From Stephanie

The guidelines for this meme are as follows:

1. Leave me a casual comment of no particular significance, like a lyric to your current favorite song, your favorite kind of sandwich, or maybe your favorite game. Any remark, meaningless or not.

2. I will respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.

3. Update your LJ with the answers to the questions.

4. Include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in your own post.

5. When others respond with a desultory comment, you will ask them five questions.



1. How did you first become involved in swords and combat and weaponry in general?

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away ...

I picked up The Lord of the Rings when I was nine or ten. I had to get a letter from my mum to give to the librarian to allow me to borrow books from the grown up section of the library, and then wait until The Fellowship of The Ring came back into stock. To say that it changed my life would be an understatement. It sparked an interest in heroic fantasy that has endured for over thirty years and shows no signs of abating.

From read that book and others, I stumbled upon the world of roleplaying games starting with Tunnels and Trolls and the original Dungeons and Dragons games. I even ran a modestly successful fanzine Quasits and Quasars with a school friend for a few years. From the table top pen and paper games, the next logical step was to live action role playing and a place called Treasure Trap based in Peckforton Castle in Cheshire, to don armour and wield padded weapons in the dungeons. Great fun, and we even organised a couple of games in the woods near to where we lived.

Real life intervened for far too many years before I picked up a sword again. I learnt foil fencing and enjoyed that for a while, even though the strict rules made it seem even more like a game than the free wheeling combats of larp. That too fell by the wayside, and I felt myself slipping into a sedentary lifestyle, slowed down by a bothersome varicose vein on my leg and slowly putting on weight.

It wasn't until I went to the Sheffield Fayre that I finally found what I had been looking for for so many years. In amongst all of the reenactors there was a group called the Society for the Study of Swordsmanship who studied the historical fencing treatises and practiced the techniques described using modern reproductions of original period weapons. The weapons are blunted for safety, and modern masks and jackets provide good protection, but this is probably as close as it is possible to get to authentic swordplay without the risk of death.

From the rapier that I first picked up, I have also trained with sabre and cutlass, and more recently discovered a new interest for Japanese weapon forms including Sai, Jo stick, Yawari and Katana. I know that injury and age will slow me down eventually, but I don't intend to stop until I have to.

2. When you are driving alone in your car, what sorts of thoughts do you allow yourself that you don't generally share with others?

Good question! I usually listen to audio books in the car, so I find myself savouring the stories in a deeper way than I would if I were reading the paper versions at home. A good audio book is a remarkably intimate experience, tapping into ancient story telling traditions.

I did find myself stuck without a car stereo for a while, and I filled the weekly journeys to Birmingham by writing an imaginary autobiography in my head. I had been inspired by reading Andrew Collins memoir of an ordinary childhood in the 1970s and there were a lot of points of correspondence between our lives. It was interesting to see what memories I could dredge up and then to try and place them in a chronological context was a challenge.

3. What is your all-time favourite song? Why?

John Otway, Beware of the Flowers (Cos I'm Sure They're Gonna Get You, Yeah!)

I first heard of Otway in the late 70s, and picked up a copy of his hit Really Free (which soared all the way to number 29, thirty years ago this year) from a second hand record shop. I turned the single over to listen to the B side (because you could in those days) and heard the immortal words

"OK, let's make this the big one for Otway"

before he launched into three minutes of punk mayhem. It was a while before I had the chance to see him play live in the early 80s at Sheffield Poly Student Union, but the song was a standout performance of his set. I seen him play on average once or twice a year since then, and he never fails to delight. He's a genuinely nice bloke, a true rock and roll microstar and the most endearingly funny oaf ever to throw himself around a stage in the name of music.

There's a clip of a solo version of the song on Youtube here

4. Is your adult life anything at all like you thought it would be when you were an adolescent? If not, how is it different?

To quote Laurie Anderson, 'Paradise is exactly like where you are right now, only much, much better'

When I was a kid, I played Dungeons and Dragons, I listened to my Sony Walkman, I rode a bike to school, I played games on a 1K ZX81, I kept in touch with my friends by letters and fanzines, and walked the dog in the local woods. Thirty years on, I fence duels in a ruined castle, I listen to music on an mp3 player with 1200 songs and an audiobook on it, I drive a nice comfy car with air con, I play on Xbox 360 on a big LCD TV, I talk to friends all over the world via the net and I walk the dog in the local woods. OK, so I don't have a personal jet pack yet, but give it time ...

5. What first attracted you to empiricism, oh fellow lover of science?

People have an idea of science as boffins in a lab, cooking up mad ideas or bizarre technologies. They see science as leeching the joy and mystery from the world.

To me, science is simply the art of asking 'Why?'. Why is the sky blue? What makes the sun shine? What are the strange quark and the Higgs boson? What are the forces that shape life to fit the environment it finds itself in? Each answer unlocks deeper questions that are open to anyone to try to answer.

There is no priesthood, no holy mysteries, no unchanging scripture - just a boundless freedom to wonder why things are just so.