Lou Who?

Ah, the ubiquitous “about me” bit. This page used to be insanely in-depth, but really, who wants to know all that stuff? If you want to get to know me more, read my blog or get in touch. But here are a few facts to get you started.

  • Me-ish nowI am: Lou, aka Loopylou. My other net handle is Soulstarsinger or Soulstar.
  • I live: near the seaside in historical Hastings, East Sussex (UK) with my large orange mog.
  • I have: dyed red hair, glasses, bipolar affective disorder.
  • I am: in my early thirties. Short, quite round.  An unrepentant geeky fangirl.
  • I have also lived in: Canterbury, SE London, Beverley, Hull.
  • I like: science fiction / fantasy (books, TV and film), reading in general, writing, knitting, spinning, web design, music (rock, folk, classical… all kinds!), and of course, faffing around on the intarwebs!

At various points (before I went on meds which have made me rounder!), I’ve looked approximately like these little cartoons:

Me at school Me at uni Me at work Me 2003-ish

To expand on the things I like, hobbies have remained fairly constant over time. In short, I’m an enormous fangirl. I’ve always enjoyed reading and writing, and I had music lessons and sang in choirs from Junior School upwards. We always watched programmes like Star Trek and Dr Who at home, so it’s probably not at all surprising that after I’d plowed through all the adventure / spy stories and books I could find, I turned to the Sci-fi / fantasy shelves. That’s where the majority of my reading lies these days, but I’m always happy to find something new and different. More recently of course (alright, the mid-to-late-90’s), I discovered the internet, and the time consuming fun that is building websites. *g* Also, having moved fairly far away from my family and school friends, the ‘net became a pretty important form of communication for me. Now I have friends all over the world, which is lovely :-)

Another thing I got into in the last several years is attending conventions of the sci-fi / fantasy / horror show persuasion. You know, the ones where you get to meet and greet actors, dress up as characters (or whatever) from the show in question, and oh, did we mention, party til you drop. *g* Sometimes after you’ve dropped too, come to think of it. But anyway, those are excellent weekends, and I’ve met a host of cool people (and also met up with people I previously knew off the ‘net). You can find my con pics in the Photo Album if you’re interested.  I haven’t been to any recently, but I’m sure I will again in the future.

Then a few years ago, I re-learned to knit.  I sometimes have trouble with that whole sitting-still thing, so it keeps my hands busy while I’m watching telly or talking on the phone, and I’ve managed to make some pretty decent stuff so far.  Again, pictorial evidence is in the photo album.  It’s been a lot of fun, and I go along to a couple of local knitting / craft groups where we eat cake and sit around and knit (or crochet, or spin, or whatever) and yatter in company.  Most recently, I’ve even learned to spin (turning wool-fluff-fibre into yarn, y’know) myself, which is just as fun and therapeutic as the knitting.

My musical taste is pretty varied – I like ‘Classical’ (I could rant here about how the Classical period is actually only a small section of what most people consider to be classical music, but, um, perhaps not right now), Jazz, a lot of Pop and Rock from the 60’s onwards, Punk, Goth, Grunge, Industrial, Metal, Nu Metal… the list goes on.

And that’s about all I can think of to write for now.  If you’ve read this through, and know me from somewhere, feel free to talk to me. Or in fact, even if you don’t know me, and just fancy a chat. :-)