I got fed up of my old 1995 Webpage. The fact that most of it was a decade out of date didn't help. I've thrown most of it away and kept the bits that might actually link somewhere useful.
I did the End to End in September 2004 and here is a writeup.
This isn't too out of date, and I still like it, so...
Japanese comics and animation; regardless of the fact that the UK's biggest distributor of anime is called 'Manga Video', manga means the drawn material, not the animation.
No, it's not all tentacle porn and violence; that's just what sells over here. While we're at it, I have an extensive rant as part of hentaiFREEfree about the effects of the British Board of Film Classification; put shortly, the mandatory classification fee ensures that only anime which is likely to sell large numbers of copies can be released (ie, nothing interesting or experimental), and the separate fees for subtitled and dubbed releases ensure we only get dubs, which sell more but are less popular with the fans. As a result, practically all of my anime is US imports.
Why prefer subtitles? Aren't dubs more accessible? Arguably; but dubs have a number of drawbacks, some of them inherent. If you're interested in hearing the work as originally performed, only a sub will do; no matter how faithful the dubbing, it's not the real Tenno Haruka speaking. Even if you're not, dubs often suffer badly from the relative lack of budget for voice actors; in Japan, anime is big business and can command extremely talented voices - especially as the number of people who can be employed full-time doing voice acting is much greater. That's not an inherent disadvantage; but what is, is that in order to fit the length of time characters are speaking and the lip movements (roughly), dub translations must often be quite distorted.
What would I recommend? Manga is easier, because it doesn't have the BBFC stopping us from getting all the good stuff. Ranma 1/2 is the classic romantic comedy; Gunsmith Cats is good modern-day action; the manga of Ghost in the Shell is infinitely better than the movie; and Viz's Animerica Extra carries a few good series month after month. Anime is practically all dubs, which I'm loath to mention at all; but there is a recent release of Bubblegum Crisis, which (as a sub) got me hooked on anime in the first place.
Xpilot is a rather nifty multiplayer computer game for the X-Window system - similar to Thrust or Asteroids, but multiplayer over the Internet. There is an extremely good page at xpilot.org and the relevant newsgroup is rec.games.computer.xpilot.
NetHack is also tremendously good fun, if fundamentally single-player - it's similar to Rogue, Hack and Moria, if you've played any of these, but far more complex. If this is all new to you, NetHack is a game of dungeon exploration - not in real time, and without graphics, but with a depth of fiendish complexity which is almost unique. Oh, and every time you die you think "Well, they won't get me again that way, so I'll just have another game" and before you know where you are it's 4 am.
Old favourites of mine are Master Of Orion, Elite and Doom, but I hope you know all about at least two of those anyway.
I am lucky enough to have w.sp.lic.#pi<largestprime>.2106. However, I am now an ex.
Injustice has a new enemy. A fearless superhero who has no need of a silly costume. It's... Naked Man!
Cambridge's favourite largely nonexistent band, Elder Sign, could still use a mention.
I have been accused of being a goth, a vicious untruth.
My email address is damerell@chiark.greenend.org.uk - stop clicking on it, it's not a mailto: URL - if you want to mail me, use a real mailer, not a Web browser. You don't use a spanner to put screws in, do you?