As if anyone cares.

I grew up in Weston-super-(night)Mare, where I spent most of my spare time (sadly) tenpin bowling. WSM is the OAP capital of the Universe. For those of you that live in Bournemouth and think you know what I'm talking about, you don't. It's truly an amazing sight: at 2pm on a sunny day you can look out to the horizon and it's wheelchairs as far as the I can see. Brings tears to the eyes... It's just a shame Napalm isn't legal in these UK seaside resorts. Apparently, according to some dubious statistics, Weston may actually be some sort of European drug capital!?! Well of course it is. How else do the OAPs manage to rave all night in the happening clubs?

(Addendum: WSM is paradise compared to where I work now... Bracknell, the only town in Britain that alledgedly has more roundabouts and underpasses than trees.)

I spent most of my teens at Bristol Cathedral School where I (again sadly) developed a keeness for maths, chemistry and biology. So, fool that I am, I decided to combine these areas and subsequently graduated from Oxford University (St Catherine's College) with first class honours in Biochemistry.

For those of you that are interested, biochemistry is the application of chemistry to the study of biological processes at the cellular and molecular level. Basically, it's the chemistry of life. But this doesn't really embrace or convey how wide and deep the subject really goes. Some of topics I studied as a student include genetics (you know, all that DNA stuff), metabolic processes (an understanding of which would scare the crap out of you Atkins dieters, no pun intended), cellular and molecular biology, human neurological and genetic diseases, biophysical chemistry (lots of entropy and quantum mechanics), structure and function of proteins, bla, bla, bla, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Actually, it's pretty interesting stuff and very challenging too. (I'm not saying that History and Art are soft subjects or anything, but they're well, soft subjects. No stopping in bed until midday when I was a student, dammit. Not that I'm bitter at all.)

Check out this link at BioMedNet to see an abstract from the only paper I had published as an undergraduate student. In short, the article is based around the study of alternative mechanisms of maintaining chromosome length during DNA replication. As if you care. (But the implications for mechanisms of aging and cancer were interesting.)

If you think you might find this subject interesting, then here are a couple of titles to get you started: Principles of Biochemistry - Horton et al, Biochemistry - Lubert Stryer, Molecular Biology of the Cell - Alberts et al. These are core first year undergraduate texts. And a thorough understanding of organic chemistry wouldn't go amiss.

I wouldn't normally have included a paragraph like the one above, but biochemistry seems to be all the rage at the moment. It seems as though half of the sci-fi movies produced today have a plot that revolves around DNA, genetic engineering, cloning or some other related topic. Also, my favourite writer, Dean Koontz, bases most of his plots on my two of my favourite topics: computers and biochemistry. Be warned that some of his thrillers can be a little on the, erm, sick side, but that's what makes them so great, right? Also, the recent success of the Atkins diet (second mention on this page!) seems to have spurred many people, who would otherwise not be interested, to try and understand the metabolic/biochemical basis of what's going on. I'll tell you this much; I don't. All seems a bit screwy to me.

Complete waste of time all that study was, since I'm now a software developer. Shame really. The problem is, biochemists simply don't get paid much money, unless you happen to be a bit lucky in, say, the pharmaceuticals area or something. Hang on a minute! I don't get paid much money as a programmer either. What's that all about? I am, of course, totally driven by material things, especially all things Chevrolet Corvette. (Truth be told, the real reason I do what I do is because I actually enjoy being a Code Monkey.)

Still, I do sometimes miss the biochemistry. Or perhaps I just miss the fact that I used to know a lot about it. But now all that knowledge is lost, like tears in rain. (Spot that quote.)

OK, so you may have gleaned that I used to be a studious geek who kept his head in the books. Not true, entirely. I spent most of my University career practicing Martial Arts, fitting in the degree on the side. So, if you're interested, then why not check out the Martial Arts area; hopefully you'll find it interesting.