User:Aus Chia

Welcome

Hello and welcome to my user page. I'm a long time fan of Wikipedia, and particularly like the underlying collaborative method, the idea that anyone can edit and contribute to Wiki articles, thus creating an impressively wide knowledge base, whilst simultaneously allowing mistakes to be quickly corrected by any knowledgeable reader.

As a newly registered editor and contributor, I'm still on a steep learning curve, and you're very welcome to leave me a message or any constructive advice. If you have any corrections or suggestions or discussions regarding my contributions, please don't hesitate to leave me a message.

Why I joined Wikipedia

I've enjoyed editing and adding to Wikipedia for many years now, albeit anonymously. I never considered registering and creating a personal account and username, until I discovered that my IP address was not unique to our home computer, but was an IP common to our ISP's proxy server, and thus was being shared amongst many individuals. Accordingly, I've now created my username here in order to be pseudonymously identifiable. And, after all, there are so many good reasons to register and create a Wikipedia account.

Some of my interests and specialties

As a Postgraduate in Palaeoanthropology and a PhD candidate in Archaeology, and with a double major in my First Class Honours degree in H.P.S. (History and Philosophy of Science) and Archaeology, I've made many additions to archaeological pages here at Wiki over the years. I'm currently specialising in Bronze Age archaeology, including of the Mediterranean, Aegean, Anatolia, the Indus Valley as well as Egyptology.

I completed my Honours thesis on the study of our classifications of hominid fossils, with a focus on Australopithecus and Homo habilis, the first species to be categorised in the Homo genus: my analyses encompassed the history of palaeoanthropology and taxonomy and biological classification as well as the realities of Systematic and Evolutionary Biology including utilising Cladistics. Accordingly, I've contributed to the Wiki articles on Homo habilis, including OH 7, amongst others, as well as Wikipedia's list of hominid fossils and the archaeologically significant geographic regions of Koobi Fora in modern day Kenya, Olduvai Gorge in modern day Tanzania, and the twentieth century archaeologists, Louis Leakey, Mary Leakey and Raymond Dart. I intend to begin a Wikipedia article on Donald Johanson's OH 62 fossil in the near future.

I'm also glad for my previous anonymous contributions to Wikipedia, before I became a registered user: as a classic film buff, some of my favourite past Wiki edits included corrections and additions to the articles on W. C. Fields, Laurel and Hardy and Mae Busch's origins from Australia's Melbourne (my home town).

As a wildlife and animal carer, I've improved various Wiki articles on animals including marsupials and monotremes as well as particularly on birds and frog species.

As a sex-positive woman, I've also contributed to Wiki articles on relevant issues of Human Sexuality, including Polyamory BDSM and Humanism.

I am also particularly interested in Philosophy, from the Classical Greek to the European Enlightenment (Age of Enlightenment) through Eastern philosophy (which can, additionally, be traced archaeologically as far back as Mesopotamia: Babylonian_literature#Philosophy), as well as Taoism and, most especially, Buddhism.

As as a musician (and dancer too) since childhood (keyboard, guitar and flute as well as music theory), as well as being a music fan (from classical to modern), I'm also rather happy with my descriptive interpretation of the lyrics of Lou Reed's "Perfect Day", as well as my additions to the articles on The Velvet Underground, John Cale, Joy Division, Roxy Music and Brian Eno.

And, as a professional writer, as well as an avid reader since childhood, I've corrected and added to Wiki pages on my science-fiction favourites, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Carl Sagan (also non-fiction of course), William Gibson (yes, his character inspired my username!), and interesting related genres such as cyberpunk and steampunk -- and on that note, do you see the cute similarities between H. G. Wells and Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events"?

I'll see you around Wikipedia, and look forward to it, Aus Chia (talk) 04:52, 26 January 2012 (UTC)