User:VatoFirme

Howdy.

Stuff I know about

I have a Masters in Fine Art, a B.S. in art and a certificate in LGBT studies, all from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

So obviously I know art and art history, but also I've taken great classes at UW-Madison on some subjects that unfortunately don't get a lot of attention in the mainstream, such as African art history and Native American studies, and I hope to put all the textbooks I've accumulated over the years to use on some wikipedia pages some day.

I study mythology/religion/folklore in my free time, and I'm especially interested in how values and traditions intersect with popular culture. Lately I've been studying evolution, both in a scientific context and how it has been treated in fiction (e.g. Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker series). I've been studying up on Richard Dawkins' meme theory, and I find it very compelling. Like Dawkins I'm an atheist and I've noticed there is a ton of misunderstanding and stereotypes about atheists. Faith is belief without evidence. I prefer evidence to faith. Evidence doesn't change depending on where you were born or what you were brought up to believe.

I've been a gamer all my life, and know quite a bit about the history of video games. Remember Rygar for the NES? Classic. I'm also a fanatical Smash Bros. addict and a big Silent Hill fan (I have an account over at the Silent Hill wiki as well: http://silenthill.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page)

My editing style

I just try to be logical and fair. I'm interested in reason and objective facts. I'm not interested in people trying to pass their subjective opinions or spiritual beliefs off as literal truth. I definitely don't think NPOV means you should balance every point from one side of an issue with a point from the opposing side, because there is the matter of claims having different weights according to their reliability.

Most of the time I just clean up grammar and spelling errors. In my short time here I've come to hate the word "however" and how it is overused in so many articles (and I often catch myself using it too, I'll be the first to admit it!). I habitually put two spaces after a period but I'm trying to train myself not to, because it seems to me that the practice is falling out of style.