OTWednesday VII

Sorry we skipped one there, I was out exploring Norfolk with T-pot, stroking newborn lambs and stuff. You heard. The winner of my blog contest is, I'm proud to say, my own brother Alistair. Good work.

Which reminds me, look! The sidebar links have all changed! When I was a little boy I always used to wish people would introduce links a bit, instead of just uselessly listing a load of meaningless names. Well, now I'm the grandad, and it's my turn to do this properly. Sorry to people and links I haven't commentated on, there were a few that seemed to speak for themselves.


Beige ---> Programming ensemble, artists with l33t sk1llz. I interviewed Cory once for a thing and he's one of my all time most admired people. He makes ipods out of NESes and recycles hardwarez and hacks nes cartridges and programs in assembler and he's still only 9 years old or something. He's also really really nice. Paul B Davies is nice too. I finally met them both at the Spitz last year! Imagine! I was all flustered.

Ben Moor ---> I first met Ben after his show- ten years ago- in Edinburgh but he doesn't remember. I remember though, I even remember all the best lines from the show. Ben's a very talented actor and writer and I like him a lot. Although Ben seems to know everyone in the world ever, he always makes time for me, and smiles politely when I quote his shows back at him. A very generous and kind man in a perpetual state of inviting me to a party I never manage to get to.

Danny O'Brien ---> I think Danny and I are sort of penpals, but he totally owes me an email. He's funny, he sleeps in a walk-in wardrobe, he asked me to be his research assistant for some BBC Micro project, he tried to sneak me into an O'Reilly camp in Amsterdam last year for no real reason. I like him.

NTK ---> Registered at the post office as Danny and Dave and co's fortnightly digest of nerd news.

"Snackspot" ---> Dave Green's food reviews or something. Remember when we went to see Spiderman II then we went to a computer fair, then we went to look at the Diana memorial fountain? We won't see the likes of those days again. I have Dave's old Macintosh, with a still unpublished zine from the mid 90s called "Graduate Loser" saved on it. It has a picture of Ben on the front, naked. That's right.

Trioptimum ---> Chris and I used to be penpals when we were very young, before the internet even, then we found each other on the internet again in recent years. We still have Red Dwarf and HHGG in common, but now that Chris seems to be into Farscape I do worry about how this story might end.


People I like In Real Life

Tom ---> Needs no introduction, surely. I live with Tom! He's my boyfriend! :-D

Marty ---> Great memories, great emails, and now a great blog. One of my favourite friends ever.

Alistair ---> Surprising, London-dwelling, social science apologist. He's lovely.

Laura ---> Laura shares many of my interests, including Netto carrier bags, critical theory, Wood Green cultural complex and having-lived-in-cambridge. She has a really very excellent blog. I love the way she thinks. Like Michael J Fox before him, Stefan is a lucky man.

Stefan ---> I forgave him for ripping off my blog ideas and never updating my link on his links page because he has a scouse accent and there is a picture of his dad wearing reindeer ears on his site. Stefan and I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean together in Wood Green and throughout the whole episode Stef insisted on pronouncing it "Pilates of the Caribbean".

Sally ---> Possibly my oldest friend who has an internet. I imagine most of her website is broken now though, because she's away in New Zealand or something. When she had long hair she used to look like HoneySuckle Weeks and I think she fancies that guy from the Darkness.

Sandy ---> Exflatmate and ongoing geordie pal, I've known Sandy since my late Mirc period when we used to troll all over Christian together and my nick was Chantilly. Wonderful musician and talented artist. We've had fun all over the place and I love his ideas.

Hamish ---> I "helped" Hamish with his Other Men's Stories art project a couple of years ago. He's a most excellent photographer, now living it up in New York, and working for the very stunning City Magazine. He comes third in this week's ligging contest for running into, and chatting up, Robbie Williams in the street the other day.

Mike ---> Mike's another artistic type with skillz. He's been everywhere and probably done everything but now he's like a Buddhist or something. Mike recently reminded me that he once asked me what music I was into and I said "Sleeper". What can I say, it's still true. We used to walk home from school together when we were kids and make humorous tapes and lend them to eachother. At one time we were going to make some kind of comedy sci-fi film with Rob and Roughie in the woods near Glencrutchery Special School. I'm still holding out for that actually, Mike.


People I like On The Internet

James and the Blue Cat ---> Very entertaining blog, very nice guy. He's a comedy writer and you can tell...IN A GOOD WAY.

Josh ---> Josh has a fab blog and occasionally comments on here, which is nice. I've only met him once, but I'm quite sure we'll meet again sometime.

Richard Herring ---> I taught him some HTML and did his fliers for the whole festival last summer, and in payment he let me sleep on his sofa for one night and slipped me the odd tenner. I don't mean to sound ungrateful, he also let me come in for one cup of tea.

Tim Fiskin ---> To be honest I don't really know Fisko the Fiskit that well but I'm all over his xtreme communist blog and he links to me.

Tim W ---> Tim's programs rock. He achieved the highest Tetris score I have ever seen, kicks Rubics ass, and I like his photos.

---

Blog Competition Winner ********** Alistair Johnston *********

There are truths that are revealed to us gradually; we must take them
on trust until we catch up with our assumption. A child finds the idea
of sex baffling, if not terrifying, and may swear that they would
never do such a thing – but somewhere they know they probably will, no
matter how unpleasant they think the experience will be. When single,
we may sneer at couples, thinking that they are only together through
fear, that they are pooling their insecurities. But what do we know?
It's safest not to make assumptions about others' motivations.

So it is with Worcestershire sauce. I could never believe that anyone
could actually like it, could spoil the harmony of cheese on toast
with a watery brown stain. I was wrong, it makes the meal worth
eating. So I know nothing; and if I find myself in Ikea, aged 34,
looking at wardrobes and paint, I will ignore the sneers of twenty six
year old me, for who is he to judge me?

---