Damm, I had the wrong parents!

It's a (mis)quote of my own devising from Terry Prachett, I'll have you know

The Librarian is an ape in TP's Discworld series, so Librarian-poo becomes, rather aptly Ape-****.

Being English isn't my failing :p Being obscure most certianly is

Hey, not all real guys are completely librarian-poo bonkers!

I make no claims on my own part, you understand - 90% of guys give the rest of us a bad name.

Haha, that was me! I got really frustrated with the highly regimented 'learn to read' course of little books I had in primary school.

Why? I was reading the Chronicles of Narnia at the time - the first novel I ever touched was The Sorcerer's Apprentice - and somehow reading about cats, hats, matts and billy the bloody bumblebee and his blasted bombasdimisations* just didn't cut it.

However, you had to complete their little reading course before you could pick up a novel. I even got put in special classes because of my 'slow progress' - then one day the teacher saw me hiding Prince Caspian in my lunch-box and my little rebellion was brought to an end.

Fight the Powah!

M

*it's probably misspelt, but it's a (bad) transliteration from the greek 'Bombasdimai' (also probably misspelt) meaning to fly about aimlessly in 'the manner of a bumblebee'. I'll stop channeling Stephen Fry now, shall I?

It's a toss-up between Andy Mckee or Tommy Emmanuel for Mikey :)

This is how everyone first finds Andy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddn4MGaS3N4

though, if I had to pick a favourite song, it's Tight Trite Night:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn1d5DmdMqY

Though, To be fair - Tommy Emmanuel might trump him on ability, it's hard to tell when the styles are so different..

Tommy letting rip with his (largely improvised) Guitar Boogie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lbvSBNLLoo

Though, I can't mention Tommy without pointing at the simply -epic- Classical Gas :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQJ1k2HMoRU


Them's my picks :)

Can you believe, I'm on these forums for almost 24 hours and I've only just see the UK section?! Crazy.

Well, I'm here to fly the flag and self-deprecate like any true brit :)

And I suppose, whilst I'm at it a little plug can't hurt. So, if you happen to be in/around the Somerset area, take a peek at my profile, hey you could even drop me a line

M

I've just stumbled across this fantastic beat poem by Tim Minchin that sums up my thoughts better than I ever could:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB_htqDCP-s&feature=related

Favourite quotes:

"You know what they call Alternative Medicine that's been proved to work?
..
...
Medicine."

and

"Science adjust it's views,
Based on what's observed.
Faith is the denial of observation,
So that belief can be preserved"

The last one rolls so well - this guy is a genius :)

Comments please!

M

Who me? A character?

Damm right :)

That second photo is a favourite of mine - I look like a complete muppet and I feel this covers that side of me most marvellously :)

Thanks for looking, and I'll keep working on the essay bit

M

Whilst we're on the topic, am I the only one who's not a fan of the little e-book readers?

I mean, if I'm reading I feel I -have- to have the paper volume actually in my hands. How conservative does one have to be

Anyway, I've had many people respond 'yeah, ok, but I just don't like reading' - unfortunately most of the stuff I come out with ends up being a (mis)quote from some book or another. I imagine to a lot of these people I make very little sense

How people cope with the world without running away into a book of an evening I've no idea.

It's interesting that people get pissed off when you call them on their incredulity about your library - I'm not going to say people who don't read much aren't intelligent (well, I'll try not to ) - though you have to ask if they find comfort in their appearing ignorant.

Which leads me onto a lovely quote (actually not from a book, but shussh!):

"If ignorance is bliss, then wipe the smile off my face"

M

I've sold a few prints - though most of what I take (bar specific event photos) tends to end up on Flickr under a creative commons license.

When I've taken shots for a specific event, I usually make a set of lower (maybe 800px on the long side) .jpgs available to people - they can then go through and say if they want any in higher res, or printed.

Last Graduation I shot at (playing second togger to a close friend) we charged cost+20% for prints and a flat fee of £10 to get all the shots in high-res (usually I'd supply these both as tiff and jpg).

But it's all about what you can get really - I know a wedding photographer who pulls almost £3k a gig. Mind you, his equipment alone stretches into the hundreds of thousands of £.


Still, outside of specific events or commissions (ie: all my hobby shots) are on Flickr and free to download, print, alter and repost. I'm a real fan of non-copyright art - some people have taken seemingly mediocre photos of mine and turned them into masterpieces.

Well, that's my take on things anyway.

M

I'm into photography - I have my Canon 30D which I love like a child

I started off taking pictures of aircraft (I've been living on an airfield after all!) and soon moved onto other stuff.

My Flickr is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikebert4

If I had to pick my three favourites, I'd be these three:



This is taken from the Trafalgar lighthouse looking out into the cape of Trafalgar, we hired a car to explore the area (I've been in Southern Spain for 14 months) and the cape has to be one of my favourite spots - fantastic beaches and lovely views :)




This one's of a bunker on the rock of Gibraltar - I just like it :)



This started as just a quick snap of a rose saw whilst walking through the (Fantastically picturesque) town of Rhonda - but something tempted me to let loose on photoshop and this is the result :)


I think Photography for me is a Hobby more than anything else - I've been paid once or twice, but mostly I take free dinners or drinks or some other perk for playing Photographer at various events. It's just too much damm fun, and I'm still rather amateur, to go asking people for cash :)

Anyway, that's me and Mine :)

Mike out.

Thanks for the warm welcome :)

Oh isn't it just the way though. I'm bang in the middle of a 'classics' phase - well technically I guess I'm out of it because I'm reading Richard Dawkins atm - but people, even close friends would comment that they didn't think anybody 'actually read' books like David Copperfield, War and Peace, The count of Monte Cristo ("what, you mean the film?").

It irks me more than it amuses, y'know.

Now I don't have that big a library and if I'm honest it's mostly full of Terry Prachett, but I've still got easily 3 or 4 times as many books as the vast majority of my friends. Go figure.

Anyway, rant over :)

Reading rocks!

Pretty easy, I guess - I'm new to the whole dating site thing and if anyone here can spot anything I'm doing terribly wrong then let me know! hell, anything that's on my profile that'll loose me interest or anything that's not on there that'd gain me some..

Basically, Mingle2, I need your advice :)

Mike out.

Hello one and all, I'm Mike.

I've recently moved back to the UK after 14 months in the south of Spain (getting my Pilot's licence, no less!) and I'm looking to meet/date/hang out with some cool people. Obviously such things as 14-month's slacking around in Jerez don't come cheap so I've been looking at free dating sites - this brings us nicely up to date and this post.

So, if you're in the area and think I sound at least a little bit interesting then drop me a line and say Hi - worst case scenario is that you find out I'm a complete douche, eh?