Wikipedia

EyeSerene

Joined 11 September 2006


reminders

Admin Copyedits Reviews Milhist Other
Hill 262 (polishing) Academy development

Today's motto...

Everything I need to know I learned from Wikipedia.

EyeSerene

The pretentious bit:

Who is EyeSerene?

EyeSerene
EyeSerene

A being breathing thoughtful breath; a traveller between life and death...

Why EyeSerene?

To truly appreciate the tapestry we walk though, we must see the colours and threads of that tapestry.

Seeing is both a passive and an active process—at its most basic, we simply pick up reflected photons that tell us about the physical shape of our surroundings. But of course it is much more than that. In those second-hand images we detect all the nuances of interaction that shape our lives. Love, hate, joy, sorrow, pleasure and pain—they are all somehow present, carried by the photons at a level beyond the merely physical.

So what is the carrier wave, the element that can propagate through a well-understood natural phenomenon? What causes us to feel connected when we catch another's gaze? How can emotions be stirred by minute electrical signals from the receptor cells in our eyes?

In a word, I believe the answer is empathy.


Passing through the tapestry, we feel the texture of certain threads, and on a visceral level learn the way in which they affect us, for good or evil. Interactions are based on experience: on the processing of photons. As that processing occurs, seeing becomes active. Our memory of the threads we have touched colours the active processes taking place, and triggers appropriate (or inappropriate) reactions within us.

And serenity? Where does that come in? For me, serenity is the ability to appreciate both the passive and active components involved in seeing the tapestry I am travelling through. It is pausing to consider my response before reacting to a signal: learning to empathise. Naturally some signals provoke a response that can be fairly called involuntary, and the processing I do on the photons I pick up is coloured by the beliefs and principles I hold dear. All the same, I hold serenity as a worthy mark to aim for.

EyeSerene is the quest for self-knowledge; the capacity to touch others and be touched in return. It is inner calmness in the face of outer chaos. It finds hope in its failings, and mocks its own seriousness. It sees the world as it really is... and smiles.

Riiight... who is EyeSerene really?

Really? Okay then.

I currently live in South Wales, close to some of the best beaches in Britain. A few years ago I sidestepped out of the formal education system, where I taught Physics, Maths, ICT and Technology, into the world of private training. Now I train engineering apprentices and have drifted into the role of a health and safety practitioner.

Aside to my professional life, I'm married to a long-suffering (and very wonderful, in case you're reading this) wiki-widow, and have managed to father two more-or-less normal children. I have a longtime interest in the written word, and for my own enjoyment have penned a couple of novels. Who knows, maybe I'll even try to get them published one day...


My favourite local beach: Three Cliffs Bay on the Gower Peninsula
My favourite local beach: Three Cliffs Bay on the Gower Peninsula

Before going into teaching, I served in the Army. My degree was read at the Royal Military College of Science, Shrivenham, where I also indulged another lifelong passion of mine: military history. It is often the case that it takes a conflict to bring out both the best and worst in people—for any observer of human nature, it's a fascinating field.

interests on Wikipedia

...so what do I do on here? (apart from waste far too much time wikisurfing)

Where to start? The quality of our encyclopedia is very important to me, so much of my on-wiki article work relates to improving or assessing content. Over the years I've been involved with the Good Article WikiProject, the FA-Team, and most recently the military history WikiProject. I welcome any queries or comments in this area; if I can't help, the chances are I'll know someone who can!

In my caretaker role, I respond to vandalism reports on the AIV noticeboard, can sometimes be found on the Administrator's notice board, and will help out elsewhere when the need arises. I have a fairly low tolerance for anything that detracts from the efforts of our article-writers and productive contributors, but I try to be fair and even-handed. If you feel I've treated you unjustly, let me know—most things can be sorted out through a little patience, goodwill, and willingness to communicate ;)

I refuse to edit-war, assume good faith, and believe the principle "do no harm" is an excellent one to edit by. Wikipedia can be many things: amusing, frustrating, exhilarating, overwhelming, uplifting and challenging... but, so far, it's always been fun — and that's the way it always should be.

Finally, if you want to remind yourself how far we've all come, click here (can be slow to load). This is Wikipedia's front page on 27 July 2001, boasting of over 6000 articles! From small acorns indeed...

milestones

My editing milestones on Wikipedia

useful stuff

Links, hints, tips and tricks

to do

Inspiration for when I'm at a loose end

Expand Prefab Sprout and get to GA

Copyedit of Deathstalker (novel) - in progress

Copyedit of The Gap Cycle

wikihumour

Proposed site tag lines:

  • Wikipedia: a community, not a crazy den of pigs.[1]
  • Wikipedia: a mastercool hoggish plaza of truth or reality.[2]

Misc:

userboxes

...and why not?

This user is a coordinator of the Military history WikiProject.
This user has a Triple Crown.
"…"?This user thinks "British punctuation is best for quotation marks". Do you?
UKThis user uses British English.
If you're going for FA, if no-one else can help, and if you can find reliable sources, then maybe you can hire this user.
This user is a participant in WikiProject Good Articles.
talk | Changes log | GAN report
This user watches over Wikipedia with the help of Twinkle!
This user is a member of
WikiProject Military history.
This user assumes good faith.
This user is a member of the GA Project quality task force.
AIM-AbleThis user understands AIM talk perfectly well, but does not seriously use it. Ever.
;) This user likes to wink a lot, usually by the combination of a parenthesis and semicolon, but sometimes with a pretty graphic.
This user reserves the right to completely screw up their own edits.
’sThi's user know's that not every word that end's with s need's an apostrophe and will remove misused apostrophe's from Wikipedia with extreme prejudice.

fridge door

Somewhere to stick stuff I'm proud of ;)

This user helped promote Operation Epsom to featured article status.
This user helped promote Battle of Barrosa to featured article status.
This user helped promote Battle of Albuera to featured article status.
This user helped promote Glorious First of June to featured article status.
This user helped promote Henry Peel Ritchie to good article status.
This user helped promote Black Brunswickers to good article status.
This user helped promote Battle of Albuera to good article status.
This user helped promote El Señor Presidente to good article status.
I'm an awesome Wikipedian!
I'm an awesome Wikipedian!
This user has been identified as an Awesome Wikipedian and was awarded their own day.
The Barnstar of Good Humor You just made me laugh after two hours of reverting vandalism and spam. And seeing lots of "thanks!" in your talk page, I don't see why you don't deserve one of those. Ivansanchez 18:17, 24 August 2007 (UTC)
The Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar For your extraordinary thoughtfulness, kindness, and supporting mentoring of members of WP:MMM. Thank you and, again, thank you! jbmurray (talk|contribs) 08:30, 19 March 2008 (UTC)
Barnstar of Murder, Madness, and Mayhem On behalf of Murder, Madness, and Mayhem, this barnstar is to thank you for your hard work and patience in motivating, mentoring, and moulding the work of student editors, and helping them to achieve excellence in research and writing. For your dedication, patience, encouragement, kindness, good humour, and tireless copy-editing. Thank you so much!

On behalf of the entire class of UBC's SPAN312. --jbmurray (talk|contribs) 00:35, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

The Original Barnstar Thank-you for you poignant suggestions, copyediting, all-around good humour, willingness to help, & general excellence while going through the GA Review Process with Battle of Verrieres Ridge (and in helping me get the final few tweaks necessary to get it to GA-Class). It has been greatly appreciated. Cheers! Cam (Chat) 05:27, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
The WikiChevrons For thoughtful and high quality copy-editing of countless military history articles, and for providing much practical support and encouragement to many less-experienced editors, please accept the Military history WikiProject WikiChevrons. --ROGER DAVIES talk 12:53, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
The Copyeditor's Barnstar Please receive this barnstar for your tremendous work in copyediting Ninja Gaiden. Jappalang (talk) 21:40, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
The Copyeditor's Barnstar For your life-saving copyediting during the FAC for Battle of Verrieres Ridge. Cam (Chat) 17:05, 14 June 2008 (UTC)
The Tireless Contributor Barnstar For helping me promote the murderous barber to Good Article status. I couldn't have done without you. Enjoy your weekend holiday :P —Mizu onna sango15/Discuss 05:05, 14 July 2008 (UTC)
The Categorisation Barnstar Thanks for your work on GA categories & with Prof. Hunziker's article. (awarded by Rpclod (talk) 20:27, 11 September 2008 (UTC))
The Reviewers Award The Reviewers Award I just wanted to say thank you for your peer review of Odwalla, which just recently passed FAC! Thanks also for your support at WP:FAT! Intothewoods29 (talk) 05:54, 23 September 2008 (UTC)
The WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves By order of the coordinators, in recognition of your diligent and excellent copyediting of vast quantities of Military History articles—notably your work on multiple Featured Article Candidates—you are hereby awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves. For the coordinators. Cam (Chat) 22:48, 9 October 2008 (UTC)
The Copyeditor's Barnstar In recognition of his extraordinary and brilliant work copyediting not one, not two, but three articles (Harry Murray, Ernest Albert Corey & Blair Anderson Wark), I take great pleasure in awarding The Copyeditor's Barnstar to EyeSerene. Thank you very much mate, Abraham, B.S. (talk) 06:07, 7 November 2008 (UTC)
The Guidance Barnstar I searched the whole of WP:STAR to find a suitable barnstar to give you, and finally settled on this one. Many, many thanks for being patient and caring enough to help me out with and guide me through my first GA review. I look forward to doing more reviews, and probably become a mentor myself someday. Regards, SBC-YPR (talk) 10:22, 13 January 2009 (UTC)
The Copyeditor's Barnstar A small present for helping to promote Operation Brevity and Operation Epsom to FAC. Thanks allot!--EnigmaMcmxc (talk) 22:25, 27 January 2009 (UTC)
The WikiProject Barnstar For your leadership of The Military History WikiProject from September 2008–March 2009, please accept this WikiProject Barnstar. Cam (Chat) 00:46, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
The Content Creativity Barnstar To EyeSerene, for making a brilliant barnstar! Skinny87 (talk) 21:14, 30 March 2009 (UTC)
Civility Award Please accept this barnstar in recognition of your impressive record of civility and clear explanations. Nick-D (talk) 07:37, 31 March 2009 (UTC)
The Content Review Medal of Merit By order of the Military history WikiProject coordinators, for your devoted work on the WikiProject's Peer and A-Class reviews, I am delighted to award you this Content Review Medal.  Roger Davies talk 13:49, 12 April 2009 (UTC)
The Copyeditor's Barnstar Thank you for your copyediting efforts during the FAC of Design 1047 battlecruiser, which passed in no small part to your efforts. Cheers! —Ed 17 (Talk / Contribs) 04:24, 15 April 2009 (UTC)
The Anti-Vandalism Barnstar Thanks for your calm realization that a concerted vandal attack was being carried out at Super Audio CD and against me personally. Your quick actions were appropriate and to the point. You rock! Binksternet (talk) 18:39, 6 May 2009 (UTC)
All Around Amazing Barnstar For his immense and distinguished services to the Wikipedia community, which includes—but is not limited to—constant civility, valuable advice, mentorship, helpful aid and assistance, sound judgement and exceptional copyediting skills, I take great pleasure in presenting EyeSerene with the All Around Amazing Barnstar! Cheers, Abraham, B.S. (talk) 23:55, 9 July 2009 (UTC)
The Epic Barnstar I offer you this Barnstar in honour of your improvements to the prose of Battle of Bosworth Field, and of your voluntary dedication to help it through its FAC. Barkeeps might paint the White Boar blue, but your efforts to improve this project are always true. Jappalang (talk) 01:33, 22 July 2009 (UTC)
For Grace under fire, you are hereby awarded this purple heart. TomStar81 (Talk) 23:04, 4 August 2009 (UTC)
For your outstanding contributions to three or more featured articles I hereby award you the Featured Article Medal. Keep up the good work! TomStar81 (Talk) 04:55, 29 August 2009 (UTC)
The Parsnip of Glory This user has contributed to WP:WikiSpeak, and is hereby entitled to display this Amusingly Shaped Vegetable, second class. Awarded for signing Malleus's guestbook by iridescent 22:08, 23 September 2009 (UTC)
Please accept this WikiCookie as my thanks for your help. -- allen四names 18:42, 24 September 2009 (UTC)
The WikiProject Barnstar In gratitude for your coordination services to the Military history WikiProject, from March 2009 to September 2009, please accept this barnstar. --TomStar81 (Talk) 02:23, 27 September 2009 (UTC)
The Manga and Anime BarnSakura Award For thanks in your exhaustive work on School Rumble, especially the anime's reception section.陣内Jinnai 22:13, 19 November 2009 (UTC)
All Around Amazing Barnstar I humbly present the All Around Amazing Barnstar to EyeSerene for his all around amazing, yet undying, efforts in a multitude of facets on Wikipedia, which includes, but is not limited to: brilliance and institutive leadership as a Coordinator of the Military history WikiProject; an amazingly adept article copyeditor; a source of immense knowledge in multiple areas; and a great Administrator! Cheers, Abraham, B.S. (talk) 00:19, 12 December 2009 (UTC)
The da Vinci Barnstar In recognition of your diligence in carrying out a series of complex task force mergers, I hereby award you with this barnstar. Kirill [talk] [prof] 13:05, 18 January 2010 (UTC)
The Graphic Designer's Barnstar Thank you so much for the beautiful map that you made depicting Mary Shelley's rambles around Europe. Your hard work is very much appreciated. Awadewit (talk) 02:41, 22 January 2010 (UTC)
On behalf of Wikiproject Good Articles, I would like to express our gratitude to you for your contributions to the Sweeps process, for which you completed 44 reviews. Completion of this monstrous task has proven to be a significant accomplishment not only for our project, but for Wikipedia. As a token of our sincere appreciation, please accept this ribbon. Lara 14:21, 27 March 2010 (UTC)
The WikiProject Barnstar In gratitude of your service as a coordinator for the Military history Project from September 2009 to March 2010, I hereby award you this WikiProject Barnstar. TomStar81 (Talk) 00:18, 29 March 2010 (UTC)
The World War Barnstar I originally gave one of these to EnigmaMxmxc for a good article, but looking through the edit history today I realised just how much work you have put into the Battle of Villers-Bocage page. It's brilliantly put together in my opinion and your copyediting and prose is as much a part of that as Enigma's gathering of the sources. Like I said to him, if it was a chapter of a book, I'd buy it, (and I'm a demanding reader!) Ranger Steve (talk) 17:22, 23 April 2010 (UTC)
The da Vinci Barnstar For effecting the merger of the various task forces within the Military history Project over the last few months I hereby award you The da Vinci Barnstar. Thanks for all of your help. TomStar81 (Talk) 22:15, 29 April 2010 (UTC)
The Copyright Cleanup Barnstar In recognition of your work in this now completed CCI. Moonriddengirl (talk) 15:29, 10 June 2010 (UTC)
The Barnstar of Diligence For your hard work on the 'Mystery Rifle' Skinny87 (talk) 09:33, 24 June 2010 (UTC)
The Admin's Barnstar For doing an excellent and speedy job on this, thanks! JD554 (talk) 11:05, 22 July 2010 (UTC)
Random acts of baking Hi, Eyeserene! Have a cookie! --Diannaa (Talk) 00:12, 3 August 2010 (UTC)
Military history reviewers' award By order of the Military history WikiProject coordinators, for your good work helping with the WikiProject's Peer and A-Class reviews during the period July-December 2009, I hereby award you this Military history WikiProject Reviewers' award. TomStar81 (Talk) 01:51, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
Military history reviewers' award By order of the Military history WikiProject coordinators, for your good work helping with the WikiProject's Peer and A-Class reviews for the period Jan-Jun 2010, I hereby award you this Military history WikiProject Reviewers' award. Ian Rose (talk) 09:28, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
The WikiProject Barnstar In gratitude of your service as coordinator for the Military history Project from March 2010 to September 2010, I hereby award you this WikiProject Barnstar. —TomStar81 (Talk) 23:18, 29 September 2010 (UTC)
Military history reviewers' award By order of the Military history WikiProject coordinators, for your good work helping with the WikiProject's Peer and A-Class reviews for the period 1 April-30 September 2010, I hereby award you this Military history WikiProject Reviewers' award.  Roger Davies talk 08:08, 7 October 2010 (UTC)
The Guidance Barnstar In appreciation of the effort you made to help get the other 60% of the academy course for closing ACRs up and polished, as well as trimmed for ease of reading and precision, I hereby bestow upon you the Guidance Barnstar. TomStar81 (Talk) 10:12, 6 December 2010 (UTC)
The Civility Barnstar There's no doubt that I'm a pain in the arse sometimes - so thanks for putting up with me and helping get my first article to A and GA standards! Ma®©usBritish [talk] 23:34, 9 August 2011 (UTC)
The Admin's Barnstar This barnstar is for your thorough, objective investigation and individualistic approach as an admin, creating a more welcoming environment here at Wikipedia. 173.0.254.229 (talk) 09:19, 10 February 2012 (UTC)
The Admin's Barnstar I would like to thank you for resolving the situation with the IP over at ANI. Keep up the good work! Best wishes, Darth Sjones23 (talk - contributions) 23:44, 14 March 2012 (UTC)
The Content Review Medal of Merit By order of the Military History WikiProject coordinators, for your devoted work on the WikiProject's Peer, A-Class and Featured Article Candidate reviews for the first quarter of 2012, I am delighted to award you this Content Review Medal. - Dank (push to talk) 03:34, 17 April 2012 (UTC)
The Polish Barnstar of National Merit, 2nd Class Please accepted this belated thank you (Polish Barnstar of National Merit, 2nd Class) for your excellent Poland-related article, Hill 262. We hope one day you'll revisit Poland-related topics again! Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| talk to me on 17:57, 25 April 2012 (UTC)
The WikiProject Barnstar In honor of your service as coordinator for the Military History Project from September 2011 to September 2012, I hereby award you this WikiProject Barnstar. - Dank (push to talk) 02:36, 7 September 2012 (UTC)
The WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves  On behalf of the Military History Wikiproject's coordinators, I am pleased to award you the project's highest honour, the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves. This award recognises your huge contribution as a co-ordinator of the project as well as your work across all areas of Wikipedia over the past six years. Thank you and congratulations. AustralianRupert (talk) 10:00, 4 October 2012 (UTC)
The Special Barnstar I am in the middle of copy-editing the Honours Research Essays of several colleagues, and the clunkiness of the prose is horrific. Thank-you for teaching me - all those years ago on Verrieres Ridge, Tractable, and so many other articles - the value of fine prose in writing. Cam (Chat)(Prof) 21:04, 22 April 2013 (UTC)



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