Following on from our announcement last month that the lovely Joel has joined us as a Contributor and his subsequent interview, we realised that there is another person on the team who hasn’t undergone interrogation yet: Tim!
Tim is the little guy with big dreams. He likes to get dressed up during events as well as party; he also loves to chat and is a bit of a night-owl, so expect plenty of random late-night conversations when he bumps into you on Steam. Take a look at his personal site, GeekOut South-West, where he brings the geekdoms of Bristol together.
We first met in Birmingham back in March, when Kim and Phil were attending the Rezzed expo and Tim and his friends were at Kitacon. After a game of Cards Against Humanity we found out that we all got on like a house on fire – and since then we’ve managed to rope Tim into coming on board! Here are his answers to our probing questions…
Back in March 2014 at Birmingham – Tim is the one in costume!
Describe yourself in five words.
“I’m short, ambitiously uber geeky!”
What do you do in ‘real life’?
“I’m a Civil Servant. We come from all walks of life, do we geeky men and women!”
What do you do in your spare time?
“Cosplaying, blogging and running a meetup in the South-West of England (currently mostly just Bristol). The meetup is called GeekOut South-West and we’re slowly approaching one-hundred members on there.
“As well as that, gaming: I do plenty of gaming!”
Where did you grow up and what were you like as a kid?
“I grew up in a lovely town called Bristol. Yeah, I’ve not moved away from Bristol and when I was a kid, I was ridiculously social. Everyone and everything had to be my friend, from fellow kids to teachers and even pets. I wanted to be friends with everyone.
“I was probably a bit of a ‘weird kid’ but then again, I’ve turned into a ‘weird adult’. Gaming, cosplaying, convention-going, you name it: I’m doing stuff that makes me smile.”
How did you get into gaming?
“When I was a kid, my first gaming platform was the Amiga 500. I absolutely adored my Amiga and I was playing on it regularly.
“My mum was a bit of a gamer too, meaning I was able to watch her occasionally and learn the ways of the gamer. Basically, my whole family have been in some way ‘into’ video games. I even got my grandad into a video game, a pro-fishing game. After everyone played a game for themselves, they all agreed – it’s a fun pastime!”
What’s your favourite game and why?
“Argh, this question is near impossible for me.
“So I’ll go with the one I feel I get the most ‘nostalgic value’ from and that’ll be Final Fantasy IX. This was the penultimate fantasy story to me which also led me to reading more fantasy and indeed sci-fi. It’s got a mix of everything. The characters have been made to where you want to relate to them and the story is really damn good.
“Even better, it was released right at the end of the original PlayStation era. The PlayStation 2 was already released at this point; however the game was already mostly made and this game pushed the PlayStation to its limit. Seriously, look back at it – it was beautiful and still looks pretty good to this day. Unlike Final Fantasy VII but obviously, VII was a lot earlier than IX.”
How did you get into blogging?
“I went to Ayacon Apocalypse in 2013 where I met my fellow GeekOut South-West writer, Joel (who is now a fellow 1001-Up.com writer too!).
“He came up to me and was all ‘Check out my site’ (Quotes from the Tabletop). I did indeed and I enjoyed it but when I left Ayacon, I realised I didn’t really know many of my fellow geeks in Bristol any more. Most of my friends had upped and moved away, so I wanted an outlet to meet more people.
“So I took to blogging and running a meetup on the back of the blog and vice versa. It’s been a heck of a roller-coaster of an adventure. It’s almost been my one year blogging anniversary now, which will happen when I attend Alcon 2014 next month.”
Tim’s first love…
Do you think it has changed you in any way?
“Ooh yes.
“I was in a bit of a slump because I’m a bit of a social demon, but I had no real reasons to be social left. Blogging has made me a lot more vocal (much to the chagrin of my friends and family) and has brought me some wonderful new friends such as Kim, Phil, Ben, Kevin and Jay.
“It’s also opened me up to being more involved with online communities. I am a meetups moderator for Anime League (go check ‘em out, we do much more than just talk about anime there). As well as this I write here at 1001-Up.com and on the GeekOut blog. I also occasionally write for The Mental Attic.
“Before this, I would have probably just played video games and studied different things, usually all game related. Now I do that; but now I do plenty of other things, too.”
Which of your articles are you most proud of?
“Here on 1001-Up.com, I am most proud of my game creation on a budget series. I approached Kim and Phil after meeting them when I was at Kitacon (they were attending Rezzed) and I said ‘Well, you know – I’d not mind doing a series on this for the site?’ to which they seemingly gladly snatched me up!
“Because of those articles, I got some great conversation and I started talking more regularly to more brilliant people. You know who you are!
“On GeekOut South-West, I am most proud of my cosplayer highlight series. I talk to fans and practitioners of cosplay. These are the people who make the convention scene what it is; great fun, very enthusiastic and all run by the fans.”
What has been your favourite moment in your blogging career so far?
“As silly as it might sound: probably the moment I reached out to Kim and Phil after finding out how close Rezzed and Kitacon was to one another (across the road), then working with Kim to organise us actually meeting.
“It’s probably the moment that’s made the most difference so far, but there’ll be many more moments to come.”
What are you most looking forward to over the coming year?
“The coming year? Hmm…
“Well I am looking forward to Alcon! I’m also looking forward to expanding the GeekOut social group further and wider. More events, more meets with the 1001-Up.com crew and more ice-cream during podcasts!”
Describe each member of the 1001-Up.com… and you don’t have to be nice. Really.
Kim:
“The brains and the beauty behind the site. Without Kim, I think we’d all be lost and have a very unpolished website for you all. Thanks Kim! Also, really into going to events, so I’ve no doubt I’ll be dragging her and hopefully more of the 1001-Up.com team with me to some events! Also she’s into 80s things and although I just missed out on the 80s, I’ve grown up to love the the era. We’re gonna go clubbin’!”
Phil:
“A bit of a joker, an all around cool and chilled out guy. We also found out that he now has a girlfriend and I’m to blame for this. I hope she’s doing well Phil! (NB: she’s pretty… plastic. She’s a figurine in case anyone hasn’t figured this out yet). That’s it now – thanks to him I bought my first DSLR-like camera. You’ve now got to keep teaching me, Cameraman-Sensei. *Bow*”
Ben:
“I am in awe at the way this man handles basically any situation or topic. Not only that, he’s jolly and really damn nice to talk to. Whenever he has an opinion, he doesn’t force it on you but instead, he carries his views in a way that brings people naturally into a conversation. I can’t wait to meet the fellah face to face!”
Kevin:
“Which brings me on to Kevin quite nicely. He has to be one of the most enthusiastic guys I’ve ever met and the best thing about him: he’s very damn eager to learn from others. He’s a conversationalist and he’s great. Plus, we talk about anime from time to time. Hurrah! Kevin, get back to England whenever you can and let’s have a good ol’ chat!”
Jay:
“Our resident crazy-cat man! Constantly amusing us with cat pictures, although they can pop up at the oddest of moments. I mean this in the nice way! He’s a wonderful guy, who’s very passionate and very easy to have a chat with. Plus he runs Nostalgia and Gaming which is a brilliant blog. Keep it going man, I hope to be able to meet up with you for a pint or two some day in the next few months!”
Joel:
“This man is my brother from another mother. The man who wasn’t a blogger, but now is all because of his friend Timlah. That’s me, didn’t you know? His genius was too good to not bring into the GeekOut fold and eventually here to the 1001-Up.com mix! Check out his stuff and talk to him: he loves chatting to fellow geeks. We share a common purpose – we will make the world a geekier place!”
You, the reader:
“Wait, you’re not part of the 1001-Up.com team! But I wanted to say one thing about you, the person reading this. Simply I just wanted to say thank you. You’re the reason any one of us keeps going. Please, drop me a line and tell me how much of a prattling moron I am, or even better: tell us if you like our stuff. We seriously love receiving comments from each and every one of you!”
Yep, Tim is in there somewhere.
Thanks to Tim for answering our questions and for agreeing to join us – it’s a pleasure to have him! Make sure you check out GeekOut South-West, and stay turned for his articles.
