sentence.

Dedication

All the work I do on Renaissance and  early Baroque music is  dedicated to the memory of Professor Seamus O'Reilly.

Accipe fraterno multum manantia fletu,

Atque in perpetuum, frater, ave atque vale.

Subpages

• My to-do list
• Stuff I have  done
• Usual sources for what I write
• Worldview, biases, and  all that stuff
• Observations on Wikipedia behavior
• Thoughts on Various Subjects, not necessarily Moral and  Diverting
• Temporary page for drafts
• Page for the Dual License info
• Biggish watchlist for classical music related stuff
• Grove quirks Articles which are  more extensive in the 1980 Grove than in the 2005 online edition
• Barnstars and  other awards
• temp page for formatting experiments