User:Derek Ross
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My name is Derek and I was born in 1958 which makes me the right age to have lived through the 1960s and to remember it. I lived in the town of Arbroath on the east coast of Scotland for twenty-four years but moved to Calgary, Alberta at the beginning of 2003.
I have a wide range of interests and regularly used to travel abroad on business. In February, 2002 I visited Hungary for a week. In mid-April I went to the Empty Quarter for three weeks. I was in the Algerian central Sahara from mid-August until September and again in early December. In October 2004 I visited the city of Daqing (pronounced Da tshing) in Northern China for a few weeks. During 2005 my trips have all been to the southern United States. However since late 2005, I have spent all my time in Calgary (if you discount a week in Houston during April 2007 anyway). Aaah, life is good!
Thus although I have contributed regularly to the Wikipedia since mid-October 2001, there are times when I haven't contributed as much as I would like.
Note that I no longer subscribe to the Wikipedia mailing lists, nor do I use IRC or any other off-wiki forum. I just don't think it's worthwhile and in any case I don't have the time. So bear in mind that I'm only aware of discussions that take place on Wikipedia talk pages (and not even most of them). As a result bang goes my cabal membership! But it doesn't bother me: some people like the community; some prefer the encyclopedia. I'm one of the latter.
I've started a whole lot of articles, including some whose earliest history has unfortunately been lost -- the Anders Hejlsberg article is one of those -- but I don't see any point in putting down a big list here. We've all written plenty of stuff after all. Most of my work tends to be stubs, spelling, grammar and formatting changes since, sadly, I'm too lazy to like the effort involved in writing "big" articles. However I do sometimes forget myself and write a lot when I find a subject that I really like.
Strange but True
It is possible to edit nearly every day for five years on Wikipedia and still be an unknown to other contributors.
SF Authors that I like
- E. E. Smith -- Spacehounds of IPC
- A. E. van Vogt -- The World of Null-A
- Cordwainer Smith -- Norstrilia
- Charles Harness -- The Paradox Men
- Philip K Dick -- The Man in the High Castle
- Ursula K. Le Guin -- Semley's Necklace
- Stanislaw Lem -- The Cyberiad
- Kurt Vonnegut -- Slaughterhouse-Five
I'm not sure what they have in common but I love them all for one aspect of their writing or another. Each of them has written at least one story (indicated above) which is in a class by itself.
20th Century
It occurs to me that, whatever the calendar may say, the 20th century started in 1914 with the Great War and is still going on. I wonder what it will take to bring it to an end ?
Award
Don't know what I did to deserve this but, hey, I'll take what I can get.
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The Scots Barnstar of National Merit | |
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Awarded to Derek Ross |
Thanks, Amir!
Useful Links
Sign me up!
Other Links Methodism in Arbroath commons:User:Derek Ross meta:User:Derek Ross
