Big Mad Mr T's new Bio Page - In Progress.

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Last updated: 04/03/01

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Editorial

Well, it's with mixed feelings that I return to my space on h2g2. Of course, I'm very pleased to be back - but like many other Researchers I am a little concerned about the few, but very significant changes which have occurred within h2g2 since its 'assimilation' within the mighty BBC Online pages.

I am, inevitably, referring to the issue of Corporate Censorship. I would like to start by saying that I completely understand why the new measures have been put in place - h2g2 is no longer a "free agent" - as far as the law is concerned, Guide content is BBC content, and the Beeb don't want to be sued over perhaps untactful, or downright provocative material, for example.

But while I understand why all these new rules are in place, I can't help but wonder if the original creativity, wide range of subject matter and opinions that gave h2g2 such appealing character will be somewhat subdued or compromised. Now, I am not saying I think this is necessarily what is going to happen - these are just my thoughts and concerns upon my return to my favourite site.

Let me elaborate a little. If all our content now belongs to the BBC, what happens if we publish information which may be disparaging other companies, say? For example, if I wrote an - unedited and unsubmitted - entry on why I would discourage people from eating at McDonalds, would the entry be removed because McDonalds would get miffed and start threatening the Beeb with legal action? If you think about it, this could have deep-rooted effects on all Guide content. Now I am well aware that there has always been a level of, shall we say, manditory discretion on h2g2 - and rightly so. I certainly don't want h2g2 being sued for libel - but I would like to see the full implications of censorship and the Guide cleary explained so that we don't go accidentally 'creating unccessary problems' or whatever.

On a more positive note, I am pleased to see all purely commercial links removed - another great thing about the BBC is the lack of advertising. Continuing on the corporate censorship theme, however (oh, maybe this isn't quite so positive, then!), I am sadenned - nay, fairly disgruntled - to find that we cannot link to external sites IN FORUMS! I mean, what's that about?! Sure, I can understand the Beeb not wanting us to link to "unsuitible" sites, but I can't remember that ever happening before. I suppose I should be taking into consideration that h2g2 will be accessed by MANY more people than before - not all of them may be as diplomatic as the vast majority of the existing community, and that these measures needed to be taken top prevent h2g2 from turning into someting like the Yahoo! community1.

So it is with quiet reservation that I return to h2g2, waiting for the reaction of all the non-'tester' Researchers when the site goes public once more - or, in some ways, for the first time. Soon, I suspect, people won't just say "what's that?" and look bemused when I tell them I'm a Researcher on h2g2.

Navigation

Intro | Who? | The Pregnants | The Guide | Stuffage | Contact | Elsewhere

'Watcha'

Hi. Welcome to Big Mad Mr T's Space here on h2g2. Possibly due to a medical condition, and more probably to his poor literacy skills Mr T is known to swap beteen third and first person perspectives with little or no warning, and with blatant disregard for the reader's wellbeing or peace of mind. For which he apologises.

What with the 'new' h2g2, I've decided to update, clean up and rearrange my Bio Space - and all for your conveniance. Or possibly for some dark reason of my own...

Who?

Who indeed. David - that's Big Mad Mr T to you - is aged between 18 and 82 years, and lives in Basingstoke, home of terminally uninterested. He likes to think he's a little bit subversive, but in truth he's probably just like hoards of other people vainly trying to be 'individual'. He's got an unhealthy interest in the habits of 'society', consumer culture and Ghostbusters, as well as a mild obsession with the musical works of Chris Ballew. He wants to work "in the media", which is as vague as it is hypocritical - as he despises many aspects of such a superficial industry. Mr T also loves to hit things - specifically drums - despite being a pascifist.

His name

Below is a brief synopsis of the elements that make up my rather strange name:

  • sXe: This stands for 'straight edge' - a full explanation of what this means can be found in my entry.
  • Scout: Mr T is an h2g2 Scout. See the 'Big Mad Mr T and The Guide' section.

The Pregnants

As you may have read above, Mr T plays the drums. Sometimes, he plays the drums while some people play some other instruments - often in time. After a while he began playing at the same time as some other people on a regular basis - he calls this "playing in a band", and he loves it. This 'band' is called 'The Pregnants', which is a very silly name indeed. They play what they call 'punk moc' - a mixture of hardcore punk, funk and all types of rock. This too is very silly indeed. To find out just how silly The Pregnants are, please visit their website and download some free MP3s.

Big Mad Mr T and The Guide

Approved entries

Even though he's proud to have been on h2g2 since it was first launched on the BBC's "Tomorrow's World" programme, Mr T hasn't really written all that many Edited Guide Entries, mainly because those he start rarely get finished.

However, Mr T has managed to knock up a few entries deemed worthy of addition to the Edited Guide.

He was the original author of the entry on Marmite, a sticky brown substance made from spiced yeast extract, which for an inexplicable reason he likes to spread on toast.

He's also a big Discworld fan, so his knowledge was put to good use in writing an entry on it.

His latest entry is on the ' straight edge' philosophy, which he thinks could be his best work yet.

Unedited entries

For every edited entry he has, Mr T has written at least two rubbish ones. Most have been deleted out of sheer embarassment, but he has kept some, such as the one on How to Get a Free Lunch.

Mr T is working on various new entries, his most ambitious on Ghostbusters - his favourite 80s fad. If you'd like to help him out, please contact him - any help would be much appreciated.

The h2g2 Scouts

No, Big Mad Mr T doesn't belong to some obscure virtual Scouting club on h2g2 - or at least, not of the traditioal sort. Instead, it is his job to read the new entries in the Peer Review Forum and offer constructive comments to their authors. Every month he reccommends Entries he really likes to the Subeditors for inclusion in the Edited Guide. Bribes can be sent to the usual address.

For his own reference as much as anyone else's, here are some useful Scouty links:

Stuffage

Music

Mr T is a big old-school punk fan, and can often be found listening to Minor Threat, Black Flag, The Sex Pistols and The Dead Kennedys.

However, he has a real passion for many more bands than that. His current favourites include Godspeed You Black Emperor!, the completely ludicrous independant orchestral rock band who produced his favourite album of 2000, and of course The Presidents of the United States of America, who are still for some reason his all-time favourite band. While they don't have an official website any more, you can still find out about all of their frontman's latest projects at Chris Ballew Net which is well worth checking out.

This summer should see the return of cheery guitar-poppers Weezer who's last album, Pinkerton, was criminally ignored by the mainstream musical press. Goits. One band which they won't leave alone, however, are the possibly-overrated Radiohead.

Mr T's second favourite bands, in joint place with Minor Threat, are political punkers Fugazi and probably Rage Against the Machine. Mr T has admitted to liking too many bands too much, but he simply can't help it. He also can't but mention his other long-time favourites the Foo Fighters and "boo!" and "hiss!" at The Offspring for being horrible, blatant sell-outs.

While the media and mainstream society loves to make the genre into a joke, Mr T believes he has found a whole new neglected genre in some truly superb Christian rock bands. Supress your preconceptions until you've heard the works of Grammatrain and Stavesacre - you might be unexpectedly pleasantly suprised.

Books

At the moment he is mostly reading... 'No Logo' by Naomi Klein, 'Evidence That Demands a Verdict' by Josh McDowell, and various other publications such as the variable New Internationalist.

Videogames

In his younger years, Mr T was a massive videogames fan, but he's not got as much time any more... still, his favourite game in a long time has been System Shock 2 on the PC, and he is definately going to buy a Gameboy Advance when it is released in the UK, being a huge Nintendo zealot [2 URLs removed by moderator].

While he's only got a passing interest in Pokemon, he feels he must give special mention to his good friend Barry Life's Pokemon website, which is absolutely superb and has had a lot of effort put into it. Hurrah!

Contacting Mr T

Instant Message-him-up

There are at least three great ways to Instantly Message Mr T, two of which can be executed straight from your computer desktop. Contact him under these cunningly elusive screen names:

BigMadMrT On the AOL2 Instant Messenger.

or

Beeg_Mard_Meester_Tee on the Yahoo! Messanger. Anyone who spoke to him during the dark and mysterious h2g2 "down time" will recognise this rather peculiar alias.

eMailing Mr T

There may be a time in your life when it becomes necessary to write an Email to Mr T. Should this event arise, you can send it to this address: [email protected]

Elsewhere

Congratulations, you've made it to the bottom of the page! "Phew" you're thinking, "time to pick the pieces of my life back up, and to try to continue from where I left off, all those minutes ago". Well, don't leave just yet - there are the *ahem* wonders of Mr T's first-person Journal left to contend with. Perhaps, though, you could avoid going there by looking at these fantastic places:

On h2g2

Section 'coming soon'.

On the 'net

You may well have noticed by now that Mr T isn't a huge fan of corporatism, and doesn't think much of consumer society or the media3. Speaking of the media, your first points of call should be Adbusters, a superb 'culture jamming' magazine, and White Dot which will put you off watching television for a good half hour. And for all you popular culture fanatics, try out McSpotlight and watch as the lid is lifted on McDonalds and your other favourite multinationals...

Continuing the 'popular culture' and 'media' themes, but taking a more light hearted approach, two hilarious sites are the popular-culture crunching Bubblegun and spoof TV listings site TV Go Home. Speaking of humour, one of the last places you'd expect to find it would be on a Christianity-themed website, but indeed this is the case with Ship Of Fools - the magazine of Christian Unrest.

Finally, other great but fairly miscellaneous places to check out are the Guardian Unlimited Network for, well, anything and Old Man Murray for your cynical videogaming needs.

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1Am i even allowed to say that now?2Please note Mr T is not an AOL user of any description, he only uses their messaging service. Otherwise he finds AOL terribly constrictive and patronising.3Which is ironic considering he wants to have a career in it one day

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