The madness of a Geordie student, r/c mechanic, web designer, guitarist and martial artist!
The Life of Anth
Posted 04-02-2008 at 17:08 by Anth
Well its my first post in this new Blog software so I think an introduction is in order.
Who am I?
I'm a daft 21 year old going by the name of Anthony Gaskell.
Where am I from?
A small town called Peterlee in the north east of England (UK), though I spend most of my time in Huddersfield for my studies.
What do I do?
Pretty much everything, leaving a lot of people wondering if I actually sleep! I'm a full time university student, I work on remote controlled cars, play guitar and bass, run one website, help to run one more (other than here), develop (ie code for) a fairly big web forum, assist in getting people to my university, study (and quite often teach) martial arts, ride mountain bikes, read books and around a dozen other things. Its been known for me to fit all of those things into one day!
A student?
Yep, I study Motorsport Technology (BSc) at the University of Huddersfield and am coming to the end of my second year. With the amount of management rubbish in the course, I very nearly didn't make it to Easter.
Remote Controlled Cars?
I own, run, maintain and modify a Traxxas T-Maxx and a Losi Mini LST:
Total spend on the two of them is somewhere in the region of £1500 or $3000...
Guitar? Bass?
Don't get to play as often as I want but my skills are increasing whenever I play. I play a range of music, changing from Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd) to Immune (Godsmack) at the drop of a hat
Martial Arts???!!!
I originally got into Karate when I was a kid aged 8yo. Like most kids I dropped out after a year but ended up going back in 2001 aged 14. 5 years and a heck of a lot of hard work later, on December 14th 2006, I was graded to Shodan - 1st degree black belt. I'm now in my 2 year wait before grading for Nidan (2nd degree). Whenever possible (fit and in the area) I compete in our federation and club competitions at Easter and in May. Tend not to do so well in competition but what do I care?!
Websites?
Other than Trackpads I help to run Martial Arts Planet and spend a lot of time working on the admin side of the site developing and installing new features. I'm supposedly a "Global Moderator" of the site but my development work keeps me away from doing too much moderating which can be seen as a good thing! I'm also webmaster for our karate club site which started when I was bored one day and is now starting to become semi-famous around the local clubs
Mountain Biking?
My main form of transport is my bike and I can be fairly dangerous on it! Back in September it was taking me 12 minutes or so to get to university on a morning. Now it takes an average of 5 minutes (4 if its raining) to get the 1.5 miles through pedestrians and traffic. Wouldn't want to get in my way!
Reading?
Given the mad nature of my life it seems weird that I read a fair bit (though not as much as I did in my first year of university) but my taste in books is just as mad as the rest of me. My bookshelf currently consists of Stephen E. Ambrose books on WWII, "The Sword & The Mind" which was sent by filthybeast (cheers yet again!), "The Advanced Shotokan Karate Handbook", "World War Z" (a zombie book), "Classical Weaponry of Japan", "Foundations of Mechanical Engineering" and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"
Taste in Music
Ok, you're probably expecting this by now but my taste in music is fairly daft too. My current playlist is taking me through Bleeding Me by Godsmack (fairly heavy metal), Hand of Stone by Mastodon (even heavier), Red Hot Chili Peppers - Universally Speaking, REM - Accelerate, Spectres in the Fog - Last Samurai soundtrack and Austria by Michael Kamen (Band of Brothers soundtrack). Not a very wide range...
What am I doing here?
I originally came here when I was thinking of joining the British Army aged 18. While I didn't make it to the Army, turning my hand to education instead, I did stay here. That ended up being my undoing - I started off with Bill (RAMESES) on the Magazine staff then was asked to take over Reviews in SDIV. One thing led to another and Jason decided it was time I showed a bit more responsibility (or something like that!) and put me in charge of MSDIV - the site Member Services Division. My role on the site ended up being one of "site go-to guy" answering the questions of most people, running the awards and Member of the Month contests. I took on even more work when Hannibal was deployed and Katie (Woodmonkey) fell ill - I was working in most areas of the site, from sending out newsletters to checking comments in the Arcade. In addition to all my usual tasks around the internet and in real life this started to take its toll on me so I'm glad that both Jason and Katie have returned in good health!
=======
Hmmm, it looks like I've rambled on for too long but there you have it, a decent summary of me!
I might post here again at some point in the future... if I get time...
Who am I?
I'm a daft 21 year old going by the name of Anthony Gaskell.
Where am I from?
A small town called Peterlee in the north east of England (UK), though I spend most of my time in Huddersfield for my studies.
What do I do?
Pretty much everything, leaving a lot of people wondering if I actually sleep! I'm a full time university student, I work on remote controlled cars, play guitar and bass, run one website, help to run one more (other than here), develop (ie code for) a fairly big web forum, assist in getting people to my university, study (and quite often teach) martial arts, ride mountain bikes, read books and around a dozen other things. Its been known for me to fit all of those things into one day!
A student?
Yep, I study Motorsport Technology (BSc) at the University of Huddersfield and am coming to the end of my second year. With the amount of management rubbish in the course, I very nearly didn't make it to Easter.
Remote Controlled Cars?
I own, run, maintain and modify a Traxxas T-Maxx and a Losi Mini LST:
Total spend on the two of them is somewhere in the region of £1500 or $3000...
Guitar? Bass?
Don't get to play as often as I want but my skills are increasing whenever I play. I play a range of music, changing from Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd) to Immune (Godsmack) at the drop of a hat
Martial Arts???!!!
I originally got into Karate when I was a kid aged 8yo. Like most kids I dropped out after a year but ended up going back in 2001 aged 14. 5 years and a heck of a lot of hard work later, on December 14th 2006, I was graded to Shodan - 1st degree black belt. I'm now in my 2 year wait before grading for Nidan (2nd degree). Whenever possible (fit and in the area) I compete in our federation and club competitions at Easter and in May. Tend not to do so well in competition but what do I care?!
Websites?
Other than Trackpads I help to run Martial Arts Planet and spend a lot of time working on the admin side of the site developing and installing new features. I'm supposedly a "Global Moderator" of the site but my development work keeps me away from doing too much moderating which can be seen as a good thing! I'm also webmaster for our karate club site which started when I was bored one day and is now starting to become semi-famous around the local clubs
Mountain Biking?
My main form of transport is my bike and I can be fairly dangerous on it! Back in September it was taking me 12 minutes or so to get to university on a morning. Now it takes an average of 5 minutes (4 if its raining) to get the 1.5 miles through pedestrians and traffic. Wouldn't want to get in my way!
Reading?
Given the mad nature of my life it seems weird that I read a fair bit (though not as much as I did in my first year of university) but my taste in books is just as mad as the rest of me. My bookshelf currently consists of Stephen E. Ambrose books on WWII, "The Sword & The Mind" which was sent by filthybeast (cheers yet again!), "The Advanced Shotokan Karate Handbook", "World War Z" (a zombie book), "Classical Weaponry of Japan", "Foundations of Mechanical Engineering" and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"
Taste in Music
Ok, you're probably expecting this by now but my taste in music is fairly daft too. My current playlist is taking me through Bleeding Me by Godsmack (fairly heavy metal), Hand of Stone by Mastodon (even heavier), Red Hot Chili Peppers - Universally Speaking, REM - Accelerate, Spectres in the Fog - Last Samurai soundtrack and Austria by Michael Kamen (Band of Brothers soundtrack). Not a very wide range...
What am I doing here?
I originally came here when I was thinking of joining the British Army aged 18. While I didn't make it to the Army, turning my hand to education instead, I did stay here. That ended up being my undoing - I started off with Bill (RAMESES) on the Magazine staff then was asked to take over Reviews in SDIV. One thing led to another and Jason decided it was time I showed a bit more responsibility (or something like that!) and put me in charge of MSDIV - the site Member Services Division. My role on the site ended up being one of "site go-to guy" answering the questions of most people, running the awards and Member of the Month contests. I took on even more work when Hannibal was deployed and Katie (Woodmonkey) fell ill - I was working in most areas of the site, from sending out newsletters to checking comments in the Arcade. In addition to all my usual tasks around the internet and in real life this started to take its toll on me so I'm glad that both Jason and Katie have returned in good health!
=======
Hmmm, it looks like I've rambled on for too long but there you have it, a decent summary of me!
I might post here again at some point in the future... if I get time...
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Recent Blog Entries by Anth
- Perfect Timing for that Break (06-29-2008)
- Time For A Break (06-29-2008)
- End of an Era (06-29-2008)
- The Life of Anth (04-02-2008)
