Nintendo Gameboy Advance – 2001, Christmas present from Grandpa
The Gameboy Advance is a marvellous little toy from Nintendo, housing a 32-bit RISC CPU and an 8-bit CISC CPU which gives me the capability to re-play all the NES games I grew up with in addition to excellent new ones such as “Tony Hawks Pro Skater” and “Advance Wars”. I modded my GBA using […]
Backwards Clock – 2001, Christmas present from Kix
All three hands travel anti-clockwise, and the layout of the numerals is somewhat unconventional. Whenever this clock is in a promenent place in the house I get so used to reading it that normal clocks confuse me instead.
My own www Domain – Christmas present from my Aunt
My Aunt gave me the “www.tomfotherby.com” domain for Christmas. There is actually another “tom fotherby” so I’m glad I got the domain early before personal homepages and blogs took off.
My speech at Dads funeral (9th/Aug/01)
This was the speech that I made at Dads funeral in Stoke Row church. I wanted to say a few words to re-live some memories with dad and to tell you a bit about how he spent his time. If you don’t really know someone then you can learn a lot by their actions. My […]
My University Group Project (Summer Term 2001)
The Andipa Art Gallery Project The project aimed to enable a virtual art gallery to be built, decorated and then browsed online. We built a floorplan designer than could be used to add rooms and doors to a virtual art gallery. We build a tool for putting pictures on the gallery walls and to provide […]
Douglas Adams
It’s a sad day because my favourite author, Douglas Adams has died. These are some of my favour quotes from his writings: “What do you mean my birth certificate expired?” Only one thing in life is certain. You won’t get out of it alive. “I’m not afraid of dying, I just don’t want to be […]
My own PC – 2001, 21st birthday present from Dad
This was my very first computer. She was so top of the range and expensive (£1700) that I felt slightly inferior when I first sat down in front of her. I chose her myself and although, as a student I was moving places quite frequently, I got a 21 inch monitor that weights a tonne […]
Fresher year relationship web
My group of 1st year friends was a little incestuous. Me, Tam and Yue-sun were sharing a room but Al moved in when Tam left Uni because he had just got engaged to my X (Sarah) after she swapped boyfriends with Fran who had been going out with the guy who Sarah originally dumped me […]
The beer prayer
Our lager, Which art in barrels, Hallowed be thy drink. Thy will be drunk, (I will be drunk), At home as in the tavern. Give us this day our foamy head, And forgive us our spillages, As we forgive those who spill against us. And lead us not to incarceration, But deliver us from hangovers. […]
Rowing
You just have to admire the sheer dedication it takes just to perfect a 2 second cyclic movement: I rowed all through school and also in my second year at uni in the IC boat novice squad. I got my 2K time down to 6.36 by training 9 or 10 sessions a week, early mornings, […]
Unicyle hockey – 2nd year of Uni
At uni, I was part of the unicycle hockey club (“The Uni uni hockey club”) when it first started. I have my own unicycle but we borrowed ice hockey sticks and played in Hyde park by the prince albert monument (designed by a ancestor of mine: Sir George Gilbert Scott, 1811-1878).
Withnail and I
My best friend at school could quote “Withnail and I” from start to finish. I think it’s quite funny that I can quote this “Withnail and I” dialogue but if you asked me to quote some Shakespear I couldn’t 🙂 I have of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my mirth and indeed […]
Atomic Bomberman
PC,Puzzle-battle,8/10 – 1998 I played this with friends intensively for a short while. A number of players run around a board throwing bombs at each other and collecting power-ups. There’s nothing like the glee of winning after rushing around manically concentrating on not dieing, especially if you accidentally caught a virus and can’t stop dropping […]
007 GoldenEye
N64,FPS,10/10 – 1997 This game introduced me to the skills required in multi-player FPS’s: keep an eye on your body armour, known the levels inside out, follow everyone else’s positions carefully and make sure when you meet them you get a perfect head shot. The head-shot is the holy grail of skills to hone and […]
Mario Kart 64
N64,Combat Racing,10/10 – 1997 Mario Karts is legendary, it’s great fun and extremely competitive. At a beginners level the racing is fast and furious but the skills one has to fine tune to become an expert are substantial. It’s not just about learning the tracks and shortcuts, it’s about firing shells backwards, dragging weapons behind […]
