Yay, I did it, I got up early: 6:30.
The sun rose at 6:17 this morning (sets at 8:06 p.m.) and is shining in my eyes right now as I type on the couch in the living room. I have the quiet house to myself for a couple hours. (HM sleeps in the finished half-story upstairs. It's got slanted walls so you can only stand up in the middle.)
The house isn't big enough for three separate adults to set up projects, and keep distance. HM's son is a nice guy, and I'm fine with him being here (not that I have a choice, but I am)--until June, I think.
He's an electrician--a necessary trade--so he's out at work on weekdays. But he's in the guest room across the hall from me, and I'd started to use that room as my sewing & sitting room.
I feel squeezed. We all are.
BUT... I woke up this morning thinking, why don't I take up editing Wikipedia again?
Happy! I'd loved doing that a few years ago, and had kind of forgotten...
Whew. I just needed to sink down into feeling useless, and then the current gently brought me up to the surface again:
"Here's a good thing."
It's useful work---most Wikipedia editors are men, and since everyone chooses to edit whatever they want, the entries reflect a lack of women's input. I just looked up Tove Jansson, for instance, and no one has yet added info from the new April New Yorker profile of her.
It's challenging work because the wiki has its own rules, which take some learning. Learning something is one of the most cheering things.
The rules aren't hard but they're finicky, if you're doing more than a simple correction/addition.
When I edited in the past, people were kind and helpful. Though the site has a reputation for rudely pouncing on mistake-makers, I didn't experience that.
(Wikipedia provides good guides for editors, and one of them says that a higher-than-average proportion of editors are on the autism spectrum, something for everyone to be aware of in social interactions. (--en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:High-functioning_autism_and_Asperger%27s_editors)
And the work takes no more space than my laptop. I can even do it outside.
If I run out of ideas, there's a list of Requested Articles.
The sun rose at 6:17 this morning (sets at 8:06 p.m.) and is shining in my eyes right now as I type on the couch in the living room. I have the quiet house to myself for a couple hours. (HM sleeps in the finished half-story upstairs. It's got slanted walls so you can only stand up in the middle.)
The house isn't big enough for three separate adults to set up projects, and keep distance. HM's son is a nice guy, and I'm fine with him being here (not that I have a choice, but I am)--until June, I think.
He's an electrician--a necessary trade--so he's out at work on weekdays. But he's in the guest room across the hall from me, and I'd started to use that room as my sewing & sitting room.
I feel squeezed. We all are.
BUT... I woke up this morning thinking, why don't I take up editing Wikipedia again?
Happy! I'd loved doing that a few years ago, and had kind of forgotten...
Whew. I just needed to sink down into feeling useless, and then the current gently brought me up to the surface again:
"Here's a good thing."
It's useful work---most Wikipedia editors are men, and since everyone chooses to edit whatever they want, the entries reflect a lack of women's input. I just looked up Tove Jansson, for instance, and no one has yet added info from the new April New Yorker profile of her.
It's challenging work because the wiki has its own rules, which take some learning. Learning something is one of the most cheering things.
The rules aren't hard but they're finicky, if you're doing more than a simple correction/addition.
When I edited in the past, people were kind and helpful. Though the site has a reputation for rudely pouncing on mistake-makers, I didn't experience that.
(Wikipedia provides good guides for editors, and one of them says that a higher-than-average proportion of editors are on the autism spectrum, something for everyone to be aware of in social interactions. (--en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:High-functioning_autism_and_Asperger%27s_editors)
And the work takes no more space than my laptop. I can even do it outside.
If I run out of ideas, there's a list of Requested Articles.
brilliant thing to occupy your stay at home-ness. Helpful! Thank you for doing that. Interesting that editing Wiki is an on the spectrum vocation. Makes sense. We have an entire four bedroom house in which to stay and even it is too crowded with just two of us. Sorry you do not have more space. I lived on a boat, became creative in about eight inches of space, rose to the challenge so I know it can be done- but that was when I was young- anything and everything being possible- now, not so much. Sending you good Ju-Ju and love.
ReplyDeleteHi, Linda Sue!
ReplyDeleteYes, Wikipedia & ASD seem to be a match made in heaven. Wikipedia actually says:
"If a group of researchers had been given the task of creating a working/hobby environment specifically designed to attract high-functioning autistics, they could not have come up with anything better than Wikipedia! "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:High-functioning_autism_and_Asperger%27s_editors
Space is weird these days, like everything, eh?
When we can't go anywhere else except outside, inside starts to feel awfully small...
Also I'm trying to physically keep at least 6 feet from Son, and that's awkward.
Luckily he very kindly mostly stays in his room--cramped for him.
(I don't know why he doesn't find an apartment sooner than June--I would if I were him... But I stay out of it--don't want to get between mother & son, and the warmer it gets outside the more we can spread out.)
What a cool idea. Many, many years ago, when Wikipedia first launched, I edited a single article on Moroccan Berbers. As I recall, it was a tiny thing and I knew some of it was incorrect (having lived in Morocco myself). So I touched it up. Many years later I went back and saw that the article on Berbers was MUCH more professional and complete than it had been when I looked at it -- reflecting Wikipedia's overall improvement in that time period.
ReplyDelete