The Generic
My name is Michael Walker, I am currently 16 years old and live in the city of Hull in England. I am a bit (a lot) of a nerd really, and spend most (all) of my spare time on my computer; though my mum is attempting to make me get a job. Many people accuse me of being boring, though I say that those people need to get to know me better! Simply spending a lot of time on my computer doesn't make me boring; it makes me different, and in this increasingly conformist and normalised work, difference is a good thing. My interests range far and wide, from computers to... well, anything you can give me a bit of information about that provides a challange. Origami is an interest of mine for that reason; I like the challange of transforming a piece of paper into different shapes without resorting to scissors, glue, or sellotape as most people would.
I am very introverted, and feel fairly awkward around people I don't know very well. This, of course, makes it more difficult to get to know other people well, and so the cycle continues! I tend to value competency over skill; incompetent people irritate me much more than someone who is merely bad, but knowledgeable about a particular subject. This can make asking me for help with a computer-related task a fairly daunting experience - often I will move you away from the computer, do it myself, and expect you to have watched and learned. Please correct me if I do this to you.
I spend quite a lot of my time fiddling around with my computer and websites. My computers must be perfect, this means no viruses, spyware, adware, or any other malware of any kind. No crashes, freezes, or other problems of that sort. Of course, that excludes from my usage any operating system created by Microsoft. I use the Arch Linux GNU/Linux distribution on all my personal computers, as not only does it live up to my standards, it also exceeds them and also satisfies another strong aspect of my personality, minimalism and simplicity.
The Political
I am pro-freedom (in every way), for the individual rather than the business, hope for a minimal government with much more limited laws than at present, against software and medical patents/copyrights, for open standards, and so on. I have included my political compass below to help illustrate this:
The political party I support is the Liberal Democrats; particularly their belief that war is always a last resort, that the individual should have more freedom, and that the environment is in serious need of fixing. They are the closest to me in terms of political compass out of the main three UK political parties, as can be seen on the political compass below:
I can't see why someone would support another party, yet the citizens of Hull consistently elect a Labour MP.
The Miscellaneous
- I like cats.
- I would like to be able to play a musical instrument, yet have absolutely no talent in that area.
- I am fairly good at creative writing.
- I can make a computer (particularly an Arch Linux computer) run very fast.
- I get bored easily when not challanged.
- I will frequently remake something, such as this website, just for something to do.
- I am always trying to improve myself.
- Terry Pratchett is my favourite author, followed by Stephen Donaldson, JRR Tolkien and Carlos Ruiz Zafon.
- My favourite fictional characters are Lu Tze, Thomas Covenant, Morgoth, and Lain Coubert.
- Everything I do, if it is in a topic I care about, must be perfect.
- I think Edgar Allen Poe wrote some good stuff.
- I have an old smelly dog called Shaggy who sleeps a lot.
- I like the rain and cold.
- My favourite food is Italian and Mexican.
- I can cook the perfect breakfast; consisting of chips, hash browns, fried egg, tomato, and toast.
- I am quite strongly opinionated.
- I hardly ever swear.
- I have a tendancy to see the world in black and white; particularly with people whom I often divide into 'superior' and 'inferior'.
- Once I have started a book I will finish it, unless it is so tediously dull I don't read for days on end just to avoid it.
- I do theatre tech at school for productions, big and small.
- Fiction is the best type of book.
- I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows overnight, without sleeping or stopping for break, because I liked it so much I couldn't put it down.
- I can type at 75 words per minute, despite not being able to type properly and only using two fingers and looking at the keyboard fairly often.
- I like to keep my computers secure and pick very long passwords.