Rob
| Gender | Male |
|---|---|
| Industry | Banking |
| Occupation | I.T. Developer |
| Location | Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom |
| Introduction | Born in Manchester the day "Waiting For Godot" had its British premiere. Grew up in Droylsden and Stockport. Studied chemistry at University College, Durham before moving to London to program computers for the Inland Revenue. Then moved to Scotland to do the same for the Clydesdale Bank and Bank of Scotland. The latter helped me get an MBA from Edinburgh, then outsourced me to Xansa, got taken over by Halifax BS and insourced me again. The spell with Xansa included four wonderful months working in India. These days I work in a support department in Edinburgh, passing on my ancient craft skills of Assembler and COBOL to the awestruck youngsters who sit at my feet. I'm also active in my trade union Unite, supporting the downtrodden IT peasantry. Married for 29 years to a further education music lecturer, with a twenty-year-old daughter and a sixteen-year-old son. We also own a flat in Ballater (our country place, don't you know). Random fact: my old school was founded only 34 years after the end of the Roman empire. So no, my 50th birthday didn't make me feel old. I have been described as a "tool of the neofascist kleptocrat machinery". I take that as a compliment. |
| Interests | Violin-playing, hill-walking, opera, buying too many books and CDs, archery, going to the cinema, watching "West Wing" DVDs, trade union activism, birding, Bollywood |
| Favorite Movies | Cyrano de Bergerac, Pulp Fiction, Annie Hall, The Dish, Some Like It Hot, Sneakers |
| Favorite Music | Wagner (esp. Ring cycle and Mastersingers), Mahler, Miles Davis, Nordman, Stockhausen's "Stimmung", Runrig, The Beta Band, Beth Nielsen Chapman, more stuff than I can list from Abba to Zappa |
| Favorite Books | Jane Austen "Emma", Alan Watts "The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are", Iain Banks "The Crow Road", Peter Carey "Oscar and Lucinda", George Antheil "Bad Boy Of Music", Lewis Carroll (both the "Alice" books), Neal Stephenson "Snow Crash", Robert Rankin "The Brentford Trilogy" |
The love potion you made tastes terrible. How will you drink it?
Vicariously. Isn't the whole point that someone ELSE drinks it?