User:Jeff02

My name is Jeff and I live on Kent Island, Maryland. Some of my interests include computer programming, video games, and just about anything to do with my home state of Maryland. The current projects that I'm working on include getting the Chesapeake Bay Bridge article to GA status and assessing articles for WikiProject Maryland.

Since I forget to log in sometimes and edited before I joined, my anonymous contributions can be found here.

I'm not as active as I used to be, but I still continue to fix things that need fixing and perform other minor edits. One such thing that I continue to do is update the latest version of the D programming language in its article.

How I'm Helping Wikipedia
I had already made a few edits here from the time I first discovered Wikipedia to the time I decided to join.

I've noticed that I don't have quite as high an edit count as most people who have been members as long as I have. My philosophy is that a high edit count doesn't make you better than anyone else, it just means you don't know how to use the preview button.

Most of my edits here have involved creating and fixing up articles about important places and things in my home state, Maryland, particularly the Eastern Shore region. My first ever edit was making the word Annapolis into a link in the Chesapeake Bay Bridge article (this has since been edited over), this edit can be found here. Another edit I was pretty proud of in my earlier days was fixing two broken external links in the Flag of Maryland article. My first full article, which I created after joining, was for Kent Island, Maryland, where I live. I have also worked on creating articles for Maryland state highways. Though a lot of them are either stubs or pretty short, the way I see it, even if an article is just a stub, it's still worth creating since it is likely to get expanded by someone. I've found highway articles pretty easy to create, since it is pretty easy to find alot of factual information on them.

Some of My Major Contributions
Some pages I have made major contributions to:
 * Kent Island, Maryland
 * Chesapeake Bay Bridge
 * Roads in Maryland articles
 * U.S. Route 50

Articles

 * Kent Island South Trail
 * Trying to achieve GA status for Chesapeake Bay Bridge

Images

 * Key Bridge route marker - not started (still haven't found spec)
 * Capital Beltway route marker - not started (still haven't found spec)

Essays

 * /The purpose of WikiProjects - An older essay on WikiProjects, no longer maintained
 * /How we disambiguate on Wikipedia - An essay on disambiguation
 * /What WikiProjects are not - A newer essay on WikiProjects
 * /What ever happened to Jeff02? - Why I left, and what I've been up to since leaving

How I became a Wikipedian
My online history can be summed up as one big chain reaction. I started out posting at the PokeMasters forums in November 2004. Later on, on those forums, I was basically invited to join Bulbapedia by Bulbagarden's webmaster, Archaic (after I made a complaint about a couple of mistakes on the 'pedia). Shortly thereafter, I joined the Bulbagarden Forums (which are the forums whose members started Bulbapedia), and eventually, my work on Bulbapedia inspired me to join Wikipedia.

Programming
One of my favorite hobbies is programming, As far as programming languages go, I only know C, C++, D, and Java (but I wouldn't claim fluency in Java though). I've done some research to start learning some other languages (mostly here at Wikipedia), but haven't experimented with them.

Video games
I'm also a fan of video games, especially Pokémon games. Yes, I am a proud adult Pokémon fan! I am a member of the Pokémon online community, where I go by simply as Jeff. I am a member of both The PokéMasters (TPM) and the Bulbagarden forums. I also maintain TPM's website.

Roads
One time, on one of my usual trips to UMBC (thankfully, it wasn't for a class), I accidentally missed the exit from Maryland Route 295 onto I-195. Since I hadn't been going to the school that long I didn't realize anything was wrong for a while, but when I did notice I was off course I panicked and just kept driving. I eventually wound up in Baltimore and got as far as M&T Bank Stadium when I finally pulled myself together and found somewhere to turn around. After that, I began studying maps of the area to make sure that I didn't get lost again, this is likely what sparked my interest in highways. I'm still a "Google Earth enthusiast" as I like to call myself and have started the Roads in Maryland WikiProject. One of my largest contributions to that project is the uploading of SVGs of road signs that are used in Maryland.

Places I have visited

 * [[Image:Flag of the United States.svg|25px]] United States
 * [[Image:Flag of Maryland.svg|25px]] Maryland
 * [[Image:Flag of Delaware.svg|25px]] Delaware
 * [[Image:Flag of Florida.svg|25px]] Florida
 * [[Image:Flag of New Jersey.svg|25px]] New Jersey
 * [[Image:Flag of New York.svg|25px]] New York
 * [[Image:Flag of Pennsylvania.svg|25px]] Pennsylvania
 * [[Image:Flag of South Carolina.svg|25px]] South Carolina
 * [[Image:Flag of Virginia.svg|25px]] Virginia
 * [[Image:Flag of West Virginia.svg|25px]] West Virginia

Maryland road did you know facts
A collection of facts that could be used on either the U.S. Roads Portal or the Maryland Portal. or a possible alternative for one of the U.S. Roads Portal's April Fools' Day entries
 * ...that business routes in Maryland use a different style of route marker than their parent routes?
 * ...that due to a gap in West Virginia Route 46 motorists traveling along the route, must cross the Potomac River into Maryland and follow a 2-mile (3 km) section of Maryland Route 135 and brief portion of Maryland Route 36 before crossing back over the river and continuing on WV 46? (random note: Interestingly enough, Google Earth identifies the section in Maryland with Route 46 markers alongside the Route 135 markers. Not sure what the signage there indicates though.)
 * ...that DE/MD 54 switches maintanance between Delaware and Maryland a total of 5 times?
 * ...that drivers on Route 54 have trouble figuring out what state they're in?

Links Placed Here for My Convenience

 * /test page
 * /monobook.js
 * http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/kentisland (unfortunately many of the good ones aren't WMC-compatible yet) :(

Sites I'm A Member of

 * Wikipedia as Jeff02
 * Wikimedia Commons as Jeff02
 * Wikitravel as Jeff02
 * Bulbapedia as Jeff
 * Xanga as Jeff_02
 * And some others