arbitrary constant

Paul Wright is a web developer living in London. He fulfils pretty much all the stereotypes for such a career choice; working for a small online company that sells gadgets & games, doesn't stop banging on about Ruby On Rails, wears black rimmed glasses and has a somewhat unhealthy threadless.com addiction. The only thing missing is a regularly updated blog (wrighty.com has been in existence for six years but has fallen to a schedule of one post a year and linkmonkeys.co.uk is going the same way).

Outside of work he cycles the mountains of South London and keeps up to date with the happenings of Lost. One day he hopes to fully understand the secrets of the island.

What would your Mastermind specialist subject(s) be? • It would be a toss up between Mainstream Cinema 1998 – Present Day, Price Estimation Of Passing Mountain Bikes or Web Technology Fads.

Europe or America? • Interesting question. I've never been to the US (though planning on fixing that in March next year for SXSW) and only visited a handful of European countries so my knowledge of both is formed mainly from news and popular culture.

What book(s) are you currently reading? • I seem to always have at least a couple of books half-finished. At the moment it's John Peel's autobiography (I've stopped mainly as I'm at the point where his wife takes over writing) and Touching The Void by Joe Simpson, I saw the powerful documentary of the same name a while back. The last book I managed to complete was JPod by Douglas Adams, it's an okay sequel to Microserfs.

What news sources and/or websites do you consult on a daily basis? • news.bbc.co.uk is about it for news sites. I used to have a pretty heavy addiction to metafilter.com and more recently ask.metafilter.com but lately I've managed to ween myself off both.

Other daily distractions include penny-arcade.com, dieselsweeties.com, daringfireball.net, waxy.org/links and slashdot.org

Are you happy with your Body Mass Index? • "Your BMI is 26.23457. If your BMI is between 25 and 29.9 you're over the ideal weight for your height. Make sure you have a healthy, well-balanced diet and don't eat more calories than you need to. If you're trying to lose weight, get more exercise and avoid snacking and 'crash' diets. If you carry your weight around your stomach, you're 'apple-shaped', rather than 'pear-shaped'. This means you're at more risk of health problems, so you really need to get your weight down."

So it looks like I'm on the threshold of being a little bit overweight (where 'little bit' is accurate to five decimal places no less). I'd attribute it to the copious beer consumed, I think it's something to do with the London lifestyle.

Which television quiz do you most enjoy? • I don't really watch that many quizzes but it would probably be Have I Got News For You followed by QI.

What is your favourite building? • Canary Wharf (or 1 Canada Square if you want to be picky) has always been very impressive, it was the only building in London I could see from my school window in Dartford. I also have a soft spot for Bluewater in Greenhithe; I once went to a lecture by Eric Kuhne, the head architect, who went through all the design features they incorporated into what could have so easily been a soulless shopping centre. The Eden Project is an outstanding development, especially as each time you visit there's more completed towards their final plan for the site.

Whose art means more to you than just paint on a canvas? • Frank Miller reinvented Batman and The Dark Knight Returns was the background for both the original Batman and the more recent Batman Begins. We don't discuss the intervening films in the franchise.

To which magazine would you most like to have a subscription? • I buy the Economist every so often and it's a solid, interesting read, though I fear if I had a weekly subscription to it I would soon find my house filled with unread issues.

What relevance does politics in the United Kingdom have to you? • Tough question. I stayed up on election night last year to see the results live and I think voting is important but I'm also almost wilfully ambivalent about following politics. I went through a phase of actively trying to keep up to date with it but eventually I realised it just didn't hold my interest and, much like estate agents, the smarmy attitude of some politicians just irritated me.

In our society the media takes the place of a informed citizen and they more than anyone else are the body that holds the government to account for their actions. The rest of society pick a media body that is most closely aligned to their beliefs and values and receive their news through that particular body's perspective.

What is your favourite font? • It used to be a font called Mañana from some freebie CD that came with a printer. I used for all my coursework, even for my CV until certain intervier offered a redesign; now it's a mixture of Gill Sans and Garamond. Not particularly original choices but at least I've moved on from Arial.

Due to an unforeseen error the Internet vanishes overnight. What do you do to pass the time? • Go out for more bike rides, try to finish more books and take advantage of DVD subscription services that now rely on touchtone phones and mail order forms to organise your rental queue. Oldschool.

OK Computer or The Bends? • I can't believe you're going to ask all the interviewees this question just to settle our on-going feud. Would it help to bury the hatchet if I concede for the sake of our friendship? If not I'm sticking with The Bends. Just to be contrary. Even if it did top that Channel 4 Top 100 Albums poll.

(An introduction to the friends in e-places feature, and a list of all those that have appeared in it, is available here.)

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