Hi there, Unknown Visitor! My name is Michael, I'm 28 years old (goodness, how I'm getting old! ) and a researcher in computational science working at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) at Daresbury Laboratory near Warrington. Before that I spent five years completing an Engineering Doctorate (including a diploma in management) at the School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science at The University of Manchester, which is in Manchester, apparently. I was also there when the section of the university was called UMIST as I completed my first degree, a Masters in Chemical Engineering, six years ago.

While computational science and, to a lesser degree, chemical engineering are my (official) career interests, I also have a major passion for 'classical'¹ music. As well as listening to it on CDs and my iPod, I also play piano and viola, violin, and I can *just* about play clarinet and recorders. I'm a member of many amateur orchestras as a violist and keyboard player, both in my hometown and in/around Manchester, and also a percussionist for a brass band in Stoke-on-Trent. I also compose and arrange music for various instrument groupings - I wrote a piece for a youth orchestra which they performed in July to some success and might lead to some more if I can get round to it. I am a fan of most composers' works, although my real passion is for music written by Shostakovich, Walton, Britten, Debussy, Beethoven and Bach. Hook me up to an iPod with e.g. all 15 Shostakovich symphonies, Britten's 'Peter Grimes', Walton's 'Variations on a Theme by Hindemith', Beethoven's 9 symphonies and Bach's Brandenburg Concerti and I'll be set for life! Mind you, I'm also a big fan of the Beatles and can often be found listening to Cole Porter and other musical music, Blur and possibly Slade and the Sweet if I can be bothered to buy any of their songs from iTunes!

I am also interested in languages and linguistics - one of my A-levels² was German - but in particular, I have learnt to speak Esperanto - this is a language that was invented by a guy called Zamenhof in 1887 and believe it or not, it's still in use 120 years later! I finally got to go to my first international Esperanto event in the Czech Republic this year, where I spoke with people from such places as Croatia, Italy, France, Germany, Iceland, Russia, China and Japan - such is the power of Esperanto, as I could never learn enough of those people's languages in my lifetime to speak to them! I have also done some voluntary work related to Esperanto - typing-in articles for the editor of 'La Brita Esperantisto' [The British Esperantist] and helping to recatalogue the Butler Library at the new Esperanto House (a very big task indeed!). I'm also the Treasurer of the group for young British Esperanto speakers, Junularo Esperantista Brita (JEB), so apart from anything else, I've also had to learn how to keep accounts (including the dreaded double-entry book-keeping). By the way, my h2g2 name is made up from the Esperanto form of my name: well, sort of - the editor of 'La Brita Esperantisto' started calling me Mikeo and it's kinda stuck!

I am also interested in computers - to a point. I used to be very enthusiastic about them until a few years ago, but as exams for school and university piled up, I had started to lose track of emerging computer technology. However, thanks to the fact that I had to build a PC for my research, I have picked up on it again and I now use Linux³ as well as Windows (partly so I can do some hardcore programming as part of my job but also to satisfy the geek in me!). I have a particular interest in computers that were state-of-the-art when I was younger, such as the Dragon 32, Sinclair Spectrum and BBC micro. While the machines may now be under a bed or in the loft collecting dust, I can still experience the thrill of typing in programs thanks to emulators. And perhaps I can now make an appeal to fellow computering twentysomethings: did any of you ever buy a magazine called 'Let's Compute!'? I would be interested in getting hold of as many programs in the 12 issues of it as I can, as I would like to create an archive/webpage/thingy to this fantastic magazine. In particular, I do not have issue 1, and parts of issues 2 and 9 are missing. If you can help me in any way, please get in touch with me here (P.S. My letter appeared in issue 5 - small claim to fame there!).

I also like to read from time to time - Hitchhiker's Guide by the sainted Douglas Adams is one of my favourite books (or more accurately, series of books), of course! But I am also a fan of the Harry Potter series, Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, and many factual books about subjects as diverse as codebreaking, (auto)biographies and political satire. I'm also a fan of comedy: I laugh to the antics of Graham Norton, Jasper Carrott, Paul Merton, Eddie Izzard, Billy Connolly, Michael McIntyre etc., and I regularly listen to the Radio 4 shows 'Just A Minute' and 'I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue'. Link to Comedy on the BBC website, readers! I am also a fan of the older radio comedies, e.g. The Goon Show, Hancock's Half Hour, Round the Horne, Navy Lark, I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again - most of which appear on BBC Radio 7 - as well as some on TV, such as Monty Python's Flying Circus.

I'm also a Sub-Editor for h2g2 (although I've had a slight sabbatical for a while to do my uni research), so if you've written any entries that have just been recommended by the Scouts, I could be the lucky guy who edits them! (Mostly for grammar, layout and GuideML code, though - I generally leave content alone.) I've edited articles on many different topics: the entire list can be found somewhere on this page. I've also written an entry on Shostakovich which has made it into the Edited Guide. If you have any comments, criticisms or nuggets of wisdom to share about my efforts, please feel free to leave a message.

Finally, I get to my personal life⁴. Now you could say I'm 'unstraight' or the G from LGBT . I've been contributing to h2g2's forum for LGBT people, M2M2 - The H2G2 Lesbigay Area - and not so long ago I became its editor. I'm currently single at the moment, so I'm looking for a wonderful guy to fall in love with and eventually marry⁵. I've now come out to my immediate family: my three sisters, my mum and my step-dad all know, although as far as I'm aware no one in my extended family has any idea (apart from possibly an aunt and uncle) - this may change in the future, although this would probably be unintentional. However, in the meantime, I'm still making new friends with other gay people - including a few guys from my university and a few from h2g2 - so please don't hesitate to leave a message! You might also want to keep an eye on my journal, as I'll try to keep adding entries as various things happen.

Now I will hope for two things: firstly that you did not fall asleep while reading this introduction⁶, and secondly that you found it (and me) interesting enough for this h2g2 guide. I've already written one Edited Guide Entry, but I may eventually write another one on something else. For the moment though, I'll just keep nit-picking at other people's articles (both officially and unofficially) and updating things!

I hope to hear from you and I'll keep you posted.

Michael (Mikeo)

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¹ Please note the quotes. This may seem boring, but Classical music is that written between about 1750 and 1830 - it includes music by Haydn, Mozart and (to a point) Beethoven. In this sense, 'classical' music could be called 'highbrow' or music that uses traditional Western instruments, i.e. violins, pianos, flutes, oboes, trumpets etc. But don't get me wrong - plenty of modern instruments, like saxophones and drum kits, have also been used!
² For the benefit of readers outside of the UK, these were exams certain people take at age 18. How well you did in these determined whether you went to university or not, and which one you went to.
³ Currently openSUSE 11.1 on the desktop and Debian 5 (Lenny) on the laptop.
⁴ Such that it is!
⁵ More accurately, 'become civil partners' as reflected by the recent change in UK law.
⁶ I bet you did though - gone on, admit it!