Born and raised in South Yorkshire, Patrick moved to Aberdeen in 1996, to study. During the first four years living north of the border he developed a strong sense for and understanding of the differences in perspectives regarding nationality in different parts of the United Kingdom.
Issues of nationality and identity often cause feelings to run high, especially within the UK. In the objective opinion of this user, the starkly different English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish national identities which are encompassed under the umberella term "British" must be acknowledged in order to provide an accurate and encyclopaedic treatment of any subjects relating to those constituent nations.
Patrick has spent his adult life living in Scotland and identifies as adoptively Scottish, he currently lives in Edinburgh.
He also very much likes to travel, and clever little graphicky things make him smile so:
Patrick lives in:
Patrick has lived for periods measured in months or years in:
Patrick has visited for periods measured in days or weeks:
Patrick's Interests include but aren't limited to (in no particular order) cars, technology, Scotland, design, history, architecture, literature, language, music, film, property development, transport, information management. Working for a couple of decades in graphic design, communications, and print marketing has given Patrick a well rounded knowledge of these fields.
He has a fairly broad-ranging formal education and considers discussion and the pursuit of knowledge as leisure activities. When not being distracted by other more visceral drives, his brain is one of his favourite playthings.
Patrick has strong views on language, specifically concerning the importance of clarity of expression and a strong vocabulary, but also (increasingly) the nature of language as a consensus for communication and not an exclusive unchanging walled garden. He is also borderline dyslexic and *very* prone to making typographic errors in his excitement over the actual content he types - something he's deeply embarrassed by and works to rectify.
Patrick is also frustrated by the tendency among some editors to bullishly police guideline violations at the expense of collaborative contribution. He feels it discourages participation by novice editors (such as himself) and that it's often an unproductive waste of time (see the linked article through the "copyright paranoia" and "Wikipedians against notability" userboxes for examples). On a good day when faced with this kind of well intentioned but misguided behaviour, Patrick fights the urge to abandon editing altogether and gets on with something else. He suspects a great many otherwise useful contributors are simply put off wikipedia altogether by this however. This saddens him.
^At the last check "splateagle" found anywhere on the web refers to the same individual. Me. Thanks to this anonymous tip it's also now correctly presented in all lowercase!
