See, the thing is, I don’t like doing these introduction posts, and I think I have avoided all the previous ones I have seen around. When I originally turned up I studiously avoided making any sort of hello post anywhere, and also, at least tried, to avoid acting like a total newbie in the chat too.

I guess I should just do what I usually do and say very little with very many words, huh? I don’t seem to be able to say anything succinctly when I write, making up for never talking the rest of the time I guess. So I’ll do that. Or something. Oh, I really do hate these sort of posts.. Maybe if I copy everyone else’s?

Ok, I’m 20, live in Northern Ireland, am currently a third year Pharmacy student in Belfast who cannot _wait_ to qualify, if only I could work out how to study and therefore achieve decent marks. As juli already mentioned, I’ve been living in student houses of various states of dilapidation with Uli for about a year and a half now and we have been together about two and a half years. We did meet in PoP chat originally but we didn’t get together until she came over to visit from Edinburgh, where she happened to be studying at the time. After that either I visited Edinburgh or she visited Belfast at least once a month, or whenever we had free time, and Uli ended up moving over here in about June 2000. The rest as they say, is history.

What else can I natter on about? I work at a nightclub on Saturday nights and some Sunday nights too, when they have reason to be open. It’s not exactly the Ritz but it does get big crowds. About 2000 is the official capacity, but I think it gets up to about 3000 on really big nights off the record type thing. I’m getting increasingly fed up working there and I suspect I will quit before the summer. I seem to have gotten a raise last week though, which is nice.

Hmm, net/WoT history I guess.. I read the Wheel of Time books on recommendation from one of my best friends (Paul for the benefit of those who would know) to whom I would be eternally grateful if I didn’t think he has a big enough ego as it is. Got them all from the library with differing waits between, up to A Crown of Swords, book 7 for the uninitiated. This encompassed most of the year I was 15, also being one of the most important exam years over here. Needless to say I did very little study but managed to get good marks anyway. I then had to wait over a year for PoD. We also got a computer at home with internet access sometime in the intervening year iirc. So, naturally, WoT, being one of my consuming passions by this time, was the first, well, maybe not the _first_ but one of the first things I looked up online. *l* I seem to remember hanging around Druid’s Pacific Pages very lurkily and posting on occasion to the theory posts. I only got online about an hour a week or so and couldn’t hope to keep up with the community stuff, but I picked up a few bits here and there. I remember when the FAQ was updated to include PoD spoilers, and also when I first saw PoP after Druid’s had closed down but I have no real memory of the actual transition. I started chatting when I started university in September 1999, having just got back from the summer spent in the US. So, I was around long before juli thought, I just wasn’t a chatter.

Back then, there were an awful lot more Europeans than we happen to have now, and so some of the others had decided that since there always seemed to be meetings going on in the US, we could do it too. This resulted in the first EWoT (European Wheel of Time) meeting, in the Netherlands at Easter of 2000 with Cyberia being set up to host all the info, etc. This was a big success and so Uli and I took on the onerous task of organising a second one in Ireland last summer. This also went well and plans are well underway for EWoT number 3, again in the Netherlands at the end of June this year. Uli and I also managed to meet Master Andra on a quick visit to Belfast, Mike while in Sweden at Christmas 2001, and most recently Juli and family, along with Xin and his family this January, as well as two Irish chatters a few times over the last couple of years, Markwcats and Emma. My personal count of people I have had the good fortune to meet irl from this community, or its predecessor, stands at about 18, and I’m always looking to increase it but these trips are expensive..

I am still a big fan of WoT despite it’s problems and eagerly look forward to the next book. After that I like a lot of authors, much as it may surprise some people.. Ray Bradbury never ceases to interest me, Tom Arden is good, even if I have lessened in enthusiasm, Orson Scott Card can do great things, but sometimes seems to over reach himself, Steven Erikson has newly found my favour, and Anne Rice makes me want to keep reading no matter how much I dislike Lestat, and no matter how substandard her latest books have been. I can’t think of anyone else off the top of my head, but I’m sure there are more. George RR Martin is decent, but has major problems, not least of which being his determination to do everything different, while discarding some of the better points of other major authors. Lord of the Rings is an above average YA couple of books and not much more imo, and I still have my theory on what Hobb is up to as I can find no other way to explain the differences in her different series. In short (ha ha) I tend to take the devil’s advocate view on anything that gets a lot of hype. Most of the time I don’t think it deserves it. This does not mean I get put off by popularity despite the way it seems.. I thoroughly enjoy Harry Potter for instance, even if they do sometimes get taken out of context. I do actually read almost exclusively Fantasy, with the odd break for something like Tom Clancy or Michael Crichton, and a little horror now and then.

Music- give me a female solo artist or female fronted band and I am pretty likely to be intrigued at least. Sheryl Crow, Tori Amos, Garbage, Fiona Apple, and so on. Stick in some more mainstream rock, and a little indie type guitar bands and that’s it generally, although, I do own a Miles Davis CD.

I’m often called a movie snob cos I have high demands in some cases. I see a lot of cinema cos Uli and I pay monthly for unlimited access to the cinema when we want in any branch of the chain we use. It’s very handy. I suspect we will have seen about 8 movies in the cinema in the last month, we break even on about 3. Favourites are Fight Club, The Spanish Prisoner, The Game and some others scattered about.

I usually have about 5 posts I should be writing at any one time. The reason I don’t get them done should be evident if you have got this far. I write far too much so it takes too long.

Louis