Chris Watkins
Chris Watkins

Languages:

English (native) Indonesian (fluent) Malaysian (conversational) Japanese & German (very basic - thanks, excuse me, delicious, mein linke Blinker ist kaput...).


My writing
Pablo Garuda, my blog - observations on life, culture, politics...
I wonder if I can automatically list links to my most recent posts in a table on this page? Here's my out of date blog which I must copy over...
My vegetarian recipes: for me, food has to taste good, and make me feel good.
Welcome to the homepage of Chris Watkins
a.k.a. "Chriswaterguy"
Anyone calling themselves Chriswaterguy (or, formerly, Singkong2005) on the internet is probably me, whereas "Chris Watkins" describes a lot of people... if my parents had taken my sister's suggestion to call me "Gilligan," then I'd probably be the only Gilligan Watkins, but thankfully they insisted she pick again.
What I'm doing now...
Catching up on the talks from Wikimania. Some interesting stuff.

Currently (August 7) indulging my Wikiholism for a few days, before I get onto doing the boring stuff I need to do (taxes, passport, sorting through all my crap...) before buying my one-way ticket overseas.

I love the way the internet facilitates collaboration, and I'm quite involved in several collaborations, as you can see below.

Contact
I don't put my email on here, as I want to avoid spam... likewise I don't put my chat usernames here as a whole word - you'll have to do some simple decoding...

You can contact me:

  • via my talk page,
  • via my Wikipedia talk page,
  • via gooogle chat. Take my wiki username, remove the 4 digits from that end, and that's the google username.
  • via Yahoo messnger. One word, first part mbah and second part yogi.

I also like IRC chat... but you'll need to contact me first to arrange a channel. I plan to spend a bit of time on the wiki-related IRC channels occasionally (e.g. #wikipedia & #wikimedia on irc.freenode.net).

Please note: I enjoy chatting, but don't be offended if I sometimes say I can't chat for long (I believe in honesty).

Often when I'm on the computer, I've started editing one Wikipedia or Appropedia page, then realised I need to check something else and maybe correct it, which leads to yet another article... having 4 or more editing windows open plus various google searches is fairly standard for me. And it all starts with one little edit...

My collaborations

Development stuff
Appropedia - Appropriate technology, development, sustainability. User page
WikiIndex - a great site that helps people find wikis by topic. For me it's a tool to encourage more synergy, or mergers even, between sustainability- & development-related wikis. See my userpage for more on this.
Nabuur.com - "The global neighbour network." Assisting mainly with water and sanitation. User page
Development-related topics on Wikipedia. See Wikipedia user page.
Wikipedia - The concept inspires me. User page. I'm involved in several WikiProjects (collaborations to improve content) including:
Climate change

Energy development
Water purification
Urban studies and planning


Learning & teaching at Wikibooks. Wikipedia user page.
Mainly Indonesian and English.
Wiki-based communities: Wikia.com has a number of community sites. My user page has miscellaneous net-related stuff, and links to the Wikia communities I'm watching.
Political: Campaigns, and also the Australian Greens' wiki... still experimental.
I'm looking and waiting for a community recipes site - for now see my recipes and recipe links.
Other exciting free sites
CouchSurfing - share your couch or spare bed. It can be a great experience. My username: Singkong
HelpX - work for accomodation. For work in Asia & developing nations, free. Most advanced nations, free reg, 10 euros/2 years to make contact with hosts.
OkCupid The most interesting dating site, with the most accurate matching, completely free. Interesting even if you're not dating.
more...
My other writing - see the blue box on the right.

Who I am[edit | edit source]

One of my reasons for putting this info here is to make it easier for people find me - e.g. people who went to the same school.

Memberships, places of study, associations[edit | edit source]

Current memberships:

Former memberships, associations (80s and 90s):

  • Australian Democrats (until 2003) till
  • Abbotsford 12 Foot Flying Squadron, on the Parramatta River - sailed 12 foot skiffs 1986-88, also sailed Sabots and Flying 11s before that.
  • In the past I was involved with various churches & Christian groups around Sydney, including:
    • St Michael's and All Angels Anglican Church & youth group, Newport, NSW. (Sydney).
    • Southern Cross Independent Baptist church, Engadine and Harvest Independent Baptist Church, Narrabeen.
    • St Matthias (Phillip Jensen's church)
    • The Australian Navigators|
  • Back when I still believed in stuff (and was moving a lot, living in different parts of Sydney):
    • St Michael and All Angels Anglican Church & youth group in Newport. 1988-89.
    • Southern Cross Bapist Church, Engadine, 1989-91. They taught me to really read the Bible. I took their advice, and started asking questions - they were probably glad to see me go.
    • Harvest Baptist Church, Narrabeen. 1991-2. Had a lot of respect for Col, the pastor. Again, he was probably relieved when I left.
    • The Navigators at Sydney University, 1992-97. "Putting the sin back into cynicism." Lots of big talk... wasn't all hot air, and there was a real sense of community, but it left me a bit burnt-out as well.
    • Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, present. (Just kidding.)
    • I once dreamed of a collaborative site where people would share ideas, and the focus was on facts rather than opinion. It was to be called Roots of Change and I registered rootsofchange.net.au in 1998 or 1999. However, I didn't know how to make a collaborative website, and the idea was put on the backburner, until I learnt about Wikipedia. Appropedia, and to an extent Wikipedia, is the realization of this dream.

Places of Education (all in Sydney, Australia):

  • Santa Maria Del Monte (K-3)
  • St Patrick's College Strathfield (years 4-8).
  • Pittwater High School (years 9-12). I enjoyed school much more here (in spite of being quickly given the role of school nerd), doing some debating and being in two school musicals. Was known as Harvey for a while after a couple of singing lines in Bye Bye Birdie. Also enjoyed living in the seaide suburb of Mona Vale.
  • University of Sydney - Bachelor of Chemical Engineering, 1989-1992. First year was the worst. Second year was the worst too. Third year was even worse and from there it went into a decline.
  • University of New South Wales - Master of Engineering Science (Water), part-time, 1994-97. Much more interesting. Thesis research carried out in Surabaya, East Java (= Jawa Timur), Indonesia.


Other stuff to help web searches to find this page

  • Christopher Watkins, Christopher James Watkins.
  • In the real world I have been known variously as: Harvey (Yr 9, after playing that character in Bye Bye Birdie... I wonder why they picked me to play a nerd?) Merf, Shadow. Many others names I can't recall.
  • In the online world I have used the name Kropotkin, Singkong (Indonesian for cassava/manioc), then Singkong2005, but have settled on Chriswaterguy as a name that describes me, and is likely to stay unique.
  • Schools:
  • Recreation:
    • The Abbotsford 12ft Flying Squadron, sailing sabots, Flying 11s and two years in the amazing 12ft skiffs.

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