User:Antandrus

This page looks best at 1280 x 1024px resolution or higher. {| cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width: 100%; background-color: #f9f9f7; vertical-align: top;" {| style="width:100%; margin-bottom:.5em; font-size:95%; text-align:left; padding:-2px; background:none" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"  View from Gaviota Peak, southeast into Santa Barbara Channel; I grew up somewhere within this picture. I've been a Wikipedia contributor since 2004, and an administrator there since 2005, and more recently began contributing to Wikivoyage, which is one of the friendliest and most practically useful of the Wikimedia projects -- certainly for those who like to visit new places. And I am one of those people.
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I have always been a road-tripper. Give me some days off and a full tank of gas and I'll go drive somewhere and find something new to see and do, whether it is a city or a mountain that needs to be climbed. Give me a few weeks and I'll travel across the country (I'm from the United States) or into places adjacent (Canada is big and inviting, and Mexico an endless fascination). I've been in every one of the US states except Alaska (and hope to remedy that soon) as well as most Canadian provinces, and I have also lived in multiple US cities.

Wikivoyage allows a level of freedom in writing that is refreshing to a long-term Wikipedian. If you have seen and experienced something on a journey, you may write about your experiences directly, as long as it is in a way that benefits another person traveling to that destination. Being able to write without violating the "no original research" rule is almost dizzying at first, but very freeing. Were you stunned by the view from a specific mountaintop? Say so. Did the ocean turn orange in the sunset with the islands purple behind? Did dolphins dance behind the boat? Was it magical, and did it make life a thing of wonder, at that moment? Communicate that, so others can some day enjoy it as well.

I have a doctorate in music, but have studied a lot of other things; those interests may emerge in some form on this site as well.