My life is a ridiculous mish-mash of pop culture rip-offs.

[JayzusB.Christ]

I drink black coffee because Dale Cooper in Twin Peaks bigged it up so much I had to try it.

I smoke the occasional cigar, because Nikolai Dante smokes them and I thought, again, I'd give it a shot.

I thought Thrax was the coolest character I'd ever seen when I was a kid.  Recently I realised I dress very like him, including the shaved sides of the head.

I like spring more than any other season, live in the countryside, and try to celebrate May Day even though nobody else here does, largely because of Robin of Sherwood and the Wickerman.

There are many, many more things I do because people in comics, telly and films do them too.

Are any other boarders also complete nerds who should get lives?

[Banners]

I find Earl Grey tea disgusting, but I like ordering it in public so I can pretend I'm Jean-Luc Picard.

[von Boom]

I eat stupid hot curries because of Dave Lister.

I eat a lot of cinnamon because that's what the Spice-Melange is supposed to taste similar to.

I wear a leather jacket just like Indiana Jones'.

I celebrate Bilbo's and Frodo's birthdays on 22 September.

There's probably more. I'll post them if I think of them.

[TordelBack]

Any time I go to buy a jacket I assess it on how much it looks like Han Solo's in TESB.

I grew a beard so I could look like Wulf Sternhammer (I don't, but it's true).

I wrote a degree-exam archaeology essay based entirely on the Cauldron of Rebirth in Slaine, and a geography essay based on Milligan and Elson's Shadows (I got a double first, BTW).

I organise my holidays around visiting artefacts and locations from Slaine and other comics, and/or shooting locations from SF films (Star Wars, Ghostbusters, errr Father Ted).

I always (ALWAYS) use the Force to open automatic doors.

[JayzusB.Christ]

I organise my holidays around visiting artefacts and locations from Slaine and other comics, and/or shooting locations from SF films (Star Wars, Ghostbusters, errr Father Ted).

I always (ALWAYS) use the Force to open automatic doors.

Both of which remind me:

Last holiday I had with my best mate was firstly to the hotel Howie stays in in the Wicker Man (disappointingly quiet and normal TBH) then down to the house that's used as Crow Crag in Withnail & I.   We also went to Royston Vasey but only because it's near my sister's house.

Also I like to press my scooter's ignition switch to operate the bike cannons on the traffic in front of me.

[Dandontdare]

I wrote a degree-exam archaeology essay based entirely on the Cauldron of Rebirth in Slaine, and a geography essay based on Milligan and Elson's Shadows (I got a double first, BTW).

heh, I blagged an essay on Conrad's Heart of Darkness in my finals based entirely on what I could remember from Apocalypse Now (I didn't get a first BTW!)

[Skullmo]

I love fascism because of Judge Dredd.


(not really)

[Tjm86]

I'd like to say I shave my head to look like Professor Xavier, but the truth of the matter is I'm just going bald and the great pink blob at the back of my head now looks embarrassing if I don't trim regularly!

[Mardroid]

I eat stupid hot curries because of Dave Lister.

I tried out that triple fried egg sandwich with chilli sauce and chutney. Srictly speaking the one I do is three slices of bread with one fried egg between the slices, so it's a double decker sandwich with two eggs. (That doesn't quite fit the description, but Rimmer appears to be eating a double decker sandwich in that episode.)

I have used Thai sweet chilli sauce with it, which is very nice but not particularly hot. I think the best combination is mango chutney (which is pretty sweet anyway) with West Indian hot (or if you can take it extremely hot) pepper sauce.

It is a really nice sandwich!

I think fedora hats are very cool, although I think it's just a coincidence that Indiana Jones wears one. And the ones I have in mind are not quite that style. I don't have quite the courage to get one. I'm more likely to get a trilby, and I think the imagery from 30s gangster films might be a factor. Not that I consider myself in that light, but I like the look. But getting the courage to actually get and wear one is another thing. I find myself worrying I'd just look silly!

I actually do wear hats quite a lot but mainly for practicality , (I'm rather thin on top, and I've noticed when my head is warm, my whole body feels warmer, which is literally true, as you lose a lot of heat through the head) but I generally wear beanies and (in hotter weather) baseball caps. Not really an especially pop cultural thing.. except my favourite is the black cap with the motif of a certain future lawman. (The good film version in this case.) But that's hardly surprising being a frequenter of this site.

Oh. I did find out the other day that I look pretty good in a cowboy hat when I donned a kind of Western outfit for a video shoot on a certain fan film a couple months back. (It was a fill in role so you won't see me clearly, but it was fun!) It's not a style I would adopt for everyday life, but it was very cool.

I can't really think of many ways my habits and dress sense is all that inspired by pop or nerd culture, although it probably does a lot in subtle ways. In terms of the way I think about things it is probably a strong influence. Not always for the better. I think being rather into the horror genre makes me imagine worst case scenarios when I hear peoples sounds in passing. I.e. a kid screams and I worry if they're in trouble, when kids actually scream all the time for various reasons. I heard a groaning sound a couple evenings back walking up a neighbouring street and I wondered if someone was in trouble. Then I realised it could have been a dog or someone yawning or.. you know, getting lucky. Or groaning in exasperation. Or it could even have been a creaking door or the bough of tree in the wind now I think if it. (There is a woodland walk in that area.)

I still went back and hung around for  few seconds to see if I heard it again but there was nothing. (It didn't warrant knocking on the door of a house to check, anyway, as I wasn't sure where the sound came from and as I say, lots of explanations. And I'd have to be really sure someone was in trouble before I did that, shy as I am. I'm not happy to admit that, as that could be when it's too late, but point is, I tend to imagine the worst anyway.)

I'm not saying being into horror is entirely to blame for this. I have other issues, but it probably plays a part where my imagination is concerned. Not that I plan on giving it up.

[JayzusB.Christ]

and a geography essay based on Milligan and Elson's Shadows (I got a double first, BTW).

Right, I've thought long and hard about it; but I give up.  How the fuck?  How could you possibly shoehorn Shadows into a Geography essay?  All we did in Geography at school was oxbow lakes, blowholes, and a long case study on South America for some reason.

Now, I did essays based on the end of Revere Book 2 and Zenith Phases 2 and 4, and my friend basically rewrote America to set it in an alternative present, but that was in English class.

I find Earl Grey tea disgusting, but I like ordering it in public so I can pretend I'm Jean-Luc Picard.

This has been my favourite so far.

[TordelBack]

Right, I've thought long and hard about it; but I give up.  How the fuck?  How could you possibly shoehorn Shadows into a Geography essay? 

You had to ask. As I recall, it was a Cognitive Geography essay, and while I forget the question it was specifically about decision making based on mental maps. Shadows made great play of T S Eliot's Hollow Men, with its verse "Between the idea / And the reality / Between the motion / And the act /  Falls the Shadow", which I shamelessly cogged as a structuring theme for the difference between acting on the basis of objective spatial characteristics and the created landscapes that we use to navigate and make decisions about routes, values, communities etc. I imagine I dragged Yi Fu Tuan into it, who was a hero of mine in those days. Geography was ludicrously easy back then, still baskng in the afterglow of post-modernism, you could get away with slotting in any old guff as long as you poached it from some other, better, subject and presented as a 'new direction'. I wish I'd stuck with it for the sake of an easy life (in the end I romped home with a marketable thesis on GIS analysis of commuting patterns and offers of funding etc.) but in my youthful arrogance I just had no respect for the whole setup, a bunch of methodologies in search of a subject. So now after three decades of archaeology instead I stand in the mud all day and earn less than a 17 year old starting labourer or 2nd year trade apprentice.

Well you did ask.

Actually, there's another one: T.S. Eliot, became a fan through Shadows and The Crash Test Dummies.

[JayzusB.Christ]

I'm actually glad I asked - fascinating stuff!  Thing is, I was reading TS Eliot a few years ago, and really liked the 'Falls the shadow' line - I knew I'd seen it before I knew anything about poetry; couldn't quite put a finger on where I'd come across it though.  (I also remember the 'we are the hollow men' line being used in a Future Shock once, though whoever wrote it had spelled it 'holo men'.)  Didn't someone also quote 'not with a bang, but a whimper' in the prog once?

I really like The Emperor of Ice Cream by Wallace Stevens; largely because of both Killing Time and some Stephen King book or other that quoted it (Salem's Lot, possibly).  Couldn't get into Stevens' other stuff though.

PS sorry to hear your career took a turn for the worse.

[TordelBack]

Not at all Jayzus, it's what I chose to do - most times I totally love it, but this is my first Saturday off since Christmas, I'm down in the dumps, full of vile-but-cheap booze and I'm not feeling well disposed to the entire course of my life. But it's not Milligan and Elson's fault!

Stupid post anyway, regretted it the moment the edit window expired. Pray continue with this entertaining thread!

[von Boom]

I eat stupid hot curries because of Dave Lister.

I tried out that triple fried egg sandwich with chilli sauce and chutney. Srictly speaking the one I do is three slices of bread with one fried egg between the slices, so it's a double decker sandwich with two eggs. (That doesn't quite fit the description, but Rimmer appears to be eating a double decker sandwich in that episode.)

I have used Thai sweet chilli sauce with it, which is very nice but not particularly hot. I think the best combination is mango chutney (which is pretty sweet anyway) with West Indian hot (or if you can take it extremely hot) pepper sauce.

It is a really nice sandwich!

I eat triple fried egg chili-chutney sandwiches as well. They are lovely.

I think fedora hats are very cool, although I think it's just a coincidence that Indiana Jones wears one. And the ones I have in mind are not quite that style. I don't have quite the courage to get one. I'm more likely to get a trilby, and I think the imagery from 30s gangster films might be a factor. Not that I consider myself in that light, but I like the look. But getting the courage to actually get and wear one is another thing. I find myself worrying I'd just look silly!

I have a fedora as well. I don't wear it very often.

I also still have and wear my Baja hoodie similar to the one Jack Burton wears in BTiLC.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Not at all Jayzus, it's what I chose to do - most times I totally love it, but this is my first Saturday off since Christmas, I'm down in the dumps, full of vile-but-cheap booze and I'm not feeling well disposed to the entire course of my life.

I totally understand - I've only had a couple of days off since Christmas too, and before that I worked for about 2 straight months without a break.  I chose it too; I work for myself and drawing and painting is what I do best; but y'know, I'm starting to really miss teaching English to pretty foreign au-pairs and having lots of time off like I used to.

Back on topic, I used to want to look like Milligan's Shade the Changing Man as a teenager, and grew a ponytail and bought a long coat and big boots to look the part.  I wouldn't be seen dead going round like that these da... Wait, hang on a minute.

EDIT - I remember one of our military-trained members (either Burdis or Old Tankie, think it was Burdis) telling us how he quoted Dredd's 'I'm a stickler' speech word-for-word once when addressing cadets.  Classic.  Though I wonder what would have happened had one of the youngsters been a Squaxx.

Similarly, I did a training course once in mural painting; and one of the tutors used Alec Baldwin's 'What have you got?' speech from Glengarry Glenn Ross to introduce herself, also word-for-word.  She later turned out to be an utterly incompetent and underqualified clown putting on a tough front.  I often wish I'd seen Glen Garry Glenn Ross before she said it; and point it out for sheer devilment.

Mind you, being a far-too-shy young man, I probably would have kept my mouth shut anyway.