Although I generally know a lot about the bands/albums I write of, I more often than not find it useful to refer to Wikipedia, either for additional information or to check/confirm the data I have. Sometimes, Wiki supplies me with a lot of literary flesh for the skeleton of the article I have, helping me learn more about the subject and in that way increasing my ability to pass on that knowledge to my readers in my own words. Although I never plagiarise anything from Wiki verbatim (with one exception: see "Stranger in a strange land") it almost always helps me build on the themes I have for my articles, and fills in a lot of missing gaps in my knowledge or in the information I have to hand.
So I'd just like to say a big
THANK YOU to all the contributors, editors and staff at Wikipedia, for the hard and tireless (and mostly thankless) efforts they put in to ensure that we, the general, internet-savvy public, have all the information we need at our fingertips. Nine times out of ten, if you need to know about it, you'll find it on Wiki. So thanks guys: my journal would not be half as interesting or accurate without your hard work.
Also, I'd like to thank the millions of people who upload to YouTube. It's very seldom indeed I can't find a video I'm looking for there, and without these uploads again my journal (and everyone else's) would be just so much text.
So thank you both: your work is appreciated, even if it doesn't always seem so.
(Of course, you're never going to read this, but it's the thought that counts!)
