User:TI. Gracchus

Salutations, visitors to my page. I am a student at the University of Washington studying Informatics. While I created this page as a class requirement, I hope to remain active on Wikipedia and bring the light of knowledge to the darkest depths of the interwebs. My user name is a reference to Tiberius Gracchus, the populist Roman politician who was beaten to death by an angry mob. I hope that my dedication to providing information on the web instead of redistributing land will spare from a me a similar fate. While I do not feel comfortable revealing personal information in this venue, I do feel that everyone's entitled to know about my many skills and interests, so read on if that's your cup of tea.

Location
Ok, I lied, there is some personal info I'm willing to post. I live in Seattle, and love the Pacific Northwest. I've found that living in flat areas or sunny areas just bums me out, so I've made it a life goal to remain in this perfect combination of mountains and rain. I would love to contribute to any article on the subject of Idaho, Washington, Oregon, or the northern part of California, because they are awesome.

Science
I have an interest in scientific inquiry of all kinds. However, I have a special place in my heart for outer space, because it is really cool. I had a big book of false-color photos of all kinds of astral bodies as a kid, and I've never really grown out of the fascination. I really hope that I live to see permanent settlements on other planets or moon in our solar system before I kick the bucket, even if I can't go there myself. Although there wasn't a user box for this, I consider myself a Space-Manifest-Destinarian. If that wasn't a word before, it is now.

History
I've got a huge interest in all kinds of history, starting from the beginning of the universe and continuing it from there. For the sake of sanity and brevity, I've included tags for only my most favorite kinds of history. As you might expect, they align pretty closely with the languages I've studied. Also, although I actually dislike Baroque architecture, I totally love Baroque and Renaissance music. As far as architecture goes, it's pretty much impossible to beat Gothic in my book, but they didn't have a tag for that one, either.

Language
I've studied three languages fairly extensively, if you include English. I consider myself a very competent English speaker, although my theory is a little weak. This is probably because I learned most of my English grammar through a lot of reading, and through studying other languages. I some how managed to miss most formal English training. I try my best, but expect me to make the occasional punctuation error, or to play a little fast and loose with the more obscure grammar rules. However, the Oxford Comma is pretty much a must. Seriously, people!

My Mandarin is pretty good, and combined with my skill in English, I feel very capable of translating most Chinese into English. However, I do not feel confident of my ability to generate an article in Chinese, and I can't handle Classical Chinese or highly technical language very well at all. I studied Latin extensively in high school, but unfortunately that was some time ago, and I fear I've probably slipped a bit. I can spot the really egregious errors, though.

Other Interests
I will edit stuff on video games, comics, and various fantasy, science fiction, and mythology stuff as I come across it. I know the last thing that Wikipedia needs is yet another pop-culture editor, but hey, it's fun, so I'ma do it.

Yep, well...
That's about it. If you want to know more, feel free to contact me. There is a good chance I will answer! Anyway, have a good one, all you happy Wikipedians out there.