User:Jaguarundi

So. . . here's the boring facts you don't want to know. On the Internets they calls me either "Jaguarundi," "the Jaguarundi," "Jaguarundi2," or "Trahald." I live in Glenn Dale, Maryland. I attend and serve at Grace Baptist Church in Bowie, MD. My high school was Cedar Brook Academy, and my undergraduate and graduate work was at the University of Maryland and now Capital Bible Seminary.

My academic focus has been on the Roman Empire.

I'm a birder, and as of March of 2007, I've seen 311 species of birds.

A "Jaguarundi" is a kind of Neotropical cat that can run really fast and swim. I picked the username way back when I was playing Age of Empires on the Microsoft Internet Gaming Zone, or "the Zone" for short.

My WikiWork
Page Edits: Biological Sciences


 * Carolina Chickadee (an important species of North American bird)


 * Black-capped Chickadee (an important species of North American bird similar to the Carolina Chickadee)


 * Margay (an amazing Neotropical cat that spends its life in the trees)


 * Alex (parrot) (a famous African Gray-headed Parrot)


 * Anne Simon (a virologist at the University of Maryland)

Page Creations: Archaeology


 * Template:Greek Vases (groups a number of important topics in the sub-field of Greek pottery)


 * Salii (a Roman priesthood)


 * Festival of the Salii (a Roman holiday)


 * Epinetron (a shape of Greek pottery: functioned in working with cloth)


 * Krater (a shape of Greek pottery: mostly used for mixing wine and water at Greek symposia)


 * Lebes (a shape of Greek pottery: basically a bowl for cooking and as an athletic prize)


 * Lebes Gamikos (a shape of Greek pottery: a wedding vase for pre-nupital baths)

Page Edits: Archaeology
 * Nero (last Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudians)


 * Great Fire of Rome (the famed fire that Nero was blamed for)


 * Ballista (siege weapon)


 * Greek pottery (a very important sub-field of Classical art history)

Page Edits: Video Games


 * The Legend of Zelda series (one of gaming's most popular franchises)


 * Triforce (important element of the Zelda series)


 * Majora's Mask (the second Zelda game for the Nintendo 64)


 * Races in The Legend of Zelda series (a key part of the Zelda universe)

Page Edits: Superheroes


 * Azula (a villain in Avatar: The Last Airbender)


 * Aang (the main character of Avatar)


 * Sokka (a main character in Avatar)


 * Toph (a main character in Avatar)


 * List of Avatar: The Last Airbender episodes


 * The Serpent's Pass (Book II, Chapter 12 of Avatar)


 * The Crossroads of Destiny (Avatar Book II finale)


 * The X-men Template (the Marvel superhero group)

Page Creations: Christianity


 * Template:Christian Soul Care and Spiritual Direction (a survey of the history and major issues in counseling and discipleship as the church has practiced it over the ages)

Page Edits: Christianity


 * Amillennialism (a theological viewpoint on God's plan for the church age and the end times)

God: What Matters Most in Life
Here are my views on select controversies in the church. I'm not going to edit Wikipedia to reflect these views, but you should know what my views are.


 * Basic beliefs: Rather than go through everything in detail, I'm just going to point out that I agree with this doctrinal statement, and this one, too.
 * Counseling: When it comes to counseling, I'm basically a non-integrationist. The jury's still out, but I'm relatively conservative about sticking to the Bible when it comes to counseling. Christ is sufficient, as Colossians points out well. But that doesn't make me nouthetic by default.
 * Apologetics: In evangelism, I lean towards presuppositionalism over evidentialism. But evidentialism is certainly useful for strengthening the faith of believers.
 * The Emergent Church: I like the emergent movement to an extent, but a lot (most?) emergent books are too syncretistic.
 * The Sovereingty of God vs. the Responsibility of Man: I hold that the balance between the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man is a tension to be maintained, not a problem to be solved. It is a paradox, much like the Trinity and the reality that Jesus is 100% God and 100% man.

Zoology
My views on important debate-points:


 * Creation and Evolution: I agree with these people.
 * Intelligent Design: Intelligent Design is science, not pseudoscience. And scientists like Michael Behe are NOT using it as a "front" or "cover" for creationism.
 * The Definition of "Species": I don't usually care too terribly much if species are combined and split. But I do wish the Dark-eyed Junco would be split, 'cause I've seen several subspecies, and they looked pretty different. They looked more different than the Empidonax flycatchers do! (Yes, I realize perfectly well that "looking different" is a horrible, horrible criterion for defining a species).

Again, this doesn't mean that I'm going to edit Wikipedia from a Creationist POV, but you should know where I'm coming from anyway.

Art History, Archaeology, and History
Some of my positions on the ancient world:


 * Romanization and Identity: I tend to agree with Greg Woolf's Becoming Roman, even though he's missing something on the relationship between power and the army and becoming Roman. When it comes to the Near East, I think that Bowersock is better than Butcher in terms of articulating the relationship between Greek, Roman, and Semitic culture. Both, however, are invaluable.
 * The Purpose of the Roman military: I mostly agree with Benjamin Isaacs and that school of thought, not Edward Luttwak.
 * The Impulse of Roman Imperialism: I think that the Roman Empire was essentially created out of self-defense (c.f. the Allia complex), although later men like Julius Caesar certainly had other motivations.
 * The ancient Mediterranean economy: I'm a primitivist (NOT the term as described here on Wikipedia). I currently hold to the "parasitic city" view, but more tentatively.
 * The Origins of the Rabbinic Movement: I hold to a sort of "mixture:" I take it that the rabbinic movement was mostly a new invention after the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70, but that the Pharisees influenced it as well.
 * Rabbinic Authority: Obviously, I don't think rabbinic evidence is much good for the Second Temple Period. It's quite clear that rabbis had little authority in the Mediterranean diaspora. But what's my position on Palestinian rabbis, at least? Well, some evidence (e.g. the Babatha archives) shows that the rabbis didn't have anywhere near as much authority as they pretended to have, while other pieces of evidence (e.g. the floor mosaics in the synagogue at Sepphoris) shows that rabbis could have more authority than some scholars give them credit for.
 * The Monomyth: I strongly disagree with Joseph Campbell, and otherwise psychologizing or evolutionary models of mythology that treat myth as a monolith, even within cultures. In my art historical studies, it became quite clear that a given myth could vary considerably across the artistic and literary evidence, geographically and chronologically.
 * The New Testament: The New Testament is historically accurate, as is the Old Testament.

The Lord of the Rings
My views on a couple controversies in Tolkien's universe:
 * Balrogs: wings vs. no wings: I think Tolkien intended them to be not much taller than a person and to be wingless.
 * Legolas' hair color: Legolas of Mirkwood probably had brown hair, not blonde hair. What a stupid thing to argue about. But the point is, the movies are wrong.

The Legend of Zelda

 * Timeline theory: I hold that any timeline theory is basically a waste of time, since time travel is in the mix, and it's boring to analyze anyway. That said, the basic order most people go for is basically right. I don't think you can know exactly where Link's Awakening goes in the series. Multiple timeline theory is bunk and is little more than an attempt to get around the paradoxes of time travel.
 * Romance: Since there is more than one Link and more than one Zelda, you have to consider each game (or pair of games) individually. In Adventure of Link, Link's romance is with Zelda. The romance is with Marin in Link's Awakening. In Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, it's with Malon. In The Wind Waker, it's with Tetra (aka Zelda). In Twilight Princess, it's much more unclear than any of the previous examples, but the text strongly suggests the possibility of something with Ilia. Midna is a possibility too.

For more Zelda, see also the articles I wrote as "Trahald."

X-Men: Evolution

 * Kitty (Shadowcat) and Kurt (Nightcrawler): They didn't like each other; they were just really good friends.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

 * Zuko at the end of The Crossroads of Destiny: Zuko was definitely not faking it. It's a genuine betrayal. And it was 100% in character, and it was what the season was building up to. Oh, and Mike and Bryan confirmed this.
 * The Avatar State: The final comic of "Escape from the Spirit World" most likely does indicate that Aang will be unable to access the Avatar State from now on.
 * The status of Jet, Aang, and Suki: The show staff confirmed that Jet and Aang died. Aang, of course, was revived by Katara. Suki's status is currently unknown.
 * Katara's feelings: By this point (i.e. the end of Book II), Katara clearly reciprocates Aang's feelings. She explicitly expressed armorous feelings for him, so it's beyond me why Wikipedia edits this out. It's not "shipping," it's called "reading the text for what it is." To quote one Avatar commentator, "This fandom defines 'canon' with the SPECIAL dictionary." Oh, and Mike and Bryan confirmed this.

For more Avatar, see also the articles I wrote as "Jaguarundi."

Other pages of mine

 * My deviantART page I'm slow in uploading my stuff, but . ..


 * Zelda articles I wrote most of these articles as "Trahald."


 * Avatar articles I wrote a few of these articles as "Jaguarundi"


 * My game collection on the NES, N64, GCN, Wii, and PC. This list doesn't include the old green and black games I had for the Apple or the black and white games I had for the Mac . ..


 * My DVD collection and my DVD collection only because they don't list VHS tapes (but all I have in VHS is A Bug's Life and The Lion King and a few nature documentaries, anyway).


 * My Book wishlist to fill out my library even more.


 * My games wishlist for more gaming fun!


 * I ditched my old Livejournal page and have replaced it with this one, focusing largely on reviews and metas of fiction.


 * I'm also on Facebook, Myspace, and Xanga, though I don't really use Xanga anymore.

My Favorites
Favorite Animals
 * Red Foxes
 * Cats, such as Tigers, Jaguars, Leopards, and Margays
 * All animals, really

Favorite fields of Greco-Roman history
 * Greco-Roman religious history
 * Cultural identity in the Roman Empire
 * Genre scenes in Greek vase painting
 * How a given myth functions in society at different times in different places

Favorite Fiction (not necessarily in order)
 * The Hobbit
 * The Lord of the Rings
 * The Chronicles of Narnia
 * The Hardy Boys
 * Sherlock Holmes
 * Rikki-Tikki-Tavi
 * The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
 * The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Favorite Games of All Time
 * Majora's Mask
 * Age of Empires
 * Donkey Kong 64
 * SimAnt
 * Super Mario Bros 3

Favorite Movies of All Time (not necessarily in order)
 * The Passion of the Christ
 * Fellowship of the Ring
 * A Series of Unfortunate Events
 * A Bug's Life

Favorite TV Shows of All Time (not necessarily in order)
 * X-Men: Evolution
 * Avatar: The Last Airbender
 * Nature
 * Kratt's Creatures
 * Bill Nye the Science Guy
 * Even Stevens

Travels
I've been to:


 * Many places in the United States of America: all states except for Alaska and Hawaii. (2 missions trips and multiple vacations and visits to relatives)
 * Many places in Canada: all provinces except for Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut. (1 missions trip, multiple vacations, and one visit to a relative)
 * Mexico, especially Cancún, Saltillo, Mexico City, and Teotihuacán (1 vacation and 3 missions trips)
 * Austria, especially Salzburg and Vienna (a visit to a relative)
 * Germany, including Berlin, Frankfurt, and Munich (after visting the relative in Austria)
 * Romania, especially Isai and Suceava (1 missions trip)
 * Ukraine, especially Vinnytsia and Kiev (1 missions trip)
 * France, specifically Paris (toured it on the way home from the missions trip to Ukraine)
 * Brazil, specifically Santarém and the Tapajós in the Amazon (1 missions trip)
 * The Bahamas, especially New Providence (1 vacation)
 * Chile, especially Santiago, Rancagua, and the Chiloé archipelago. (1 missions trip)

Currently Reading/Watching
Currently Reading: textbooks!

Currently Watching: Good shows that I watch: Avatar: The Last Airbender; Heroes. Shows that I watch for the mindless entertainment, though I don't necessarily recommend them: Hannah Montana; Kim Possible; Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide; Drake and Josh; Danny Phantom; Ben 10; Cory in the House; Zoey 101; The Suite Life of Zach and Cody; American Dragon: Jake Long; The Naked Brothers Band

Currently Playing: WarioWare: Smooth Moves; Donkey Kong Country (on the Virtual Console); Wii Sports. Sadly I already beat Twilight Princess 100%. . . now I'm just waiting for Majora's Mask to come out for the VC!

Currently Listening to: a wide variety of music on Real Rhapsody

WikiFriends

 * WhiteDragon
 * Idont Havaname