Hello and welcome to version 3.0 of echomikeromeo's Personal Space.

I used to cram this page with info, but that got just a little annoying. So we're going to try this again.

I am female, sixteen years old and reside in southern California, United States. I attend a fairly typical American high school and love to give adults (especially those on h2g2) an insight into the teenage world. I'm a bit of a nerd, really — not the Dungeons and Dragons type¹, but the sort who lives for Academic League quizbowl and European history class and whose favourite authors are PG Wodehouse, Oscar Wilde, George Orwell, Stephen Fry and of course Douglas Adams.

More than European history, though, and perhaps even more than quizbowl, I love music. I am a musician without a single paying gig to my name, but I play the violin and the viola at a reasonably advanced level and have recently discovered the wonders of the guitar. I play violin concertos by Bach and Vivaldi and on viola I play symphonies with my orchestra, but I also play electric violin in a rock band with my best friends. Music has made my life so much different than it otherwise might have been, so in a way it comes the closest to defining that ephemeral essence of me that I've never quite been able to get a hold of. I listen to a wide variety of music, including folk like Peter, Paul and Mary and Simon and Garfunkel, folk rock like Steeleye Span and Great Big Sea, real rock like Pink Floyd and The Clash and musicals like Les Misérables and Avenue Q.

I love learning things, knowing things and telling other people things. I delight in intellectual curiosity and in using words to express ideas and inquiries. And, well, that's it really.

I've been active on h2g2 for ... oooh, feels like forever, but it's really only about two years. In that time, I've been involved with every major creative facet of the Guide. I Sub-edit (and used to Scout) for the Edited Guide, I polish gems for the UnderGuide and I am an editor of , h2g2's community newspaper/magazine. Despite tension in the community in recent months, I come back here every day because I've never encountered such a fine concentration of intelligent, thinking people. I don't much get the opportunity to converse with adults on an equal level in real life and I applaud h2g2 for giving me that chance. In addition to having grown a bit more mature over the months, h2g2 has also seen a development in my writing skills. All the entries that I have written and edited have done much to expand my ability to use the English language. Sub-editing and editing for have led me to consider copy-editing and journalism as potential career options.
I've just plain learned a lot here — whether about the Julio-Claudian Emperors or about trusting people you meet on the Internet. It's been a hell of a time and I've loved every minute of it. And as of right now I could never imagine leaving h2g2 for good.

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My life philosophy in quotes. One might recognise Pink Floyd, Simon & Garfunkel, John Donne and Horace among the quotes. In addition there's things I myself have said and quotes for which I have no citation.

All in all you're just another brick in the wall.

I've built walls, a fortress deep and mighty

Where none may penetrate

I have no need of friendship, friendship causes pain

It's laughter and it's loving I disdain

I am a rock, I am an island.

No man is an island.

But a rock it feels no pain, and an island never cries.

TEAR DOWN THE WALL! TEAR DOWN THE WALL! TEAR DOWN THE WALL!

Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.

Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.

I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is; I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.

Carpe diem.

Vulgarity is the spice of life.

• LibraryThing, the book-cataloguing site
• Kingdom of Loathing, the clever parody of standard fantasy RPGs
• The website for teenage girls where I can often be found giving advice and answering questions.
• Funtrivia, the trivia game/quiz site³

¹Though I have to confess that I've been somewhat corrupted by them at times.²Well, not really, but I am the other Editor of .³Though they've fallen out of favour due to their increasing requirements that you pay to access most of the site's features and their use of advertising.