Back when I was at University (during a dull moment), I tried running a web-search for references to someone called Chris Joseph. This produced a list of nine urls, three belonging to friends of mine, and the rest talking about a rising American sports star of the same name. Recently (another dull moment, but you'll notice they were more than four years apart:), I tried again. This time, the list had ninety-something entries, and it was quite clear that none of the twenty on the first page had anything to do with me.
Presumably Chris Joseph, all-american sports star, has now risen.
Well, I currently work for Oxford University Press, on the New Dictionary of National Biography, which is well worth a visit. I originally started while I was recovering from RSI, and only able to work part-time (and not able to use a computer at all:(). I'm now recovered and looking for a proper full-time job, although the DNB project is fascinating (the people are fun, too) and I'd definitely like to stay on. If you've got a job going that you think I'd be interested in, then have a look at my CV or email me about it!
I should probably point out, though, that I'm not a publishing professional, although I'd love to make a living as a writer! My degree is in "Metallurgy and Science of Materials", and I specialised - as far as possible - in polymers and polymer matrix composites (PMCs). For those of you who think that "plastics are weak", I should point out that my Risc-PC has a PMC case, which is - literally - bullet-proof. The (metal) case of my other machine almost certainly isn't.
When I'm not working, I spend quite a lot of my time either reading or writing fiction. I've written a complete novel (called Revenant), amongst other things. Some of them can be found here, and some of these (along with several things that aren't on the web) have been published by the magazines of the Oxford University Tolkien and Arthurian societies. I'm still a member of both of these (yes, it's allowed), and tend to turn up a fair amount (particularly at banquets, for some reason:).
In addition to my friends, I like to spend regular "quality time" with my computers. I have two - a small, squattish creamy-coloured one, and a taller, thinner boring grey one. The interesting one is an Acorn Risc-PC; seven years old (it'll be eight in August 2003), but still capable of doing almost everything I want from a computer. Except for games, and speech-recognition, because it doesn't have the processor power to handle those.... Sometime in the future, I'll stick something up a rant about OS-related issues, but for now I'll just point anyone who's interested to the Acorn Cybervillage and Risc-OS Ltd, and leave it at that. Actually, I'll add one more - since the demise of Acorn, the OS is owned by Pace Ltd, who don't make desktop computers (there are connections from the previous two links for those), but have been much more helpful to the market than Acorn ever were.
Probably my favourite leisure activity (after writing, which is - to quote Terry Pratchett - "the most fun that one person can have by themselves") is cooking, however. The main disadvantage is that cooking - unlike, say, writing or game design - really requires other people to be present, since cooking for one person is boring. (Either you have to make a silly small amount, or you wind up eating the same thing for days on end!) Game design, of course, can involve other people - and inevitably does, for any game that gets beyond the design stage! But it doesn't require them, in the early stages. I should, perhaps, point out that many people find it a little odd that I generally enjoy designing games more than playing them. Which isn't to say that I don't enjoy playing games with friends.... Preferably suitably silly ones, like the products of Cheapass Games, or the notoriously deranged Illuminati. The point, after all, is to have fun!
I do have other things to do, you know....