1-2-1
Created | Updated Dec 2, 2008
This week I would like to introduce everyone to Sam, a new member of the h2g2 team.
From what I can tell so far, it seems he will fit in quite nicely over at the Towers.
Sam (male) was originally was born in East Kilbride, Scotland. He moved to England
soon after his birth but was raised of Scottish parents, in a Scottish household. This
meant that when Scotland played England at football, they would close the curtains in
the house (to make the living room dark, and thus the TV 'bright' - creating that big
match atmosphere) and pray that they did not lose yet again, lest their English
neighbours should smugly gloat at them from over the garden fence. So, he has an English
accent, lives in England, has mainly English friends, whom he loves... but he's 100%
Scottish, and very proud of the fact.
Most of his life he lived in a place called Halesowen, which is in the Black Country
(formerly an industrial town in the West Midlands, near Birmingham). He states that
there's magic in the West Midlands... a lot of rural beauty, old houses, strange stories,
gurgling brooks, broken bridges, crooked pubs and don't forget there is also Led
Zeppelin...
He spent one year living in Kawasaki, near Tokyo, as an Assistant Language Teacher.
He tells us how the experience blew his mind leaving him with a half-baked interest in
Eastern philosophy, Buddhism etc. Of all the Eastern sayings his favourite and most
cherished is:
'Man with hole in pocket feel cocky all day'
Invaluable. (I must say that I too like that one.)
Before becoming the Assistant Editor for h2g2 Sam studied English at University, but
mainly his own navel. He says he was not the greatest student but at times he did find
himself to be a great drinker. He met lots of people from very different backgrounds
which he loved due to the fact that everything interesting, according to him (and myself
I might add), has at it's roots, people. After University he found himself working in
magazines; Contract Publishing, to be precise. He explains that this industry requires
many professional editorial skills including a profound ability to eat humble pie and
generally swallow insidious corporate bull hockey. This was not one of his more
pleasant experiences but as the saying goes, 'what don't kill ya'.
He has many interests including music, he is a songwriter, in fact the reason he came to London
straight from Japan was to pursue music. He played in a band for a couple of years and
now plays solo gigs in clubs like The 12 Bar, or the Kashmir Klub. Music is a very
important part of his life. His father is a professional singer - for fifteen years he
was co-lead singer with 60s/70s band The Fortunes. He sings cabaret stuff now and states
that in his opinion his love for music is as they say, 'in the blood'. He admits that if
he were not working for h2g2 he would be playing music full-time and maybe doing a bit
of writing here and there.
Speaking of working for h2g2, when he informed his former employer about his plans
they attempted to appear fairly nonchalant but since they never really knew what to make
of him he guess's that they were not surprised at where he was going. Now that he has
made the move to h2g2 he is quick to say that he finds the Editorial team here to be
great, almost as good as some of the best Scottish football teams of the 60's and 70's.
He goes on to say that the Editorial team is a fiercely intelligent, creative,
kind-spirited, very tolerant and collectively, daft as a brush and he is quite happy
there.
We were quite curious as to what he thought of the guide so far and at the risk of
sounding a bit pukey he told us that he was really quite impressed with it, especially
watching it grow. He goes on to say that in his opinion the best thing about h2g2 is the
community, to give the Guide a voice, representative of the many, not the few.
Co-operation, not manipulation. Also, the diversity and the increasing quality of the
entries. You can have a laugh, but you can learn as well. Learn while you Laugh. That's
Sammy's little motto.
Lastly we could not resist asking him about his preference... Bitter, Lager or Stout
to which he responded with one word, 'Guinness'.
So there you have it in a nutshell so to say, Sam, the new kid on the block ? Let's
all make him feel welcome and watch to see just how long it takes for him to be as nutty
as the rest of us.
