SirGrant Skills Education This user is a university student. This user's favourite subject is Chemistry. This user is a student at UC Irvine. Lanugages en-us -N This user is a native speaker of American English. Mathematics a²+b²=c² This user is an intermediate mathematician. Template:User sum Template:User 0.9 equals 1 Interests Books Template:User fiction Template:User hdm 42 This user has the answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything. Template:User HarryPotter Template:User comics Template:User webcomic Computing This user uses Skype. This user has a Facebook profile. Template:User MySpace This user uses for Internet search. This user uses Wikipedia as a primary point of reference. This user is a Gmail user. Unregistered or Hidden Template:User ISP Comcast Template:User Trillian This user contributes using GIMP. This user contributes using Firefox. Template:User OS:Microsoft Windows 2000 Template:User pc Template:User AthlonXP Food Template:User Omnivore Template:User Potatoes Template:User Carrot Template:User Apples Template:User Pears Template:User Cheese Template:User Chili Template:User Alcohol-0 Template:User OJ Template:User milk Games Template:User cvg-2 Template:User PC Template:User warcraft tft Media DTNG This user is a fan of Degrassi: The Next Generation. Template:User Futurama Template:User Homestar Runner Template:User BSG Template:User The 4400 Template:User fireflyfan Template:User Browncoat Template:User office space Music This user enjoys electronic music. 80s This user rocks out to totally rad 80s new wave music. Template:User Cowbell This user has an iPod. Sports Template:User Bicyclist Template:User ski Template:User Weight Training Life Health Template:User mental health perd Template:User social anxiety Template:User Nearsighted Template:User No Secondhand Smoke Template:User ambidextrous Life Template:User teen 19 This user is 19 years old. ♂ This contributor to Wikipedia is male. This user is of multiple ancestries. Personality User:Rfrisbie/Userbox/ISTJ Pets User:Rfrisbie/Userbox/Dog Owner Sexuality This user is straight. Template:User queer-4 User:MiraLuka/Userboxes/User singlemale User:MiraLuka/Userboxes/User girlfriendwish User:MiraLuka/Userboxes/User knight Zodiac Template:User -astrology Template:User zodiac:Capricorn Template:User Chinese zodiac:Tiger Location and time Location This user has left the planet Earth 0 times. This user is a citizen of the United States of America. Time This user is nocturnal. Template:User GMT-7 Other Emoticons Template:User benzene Humor Template:User Bright Future Template:User Paladin IP This user's IP is 127.0.0.1. Template:User all your base Template:User carbon Userboxes Template:User support ubx Template:User ubx-night Wikipedia This user is a Wikipedian. no ads This user is against commercials in Wikipedia. Template:User VandalProof This user is not a Wikipedia administrator but would like to be one someday. This user does not understand mean people. Please be nice. Template:User piglet

• Name: Grant Houlgate
• Age: 19
• Sex: Male
• Place of birth: Richardson, Texas
• Previous locations: Issaquah, Washington, Santa Rosa, California, Windsor, California
• Current location: Irvine, California
• Political views: Other
• Education:
  • High School: Graduated from Windsor High School on June 16th, 2005
  • University: Second-year chemistry student at University of California, Irvine

• Favorite Music: Electronic music, Lyrics Born, Less Than Jake
• Favorite TV Shows: 30 Days, The 4400, Battlestar Galactica, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Degrassi: The Next Generation, Firefly, Frasier, Freaks and Geeks, Futurama, Teen Titans
• Favorite Movies: Aliens, The Blues Brothers, A Knight's Tale, Mystery Men, Office Space, Secondhand Lions
• Favorite Games: Day of Defeat: Source, EverQuest (retired)
• Favorite Books: Ender's Shadow, His Dark Materials, The Game
• Friends: Theemissary (talk · contribs)
• Goals: Get in shape, finish my degree
• Interests: Computers, Folding@Home, Weight training

The idea of an open source type encyclopedia is in my mind a excellent idea. I have in recent years been a fan of open source software but could not contribute because of my lack of programming skills. Wikipedia however allows me to contribute without the need for a background in computer programming. Secondly, my favorite book series the His Dark Materials trilogy advocates the message of creating a "republic of heaven". This means that it is up to each individual to lead a good life and create and pass on knowledge and skills and I truely believe wikipedia allows me to do this. Secondly, working on this project allows me to feel a sense of contribution to society. In my life I've felt that I haven't really contributed to society, mainly because I'm 19 and most of my life has been spent in education which is self focused.

I will admit I have certain strengths and weaknesses as far as my ability to help on wikipedia. Firstly, my English skills have always been sub-par therefor I try not to write long paragraphs or sections of articles if I can avoid it because I know it will most likely be riddled with errors. Regardless though, I do understand that it is important to be bold so my grammatical errors do not stop me if I feel the article can truely benifit from my addition. I do however prefer to work more on the structure of an article through the addition of tables or infoboxes. I believe that this greatly increases the quality of the articles and is something I can do and manage to avoid mistakes. I also enjoy making additions to chemistry stubs or articles lacking information that is available to me in my text book and through my studies.

Overall I believe wikipedia is a great undertaking and couldn't be possible without the support of it's users and I'm very honored to be able to help in this project.