User:DavidBrooks

I'm an Englishman who has lived in the US since 1983, and since 1997 in the Seattle area. Main interests outside my occupation are flying small airplanes, a hobby that I started on my 50th birthday, and playing/singing in community orchestras and choruses.

My wife and I have a son and grandson in Portland, Oregon, a daughter who works for Microsoft, and a son in New York City.

Right now, due to a lumbar foraminal stenosis and Achilles tendinitis, I have a terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side.

Contributions

I came across Wikipedia in March 2004, but came back to it and discovered the joy of contributing in November.

• Music:
  • The Dream of Gerontius
    • ...which resulted in the creation of the Oratorios category (although Elgar didn't like the designation), so I added all the oratorios I could find to it.
  • Brigg Fair -- Belshazzar's Feast (Walton) -- Gerard Schwarz (de-stubbed)
  • Cleaned out Category:British composers, moving the articles to one of the four British nationalities
• Aviation:
  • Completely reorganized the stuff about the various US certificates: 23 uploads on Mar 14 2005
  • Airspace classes -- Aeronautical Information Manual -- Aviation Medical Examiner -- V Speeds
  • Made a few other factual corrections
• Started on the missing articles listed under Wikipedia:2004 Encyclopedia topics, and wrote the instructions. Original articles under that heading:
  • A New English Dictionary On Historical Principles -- Antequera (tr from German) -- Arthur Nikisch -- Taal Lake -- Taban Lo Liyong -- Tabinshwehti -- Taff Vale Case -- Tamara Karsavina -- Thibaw Min -- Tessitura -- Tessera – Jean Lemaire de Belges -- Jean Louvet (playwright) -- Jean Mairet -- Jean-Pierre de Crousaz -- Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber
• Minor contributions in several areas including:
  • Dulwich College (my secondary school) -- Paestum (I went there in the summer of 2004) -- Bill Gates -- Short Ride in a Fast Machine -- Bridal Chorus -- I'm not keeping this up to date.
  • Skipping the disambiguation page for bass in the vocal sense; I need to go back and tidy that up
• Occasionally I have fun with nit-picking a random page.

I saw a stranger yestere'en;
I put food in the eating place,
  Drink in the drinking place,
  Music in the listening place;
And in the sacred names of the Triune
  He blessed me and my house,
  My cattle and my dear ones.
And the lark said in her song:
  Often, often, often,
Goes the Christ in the stranger's guise:
  Often, often, often
Goes the Christ in the stranger's guise.