OT: Intro Profile

[davewitley]

THE OLD CROWD – INTRO
> 
> ***Name:
> David
> 
> ***Nicknames/IDs:
> davewitley (long story), sageofgodalming (on LiveJournal)
> 
> ***Age:
> 46
> 
> ***Family:
> Recently separated from my wife, we share care of our 3 kids.
> 
> ***Home
> Godalming, near Little Whinging, Surrey.
> 
> ***Birthday, Place of Birth:
> 11th May, Copenhagen, Denmark
> 
> ***Education/Job/Role in Life etc:
> BA Mathematics.  Now work for a technical consultancy.  I have no 
role in life that I'm aware of.
> 
> ***Other things we might want to know about you:
> Attending Accio 2005.  More to meet the people than to hear the 
talks, if truth be told.  I spent the early part of my life thinking 
I knew the answers; I spent a while trying to find the answers; now 
I would die quite happy if I knew what the question is, but am only 
moderately hopeful.
> 
> ***First contact with Harry Potter:
> Christmas 1998, son asked for 'Harry Potter' for Christmas, and 
got it.
> 
> ***Favourite Potter things (books, characters, ships, fics, objets 
> d'Art, general enthusing):
> book - POA; character probably still Arthur Weasley, though I like 
Luna Lovegood, too; ship none really but I expect to enjoy 
Harry/Ginny in the fulness of time; fic don't read enough to form a 
view (I enjoyed Caius Marcius' Snape-Specific though I don't know 
the songs, but I don't know if that counts); objets d'art you wha..? 
other - I have mixed feelings about jkrowling.com.  I can take or 
leave the films.  I don't feel that making the films more faithful 
to the books would make them better since I have no desire to see my 
reading experience played out visually: I think my opinion is that 
while money says any popular book can be filmed to advantage, I 
don't have to agree.

> ***Extent of Potter obsession:
> Gradual decline.  I was always semi-detached and ironic, careful 
to identify myself as not a fan.  Heavily involved in HPFGU for a 
while, but always inclined to be more interested in the behaviour of 
fellow-inmates than the content of the books.  If I ever write a 
fictional work as the result of my involvement with Harry Potter it 
won't be fanfic but a thinly veiled account of the life of an 
internet group.

> ***Other interests/activities:
> Always struggle with this - like Harry's, my mind goes a blank.  I 
have tried to generalise the HPFGU experience by joining a book 
reading group but it meets only once a month.  Compared to what 
Channel 4 would have you think, it's sadly lacking in sex.

> ***Current/recent reading:
> best thing I read recently was Neil Gaiman's Stardust, and I 
intend to try more of his stuff soon.  Enjoyed Alexander McCall 
Smith's No. 1 Ladies (and felt that far from being patronising to 
Botswanans, he used deceptively simplistic language to get over 
commentary on quite complex moral and social issues).  None of the 
Book Group books have really caught me.
> 
> ***Current/recent listening:
Whatever is on Virgin Radio, I'm afraid.  Oh, and the Today 
Programme.
> 
> ***Current/recent viewing:
Hardly watch TV these days.

David