The best road to progress is freedom's road. - JFK
Texas
At the beginning of the year, I left for a while. I came back to finish some things that seemed relatively important and that nobody else was both inclined and qualified to tackle. Unfortunately, what should have taken weeks took months instead. I managed to waste a lot of time thanks to mostly-pointless disputes depleting the limited resources I could put into this hobby. I can't say that I've been happy here since my return. Now, it's time for me to go away again. I've done most of what I had hoped to do, and I don't really believe in "the process" as much as I used to. I don't know if this will be a break, a sabbatical, or a retirement. XOR'easter (talk) 05:07, 11 May 2022 (UTC)
I've looked in, read the latest Signpost, etc., to see if I still feel incredibly burned out. I do. Jesus fucking Christ, I never want to refer to a policy or guideline by an all-caps shortcut again. I encourage everybody to take a couple weeks off from doing that and see how incredibly insufferable it sounds once you're no longer steeped in it. Colleagues of mine know I have experience here and so they've occasionally pointed out problems; consequently, I might make the odd quick fix, but everything is still stacked against doing major work. Basically, don't count on me for anything, because I am nasty and bitter. XOR'easter (talk) 05:16, 1 June 2022 (UTC)
I didn't think starting new pages would be my thing here, but I did create the page Ibn al-Samh, because there were multiple redlinks pointing to where it should be. In a similar vein, I happened to be looking over the WikiProject Physics quality scale, and I saw that one of its examples of mid-importance physics publications was actually a redlink. So, I created the page for Classical Electrodynamics, a.k.a. Jackson. Likewise, I started the pages for Mike and Ike and Quantum Theory: Concepts and Methods. I've occasionally rewritten pages like Mugai Nyodai or Joyce Jacobson Kaufman to save them from being deleted as copyright violations.
My general thoughts on writing physics and mathematics content are gathered here.
I started skimming the daily "Articles for Deletion" log in order to broaden my horizons at least a little. Sometimes, I ended up participating. The happy outcomes were when I could help improve a page to the point where it deserved keeping. Instances of that general nature have included the following.
Double-check the EPR section of Albert Einstein. I'm not sold on some turns of phrase, like "confirmed Bell's theorem". Is that the right way to express the violation of a Bell inequality? It's vague, but it almost sounds backwards.
I brushed a lot of cobwebs out of the Calculus article. Maybe somebody can take it over and get it to GA.
Maybe also Planck units (I think the cruft is gone) and The Mechanical Universe (it probably needs some fair-use pictures)? I generally haven't tried pushing physics articles through any of Wikipedia's stamp-of-approval systems, because it seems hard to find reviewers who are both qualified and interested.
On behalf of the FAR coordinators, thank you, XOR'easter! Your work on Speed of light has allowed the article to retain its featured status, recognizing it as one of the best articles on Wikipedia. I hereby award you this Featured Article Save Award, or FASA. You may display this FA star upon your userpage. Keep up the great work! Cheers, Nikkimaria (talk) 01:57, 3 April 2022 (UTC)
The Million Award
For your contributions to bring Speed of light (estimated annual readership: 1,076,301) to Featured Article status, I hereby present you the Million Award. Congratulations on this rare accomplishment, and thanks for all you do for Wikipedia's readers! SandyGeorgia (Talk) 17:37, 22 March 2022 (UTC)
The Million Award
For your contributions to bring Quantum mechanics (estimated annual readership: 1,530,000) to Good Article status, I hereby present you the Million Award. Congratulations on this rare accomplishment, and thanks for all you do for Wikipedia's readers! Reidgreg (talk) 16:55, 25 March 2021 (UTC)
The Original Barnstar
I award you this Barnstar for your work getting Quantum Mechanics to Good Article status. Well done. Polyamorph (talk) 09:04, 23 March 2021 (UTC)
The Editor's Barnstar
You are the WP editor's version of Indiana Jones. Especially appreciated: your work defending the integrity of the encyclopedia, and your vigilance against puffery and unsupported assertions. Well done! Grand'mere Eugene (talk) 23:14, 12 December 2020 (UTC)
The Barnstar of Diligence
You deserve something like a dozen barnstars, but let this stand for your latest and greatest editorial work. Thank you for working to keep Wikipedia less bad than it would otherwise be. jps (talk) 01:11, 2 September 2020 (UTC)
The Barnstar of Good Humor
... for this and this. Sign me on! - DVdm (talk) 22:57, 26 June 2020 (UTC)
7&6=thirteen (☎) has given you a Dobos torte to enjoy! Seven layers of fun because you deserve it.
To give a Dobos torte and spread the WikiLove, just place {{subst:Dobos Torte}} on someone else's talkpage, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past or a good friend.
I personally award you this barnstar for surviving literally everything that happened in Jean-Pierre Petit. Simply reading through it is an insane burden to bare! NikkeKatski [Elite] (talk) 18:33, 18 May 2019 (UTC)
Here are various other assorted discussions I took part in — some were kept and some deleted, but I didn't have much of a hand in the article text itself. This list is not exhaustive, only recording those items which I felt at the time I might have reason to refer to later.
E. Michael Jones — Were I a mean(er)-spirited person, I would have advised keeping this article; his books received very few reviews, but they were quite entertainingly harsh.
Ujjawal Krishnam — Lots of text, with a passingly interesting bit where someone tries to use the ADS copy of an arXiv abstract as an "independent source from Harvard"