User:Kyoko/Redesign

_{♪     AfD     AIV     AN     ANI     Barnstars     CITE     CSD     DEAD     Edit counts 1, 2     FAC     Footnotes     GAC     MfD     MOS     NOT     Peer review     Pictures     Reach out     RfA 1, 2     RfC     RFPP     Status indicator     Stress alerts    Stub types     Templates 1, 2     Userboxes     Vandalism     Wikipe-tan
This page was originally designed by Sango123. I have extensively modified it, using some code by Fang Aili and Tdxiang.}

[edit] Hello...

I'm Kyoko, formerly known as Tachikoma. I'm a 20-something woman from Montréal who currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. My father's from Japan, and my mother's from Québec, and I am proud of my combined heritage. I speak English very fluently, French pretty fluently, and Japanese very badly. I also contribute to the French and Simple English Wikpedias.

I try to always treat others in a kind and compassionate manner. If you feel that I have hurt your feelings through my own incivility, please tell me. I also try to be accurate in my contributions, but I am well aware that I make mistakes, so please fix my errors and tell me, that I might learn from them.

— Kyoko

[edit] Some topics of interest

• Pulmonary hypertension or PH, something I've been forced to learn about because I was diagnosed with the idiopathic form of the disease in 2006. PH is a serious, progressive, and potentially life-threatening condition that affects the lungs and by extension, the heart. Among its symptoms are shortness of breath, dizziness, and fatigue, particularly during exertion. Just by looking at me when I'm at rest, you wouldn't be able to tell that I'm anything other than healthy. It helps that I'm otherwise pretty physically fit. Without any treatment, I would be at class III on the NYHA scale, meaning that even ordinary activities would be exhausting, but medicines allow me to lead a near-normal life, with some limitations. My own experience has prodded me to rewrite part of Wikipedia's article about PH, as well contribute towards related topics. I try not to concentrate solely on these articles, though. I don't want to let PH define who I am, or in other words, I am a person and not a disease.

• Lung transplantation and heart-lung transplants, which are the only definitive cures for my form of PH. I hope never to progress to the point where I require a transplant, because to be brutally honest, I'm a poor transplant candidate, and the whole transplant process scares me. I wrote the initial version of the lung transplant article, as well as the related articles on the lung allocation score and the ventilation/perfusion scan. I'm also interested in organ transplantation in general.

• Cystic fibrosis or CF, something I became interested in because someone with CF once went to the same school I did. CF is a common, life-threatening hereditary disease that is characterised by breathing difficulties, lung infections, sinus infections, poor growth, diarrhea, and possible infertility. The article on CF is a featured article, but I only had a small part in its development. Whenever I get around to it, I might translate more content from its French Wikipédia article as well as from other languages.

• Literature, especially Quebec literature and French literature. What can I say? I love to read. I wrote significant portions of the articles on The Count of Monte Cristo and Norwegian Wood. I've also contributed a bit towards The Tale of Genji. I am currently working on a number of articles medieval and Renaissance literature. I'm collaborating with another editor with Orlando furioso, and I'm doing some solo work about the medieval poet Marie de France, who is perhaps best known for her lais:

Guigemar Equitan Le Fresne ('The Ash Tree') Bisclavret ('The Werewolf') Lanval Les Deux Amanz ('The Two Lovers')

Yonec Laüstic ('The Nightingale') Milun Chaitivel ('The Four Sorrows') Chevrefoil ('The Honeysuckle') Eliduc

• Anime. My favourite series of all time is Fullmetal Alchemist. I also enjoy Bleach, InuYasha, and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.

• Music. I listen to all sorts of music, with the exception of rap and hip-hop, though I do like some of Eminem's stuff. Most of my iPod's contents are classical music, pop music and rock music, with a little country music as well. I particularly love most anything by Bach, as well as the musicals Chess and Rent. Among other things, I hope to eventually improve the articles on the operas Le Devin du Village by the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Atys by Jean-Baptiste Lully, mostly because they're fairly obscure and have little Wikipedia content right now. I'm happy to have helped bring the operas Agrippina and Orfeo ed Euridice to Good Article status, and the list of major opera composers to Featured List status.

• Battlestar Galactica. The reimagined version of BSG is perhaps my favourite TV show. I'm proud of having written much of the content about the episodes Exodus (Part Two), Torn, and The Passage.

• translating missing content from French Wikipédia to English Wikipedia and vice versa. Many of the medicine-related articles in particular need improvement and/or creation on French Wikipédia.
• improving articles related to medicine, especially in the areas of pulmonology, nephrology, and cardiology.

This last project is something I feel pretty strongly about. Many of the Wikipedia articles relating to medicine and science seem to be written towards a doctor's or scientist's point of view, rather than that of a patient or interested layperson. I do not want to "dumb down" the articles, just make them more understandable to everyone, without diluting their scientific content.

It's a hard task to accomplish, because as I've said on the Science reference desk, using scientfic jargon saves time for people who are already familiar with the field, while it confuses or frustrates others. You may have noticed in my own contributions to scientific and medical articles that I tend to lapse into more formal and jargon-filled language because it allows both precision and brevity, so I'm just as guilty as anyone of that. Even so, I truly feel that Wikipedia should be for everyone, both novices and experts, and I hope that there is some middle ground that will satisfy everybody.

[edit] My streak of melancholy...

...is partially due to clinical depression, a common mental illness that is still widely misunderstood by those who have never experienced it.

I hate how this depression has come to dominate my life. After bouts of depression as a teenager, I thought I had gotten better, but last year, the depression came back in a major way. I hate it, and I hate myself for being this way.

I've written about my suicide attempt last year in the hope that it will educate people how depression feels like, and chip away at the social stigma that discourages many people from seeking treatment. If you or someone you know is depressed, I strongly urge you to seek professional help. There is hope!

[edit] Overall mood

I guess I'm feeling somewhat better regarding online matters, though a lot of real life problems are affecting my overall mood. I'm trying not to allow these various stresses to affect how I speak or act towards other people, but sometimes I make mistakes, so please forgive me if I slip up.

While I won't turn down messages of support, there are other people who need them far more than me right now. I'm particularly saddened to hear of  $PЯINGrαgђ 's losses, because he has lost two of the people he loves the most. It's not fair, and he shouldn't have to go through all that.

Please also send a kind word to Editor at Large^(speak), a dear friend who is under a lot of stress right now.

I'm also sad to see that Elaragirl^Talk|Count has chosen to leave Wikipedia. While it seems that many people disagreed with her views on deletion and her choice of language, I thought that she was a valuable contributor to Wikipedia in her own way, and I'll miss her. I understand why she chose to leave, and I'm not going to beg her to stay. I don't think she should be pestered by pleas to return. It's her choice. As she once said, "there is fighting, hate, and discord on Wikipedia," and sometimes I'm tempted to leave myself. I also want to add that in my view, it was very insensitive to nominate her memorial page to departed friends for deletion.

Other people who need your support include Peter, and Hildan.

There are so many people who are hurting. Please God, help them all.

In memory of Anne and David; Sophie, Reena, Jennifer and Hannah; Jenna, Alfred, Matthew and Windy; Iris and all those we have loved and lost.

[edit] Thought of the day indeterminate period of time

Don't take your organs to Heaven, Heaven knows we need them here!
Please consider becoming an organ and tissue donor.

[edit] Did you know?

April is National Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Month.

[edit] Subpages

User and talk page header
Awards I have been given
Sandbox for userpage redesign
Why I left Esperanza
Userboxes about me and Wikipedia
My entry on editor review, if you are inclined to review me
My Esperanza template
Thank you message
Thank you message 2
Reference pages so I don't have to search the main help files
Sandbox for my Tale of Genji project (postponed until another reading)
Sandbox for my L'Abyssin project (sort of on the back burner)
Userboxes that I have created
Welcome message for newcomers
Welcome message for anonymous users
Javascript tools
List of custom warnings