User:Demf

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This user is proud to be Puerto Rican

This user helped promote the article Ramón Emeterio Betances to featured article status.

Demf are actually the initials in my name, David Enrique Miró Feliciano. I'm a native of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, and reside in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I lived for close to three years in San Jose and Cupertino,California, while working at Apple Inc. Since then I returned to Puerto Rico, not before criss-crossing the United States and living for a while in Orlando, Florida. You'll see who I am and what I stand for in the Userboxes section down below.

I was, for over 12 years, the organizer of the Premios DUH! (or DUH! Awards), a mock award show where Puerto Rican odd news (and odd celebrities) were given awards and immortalized for posterity. Sort of. This was a minor media event in Puerto Rico every December 28th., the local equivalent of April Fools Day in Puerto Rico. I've since moved on and am now contributing with a humor column to a local newspaper, every week. For the time being, the newspaper shall remain nameless...

I used to be an active contributor to Wikipedia, and did contribute to pages that relate to either Puerto Rico or to Puerto Rican culture. I gravitated to pages about Puerto Rican landmarks, famous people (particularly singers and composers), and the one for my birthplace and those of fellow mayagüezanos. However, one article made me change my mind. I tried, unsuccessfully, to raise the Ramón Emeterio Betances artice beyond the paltry "B" rating it used to have a while back. For close to five months I researched the guy, took photos of all landmarks associated to him in Puerto Rico, transcribed podcasts, rewrote the article tons of times... and still didn't get much assistance to have it fixed. Everyone and his brother thought it was my article, so to speak; they would all critique it, but only a few would help. Some Wikipedians' paranoia over quotes and over WP's arcane rules made things worse, and I had quite a few decent Puerto Rico articles removed claiming I had done "original research" (ask a Puerto Rican about a sociological concept such as "Ay, bendito" and he'll tell you it is not a mere phrase in a dictionary, but some bozos here think it is), so I simply gave up.

A few fellow Puerto Rican Wikipedians carried on the torch for the Betances article and had it earn the Featured Article status it now has (and deserves, modesty aside). However, yet again, this place is the only place in the world where a person, in theory, cannot write an autobiography if someone hasn't quoted him or her first... There are also quite a bunch of trolls raising hell around these quarters, far more interested in rules and harassing other people about what they think this WP version should be: an Anglocentric realm of popular culture, where little else deserves more than stub treatment. I simply edit here first because the only language in far more use than English in the world is Chinese, and I know almost no Chinese. A broad worldwide editorial and tech support base made articles about my home country much better known elsewhere, and because of this, I chose English, and not Spanish, as the basis for most of my articles. Yet, I'm sure, some bozo will complain about me even saying this here.

My WP status as an editor is on hold. However, motivated by fellow boricua Wikipedians like Tony the Marine (whom I personally visited in Arizona in February, 2008), I am slowly returning to correct existing articles here and there (and I do have a Wiki project pending...)

[edit] Archived Talk

• Archive #1

[edit] Places I've been

[edit] Countries

– – - – – – – - – (well, I didn't disembark in Rouseau...)

[edit] U.S. states & the future state of New Columbia (hopefully)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

[edit] Places in limbo

- - - - -

[edit] Favorite places

• Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, my birthplace
• The western coast of Puerto Rico, from Aguada down to Cabo Rojo
• Culebra, Puerto Rico
• The towns along the Cordillera Central in Puerto Rico, particularly Lares, Jayuya, Barranquitas and Aibonito.
• The San Francisco Bay Area, particularly Palo Alto, Half Moon Bay, Cupertino, Los Gatos, Santa Clara, San Francisco itself and the Bay Farm Island section of Alameda
• The Central Coast of California, particularly the area between Monterey and San Luis Obispo, as well as Hearst Castle
• The areas around Lake Tahoe, particularly the south shore.
• The strip of I-70 in Colorado between the Utah border and the outskirts of Denver
• Staunton, Virginia and environs.
• Princeton, New Jersey
• Eastern Tennessee, from Moore County, Tennessee (I'm a Tennessee Squire) to Knoxville
• Amherst, Massachusetts
• Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
• Cordoba, Spain
• The Alhambra, in Granada, Spain
• A recent addition to my list is Tempe, Arizona, particularly downtown and the area near Arizona State University. Yep, Kelly, you were right about your home turf(!)

[edit] Famous people I've met or talked to

(Sorted in alphabetical order, by name)

• Andy Montañez - great singer, and even greater with a dancing carrot behind him.
• Calle 13 - "Augerescere in te, Via Tredicim!"
• Benjamin Cole - lived five houses down from mine.
• Antulio, "Kobbo" Santarrosa, when he was a local store owner in Mayagüez
• Carlos Romero Barcelo (Twice. And he didn't strangle me either time!)
• Carlos Vives (he was our master control guy come Christmas time a few times)
• Carmen Jovet - helped her figure out who cybersquatted www.carmenjovet.com
• Edward Van Halen (aka God With Six Strings)
• Sunshine Logroño - when I was a regular radio guy we staged the only time his characters Eleuterio and Vitín have spoken simultaneously, he as Vitín Alicea, and me as Eleuterio Quiñones (my imitation of Eleuterio is, all modesty aside, quite good...)
• Gilbert Mamery (he was my boss once)
• Gricel Mamery (wacky friend)
• Héctor Travieso, anti-carbohydrate promoter (twice)
• Jim Bohannon (Huh? Why?)
• John Sculley (Speaks decent Spanish!)
• Jorge Seijo, chupamattress extraordinaire (partner in crime)
• Julio Victor Ramirez, hijo (partner in crime)
• Luis Francisco Ojeda (I've done work for him and he doesn't know it!)
• Michael Anthony (fellow Tennessee Squire, some guy and I had to pick him off the floor of Cabo Wabo after his personal encounter with Old No. 7...)
• Michael Spindler (what an intense guy...)
• Sammy Hagar (twice, one in Cabo Wabo, one in San Juan)
• Sinbad, rest in peace... NOT! (met him at the former Apple, Inc. manufacturing plant in Fremont, California). Dude, welcome to the Mark Twain Club.
• Shorty Castro
• Susa y Epifanio (I keep on nagging them occasionally)
• The Wiggles (except for Greg Page, who couldn't visit Puerto Rico... extremely friendly!)
• The entire crew of El Vacilón de la Mañana (left them a bottle of Sangría de Fido)
• The inventor of the XCOPY command in MS-DOS (I can't remember your name, dude!)

I've also had to slow down while driving to allow Weird Al Yankovic and Steve Jobs cross the street on separate occasions... OTOH Jacobo Morales lives up the street from me, but doesn't know me (I have no plans to run him over with the car, however. God forbid!) Tego Calderón's daughter was an acquaintance of mine's. Shy guy, excellent father, very respectful dude. Outside of that, I've had the chance to see Prince Charles, Mel Gibson and Mel Tormé (when he was alive) from a distance. I've stood right next to Otilio Warrington, Gilberto Santa Rosa and Victor Manuelle but wouldn't dare to greet them.

[edit] David's Userboxes

(Due to inconsistencies in userbox design this section may look sloppy)

This user is an escaped genetic experiment.	Wikipedia Yo contribuyo en la Wikipedia en español. I support the Spanish language Wikipedia with my contributions.	238.584px This user believes all userboxes should be the same size!
This user finds copyright paranoia disruptive.	This user has a sense of humour and shows it through the use of userboxes.	This user is male.
This user is married.	dad This user is a father.	This user is interested in politics.
This user's favourite colour is blue.	This user is for racial equality.	This user is not a pet owner.
This user is interested in Roman Catholicism.	This user is skeptical of the Zodiac.	I would say I'm a cynic but I bet you just wouldn't believe me.
This user is Spanish.	This user supports the European Union.	' This user supports the Democratic Party of the United States.
Template:User democratic secession	This user is a supporter of independence for Puerto Rico.	Je suis Marxiste, tendance Groucho
?met? This user prefers metric units and cannot figure out why Americans have such a hard time with them.	This user sees nothing wrong with the human form and doesn't view it as something that needs to be hidden.	This user has never left the Northern Hemisphere.
This user has left the planet Earth 0 times.	This user's time zone is UTC-4.	This user does not observe Daylight Saving Time.
This user enjoys skiing.	This user remembers using a rotary dial telephone.	G This user uses Google as a primary search engine.
This user plays the guitar.	This user enjoys heavy metal music.	VH This user loves Van Halen.
This user enjoys klezmer.	This user enjoys classical music.	This user loves the music of Ludwig van Beethoven.
This user can't stand hip hop music.	This user listens to Vallenato and recognizes its part of Colombia’s cultural heritage. ¡Ay Hombre!	This user studies national anthems
This user has an iPod.	ADHD This user has ADHD.	This user took different MBTI tests and discovered that they had multiple personalities, so they're a bit confused.
This user enjoys reading non-fiction.	This user does not smoke.	Secondhand smoke is one of this user's pet peeves.
This user supports the ban on smoking in public places.	This user supports recycling.	This user is left-handed.
This user is an omnivore.	Coke This user believes Pepsi is no match for Coca-Cola. Not even close. Pepsi	IK This user drinks Inca Kola.
This user sleeps, but not for predictable amounts of time.	This user supports public transit.	This user is a graduate from the UPR at Mayagüez. Antes, Ahora y Siempre, Colegio!
This user is an Engineer.	BSE This user has a Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree.	MEng This user has a Master of Engineering degree.
prog-2 This user is an intermediate programmer.	vb This user is a Visual Basic programmer.	C# This user can program in C#.
C This user can program in C.	winXP Regretfully, this user contributes using Microsoft Windows XP.	cvg-0 This user does not play or is not interested in video games.
This user is a broadcaster.	NTSC This user's television receives NTSC/NTSC-variant transmissions, or lives in a region where they are broadcast.	This user doesn't know Whose Line It Is.
This user is Latin American.	This user has visited 28 of the 50 States. 28	15 This user has set foot in 15 countries of the world.
END This user has no more userboxes.

These last four userboxes are outta whack...

[edit] Musical influences

• First, and foremost, Van Halen, and particularly Edward Van Halen. Have seen them perform four times (Knoxville, Tennessee, 1982, with David Lee Roth as a singer; Mountain View, California, 1991; Cabo Wabo at Cabo San Lucas, 1993; San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2004), and met the band members from the Van Hagar era at least twice (except, for some strange reason, Alex Van Halen). Sammy Hagar gave me his autograph to a fake Puerto Rico license plate, FUCK 55.
• Saga, the most criminally underrated rock band in the planet.
• ¡Calle 13, más te crece!
• Flor Morales Ramos, otherwise known as Ramito, most criminally underrated song lyricist in the planet. An unsung giant of Latin American folklore, born in Caguas, Puerto Rico.
• The Father of Rock and Roll, Chuck Berry
• Queen; to the point of building an electric guitar inspired by Brian May's Red Special, called the "Egyptian Bean."
• Randy Rhoads seminal guitar work for Ozzy Osbourne.
• Willie Colón, who was a pen pal of mine for about a year and a half. Almost everything he has done from Hector Lavoe on... which brings me to...
• Mon Rivera, fellow mayagüezano done good. He and his father were, again, criminally underrated as lyricists.
• Kate Bush - before Enya, before Tori Amos, before Norah Jones, before all of them... there was Miss Bush. Love her to death. And speaking of death...
• Black Sabbath, during the Ozzy Osbourne days. What a fun concept.
• JPP, the true MONSTERS of fiddle and violin playing. They rock, even when playing tango!

[edit] Articles

I got sick of maintaining an article list. Just check "User contributions" on the side menu.

[edit] Awards(To Moi?)

This Boricua Tireless Contributor Barnstar is presented to Demf for the continous work on Puerto Rican related articles. Presented by Tony the Marine 21:26, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Puerto Rico National Merit Medal

Last Update: Demf 16:21, 26 March 2007 (UTC)