User:Cluth

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[edit] Profile

This user is from Alaska.
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en This user is a native speaker of English.
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I'm a senior at the University of Alaska Anchorage in Anchorage, Alaska, and I plan on graduating in May, 2008. I'm primarily studying journalism (broadcast emphasis, though I originally started out doing print) but I'm also in the professional piloting program (as of this writing, I had almost completed my private pilot's license but for various reasons put training on hold). I worked on the Alaska Railroad during the summer of 2006 as a brakeman, but when the normal seasonal layoff didn't work as planned, I resigned so that I could finish school, and I returned to my job in customer service at a rental car agency (though they've since made me a manager, which may entice me to stay with them longer than I had planned). I'm also an audio engineer. I used to be on staff at ChangePoint, Alaska's largest church, as the lead sound engineer and systems manager and now remain on their volunteer audio team. I've also mixed for various other organizations in Anchorage.

Although I originally hail from California and may plan to end up back there eventually, I love Alaska and think that everyone should visit at least once. I finally made it in August, 2007 to all 50 states in the U.S. plus Washington, D.C., and I've been to seven provinces and two territories in Canada and to 38 countries in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. Last year I traveled Down Under where I performed with 200 people at the Sydney Opera House under Eric Whitacre--what an experience. I would love to return and discover more of the what that part of the world has to offer.

I love travel, transportation and technology, and I enjoy sharing my love of them. I hope my enthusiasm for these subjects comes through in my contributions. I'm still not 100% sure yet if I'd like to go back to a railroad, continue training as a pilot, be a travel writer, a traveling independent video producer, or all of the above. I'm leaning toward that last one.

[edit] Major Wikipedia Contributions

Projects
Peer review This user is a member of WikiProject Alaska.
This user is a member of the Trains WikiProject

Somehow, they usually seem to fall under three main categories:

  • Travel
Alaska - Started the Transportation section and contributed information about air, car, ferry and railroad travel in Alaska as well as a brief overview of dog mushing.
Alaska Permanent Fund - Added information about the proposed change to the Percent of Market value approach
Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend - Created article and wrote stub with overview and history
Alaska Railroad - Contributed information on routes and scenery
Cook Inlet - Added info on Turnagain Arm tides and Turnagain/Knik Arm mudflats
  • Transportation
Railroads
Glendale train crash - Added miscellaneous details and a link to the Los Angeles Times's collection of articles
Direct traffic control - Started article! See the first [bad] version here
Flashing rear-end device - Two-way FREDs and Wilma (HOT) devices
Railway signalling#Signaling in the U.S. - Completely rewrote and vastly expanded section. The whole article still needs work, though.
Air brake (rail) - Contributed information on emergency applications. The article, including my contributions, still needs significant reorganization and copyediting.
EMD SD70 series - the nicer, newer of the Alaska Railroad's engines
EMD 710 - the engine used in the SD70-series. Started table and put the Expert template on it--the engine designations are alphabet soup!
EMD GP49 - a model of engine that the Alaska Railroad has but no one else does. I started a stub...
North American railway signaling - Preexisting stub. I copied my contributions and some other info from the railway signalling article to this one.
  • Technology
Cable television - Contributed detailed information about digital cable telephony
General Communications (GCI) - Another article had a reference to GCI, so I created a stubbed entry with a brief overview of the company
Mobile phone - Contributed information about mobile phone usage on aircraft
(This information was later moved to Mobile phones on aircraft)

But also these:

  • Politics
  • Religion
  • Other
Spectacor Management Group - Created article and pasted list of SMG-managed properties. (Shouldn't be a copyvio--it's just a list of cities and arenas). Surprising the article didn't previously exist--it seems to be a fairly large company.

Real-time list of contributions

Also check out WikiTravel:User:Cluth and WikiNews:User:Cluth. I've begun to contribute over there as well.

[edit] Other Interesting Articles

Here are some other articles which I have found especially fascinating. These are in addition to the ones I've contributed to above. These are ones that I either haven't had time to contribute to or really don't need contributions.

  • Travel
  • Transportation
  • Technology
  • Politics
  • Religion
Transformationalism
Neo-evangelicalism

[edit] To Do

Cluth is busy in real life and may not respond swiftly to queries.
This user is a member of WikiProject Trains, a WikiProject which aims to expand coverage of rail transport on Wikipedia.
Image:Evolution-tasks.png Open tasks for Wikipedia:WikiProject Alaska.

Edit or discuss these tasks.

Shortcuts: Recent changes | Categories | History
Image of list with checkmark and clipboard See also Wikipedia:WikiProject Trains/Todo
Review:
Improve: Abergele train disaster · EMD F9 · Iraqi Republic Railways · Pacific Railway Acts · Victorian Railways
Requested images: Abiko Station (Osaka) · EMD SD35 · John W. Barriger III · Penrose Train Station · Venkatanarasimharajuvaripeta
Expand: ALCO RS-11 · Diesel Locomotive Works · Ferrocarril Sonora-Baja California · Mineral wagon · Palace on Wheels
Improve references: 2-8-2 · Fairlie · InterCity (British Rail) · Rack railway · Utrecht Centraal
Write: Congo-Malaysia-Korea Consortium · East Siberian Railway · Mito Railway · Red for Danger · Yosemite Valley Railroad

There are a large number of articles that need to be written giving an overview of rail transport by country. Please take some time to check Rail transport by country to see which articles still need to be started.

New article ideas

DTAG (Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group)
User:Cluth/International_economics
User:Cluth/Copyright law for church worship pastors

Existing articles or stubs to expand

Sound reinforcement system
Eric Whitacre
Tom Bodett
California State Route 46
Wikipedia:WikiProject California State Highways
Cellular One

Specific information contributions

Anchorage, Alaska
  • Suburban growth not as carefully planned out, lack of zoning (research this)
  • Warm weather -> lots of outdoor activities: walking, biking, horse riding, etc. -- out-of-towners come and wear fleece, locals are in tank tops
Rank
  • Add Salvation Army
National LambdaRail
  • What it is: wavelength control, etc. (I just watched a 1 hour lecture on it, and that was more informative than this article!)
Salvation Army
  • Make more NPOV (less like an Army PR statement)--facts are good but the wording makes lots of assumptions
  • Organizational data (THQ, DHQ, quasi-military command structure--Lieutenant Commanders, Majors, Captains, etc.)
  • Subsection on rank to link to from Rank
Worship band
  • Newer popular songs?
Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport
  • New terminal information
  • USPS "hub" is actually called...? (Refer to USPS Web site or USPS to double check)
Olive Garden
  • Culinary Institute of Tuscany
Air brake (rail)
  • Emergency vs. Service applications

Copy editing

Manga
Mobile phones on aircraft
Clownfish (capitalization and other grammatical stuff)
Gear ratio
DACS (Digital Access Carrier System)
Short Message Service
Short Circuit
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge
PNG
San Marcos Pass
Head of Government
Sam Cooke
Railway signalling - article organization, mediocre writing
Authorization hold - clean up, new headings, expand with technical details; link from other financial articles or integrate into credit card article?


[edit]

Here are some tasks you can do:

[edit] Links

  • University of Alaska Anchorage
  • Alaska links
  • Other travel links
  • Let's Go - travel guides for travelers on the cheap (that is, poor college students like me)
  • Lonely Planet - travel guides for adventurous, budget-oriented travelers
  • Rick Steves - travel guides for budget-oriented travelers who want one step above a youth hostel
  • Other links