IMS_Blog

Because I forget stuff. Part of norcimo.com

Note: It appears you must have reached this page by a deep level URL. In general this site is currently down and unmaintained. See here

• Skip to Navigation
• Skip to Blog Navigation
• Skip to Sidebar

About Me

Contrary to popular opinion, internet loving physicists do have something approaching a normal life. I'm a passionate follower of Newcastle United football club, as I have been since birth my 1977 birth (born on a Friday my mother put the headphones in my cot the next day so I could listen to the hospital radio commentary of the game. Unfortunately we lost 4-2 at Derby). It's a pity my utter lack of talent for actually playing the game prevented me living the dream of a number 9 toon shirt.

I lived in Gateshead and Newcastle until I finally buggered off to York in 2000. I think the whole childhood thing is probably fairly boring to read about. I spent the first formative years at Brighton Avenue Primary and Junior School (there is no road called Brighton Avenue, something it took me ages to explain). When I left, they knocked it down (though they did put up a new building to replace it). On to Hillhead Junior High School, supposedly for three years. After two they decided to knock it down (this time they didn't build a replacement, just some houses). So Kingsmeadow Comprehensive came, which confusingly they haven't as yet knocked down, though they do now seem to be rebuilding. I sat and passed GCSEs in more things than it's worth mentioning, before going to Gateshead College to do A-levels (back when they there was no sixth form. Also back before the whole AS-Level idea). A-Levels over, I went onwards to a degree in my native city (in retrospect that's a curse and a blessing. I had free home cooking on my doorstep but then I had home on my doorstep). A four year MPhys degree in Physics and suddenly I didn't know what to do. I spent a year improving my programming skills and looking for a job, nearly going to work for DERA before a last minute change of plan brought me to the University of York, where where I tried to do research and played around on the web a lot. While there I spent some time living with a very nice cat (who's now in Gateshead) and a still friends girl (who's still in York). Now, after a bit of a break, I'm down in Croydon (working in London in building service engineering), while a very nice girl is still in Gateshead (damn it). Up and down the east coast I go. See, all relatively boring stuff.

The biggest influence during those thirty-odd years was probably my mother. It is her fault I know bizarre things about Egyptian mythology, read Terry Pratchett (and indeed anything at all), have a rather very black sense of humour interspersed with a love of Monty Python and generally act in the strange ways I do. It's Rachel's fault that I know who Buffalo Tom are and watch The League of Gentlemen and Black Books. It's Janet's fault that I've spent a lot of time on trains, and laugh quite a lot. It's Pepe's fault that I've become rather good at finding mice hiding under shoes.