The problem with being a working mum is your interests are rather decided for you... but I spend several hours a week in the gym and I'm a keen cyclist (cheapest way to get to work). I also write, edit, game, geek and enjoy outward bounding - when I get the time!
I have a weakness for ancient military history, mythology and mysticism - and miss my Viking/Mediaeval re-enactment days. Recently, I've also started collecting Urban Vinyl, 3D designer art - mostly by the despicably talented JLed... although some Kozik stuff rears a Labbity head, too...
Music
A little bit of everything; my partner's CD collection looks like a larger branch of HMV and I hear so much music I tend to forget (or is that blank?) what it's called. Long time faves, though, range from Peter Gabriel to Tool to the Buttholes to QOTSA to AC/DC to Floyd to King Missile to Richard Cheese to Ivor Cutler to The Mediaeval Baebes to Meat Katie... as long as it's not (shudder) Philip Glass, I'm happy.
Movies
My all-time-top-movies: The Dead Poets' Society, Kundun (yes, I KNOW it has a Philip Glass soundtrack - it's THAT good a film!), Flash Gordon, the LOTR trilogy (of course), The Man Who Would Be King, Clerks, Mister Vampire, Lost In Translation, The South Park Movie, The Dark Crystal, Fight Club (although the book was better), Being John Malkovich, The Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, Time Bandits, Tideland...
I have a thing for comic book adaptations (I have to watch them even though they're mostly awful!), for good anime, for the Coen Brothers, for Chinese arthouse and for Christopher Walken. Just don't take me near a Chick Flick - you can stuff Barf Actually exactly where it belongs!
Television
And here I betray spectacularly geeky roots: Battlestar and FarScape, Firefly, Buffy and Angel, Monkey and The Water Margins. Carnivale and Deadwood. Spaced, Spooks, Sex And The City, The Shield. The first series of 24 and the first series of Lost - kind of wandered off from both after that. Futurama (so much better than The Simspons!), South Park, King Of The Hill.
Oh...loads of stuff - an episode of my current best-show doesn't require effort at the end of a long day's potty-training!
Books
With where I work, all the books I could ever dream of are right under my fingers... I fulfilled a 20-year ambition when I finally met Stephen Donaldson - and I've had Michael Marshall Smith sign my copy of Only Forward to boot.
I've read the ubiquitous 'core' SF novels (you know the ones, Gibson, Stephenson and Banks plus Vonnegut, Heinlein and Philip K Dick) plus kept up with a more contemporary list that inlcudes Palanhiuk, Thompson and Ellis. For train-reading on sleepy mornings, there's the military history by Pressfield and Manfredi - and if I'm really really hungover, then I dig the trashy fantasy out from the back of the shelf where no-one can see it.
And not forgetting Dr. Seuss, Judith Kerr and the Revd. R.W Awdry!
Heroes
King Leonidas - the real one, not the '300' version! - is one of my all-time historical icons. For writing, Tom Stoppard, Eugene O'Neill, Stephen Donaldson and (predictably!) the unparalleled J.R.R; for film, Terry Gilliam, Ray Harryhausen and D.W. Griffith; for art, Brian Froud and Gary Baseman; for performance, Harold Lloyd and Jackie Chan.
And for the sheer passion of his relentless creativity, my partner, Devin Stanfield.
University of East Anglia
Norwich, United Kingdom
Graduated: 1990
Student status: Alumni
Degree: Bachelor's Degree
Major: English, Film Studies
Minor: Philosophy
Clubs: The TA - and the local Vikings!
1987 to 1990
Ardingly College
Haywards Heath, United Kingdom
Graduated: 1987
Student status: Alumni
Major: English, History
Minor: Archaeology
Clubs: Combined Cadet Force
1983 to 1987
Imberhorne School
East Grinstead, United Kingdom
Graduated: N/A
Student status: Alumni
Degree: None
You'll find me in leafy Sutton, Surrey with one man and one small son - oh, and two cats, but I made a conscious choice to get those!
In one half of my life I do the stay-at-home Mum thing - playing with my son, avoiding the housework, writing, editing, messing about on the web or in the gym and getting out on my bike as much as I can.
In the other half, I lurk in the Marketing Department of Forbidden Planet London on the South Bank of the Thames.
Between the two, I try to fit pubbing, clubbing and the occasional party... I'd hate to think that the more interesting end of my wardrobe has been abandoned :D
Who I'd like to meet: Anyone who can still dream - and who has the focus to use those dreams to make their reality better.
Fellow parents to remind me which way is up. Anyone who's ever had to regain their fitness after a baby. Those of you who like to dress up - and dress down - and not dress at all.
Geeks, phreaks and longhairs; the wierd, the wary and the wonderful. Cat people, chat people, take-a-sword-and-splat people... if you're full of it, spill it here!
This Greek 25 year old guy gives some fabulous tips, please watch and learn. If only I was able to get brilliant tips like that on a regular basis!! I would have metamorphosized the looks and appeal of my band (the Cover Ups), thus ensuring a greater interest from big sections of the public.....
Me & Mat got our London to Brighton packs through - we've got the 6am start! You got yours yet? Still not sure what we're doing about transport there... hmmm...
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