User:Tstone11028

Who is this Tstone11028 anyway?
The username Tstone11028 belongs to me, Tyler Stone. I am currently a Junior at Georgia Southern University. Georgia Southern is the largest university in the southern half of the state. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time thus far at Georgia Southern and have met some great people. After attending a small private school in southern Georgia for fourteen years, Georgia Southern has been quite a change. One of my favorite aspects of the university is the various athletic teams. I have been to numerous sporting events at Paulson Stadium, Hanner Fieldhouse, and J.I. Clements Stadium. Twice this year I have heard "Number 1 goes down, number 1 goes down!" The football team defeated number one ranked Appalachian State in overtime, and the baseball team defeated the number one ranked Florida Gators, 7-0. I was the recipient of two scholarships entering my Freshman year at Georgia Southern, the HOPE Scholarship, and the 1906 Scholarship. The HOPE scholarship is awarded by the state of Georgia to students demonstrating scholastic achievement throughout high school. The 1906 Scholarship is a university scholarship given based on high academic standing, community involvement, essays, and an interview process. I am also a member of the University Honors Program at Georgia Southern. I am a Criminal Justice and Information Technology major with a 4.0, and I plan to work for either a state or federal investigative branch.

Okay, so what has this kid done?
Before this semester I had never edited or written anything on Wikipedia. I plan to become more involved with the encyclopedia if time permits. I uploaded my first, and only article, The Big Oak in March, and plan to continue improving it. Any feedback regarding the article would be greatly appreciated!

WTF is a computer?!
I consider myself to be above average in my technological proficiency. While I cannot write programs or code detailed web pages, I can perform many tasks that others struggle with. Initially I struggled with the Wikipedia coding, however the more time I spent using it, it began to make sense. I am proficient in all of the Microsoft Office programs, as well as Adobe Photoshop. I have been running OSX on my aluminum MacBook since February 2009, and have yet to have any problems. Even with thousands of songs and videos the performance has not noticeably changed. Safari is hands down my browser of choice. I do not have much experience with Google Chrome, but I am not much of a fan of Mozilla Firefox, and even less of a fan of Internet Explorer.

"Wikipedia is garbage research!"...Is it?
Nearly every student, regardless of what level, has heard something similar to this from a teacher or professor. The question is, are they right? I believe that to an extent Wikipedia can be useful in researching topics. However! I certainly don't think it should be used as the only resource, or even as a direct resource. Wikipedia is extremely useful in finding out surface details about a topic and establishing a direction to take your research. If you know nothing about a topic, a good place to start is Wikipedia because it gives you an overview of the subject, as well as other key words and topics that you can research to find out more about the topic. Another useful tool within Wikipedia is the ease of locating references someone used in their article. This is a good starting place when doing a research project if the references are of substantial quality (Journals, peer reviewed articles, etc.). I use Wikipedia often to find out information about movies, television shows, or musicians. While most of it is neutral and factual there is an occasional misstep. It is for this reason that you must take everything you read on Wikipedia with a grain of salt. The fact that ANYONE can edit or create articles is something I enjoy about Wikipedia. This allows for more diversity in the construction of an article. While articles are supposed to be written in an unbiased manner, they often are not. Thus, the ability of someone else to come along and edit the article allows for the same thing to be presented in a different way. Simply because someone challenges what you have to say does not make it right or wrong, and in the end can make you a more intelligent person. How someone acts when challenged reveals a lot to others.

Que hablas?
As a native of the United States I am an English speaking and writing student. I also have taken four years of Spanish, and thus can effectively communicate if necessary. I would not consider myself fluent by any means, however I can get by with Spanish speakers.

You haven't stopped reading this yet?
As a child I spent my afternoons fishing, hunting, or playing some type of sport outside. In a small South Georgia town you come out of the womb doing one of these things. At the ripe age of two weeks old I was being swapped with a fishing pole between my mother and uncle. More than twenty miles offshore in a 21 foot Mako boat, my parents were spending the day fishing for grouper in the Gulf of Mexico. Needless to say, fishing is in my blood. It is hard to say whether my first true love in life was fishing or Florida State Seminoles football. Growing up 45 minutes from Tallahassee, Florida, I spent many hours in Doak Campbell Stadium. In my opinion, the most beautiful sunsets in the world can be seen in my favorite place, Panacea, Florida. Many would argue places such as Sorrento, Italy. Fair point, but growing up spending weekends in Panacea, there is nothing like a Panacea sunset, and there never will be. Random fact about me? I have over 1,000 songs by/featuring Lil Wayne. Random things I enjoy:
 * My cat, Spanky
 * Deep sea fishing
 * Lil Wayne, Gorilla Zoe, Luke Bryan, Garth Brooks (plus about 500 more)
 * Aerosmith, Journey, Alabama, Creedance Clearwater Revival, and Lynyrd Skynyrd
 * Tosh.0, The Colbert Report, The Office, Jersey Shore, Sportscenter, and Top Shot
 * Sports and Shooter games for Xbox 360
 * Sports in any shape, form, or fasion
 * Friends and Family
 * Supporting the United States Military anyway I can

Random things that I detest
 * Slobs
 * People who do not respect veterans
 * Death Metal
 * Verne Lundquist
 * The Florida Gators
 * Cigarette smoke

And yes, I say "y'all," "fixin' to," "yes ma'am" and "yes sir." It's how my momma raised me, and it's how it'll always be.