About Me

My name is Michael Walker. I am 17, attend Hymers College, and spend most of my time on my laptop fiddling with things. I listen to music near constantly, and read books very frequently. I also do odd things for the fun of it, such as learn the Elder Futhark - you need some runes from AD 200 to AD 800 transliterated, I'm your man. I enjoy making websites, a hobby which has the pleasent side effect of potentially making me money one day, so if you need a website ask me. You may get a discount if I like you enough.

Books

I spend quite a lot of my time reading, and generally read every day. My library has 241 books (at last counting), and is organised by how much I like each book. I also have a big amazon wishlist, which I shall be referring various family members to at Christmas time. I tend to read fantasy books, which are definitely my favourite. My favourite author is Stephen Donaldson. Below is a list of my favourite books in no particular order.

1984
Dracula
Digital Fortress
Good Omens
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Les Miserables
His Dark Materials Trilogy
Night Watch
The Banned and the Banished
The Chronicals of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever
The Da Vinci Code
The Last Battle
The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
The Phantom of the Opera
The Righteous Men
The Runelords
The Second Chronicals of Thomas Covenant
The Shadow of the Wind
The Silmarillion
The Sum of all Men
The Summoner
Thief of Time
Thud!
Wintersmith

Movies

I also spend a lot of my time watching movies, particularly Tim Burton and Studio Ghibli creations. I generally watch two or three movies every weekend, and none over the week (unless it's a school holiday or something), as I don't really have enough time. Below is a list of my favourite movies again, in no particular order.

Alien Quadriliogy
Akira
Battle Royale
Beetlejuice
Dawn of the Dead
Edward Scissorhands
Fantastic Four - Rise of the Silver Surfer
Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children
Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within
Ghost in the Shell - Solid State Society
Howls Moving Castle
Jurassic Park Trilogy
Kiki's Delivery Service
Laputa - Castle in the Sky
Lord of the Rings Triliogy
Mars Attacks
Matrix Triliogy
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Nightmare Before Christmas
Pirates of the Caribbean Triliogy
Pitch Black
Princess Mononoke
Scary Movie Quadrilogy
Spirited Away
Sweeny Todd
The Fountain
The Simpson's Movie
The Time Machine
Underworld
Underworld 2 - Evolution
V For Vendetta

Anime

I have a small collection of anime which I enjoy and, like my music, find it entirely through suggestions. Here's a list of anime I like:

Robotech
Elfen Lied
Bleach

I want to watch Ghost in the Shell, I've seen the movies but not the anime.

Manga

With my watching of Anime, I have begun to read the manga from which the animes were derived. Currently my collection consists of:

Elfen Lied
Bleach

Webcomics

I read a few different webcomics, most of which update multiple times a week, so I check them all daily after school. I download all of them, so I have an offline archive; when I start reading another webcomic I have a lot of downloading/reading to do - such as when I staretd Questionable Content. I downloaded and read about 1200 comics in a day. Below is a list of what webcomics I read.

TV

I don't watch much (any) TV, in fact the only thing I do watch regularly is Doctor Who. I have the first three new series on DVD, and shall almost certainly get the fourth at Christmas. My favourite episodes are the ones with the Daleks in. The Daleks are just great, best villains/aliens ever - and anyone who disagrees is wrong.

Music

I listen to music near-constantly; you can find more information about that on my last.fm profile. I find all my music through recommendations, and browsing favourites lists of people with similar musical tastes to mine, so if you think you know something I would like, please let me know. I probably will like it. I would provide a list of bands I listen to, but there are far too many. Ask me if you really want to know - I can send you a list. At last count, I had over 30GB of music, over 5,000 tracks. I, as you may have guessed, am a firm believer that you can never have too much music.

Quotes

I sort of collect good quotes, and my commonplace book is an ever growing repository of them. Here are my favourite quotes, which I like because they have an important meaning, are completely true, or even just sound good.

"Vi veri veniversum vivus vici."
"Your actions are your only possessions."
"Vero nihil verius."
"Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit..."
"Do actions performed in dreams have any significance?"
"Carpe diem."
"The eye of the paradox."
"The last safe place, is safe no more."
"Carpe jugulum"
"The other stranger was unmistakably Thomas Covenant."
"Man has used iron since the stone age."
"He is everything and nothing, hero and fool, potent, helpless - and with the one word of truth or treachery he will save or damn the Earth because he is mad and sane, cold and passionate, lost and found."
"Melenkurion abatha. Duroc minas mill. Harad khabaal."
"I'd forget my own head if it wasn't held on with bones and skin and things!"
"Never trust a dog with orange eyebrows"
"You must be tired 'cause you've been running through my mind all night. Screaming."
"You play a virgin in the light, but need no urging in the night."
"When you let the FSF define what Freedom is, you've already lost it."
"I'm not starving! I'm only moderately malnourished!"
"As Madeleine's glance met that of Javert, Javert, without stirring, without moving, without coming closer, became terrifying. There is no human feeling that can ever be so appalling as joy. It was the face of the devil who has just regained his victim."
"When I was your age, Pluto was a planet."
"You see a wile, you thwart. Am I right?"
"May the Glories guard your way and the Bright Ones watch your back."

And here are some quotes by me.

"Windows is for people who just want to use a computer, Mac is for designers, and Linux is for people who see computers as toys."
"A computer IS a toy!"
"Life is like walking down a road; you don't think about the beginning or the end, you just keep putting one foot in front of the other, again and again."
"I'm so full of ideas I don't know what to do with them all..."
"There is no meaning to life but what you give it yourself."
"Good and evil are just viewpoints."
"Leave me alone. Don't question me. Assume I know best."
"I made you a cellular automaton, but I eated it."
"Stage managers are strange people, talking to actors - madness!"
"You can take the techie out of the theatre, but you can't take the theatre out of the techie."
"Cynicism makes the world go 'round"
"We must protest! Take up your arms, brethren of freedom!"
"So says the person who lives in front of his laptop!"
"Relationships can wither and die, but a dog will love you through all of its life."