All about Alex

Bollocks to what I've written about myself in the past. It's all pretentious wank, I tell you! Contrary to what most people think, I'm actually a very sensitive and quite shy (although you wouldn't think I was that shy when I'm in party mode!) guy with quite passionate feelings. That's landed me in trouble a quite few times. Who am I? For starters I'm profoundly deaf, but I wear hearing aids, which has enriched my life immeasureably because I love music. Being deaf doesn't means you can't enjoy the music. Thanks to my hearing aids, I can hear the tunes (but not the lyrics they all appear to be sounds, well I can sometimes recognize if someone's singing) and feel the beats because all my remaining senses are finely tuned to compensate for the deafness. That's just a small facet that's affected my personality. Sometimes I can get so tired of fighting battles with life to overcome my disability, that I get depressed from time to time. Fortunately, I do snap out of it when lovely things that makes me smile in joy happens, as has happened recently.

I've been working with computers all my life, since I was fifteen back in the late 1980s. Currently I'm working at tying together the Internet with physical services such as television and telephony (voice and mobile phone texting). Before I changed over to working with the internet, I was working on satellite data processsing software for several companies in the UK and the USA. Yes, I've spent a year in the States (not a wholly satisfactory experience unfortunately), living in Virginia and commuting to Maryland at the Upper Marlboro facility.

I'm reliably told I look much younger than I really do. I was born deaf on the first day of November in 1970, in a small town near Littlehampton. After I was born, we moved to Germany for about four years. Because of my deafness it was decided that we go back to England so I could be educated. They sent me to a primary boarding school, where I was taught how to lipread and how to speak with a lot of speech therapy. Even today sometimes I don't get it right, unfortunately, which means that it can be hard for hearing people to communicate with me. I usually carry a pen and paper around with me, which is quite useful. Unfortunately I have another problem, it's quite hard for me to read people's body language - and sometimes people can take advantage of that because I'm too nice and don't always realise I'm being used. I wish I could hear what people are saying as I think it's quite possible to tell what someone is really up to by comparing what's in their voices with their actions, but that's wishful thinking, as I can't change the way I am. Unfortunately, this can put people off because I'm not able to interact with them as fully as they'd like to be. My relationships with women is a particular problem as it's quite hard to tell if they're interested in me or not as I miss the signs and only realise this when it's too late as by then they'll have given up and gone off with someone else. That's actually happened twice in the past year. Despite all that, there are a few out there who can get through to me and get me to open up to them. Because of that, it can takes ages for people to get to know me really well. Those who do make the effort counts as my really good friends. Thanks guys, you know who you are.

I've gone through further education at colleges, polytechnics and universities getting qualified. It really does helps your chances of getting your foot on the first rung in the computing field, if you do take a computing course, make sure you get an industrial placement as part of the course. It is very difficult to get into computing without experience as most employers prefer experienced people because it costs far too much in time and money to train someone who has no knowledge to the required standards needed to tackle projects. It's a classic Catch-22 situation, no experience, no job. Of course, it is possible to do it without qualifications but you'd have to be extremely good at it, and able to demonstrate this to potential employers. Industrial placements are your best chances of getting into the field.

What do I like doing in my own time? I love partying! Sometimes I go clubbing with mates, or sometimes I go to outdoor parties if it's warm enough, I've been doing this for years. I've had so many great experiences and met so many interesting people, many of them have become good friends of mine. Or I'll be over at a mate's and chill out listening to great tunes. I'm very much into underground tunes such as hardhouse (not so much these days), techno (most genres), new energy (NU NRG, most genres), trance (most genres), and sometimes house if it's very good. I'm not exactly a fan of D'n'B but it's OK in small doses (i.e a hour's set), and has to be good. Actually, I think I've been spoiled by the amazing variety of tunes from some very talented DJs who do it because they love it. I do happen to think they're actually far better than so-called super-DJs. These days it would take a top class DJ to drag me off down the nightclub (or if there's nothing else better to do!) Yes, I'm choosy but quality does matter!

You might be wondering why the site is tastefully done in green. The answer is that I fully support the call to legalise cannabis. Keeping cannabis illegal is causing huge problems in this country, in terms of cost to people and society. Punishments for simple possession varies all over the country, cautions are normally used but effectively this gives you a record with the police, and that can make it very hard to get a job, or it can get you sacked from your job. I don't think people should be penalised for ingesting cannabis when evidently it's not harming anyone else. No victim, no crime. Alcohol kills about 350,000 people a year through addiction, and causes misery for others through crime and illness. Nicotine is ultimately fatal for 33% of smokers. Yet both of these substances are legal. We trust people to know it's their own lookout when using nicotine and alcohol, yet we do not trust people with cannabis. Unbelievable. There might be hope on the horizon, though. There's an 'on-and-off' debate going on about this situation and the best way to sort it out. Current thinking from the UK Government is that it should be downgraded to Class C (i.e. prescribable by doctors), to help people suffering from diseases such as multiple scelerosis, and that it be a non arrestable offence (i.e a fixed penalty ticket) for simple possession. I don't think that's good enough, it's got to be legalisation or nothing. Even the anti-drug campaigners have gone very quiet about cannabis. I don't understand why the politicians are so afraid of actually doing something about it. if you think the whole situation needs changing, make your views known to your local MP. When you go to the links page, have a look at UKCIA.

The truth is out there.

LEGALISE CANNABIS NOW!