User:Blowski



I have only been on Wikipedia for a short time, but see what I've done see my stats.

My name is Dan, and I live in London. Born in 1982, I am a digital native I'll have you know.

My original intention was to be Renaissance Man, with learnings in 15 languages, the arts, sciences and numerous other things. But then I realised I was neither linguistically talented, artistic, nor scientific. So now I'm sticking to the numerous other things by helping out on Wikipedia. In the end, I've become interested mostly in European History, Linguistics, and Photography.

On here, I mostly drift around amending random stuff. I'm also an ardent evangelist for Wikipedia, and encourage everybody to use it and join in.

History on Wikipedia
I first discovered Wikipedia when searching for an article on Gambling back at the end of 2003. It took me a long time to start using it as my main source of reference, but in 2005 I started to realise its potential. In 2006, I started to learn the Mediawiki software, and now feel confident enough to start doing my own thing.

Current Projects

 * Mostly I am looking after articles on Price comparison services and the brands within that market. I am currently building more information on Kelkoo, Froogle, Shopzilla and Shopping.com.
 * Rather randomly, I've started to improve the Michael Lee-Chin article. I hadn't even heard of him on Sunday, but I now know him intimately... aah, Wikipedia. As a result of that, I'm also attempting (and failing) to work out a way to improve Chinese Jamaicans and Black billionaires.
 * Elsewhere on the net, I'm building my own |Polish Language wiki.

Completed Projects

 * Poles - corrected citations
 * Price comparison service - merged other articles to form this one
 * PriceRunner - built from start

Future Projects

 * England - get it to featured status
 * London
 * David Mellor
 * Jasper Fforde - expand article
 * Twenty pence (English coin),

Interests
Nothing special - I like reading, watching films, listening to music, taking pictures and cycling. I also like to play around on the web, with CSS and other languages. My very simple website can be found at blowski.com.

Books

 * Dostoyevsky - The Idiot, Crime and Punishment
 * Bret Easton Ellis - American Psycho, Glamorama
 * George Orwell - 1984, Animal Farm
 * Albert Camus - The Plague, The Stranger
 * Tom Wolfe - Bonfire of the Vanities
 * Antoine de Saint Exupery - The Little Prince
 * Charles Dickens - Great Expectations
 * Neil Strauss - The Game
 * Max Barry - Jennifer Government
 * Stephen Fry - The Stars' Tennis Balls
 * Will Self - Great Apes
 * Douglas Adams - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
 * Jasper Fforde - The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book
 * Philip Pullman - His Dark Materials
 * JRR Tolkien - Lord of the Rings

Films

 * Casino - Martin Scorsese (director), Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci
 * Bad Education - Pedro Almodóvar (director), Fele Martínez, Gael García Bernal
 * Schindler's List - Steven Spielberg (director), Liam Neeson
 * Clueless - Alicia Silverstone
 * Moulin Rouge! - Baz Luhrmann (director), Ewan MacGregor, Nicole Kidman

Music

 * Neutral Milk Hotel
 * Blur
 * Tchaikovsky
 * Puccini

Some of my photos


For more of my photos, see my Flickr account

Useful Links for Editing

 * Article Improvement Drive
 * Warning Messages
 * Wikifying Articles
 * Collaboration of the Week
 * Articles for Deletion
 * Speedy Deletion
 * Good Articles
 * Copy editing, Style Guidelines, Manual of style
 * How to use Tables
 * Maintenance
 * Most wanted articles, Most wanted stubs, Requests for Expansion, Requested pictures
 * New Pages
 * Stats
 * Recent Changes Patrol
 * Administrators' Reading List