User:Yaz

Tuomas K. Kaikkonen

Please see my wikipedia userpage for details about me. I do not really understand why we need to keep separate usernames between different wikiproject sites.

-

I was born in Finland in 1970, where I lived until I moved to the United States of America in 1998. My real name is Tuomas Kaikkonen. I used the nickname "yaz" in the IRC from about 1989 to 1996. My aim is to keep contributing new articles, and editions to existing ones, both to the English and Finnish Wikipedias.

Where did the nickname Yaz come from and what does it mean?
When I created my username for the Oulubox Bulletin Board System, I picked up nickname YAZMORO based on my recollection of a name of a magician in one of Scott Adams' text adventure games on Commodore64 computers. However, the real name of the magician was Yatzmoro, but that was too late since I already signed up as yazmoro. Then after the multi user chat and later internet relay chat were introduced into the Oulubox BBS, I ended up shortening the nickname to three letters.

Quickly I learned, from US American ircers, that there was a quite famous baseball player named Carl Yastrzemski who used to be known for "Yaz" too. Also I found out later that the word yaz has some Turkish roots, where it means verb "to write", which pleases me greatly because writing is one of my dearest activities. Then I learned that there was a pop band called the "Yazoo" who was also know as Yaz. Also there was a place in Mississippi called Yazoo, and a place called Yazd. Well, lately I just found out that somebody namaed their birth control device YAZ. I would be interested if any more words are associated with these three letters. Please add them to this homepage if you find them appropriate.

Interests and hobbies

 * Music: singing, and playing piano and guitar. I often find myself browsing the www.ingeb.org for some midi tunes and lyrics
 * Reading /. (Slashdot)
 * Reading and writing Wikipedia in English and in Finnish
 * Science Fiction books when I have time (Spider Robinson lately)
 * Right the wrongs, and copyleft
 * Pacifism, non-resistance
 * Global village citizenship

Requests for new technological breakthrough innovations

 * Affordable rewritable electronic paper for consumers. Think of newspapers that download themselves from the net daily over the wireless network, and you never need to throw away or print them.
 * Renewable almost non-polluting carbon dioxide neutral fuel, or if that is not viable, at least replace nuclear fission reactors with boron or He3 nuclear fusion. See Should Google go Nuclear at Google Video.

Requests for transportation policies

 * Well designed public transportation systems that reduce the need for single occupant vehicle trips.
 * Motor vehicle free city districts, that still allow motorized emergency vehicle traffic.

Requests for business leaders to alleviate rush hour traffic problems

 * More flextime
 * Allow at least one day per week telecommuting by employees if possible
 * It is better to manage by objectives than to manage by observation.

Personal preferences

 * Slow food before fast food
 * Buy local when possible. Support your local farmer, artist, and worker. Supply chain as localized as possible to avoid transportation of goods over long distances.
 * Written word before spoken word.
 * Listening and reading before speaking and writing.
 * If you can do it, do it. If you cannot do it, ask someone who can do it to help you. If someone asks you to do something you can do, help that person.
 * Follow your conscience before accepting any requests from authorities.
 * Avoid these three vices: greed, ignorance, and hate.
 * Strive for these virtues: humility, enlightenment, and love.

Web links

 * Homepage of Tuomas Kaikkonen

Recommended movies, TV series, directors, and hosts

 * The Awful Truth (TV Series), Fahrenheit 9/11 -- Michael Moore
 * Bullshit! -- Penn and Teller

Recommended books and authors

 * Faith, Fortitude and Fear -- A Rational Approach to the Jewish History. Author: Hooshang Meshkinpur, M.D.
 * The Hobbit, Lord of The Rings, Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales. Author: Tolkien
 * The Egyptian. Author:
 * The Three Musketeers. Author: Alexandre Dumas
 * Maailman paras kylä -- The Best Village in the Word, and other books written in Finnish by Author: Arto Paasilinna
 * Nineteen Eighty-four, and Animal Farm. Author: George Orwell