Interests

Interests

What are your interests? What do you do for fun? It's hard to know where to start isn't it. And hobbies change over time don't they.

Multimedia

I've taken various courses and read so many books over the years I could ramble for hours on my interests. I've gone through phases of being really interested in areas such as 3D modeling/rendering, animation, cartooning, graphic design, video editing, bluescreen compositing and so on. I also love music and composition; I used to study piano, violin, viola and drums but now only continue to study on the piano as well as working on my song-writing and composition. I'm no longer a member of any band. You can get more of a feel of the sorts of things I've done in other sections on this website and by following relevant links to other sites.

Of course commercially I've been able to make a living off of my design work and starting so young means I really got a good grip on software packages like photoshop in their earliest versions and watched them develop. I often design posters, business stationary websites etc.

Music is the key to my heart :). I enjoy all genres of music so long as they're good songs! Some favorite bands have been Creed, Fresh Prince, Good Charlotte, The Eagles, and Linkin Park.

Sport

Sports? I think the biggest chunk of my time when I was in Riyadh, outside of school, the multimedia classes and the hours of projects we had to do, was spent with my RYSA teammates. Depending on the season we'd either be playing basketball, baseball, or football. Well, that's only half true. We always played basketball, for hours and hours each day regardless of the season, but of course our coaching, practices and matches were in whichever sport was on. Over the years I collected various medals and cups, and hopefully I'll never forget how to pitch a ball, but I left Riyadh, those teams and even my roller-blading behind me when I moved back to England.

I played tennis and badminton two terms of the year at King's. I eventually got quite good at badminton and represented the county and was number 2/3 on the squad at King's when we won 2nd division so the players can take on division 1 next year (2003). The team did really well, and I personally had an unbeaten season, not a bad way to go out!

In the third term I do kayaking, which I love. At time of writing I'm qualified class 3 and hoping to sit my level 1 coaching qualification too.

I went white-water rafting in canada and hope to return to do some kayaking.

Daddy did get me into golf and despite being pretty awful at it I do enjoy playing socially.

And of course, most important of all... which football team do I support? Southampton!

I love scuba diving but haven't had the time to complete any courses. Of course anyone growing up in a climate like Saudi's and with a father that runs pool companies is going to at home in the water. And if you haven't tried high-diving, try it!

Writing, Gaming & Film

I'm obsessed with the internet as a means for finding information and years ago when I was helping run a one of the websites on the GoVirtualWorld network called GovGaming I began 'giving back' and writing reviews, tips and tutorials. Soon I was submitting work to all sorts of sites and starting up my own writing tutorials, tips and reviews on any topic that interested me.

I've always been a devoted gamer and game developers began sending me games and hardware for review and even preview and the sites just grew and grew. I have towers of CD's and own just about every game you can think of on a number of systems especially the PC. And much of the money I made went into more magazines and such so I was quite the gaming oracle for a few years. The craze wore off when I had to focus more on my school work at King's though and I stopped buying magazines and now only really play and complete the big releases on the PS2, XBox and PC as well as the new releases in my favorite series. I'm a huge Half-Life, StarCraft and Delta Force fan and used to love online gaming too. Running the second from Top Delta Force squad online attracted a huge number of visitors in the gaming community to our squad site and I eventually started up a branch of my little business to host squad sites. This grew into a much larger business over the years and is now the Dimension Four Network & Associates who's primary investor is HITMANia, the business I founded in 1997.

I rarely miss a decent cinema release either, and as devoted a Matrix fan as you can get!

Aswell as tutorials and reviews I've started novels but never get past a few chapters before I get bored of the story. I'm not a particularly good writer but I do enjoy it. I also write lots of poetry a couple of which have been published and are available in paperbacks.

And my guide to Advanced PHP Programming should be available late 2003.

Photography

Rather than just editing and using images or creating them digitally I also enjoy going out with my camera. I studied photography just long enough to learn the ins and outs of getting professional shots with a complicated camera and love to try my hand it at whenever I can. If you were at school with me you'd often see me running around with my Nikon.

Programming

Being a computer scientist at heart I've absorbed various scripting languages over the years. I first started writing basic sitting on my sisters lap as a baby boy, drawing rabbits on our Commodore 64. These days I dabble here and there putting theory to practice in any language I need to get a job done. I'm a real PHP + MySQL and you'll find most of my online projects are done in PHP these days.

Psychology& Philosophy

When I was ten, about the only two things I cared about where messing about with flight simulators while developing little things on my Macintosh, and hypnosis. After absorbing every book I could find on Paul McKenna I moved into more general books on consciousness and then psychology. In my mid-teens I joined a counseling program and trained as a teen counselor for three years absorbing tons of literature and getting lots of experience. But it was hard work and I gave it up for my A-levels. It's a side of me that shows in my character though and I tend to be very vocal about over-analyzing things at times.

I would of loved to study psychology and philosophy but I never saw it as a future career and so never found the time. I do read the odd book here and there whenever I have a moment though.

Bird Of Flight

While I spent a lot of time on commercial planes growing up I was always fascinated by fighter jets such as F-15's and F-22's. You know how when you're little you always want to doctor or a truck driver or something? Well at first I wanted to be an astronaut, but that changed when I reached two-digits. I thought one day I would join the RAF but as it turned a minor asthma record meant I was grounded for life. Still a dream I think about often though!

Teaching, Debating and University

My mum was a head-mistress at a primary school and I grew up on the grounds and often tried to help out by taking the kids for IT, PE or Music lessons. I haven't got a problem with public speaking and have been in a number of debating competitions. If I ever get there, I can see myself detouring from my planned career and staying at university to keep myself at the forefront of my field doing research and perhaps lecturing. I enjoy organizing events and activities like my recent science society lecture.

Animals

I love all animals but particularly dogs. I spent some time as a volunteer at the CICA pet clinic in Riyadh helping train the air-force's bomb-dogs. Simmee and I grew up together before he passed away at 14 and though I've had dogs since none could ever replace him. You can be sure sure you'll find a a big dog in my home when I eventually settle down. That is not negotiable!

The Great Outdoors

Some of the best times I've ever had have been camping. Following the trails of Lawrence of Arabia along the Hajaz railroad and seeing Madinh Salehah. I love camping, star gazing, rock climbing, and most of all, pot-holing. I grew up being light on my feel clambering up rocky mountains and hills and walk through difficult areas as if they were flat surfaces, while others struggle behind. England isn't a total loss, mountain-biking's fun too. The problem with that is, like many things, I'm no good at it! But camping/hiking is the one interest/hobby I hope to keep going forever.

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