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About Me

I was born in Jedburgh, Roxburgh, Scotland, close to the border of England. When I was young I moved to Dundee (or rather Monifieth, which is sometimes part of Dundee when the mood takes it) where I attended Monifieth High School. I went on to earn a BSc (Hons) in Applied Computing at the University of Dundee. With my appetite for being a student not quite whetted I undertook four years of study at the Vision Research Group at the University of Dundee. I emerged dazed from my viva with a PhD but not before I began working in 2005 as a Demonstrator at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Leicester. I am now a Teaching Fellow there.

Hobbies

My hobbies are boardgames you've probably never heard of (unless you are familiar with Kill Doctor Lucky, Munchkin, Before I Kill You Mister Bond and such like). I used to be a bit an inveterate roleplayer (mainly Dungeons & Dragons but I also played a lot of other things including Call of Cthulhu, D6 Star Wars, Rolemaster, Riddle of Steel and Dragon Warriors).

Reading

My favourite book is the Lord of the Rings trilogy, though I read it less often than it deserves but I own at least 3 copies of it including the ultra-deluxe hardback edition which is just a little too heavy for me to read. I'm not much of a reader, so I prefer short stories and love the works of H.P. Lovecraft, as well as collecting numerous indie films made of his works.

Film

I love fantasy films so Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy is probably my favourite movie (even if I don't like what they did when they strayed from the text, like with Faramir dammit!). I also love the 80s shlock fantasy films like Krull or Hawk the Slayer (which is not rubbish, Mr. Bill Bailey). In fact I like rubbish fantasy films so much I even recently sat through Uwe Boll's In The Name of the King and want to see the director's cut. It is bad. I have a bit of love for the Highlander films, even if after the first film they are generally regarded as a bit crap. I especially like Highlander Endgame as it has an interesting way of handling the premise of 'there can be only one' with two leads. It's a pretty dark movie!

Music

As for music I really prefer film soundtracks, especially the works of James Horner, John Williams and Hans Zimmer. Currently my favourite soundtrack is The Dark Knight but my musical tastes are fickle and eclectic. I do prefer music that stirs the blood and nourishes the imagination to actual singing or harmony. Here's an example of some of my weirder tastes, the Unquiet Void, which consolidates my love of soundtracks with the weirdness of HP Lovecraft. I also like Sumerland, by the same record label. If you want conventional music I listen to Queen, Elton John, Erasure and Enya.

TV

I watch too much TV, but my favourites are Doctor Who, Battlestar Galactica, Lost, Heroes and Twin Peaks. I'm getting a little jaded with Lost and Galactica as their plots were too mysterious and the reveal never proves as good as I imagined it would. Lost in particular is getting silly and the show has just moved too far beyond being about a struggle to survive on a strange island into some inexplicable James Bond/Sci-Fi thriller for my liking. Battlestar Galactica ended reasonably well but somebody should have shot Gaius Baltar.

Radio

You have probably noticed that I walk around with my iPod a lot. I like to listen to radio plays on the go. I particularly like Big Finish who produce Doctor Who, Sapphire and Steel and Highlander audios. In particular they make the Eighth Doctor audios, which is great as I really liked Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor from the US TV Movie. He would've been an excellent choice to continue the series instead of the brilliant Christopher Eccleston. I hope they bring him back someday but I doubt they will.

There's a new series of audio adventures on BBC7 and while I mostly listen to the McGann ones I started listening to the McCoy ones (the Harvest, Night Thoughts and Master are excellent), and even Colin Baker, who was in my opinion awful as a Doctor on TV, is good on audio with titles like Jubilee and The Holy Terror.

My favourite audios are the orginal Eighth Doctor audio pilot, Storm Warning, Embrace the Darkness - an alienesque claustrophobic adventure, Seasons of Fear - a romp through multiple timezones - something TV show hasn't done in years, visiting Ancient Rome, medieval times, 19th Century England and beyond in one story. If you want to know what they sound like listen to their podcast with me in it here.

Writing

During my PhD I kept myself in beer by doing some freelance writing for gaming magazines such as Dungeon and Dragon. I even have an entry on the Pen and Paper Database. You can download some of my work in PDF format. Here is a list of my gaming resume:-