User:Pat Payne

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About Me[edit]

I am a carbon-based life-form on the North American landmass. I do not argue with dragons, for I know that I am crunchy and taste good with ketchup. :)

Seriously, though, I live in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, and work both as a freelance writer for the local paper every so often (the Palos Verdes Peninsula News) as well as as a computer tech at a dot-com firm in Los Angeles. In my off hours, I like nothing better than to curl up with a good book. I usually have at least three going at once, and juggle between them. (I try not to go too high in number though, or the different books get jumbled -- once, for three days, I was convinced that Athos, Porthos and Aramis had fought Hitler! :P )

As the boxes say below, I have an interest in Old English history, but in general, I'm interested in most historical areas. It's just the times of Caesar and Alfred the Great that I've gravitated to more than any other.

I've been hit by a vandal recently. This is all I have to say about it: "Never give in — never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense." -- Winston Churchill

and

"You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life." --attributed to Winston Churchill.



Five views of a Viviparus georgianus shell
Viviparus georgianus, commonly known as the banded mystery snail, is a species of large freshwater snail in the family Viviparidae, the river snails. It is native to North America, generally found from the northeastern United States to Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, and thrives in eutrophic lentic environments such as lakes, ponds and some low-flow streams. The snail has has two distinct sexes and reproduces more than once in a lifetime, with females laying eggs singly in albumen-filled capsules. It feeds on diatom clusters found on silt and mud substrates, but it may also require the ingestion of some grit to be able to break down algae. This image shows five views of a 2.1 cm high (0.83 in) V. georgianus shell, originally collected in the U.S. state of Georgia and now in the collection of the State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe in Germany.Photograph credit: H. Zell

Articles started[edit]

Noting too major yet:

This user is a member of the Middle Ages WikiProject.

Books I'm reading now[edit]


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