About me

A brief introduction

I'm an ex-student of Royal Holloway, having graduated in 2003 with First Class Honours in joint Computer Science and Physics.

I'm an aspiring although insufficiently competent geek, a Furry, a Feathery, a science-fiction fan, a programmer, and an amateur artist.

My interests

Programming

I've always loved programming since I got my first computer, an Amiga, in the early nineties. Programmers are gods of their own universes. No, really.

Cellular automata

A cellular automaton (CA) is a virtual structure of 'cells' which change according to a table of rules. For example, a simple CA might have all active cells replicate themselves to their surroundings, in which case you'd expect to end up with a huge blob after a while. It turns out that some CAs, even simple ones, are VERY interesting, producing odd structures which pulsate, grow, or even crawl across their virtual space. The most famous CA is the Game of Life, which you can find applets for all over the web.

Science-fiction

I don't think this needs much explanation. On the screen I like Star Trek, Red Dwarf (except for the dreadful eighth series), and Babylon 5. Lately I've also become quite interested in Stargate: SG-1, having been quite disillusioned by the awful Star Trek: Enterprise.

I also enjoy reading sci-fi novels and stories - notable ones I can think of at the moment are: Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, and anything (possibly everything) by Douglas Adams.

Starships

I am a starship geek - that is, I will happily point at and drool over cool fictional spacecraft, search the web for pictures of them, and fill a page with doodles of potentially funky vessels. I have no plans ever to build model starships as a hobby, but I will point/drool at them if I see them. My favourite Star Trek ship is the Nova-class USS Equinox, because it's small and looks nifty. Lately I've been interested in more 'realistic' starships, like the Earth ships in Babylon 5.

Nature

You know, that thing with all those animals and plants and stuff. I love birds. They're just beautiful and fantastically cool and they have feathers and they can fly. I like most animals, actually. In the mammalian world, rabbits hold an appeal for some reason. I don't mean fat, fluffy, floppy-eared domestic bunnies - I'm talking wild rabbits. They have a certain grace of form that I admire, and they sometimes live underground which - and your guess why is as good as mine - has always intrigued me. And also - they're almost always the, er, underdog, and therefore I identify with them a bit more easily. :p

Anthropomorphic fiction

...which is probably why I like Watership Down so much. Anthropomorphic books tell their stories from the viewpoint of animals. Other well-known examples are: the Duncton Chronicles by William Horwood; Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame; the Redwall series by Brian Jacques, and so on.

Retrogaming

You know Moore's Law, which states that computers double in power roughly every eighteen months? Well, take that law in reverse and go back ten, fifteen, twenty years or so. Yes, there was a time when games could not rely on their graphics to keep the pennies rolling in, and had to fall back on being ridiculously fun or challenging to play. Retrogamers like these games, and use a variety of emulators to play them. Even though I am actually too young to have played the old arcade machines (I was brought up on an Amiga), I still like the old games. Joust and Star Castle are two of my favourites, as well as most Taito games (particularly the Bubble Bobble series).

Shoot 'em ups

A shoot 'em up (informally known as a shooter, or a shmup, but shooter is easier to say and doesn't sound stupid) is a genre of computer game in which you shoot things. Er, up. I like them.

A typical shoot 'em up is sprite-based, with scrolling levels, and invariably pits the player against hordes of armed-but-dumb enemies, and huge end-of-level bosses.

Some of my favourite shooters are: Apidya (see my fansite on it here), R-Type (I, II, III, and Final), Image Fight and Deluxe Galaga.

Drawing

I've been learning to draw since August 2002. You can see my efforts here.

Writing

Writing's an odd one. (I'm talking about storywriting here.) I'm not very good at it, and I've never shown anyone my stories, but nonetheless, I've been writing stories since I was a teenager. Mostly animal, transformation, Furry stories, or fanfictions. I find it very enjoyable.

Winds of Change

On a similar note, I love Winds of Change. The chances are you've never heard of it.

Winds of Change is a story universe created by a chap called Jon Sleeper. To cut the explanation short, one day three universes merge and everyone on Earth turns into an anthropomorphic animal. In addition, some people gain special powers.

That sharp synopsis really doesn't do justice to how brilliant WoC is. The first WoC story I read was 'A Hawk's Story' by Jared Yelton (otherwise known as Redtailed, whom I have the pleasure of knowing from Avians.net), and in my opinion it's one of the best. I don't think I can describe the sheer exhiliration I got from reading it.

The appeal of Winds of Change, I think, is that it describes something that many people wish would happen. Certainly many people seem to write themselves into their stories. I've written about twenty myself, although all are unfinished and I've never shown them to anyone.

Dozens of fans have written dozens of stories for Winds of Change, and most are archived at Xepher.net.

NetHack

RPGs have never interested me in the same way they seem to interest everyone else (I just can't sit down and play Final Fantasy and be interested), but NetHack is an exception. In fact, it's probably not really an RPG.

It's a computer game of the genre known as Roguelike, with no graphics. That is, no 'real' graphics - the entire game is represented as text characters. For example, # is a wall, the player's character is represented by @, while a cockatrice is c.

The game is seriously addictive, because it randomises every time it is played, and because it is really quite complex, with dozens of different potions, scrolls, weapons, rings, amulets, and more, all unknown to the player at first. And with hundreds of monsters, all with various dangerous properties, it is truly a challenge. I've been playing since 2005 and I haven't even seen, by my estimate, up to half the game yet.