lightrider profile picture

lightrider

Knock me down I get right back up again, come back stronger than a powered-up PacMan.

About Me


I'm a straight-talking kind of person with a dry sense of humour. I moved to Birmingham in September to pick up the threads after things went tits up for a few years. I love the rock scene and have really missed it while my life's been on hold, so that's one thing I'm getting back into. I got a physics degree from Aberystwyth in 2000 and haven't been able to use it as much as I'd like. Maybe someone will let me into a little room again soon where I can play with lasers and lenses and stuff. Oh the things we get excited about, eh? Well, perhaps not excited but I do miss it.

Odd fact about me: I have a reputation for being a bit bah-humbug and I don't sing because I don't generally like to torture people but… I tend to break into Christmas songs at any moment at any time of year.

My political views are pretty left wing. There's a small rant in my heroes section.

My Interests

Motorcycles, though alas, they are temporarily beyond my reach. Rock music, reading science fiction and fantasy. I'm even trying to write some. I've finally really got somewhere with my Spanish over the last few months and now all I have to do is really go somewhere with my Spanish. Now I've got the bug a bit so I'm on to Portuguese and Italian too. Lots of time to myself I guess! And I finally got myself a camera so now I get to learn about photography too, whilst firmly telling myself I don't need to spend more money on toys.

And travelling… ah, the freedom. Good to travel alone I think—easier to meet new and groovy people!

I'd like to meet:


Hmm, rockers in Birmingham'd be a good start. Male, female or other; makes no difference to me. Things might have been a bit easier if Eddie's hadn't burnt down! I'd only managed to go there once.

I guess I'd like to meet people who are down to earth and not up their own arses. I can't stand liars. I like genuine people who aren't out to mess with people's heads. I don't know. We like who we like, right? If you're really, really interested, I wrote a blog about the futility of trying to describe who you'd like to meet.

One of my favourite feelings is making new friends. I love that click (I had to change the font because the c and the l were getting obscenely close together) and really getting to know people.

This map isn't here to spy on you. Just curious where a little dot will appear next...

There are so many places I haven't been. I don't count the places I went when I was very little. My earliest memory is in Bolivia, but it's incredibly vague. Vague or not, it may have shaped my life - it was of a motorcycle!

Music:

Counting Crows _ Jane's Addiction _ Editors _ Lynyrd Skynyrd 'Freebird' _ Blind Melon _ Rammstein _ OPM _ Korn _ Pink Floyd _ The Knife _ Jah Wobble's Invaders of the Heart—If you know of an album with a similar vibe to Rising above Bedlam, please let me know. _ Metallica _ Apocalyptica _ Therapy? _ Godsmack _ Emiliana Torrini _ David Gilmour _ Dogs d'Amour _ The Levellers _ Ugly Kid Joe _ Belly _ Guns N'Roses _ Rob Zombie _ Sunna _ Firehose _ InMe _ DubWar _ Skindred (I love Benji's voice) _ Aerosmith _ Jewel _ Jeff Buckley _ INXS _ David Bowie _ Constant Gardener soundtrack _ Disturbed _Longpigs _ _ Morcheeba _ Massive Attack _ Alison Moyet _ Ani DiFranco _ Johnny Cash's version of Hurt _ Black Sabbath _ Dandy Warhols 'Bohemian Like You' _ I Mother Earth 'Not Quite Sonic' _ Sisters of Mercy _ Alanis Morissette. _ And Puff, the Magic Dragon's in my music player too.

Movies:

Transformers - very cool. Donnie Darko, The Motorcycle Diaries, Lost in Translation, Brokeback Mountain. Ones I've loved in the past, um, Good Will Hunting, Alien(s), Terminator (I & II), Sweet Home Alabama (weakness for blondes—er, I mean chick flicks—either lead blonde would be fine, thanks), Favela Rising. Then there's ones from my kidhood like the Breakfast Club and Some Kind of Wonderful.

Television:

Stargate _ Long Way Round _ House _ Medium _ Bones _ CSI (not NY; and Miami has gone way down hill) _ NCIS _ Dead Like Me _ My Name is Earl…

Thankfully, they're not all on at the same time. The box shalt not rule my life.

Books:

I adore books. They are probably my biggest weakness. I can resist CDs; I'm not much of a clothes person (though I often wear them); and I don't have a 'special someone' to addle my brain. So it's books. Mostly SF&F but books about words, language and writing fascinate me too. Here are some of my favourites.
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.
Dirk Gentley's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams.
Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach.
The Crystal Singer by Anne McCaffrey.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig.
I usually love anything by Guy Gavriel Kay, Robin Hobb and Weis & Hickman.
More generally I also read Larry Niven, Arthur C Clarke, Raymond E Feist, David Gemmell, Philip Pullman, Robert Jordan (lost it by about book 7 or 8, I reckon) Ursula LeGuin, Asimov, Stephen King's Dark Tower (I don't do scary), Ken McLeod...
Recent books I've read (audio and real books): Animal Farm, Dune, The Stand, His Dark Materials, Wolf in Shadow, Xenocide, Dragonsblood, Fool's Fate, Raymond E Feist's Serpent War Saga, Neither Here nor There and quite a few short stories.
Books is good. :o)

Heroes:

People who do good things in the world, trying to stop both the obvious and the media-ignored tragedies and injustices that go on, whether they be man made or man assisted: famines that should never happen; genocide, cruelty and inexcusable poverty sponsored by international governments and corporations (I ask, is there a difference?); and the effects of a world economy that relies on supplying arms and controlling oil.

My Blog

22 years later, I get the joke.

    About one o'clock this morning, in the random meanderings of the sleep-seeking mind, I found myself thinking about a softball field where I used to spend a lot of time before my tee...
Posted by lightrider on Thu, 14 Jun 2007 01:14:00 PST

Another questionnaire.

This is just another of those long questionnaires.  It's full of intense insights.  Ok, ok.  I was really bored. 1. Where did you take your default pic?That was at Steve's stag do in T...
Posted by lightrider on Tue, 15 May 2007 01:18:00 PST

Some nice things people have said about me.

Some things people have said about me: "For an intelligent lass, you're as thick as pig shit."  Steve, recycling one of his father's favourite lines.  I couldn't say which one of my genius ...
Posted by lightrider on Tue, 20 Mar 2007 08:55:00 PST

How do you describe people you would like?

I was thinking how useless it is to try to describe the people you'd like to meet.  I thought through some of my friends and they're a diverse bunch.  None of them are townies or fascists, b...
Posted by lightrider on Tue, 20 Mar 2007 08:53:00 PST

If your bed's in a corner, is it possible to get out the wrong side of it?

Yesterday I was in a good mood, getting things done and generally laughing at myself whenever I did anything stupid.  I do and think stupid things often enough to keep me entertained most of the ...
Posted by lightrider on Tue, 13 Feb 2007 12:12:00 PST

Guilty or innocent?

I was bored and thought this a little entertaining so I thought I'd do it myself. Thanks blahblah. 1.) You can only say Guilty or Innocent. 2.) You are not allowed to explain anything unless someone m...
Posted by lightrider on Thu, 12 Oct 2006 04:42:00 PST