About Me

Greetings. This is my page. I'll add more to it later, but this is just a start - to make sure I'm getting appropriate notices of updates to articles I'm contributing to.

My name is Kat, and I'm from the Quad Cities. I don't say I'm from the Illinois or Iowa sides of the QCA, because I've lived in most every town in the QCA, on both sides of the river. I'm a single mom of a 19 year old and daytime caretaker of my 3 year old nephew. I am a freelance web administrator for a non-profit in California, as well as operating a half-dozen small businesses out of my home - some with my sister and some without. No I am NOT an overachiever, it's just that I can't make enough money from any of the businesses yet, to justify getting rid of the others. My small businesses include (but are not limited to) side freelance web administration, writing and editing jobs; Ebay sales and consignment; making/selling gourmet cupcakes; selling craft items my sister and I concoct and selling niche items I find online. Looking into expanding my sales to adult toys soon - if you know of a good reliable wholesaler let me know.

I have also been a creative writer since I was about 7, and a technical writer since I was 16. My tech writing has included instruction manuals, white papers and knowledge base articles (in some cases the entire knowledge base). My creative writing has included screenplays, novels, humorous non-fiction books, short stories, erotic fiction and articles on everything from social media to physics.

While I have made small contributions to Wikipedia over the years, I am NOT a regular contributor and I don't remotely know all the rules and guidelines for Wikipedia. So please feel free to correct me if I do something incorrectly.

2019 UPDATE

I don't feel like doing a full edit job right now, so just a basic update. In August of 2018 I went back to college, to finish a degree I had to abandon 21 years earlier, for family and financial reasons. But because of my current health issues, I knew I couldn't work even a half-time job and go to school full-time. So, I am using a combination of grants and student loans to dedicate myself to finishing my degree as quickly as I can. The first semester of this journey, I took 16 credit hours, including a lab course in Astronomy. This was a mistake, and my body told me so. For the Spring of 2019 (which starts 1/14), I am only taking 12 credit hours. I am hoping that this will mean I have a bit more time to do things other than school - including catching up on my ever-growing list of personal Wiki-projects. But last semester I barely had time to do my actual schoolwork, much less anything else. And I still have a pile of notifications from Wikipedia pages I follow, that I haven't looked at yet. I am looking for small projects to help with, if anyone needs just someone to do some resource gathering or proofreading.

2023 UPDATE

I did complete my Associates degree in December of 2019, from Black Hawk College, and started at the local campus of Western Illinois University in January of 2020 - and then the world fell apart. In 2021 I had to step back from college again and focus on my health issues.

In November of 2022 I was diagnosed with severe spinal stenosis, and in March of 2023 I had major cervical spinal surgery (laminectomy and fusion). The recovery process is long (1-2 years in total) and I am struggling to find remote or part-time work that works within my current physical limitations - if you happen to know someone looking for a freelance writer, web content manager and/or virtual assistant, give me a shout.

Wikipedia Stuff

InWiki Milestones

Look how neat and tidy it is!

I just archived my own Talk page for the first time, using a combination of bot and manual processes. And boy, did it need cleaned up. But, as I've talked about elsewhere, I struggle with the instructions for so many processes and that they seem to assume that we all have a baseline understanding of coding and the Wiki CMS, that is not universal - even among seasoned editors who've been around for more than a decade.

But after completing my first ArbCom vote tonight (the accessibility issues I have with that is another discussion), and debating on volunteering for the Dispute Resolution team (WP:DRN), it felt like time I tackled that task. If you're an editor whose balked at doing your own archiving, but who wants some control over what is getting moved off to your archive pages, the semi-manual processes I used were a lot easier than I expected. The Archy McArchface tools are very simple to install and use, and adding Archive Headers to your existing Talk page and any Talk/Archive pages is a quick cut/paste of one short code each. CleverTitania (talk) 10:39, 10 December 2023 (UTC)

Stuff I (keep trying to) work on

Content

I'm currently trying to give my views on making the Breastfeeding article a more objective page. I've also been eyeing some updates to the As Yet Untitled article, including the actual titles arrived at during the episodes, and correcting the info box. But all in good time.

Wikimedia

I have been putting together a funding proposal for a project to expand and improve upon English Wikipedia articles about non-profit and public policy orgs with a specific goal of mandated scientifically accurate and inclusive comprehensive sexual education in all K-12 public schools. There are some amazing groups out there, who have been working to improve the sexual health and wellbeing of people for decades (even centuries), whose articles are barely more than stubs. I want to change that. I'd also like to add some articles on sexual education and comprehensive sexual education to the Simple English Wikipedia. Too many arguments on health topics are being driven by a lack of accurate information, and failures in our education system. I aim to change that.

Geek Cred

The first Browncoat(s)

This is something I've done: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Boradis#The_first_Browncoat

No, I'm not Boradis, but I am Mothermagi, which was my first consistent username on the web - before I moved to Yliandra, which was eventually hijacked by a World of Warcraft player. And like Boradis, as goofy as it is, I am proud to have this small claim to fame within the Jossverse. And because we didn't want to take credit for something we didn't originate, both he and I searched the old Prospero boards (before they were shut down) to confirm no one else had made the suggestion before we had.