more about me
I've been using Wikipedia under this username since, I believe, March '06; I'd been doing small edits anonymously for a few months before that.
I use the name Switchercat on the Simple English Wikipedia (here) and on the Wikimedia Commons (here), as well as on this Wikipedia. Incidentally, I'm also "Switchercat" on PaganWiki ([1]) and LiveJournal (here). My personal website is absurdism.org.
I own an actual barnstar, and have had it before I even knew they existed on Wikipedia. It's hung up on my wall next to my shrine.
some biases
- Regarding religion: I am a polytheist, though I have a fairly abstract/confusing definition of "god." I disapprove of pagans who don't research their religions seriously, and I'm skeptical—though not against—eclecticism. I'm not anti-Abrahamic religions. I came from a Reconstructionist Jewish background, learned enough about Wicca to know it wasn't for me (and enough to rewrite the Simple English Wikipedia article!) and am currently (as I wrote before) a Kemetic recon.
- Regarding LGBT issues and gender: I believe that gender exists and is real, but that it isn't binary, and transgenderism of any kind (or agenderism) is legitimate and normal. I strongly support equal rights for LGBT people, both sexual and social. I am personally leery of whether polyamory "works" or not, but I do not believe it's morally wrong.
- Regarding therianthropy and otherkin (this gets into the weird territory...): I identify as partly leopard, making me a therian and otherkin. I'm generally skeptical about most people in both communities, but I believe that it's quite possible to be of another species (though not physically).
- Regarding linguistics: I am a descriptivist regarding spoken and written language, but (hypocritically) I'm biased against a lot of internet slang, especially the parts of it that are not transferable to everyday speech. I don't like certain spelling changes, like using the wrong "it's/its," because they aren't standardized among the error-makers—suggesting that they're more a problem of laziness than an evolutionary change in the language.
- Miscellanea:
- I support (and have three times won) NaNoWriMo. I don't think it necessarily produces bad writing, and even when it does, it's just for fun. No harm done.
- I tend to call the ancient Egyptian (Kemetic) deities by their Egyptian names, instead of their Greco-Roman ones, and follow the Kemetic Orthodox renaming standards: Wesir instead of Osiris, Yinepu instead of Anubis, so on.
- I am pro-choice.
- I'm a smell-touch synesthete.
- I think body art is cool, even when people sport lots of it, and particularly like stretched piercings.