Who the hell are you people?? :)

[denny]

I want to know more about the people who read my journal. Those of you who feel that I already know you well are not exempted from answering :)

I would like you to provide some or all of the following: your name, your age, your occupation/studies, your living arrangements, what makes you tick, what you're into, what labels (or lack thereof) you might use to sum up your existence... amusing quirky factoids appreciated, but not essential.


Idea stolen from jinxremoving's journal, after it goaded me into providing a rather longer answer than I originally intended.

My reply went like this:
My name is Denny, and I'm 30 years old.

I'm currently unemployed due to injury but I'm usually a computer programmer (mostly web-related software development). I did a BSc in Computing as a nominally mature student, finishing a few years ago - I graduated first class with honours, which is without doubt the single biggest achievement of my life (I failed half my GCSes and all 4 of my A levels, mostly due to not being all that interested at the time). After that I worked at Cambridge Uni for a bit doing AI research, which was a lot more interesting than web development but a lot less rewarding financially, hence my current work - at present, I feel I get more fun out of having money at the weekends than I would out of enjoying the weekdays. This may change again in a few years.

I live alone in a sadly cliched semi-detached 2 bedroom house in a quiet cul-de-sac in Milton Keynes, but I'm hoping to move to London as soon as I can find work there - I want to live nearer to Torture Garden and the other big fetish clubs, and make the most of my 30s as my 20s were a bit quiet.

I'm lazy in an applied kind of way sometimes, and in a life-destroying kind of way at other times. My life philosophy is definitely hedonistic - as far as I'm concerned, I'm here to have fun - all else is based around that premise.

Despite that, I seem to get involved in political activism quite a lot, first with relation to legislation concerning motorcyclists, then moving on to 'net and privacy related issues. I also did as much as I could in the anti-war stuff recently, including being in the biggest London march, messy bit at the end and all. I guess I'm just not very good at turning the other cheek when I feel my lifestyle is being threatened by legislation etc, and I seem to perceive these threats at a longer range than many of my friends.

I'm happy to be labelled, these are some of the ones that spring to mind: geek, biker, metaller/goth/raver, fetishist. There are undoubtedly more, I don't kid myself that I'm particularly unique in any aspect of my life.

Quirky factoid: erm... I currently have two titamium plates and 14 screws in my right shin after a car pulled out in front of me and my motorbike. Does that count as quirky?

Comments

[robinbloke.livejournal.com]

Name, rank and serial number:
I'm Robin Langridge and I have a problem...
hang on, it's not confession evening, it's information time; right.

I'm Robin I. Langridge, I'm rapidly approaching the wrong side of 30 and that worries me in ways I don't understand yet. I have a middle name, I occasionally reveal it; I actually quite like it but for some reason I never got into the habit of telling anyone it. I occasionally try and work out why.

Your occupation/studies:
Official job title is "Senior Software Engineer". I code mainly in C++ and a couple of obscure and hideous scripting languages, which I consider a debasement to (computer) languages. I used to enjoy programming, then I started doing it for a living serious and this killed my interest for it. On the plus side this has probably done wonders for my social life, that and giving up Evercrack.
Studies, I keep telling myself I need to learn more, and read more and do a hundred dozen things, like construct sentances with less commas for one. I have a degree (just) in Computer Science which should have probably been in Software Engineering; I only just passed my degree, but after 4 odd years of tedium being a Mac systems admin and RDBMS guy I blagged my way into a programming job for a language I barely knew and worked my way up to competency. One job on I'm doing pretty well, thank you very much.
I believe degrees generally come in two flavours; ones that get you jobs and ones that make for interesting after dinner conversation; whichever one you have you end up wishing you had the other. I'd personally have liked one in history, philosphy or psycohology; I'm leaning towards the latter at the moment and may even get off my arse (ha) sometime and do something about it.

I live in my own three bedroom terraced house where I can do pretty much what I like when I like; having boarded since I was twelve and realised that sooner or later I pretty much get sick of anyone (saving partners) and need some 'me' time, so this suits me just fine. My house is currently about to be redecorated by persons unknown as I flooded it by overflowing the bath when defrosting a turkey.

Motivations for life include dancing, music, music and dancing. I think too much sometimes and it can be hard for me to just do things, just be in a moment; currently only exercise and dancing let me get to a stage where I can blank the world and just exist I'd like something else to do this that was less effort. I love travelling and movies, I like making people laugh, causing amusement and generally entertaining people. I like food that is bad for me, drink that is bad for me and probably given half a chance ladies that are bad for me.
I occasionally try to work out why, what and who I am in this big old universe, then I remember I'm a cynic and that there is no answer and that we just are - this doesn't stop me wondering however.

Into. Hmmm, that is sort of covered in motivations. But I like clothes, boots, shopping, spending money, seeing people I care for happy, shooting things in computer games, twee random comments, pithy words, music, concerts, rats, dogs, travel, flying, comedy and a whole bunchload of other stuff.

You could probably label me as Goth, Geek and possibly wierdo. I really don't mind.

Amusing factorids; I associate age 12 with everything I did in my younger life; I have the memory of a dead goldfish and a strange obsession with gingham due to over exposure to the wizard of oz when I was a kid.

Standard disclaimers apply

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Interesting... I had a pretty linear aging experience until I hit 12... from then on, I felt 12 up until I was about 24. I was quite upset when all dozen of those years caught up with me at once. Then I held at 24 for a couple of years, aged to 30 (at the age of 26), and held again for a couple of years, and then started dropping back down again. Now, at age 30, I feel about 24 again. I'm quite interested to see where this goes next :)