'ello there and welcome to my profile - here's a brief(ish) introduction to me:

I'm honest to a fault, and I think openness improves everything! I'm sure I could whip you up some high horsed intellectual justification for this if you demanded it, but I secretly suspect that my natural instinct for openness and honesty comes first and then my conscious brain comes trundling along after it with the excuses.

I'm laid back - I suspect that people who 'work hard & play hard' are just making things difficult for themselves - I'd much rather take both in my stride.

I occasionally have a rush of blood to the head and become all moral - I often feel pretty frowny towards theism and it's effects in the world, and I think it's a shame that governments often seem motivated by misguided concepts of 'right/wrong' rather than 'effective/ineffective'. And far too much emphasis is put on the negative act of legeslation rather than positive acts of support and stimulation. But I'd say I'm generally very liberal and I do love chatting to people who have very different views from my own. I love weirdos :)

Well firstly my time is mostly spent at work - which is a lovely little web development company over near Wrexham where I help make websites.

Secondly I also spend quite a bit of time about four days a week rowing at a club over in Chester, which I really enjoy - I started quite randomly about 9 months ago after seeing them practice whilst I was walking by the river, so thought I'd give it a go - if you're at all tempted then I'd definitely recommend it!

Thirdly I also play viola (it's like a violin but slightly larger and deeper) most days at some point. I've been playing for about 3 years, and I'm still very much 'learning'... I recently performed for the first time with a string quartet which was really good fun... and I thought we sounded pretty good until I heard a recording of the event afterwards haha...

I also sprinkle in the odd event with family a friends and the usual stuff like spending way too much time poking about on the internet, playing computer games, reading books, etc.

What would I like to be doing?

Well aside from being a little better at my job, rowing and viola, I also wish I was better at cooking and eating more healthily - this is one of those resolutions that has remained stubbornly theoretical so far, perhaps one for the new year! I also taught myself a bit of Latin and French some time a go, but I haven't done anything with either for a while - I wish I was able to read/speak both to a decent level but at the moment I can't quite be bothered wedging it into one of my days.

Once upon a future me dreams of some day living in the middle of nowhere in a house I've made myself and living with a high degree of self sufficiency, self employed, and with my easy days full of rainbows and philosophy books...

Normally I would find it hard to answer these favourite questions, however 'Steppenwolf' by Hermann Hesse is the most affecting novel that I have ever read by a long way.

Generally I like to alternate between pretentious literature (classics, poetry, philosophy, science) and crappy easy to read 'shitlit'(fantasy, sci-fi, fiction). Obviously Charlotte is the best Bronte sister.

Favourite film - Jurassic Park! Firstly because of how nostalgic it is to watch and remember a time when I truly loved dinosaurs, and also because it's aged so well, it's such good fun, the music is great, and I still love dinosaurs. I'm going to stop apologising now.. The Host is also adorable. Most recently I enjoyed 'Let me in' and 'Never let me go', they're happy-sad!

I don't really watch TV. But I do like these epic episodic drama thingies - Battlestar Galactica, Rome, Game of Thrones, True Blood etc. I cannot consume them at one episode a week though, I have to wait for the DVD then watch the entire thing in one debauched and faintly delirious weekend. This is because I'm cool.

Music is much more difficult to answer. I like lots of stuff, mainly rock, metal, folk, classic... music which is emotionally engaging, and different. You should definitely tell me about that band, that you're really in to, which I am not cool enough to have heard of ;)

The best food is Thai food, but I love eating virtually everything.