Biography

Are you really interested? Oh, OK! Here goes then...

I'm a Brit, real name Mark, and I am now in my 50s (so more dead than alive!) but I try to keep active and certainly try to stay young-at-heart. My wife Sheila (who is 23 years younger than me) and our two young kids help here.
My Daughter Ellen is now nearly three years old (and more typhoon than toddler), and her brother Alec, born on 20th August is a little over 9 months.

Having been born and brought up in Sussex, we moved to the East Midlands about a year ago, for Sheila's work.

Sheila is a Research Fellow at a local University, and is the main family breadwinner, so I am not working at the moment and stay at home to look after the children (I'm a Househusband!), but in past lives I've been a Pharmaceutical Technician, Shop Manager, Stage lighting/sound mixer guy, builders' mate and odd-job man, kitchen designer, mobile mechanic and Driving Instructor.
In other words I've never really known what to do, but in practise can do pretty much anything I turn my hand to. Jack of all trades but master of none? Not really, as I think I was actually pretty good at some of these.

I love my food. I'm a veggie and try to eat well, although I do have a soft spot for chocolate. "You are what you eat", they say, so I must be mostly salad (and chocolate of course!).
I love "Curries", or to be more precise, Indian food of the authentic variety. I cook too, quite well I like to think.

I am a bit of a sci-fi nut - everything from Dr Who to Battlestar Galactica. I have always loved Sci-Fi but first got into it seriously at college where I was introduced to Asimov's 'Foundation Trilogy'.
Best ever T.V sci-fi? Got to be "Babylon 5" hasn't it, a complete cycle over five seasons...what a classic. My nominee for "Best Film" would probably be...actually this is a tricky one....Bladerunner stands out, but having watched Fifth Element and The Chronicles of Riddick many times through choice, I guess I like these too. And of course the 'Alien' films are pretty awesome, but are they Sci-fi or Horror? Also 2001-A space odyssey must get a mention, as it is a truly iconic movie. And who can love sci-fi and not appreciate the various incarnations of Star Trek. As for novels, my tip would probably be Larry Niven's Ringworld. What a concept! How come it's never been made into a movie? And for sheer fun value, Harry Harrison is unbeatable. His 'Stainless Steel Rat' series is brilliant.

I suppose my liking of sci-fi naturally leads to a liking of space, and you can find a selection of images on my space pictures pages. These are images I've collected from the internet over the year, simply because I liked them.

I've always loved music. It's in my blood as both my parents were musical. My Dad ran a dance band for many years and my Mum used to sing. My Mum sadly died a couple of years ago, but Dad is still active in the jazz and big-band scene down in Sussex.
I like Jazz, Rock, Funk... all the usual things a old geezer who grew up in the late sixties and early seventies should like. I used to play Drums a bit, but haven't for a while now. I'm not a big fan of Opera or Country and Western.

I spend a lot of time on my computer. I've recently upgraded from an ancient Compaq (which ran a very flakey version of Windows XP) to a nice new quad core monster, which runs Ubuntu (Linux). I prefer Linux as an operating system, it being much faster and more secure than Windows, and anyway I don't like Micro$oft for all sorts of reasons, particularly the way they effectively take over your computer! Why do you think Bill Gates decided to call it 'My Computer'?
Having said that, I've re-installed XP on the old Compaq, and networked it with the Linux box. It has no peripherals (keyboard, screen etc) and is operated as a slave to the linux box being controlled with a virtual desktop (VNC). The benefits to me of this arrangement are, firstly, I can still use my printer (an old Lexmark for which there are no Linux drivers), and secondly, any web pages I create can be checked on Chrome, I.E.6 and Safari.
I use Opera as my default browser (not the same Opera I disliked earlier). In my opinion, this browser is by far the best as it is quick, secure, and packed with useful features. I have re-skinned it with 'Shadowguard'. I also have Firefox installed on the Linux box.
I do a bit of HTML/CSS more as a hobby than anything, as you can see from this website.
My homepage (Nexus) is a handy table of all the websites I visit regularly. Above is a screenshot of the old XP version, but it still looks essentially the same.

When I'm not doing anything productive, I spend a little bit (a lot!) of time playing my favourite computer game, Oolite.

I am a regular contributor to Slashdot , a slightly off-beat tech news site whose motto, "News for nerds, stuff that matters" sums it up very nicely. Well worth a visit.

People who know me say I have a good (bad!) sense of humour and I like to think I'm quite a funny person.
If you fancy a chuckle, go to my jokes page.

I like cars a lot and have a modified '82 Ford Capri 2.8i called "The Beast", which I've enjoyed for 23 years now.

I have a cat called Bilbo. He's three, and a bit mad but really cute. The picture opposite is Bilbo as a kitten. Ahhhh!
I also have a pair of large, ancient (30-50 years old!) Terrapins (or red-ear turtles as the yanks know them).

I'm impressively inactive, but enjoy sport a lot, paticularly Cricket and Football (sorry yanks, soccer) where I support Everton F C.

I also enjoy Malt whisky, particularly those from the island of Islay . Ardbeg and Laphroaig are probably amongst the best. Peaty, smokey, gorgeous!
The best, though, is Port Ellen, which sadly is no longer operating as a distillary, although the maltings are still used and supply most of the other Islay distillaries. If you get the opportunity to sample a Port Ellen whisky, you will experience true perfection.