User:Thehappysmith
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I suppose I might dress up this page a bit, though I'm hardly worth it. If you ever bump into a thehappysmith anywhere on the net, it's me (you can reach me at thehappysmith@yahoo.com, among other places). When your name is Smith, if you find a UserID you can use that actually includes your name, you keep it for life.
I found Wikipedia by doing a google search for some forgotten thing round about December of 2003, and started editing articles about a month before I actually logged in as thehappysmith. At the time I mostly concentrated on articles relating to small towns in Texas, the state I'd just moved from to arrive at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida. Though a long-time Floridian, I've found Tampa doesn't suit my humble tastes (it's much too big) and was pining for Texas at the time. I once made a controversial edit to Vidalia, Georgia, because the stock census bureau information regurgititated in that article indicated that Vidalia was in a county other than the county it's actually in. I find that sometimes the facts on the ground contradict the published facts, but this as frequently trips up military commanders as it does encyclopedia contributors so I don't think anyone should feel humbled by it.
My first real article was on Lawton Chiles; since then, to my surprise, most of my articles have been on marginally important historical political figures, mostly but not exclusively from the South. I believe I've written the most comprehensive encyclopedic article on Erastus Corning to be found anywhere outside of the Cornell University library; this corrected a most glaring oversight, and it is my favorite article, though Lord knows there's more to add if anyone would like to. One afternoon during deployment I wrote about a dozen stubs on the few remaining U.S. National Parks without articles. Since then I've been happy to see real articles created about several of those parks. I also wrote the port-a-john article, but, sadly, no one has seen any need to add to it. I started the article on Clearbrook, Virginia, which is the farming community my family hails from and has rather an interesting history if I could ever get around to tapping the appropriate references.
Lately I've been wandering through the semi-obscure parts of American History and fixing any red links I find that point to people. At this point my plans are to add as many articles on semi-obscure historical people as I can, and expand those I've already written or that exist only as stubs, but this requires more research time than I have in a normal workday. I am a qualified KC-135 pilot for the United States Air Force, but though I do love the flying, most days I'm just a paper-pusher and while it keeps me busy I do not enjoy the work in the slightest. Perhaps someday I'll get a real aviation job, though I imagine I'll have to leave the Air Force first.
Though I almost exclusively edit articles about history-makers and geographical locations (I truly detest the census data that passes for most of our articles about U.S. cities and counties), lately I've been reading about particle physics and quantum mechanics, in particular the consequences of the Everett many-worlds interpretation, for which I've been finding the most interesting uses. If I ever get a full-time cat (pets are impossible in the Air Force), I intend to name it Schrodinger.
In my spare time--which I've not had any of in months--I travel about the country photographing county courthouses , and enjoy hiking and kayaking in our many fine state and national parks. I write short stories and am working on a novel in the hopes that writing will one day become my primary work. Perhaps one day in the distant future I'll get to write the Wikipedia article about myself, if I can think of anything more to say.
