User:The Mad Echidna

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The courtroom was all hushed, they had all come to see the show,
To learn once more, for certain, about how such things go.
The bunyip, he was judge this time, he banged his mighty foot,
And they brought the Mad Echidna in, all clothed in chains and soot.

....but you can just call me Echidna, or else (The) Ekh.

My life, my wikiverse, my opinions on everything

I've studied lots of stuff, and have a maths degree. I've also been a member of the Baha'i Faith since 1990.

Whatever the heck it is that I actually do, I would always prefer to be doing philosophy. I like Plato, Aristotle, Kant and Schopenhauer (the most quotable of the great philosophers). My wiki interests centre around the Ref. Desks, especially Humanities and Language, and from there I follow any interesting links. When I came across Wikipedia, I thought it was an unbelievably cool idea, but I found the ref desks to be the jewel in the crown. Humanities is awesome.

Ref Desk stuff: watch empty rhetoric, don't engage with crackpots or troublemakers, don't argue. It's easier to make enemies than friends on the net.

Most of my interests are intellectual, and I always value the opinions of critics and experts. I also like lots of quirky stuff from here and there (like 80s pop). I'm even into some really trashy stuff, like Melrose Place, though it was curious how death had such a low mortality rate there. I also found the show made more sense if you assumed they'd all been abducted by aliens, so when they returned them to earth, they gave them back the wrong personalities. Alison ends up with Amanda's personality, Amanda ends up with Brooke's personality, and Brooke ends up without a personality, because the aliens just didn't give her one.

I have some ambitions to become a writer, but don't expect anything literary. My favourite opening line is: "I don't know what it was about beauty queens that made me want to go round throwing bricks through the windows of sports cars."

As an editor, I stick to odd jobs (basically a wikignome). Also, as an Australian, I don't think New Zealand satisfies WP:Notability.

Musically, I worship Bob Dylan, but I also like a lot of classical music, especially the "early" kind. Ockeghem is what they play in the afterlife.

(Some) Books i've read: Middlemarch, Pride and Prejudice, Crime and Punishment (for Lit. in h/s), Kangaroo. Also some of Plato's dialogues, notably the Phaedrus. Aristotle convinces you, but Plato hypnotises.

Stuff I'm planning to read: Paradise Lost (this is a biggie), The Decline and Fall (wishful thinking), all of Plato, most of Aristotle, Schopenhauer's classic The World as Will and Representation, a plain English version of The Critique of Pure Reason, The Guide for the Perplexed (maybe), about half of Shakespeare, Suite Francaise, Romola (and other George Eliot), anything by Mirza Abu'l Fadl, and a whole host of other stuff. I also want to learn Italian to read the Divine Comedy, Arabic for the Qur'an, and Latin for the Classics. The only other language apart from English I speak is a bit of French. I can almost understand the French news with David Pujadas.

On the state of modern English, read [1]. I don't think it says anything deep, but looks like a worthwhile manifesto. Our language is even worse today. No one actually "does" anything anymore. They "action" things. This extraordinary style was parodied in the Weasel Words Diary in Australia, which notes significant historical anniversaries, in a style adapted to the modern workplace: "Anglo-French Dardanelles strategy for regime change in Ottoman Empire flawed by inappropriate planning and non-level playing field, impacting adversely on non-enemy attriting levels, requiring proactive implementation of exit strategy and ANZAC legend."

Specific English gripes: "as such" is not a synonym for "therefore". You don't go "There is five apples on the table."

Some favourite quotes:

Golf commentator: "Never in the history of this tournament has it been won three times. It's been won four times, it's been won twice, but not three times."

Trudeau on Nixon (who called him "that asshole"): "I've been called worse things by better people."

1st Earl of Birkenhead on Churchhill: "He spent his whole life practising his impromptu speeches."

My youngest brother on minor Australian 90s band The Sharp: "They were what I call a 'no-hit wonder' band."

Actual legal quote (my favourite all-time anything): "Your Honour, my client's not a druggie. He was never going to use these drugs." "Oh really?" "No - he was only going to sell them!"

My ultimate gripe of the day: wouldn't it be great if the people who ran this show were just a little bit less ideological about enforcing freedom of speech on us? Even so, I think we should be very thankful to Jimbo and the crew, I just wish they'd tone the attitude down a little.

So nice of you to drop in, and hope to see you at the ref. desk.

Contents 1 Other Links 2 Experimental mucking about with userboxes 3 More requested userboxes 4 My Resolutions

[edit] Other Links

Language

Tsarstruck: [2]

Automatic complaint generator: type in the name of an organisation you hate, ask for 2 paragraphs (it loses its flavour after that) and wait about 2 seconds. [3]

[edit] Experimental mucking about with userboxes

I don't think much of userboxes, but I've chucked some in here to just get used to how to do them.

[edit] More requested userboxes

This loser once joined a Communist organisation - until he found out what it was.
This user...
...pulls cream biscuits apart before eating them.
...thinks the Titanic had a hole in it to start with.
...thinks Creation Science is a difficult subject.
...is sick of "low fat".
...doubts whether the tortoise could have beaten the hare, even under ideal conditions.
...believes the film Independence Day made perfect sense.
...thinks Goldilocks should've got 5 years, and not been allowed to sell her story.
...can tell a known unknown from an unknown known.
...thinks anything sounds better with a Scottish accent.
...believes he does need a hole in his head - to breathe.
...blames his childhood.

[edit] My Resolutions

• I will refrain from saying global conflict situations can be solved over a cup of tea.
• I will refrain from saying that coffee (other than cappucino) makes them worse. (I do, however, believe that coffee is a sinister drink, and people who have short blacks in particular are more likely to vote for a far right wing political party, and more likely to belt their kids.)