arbitrary constant

James / Jim / Jimbo lived with Rich in the year following university back when flathunting was new and exciting and he was making the first few steps as a graduate in his future career, before heading to London to seek his fortune. Currently he's coming to terms with stupid house prices and the cold realisation that there are many working years ahead followed by a rubbish pension and then death.

He's also coming to terms with the fact that when people call him a "geek", it is as the widely accepted term of endearment and / or backhanded praise, so frequently takes exception and denies the epithet.

Soon, James will be leaving the chaotic world of IT Consulting to become a software engineer for a company with a more relaxed environment and better work-life balance (at least he keeps telling himself that). He also keeps a sporadic blog on his eponymous website, jimshep.co.uk. Geek.

What would your Mastermind specialist subject(s) be? • Quotes from the Monty Python films.

Europe or America? • Europe did "The Final Countdown" which is awesome. America's "A Horse With No Name" is good but not in the same league. Europe wins.

What book(s) are you currently reading? • Down Under, by Bill Bryson. I bought it before going on a 2 week trip to Australia but am still reading it months after returning. I'm quite a slow reader really. The book is entertaining, despite being like listening to your friend's occasionally funny but also slightly perverted Dad.

Sharp Practice: The Real Man's Guide to Shaving by Anders Larsen. My girlfriend bought it for me at Christmas; she must think I'm a Real Man.

What news sources and/or websites do you consult on a daily basis? • – It always gets my day off to a good start, because I know that no matter what crap I may have to deal with, someone else out there feels the pain too. Then it's off to the Beeb UK news front page.

Are you happy with your Body Mass Index? • I've never worked it out. I usually go by how much flesh hangs over the top of my pants, with which I currently am happy, yes.

Which television quiz do you most enjoy? • Numberwang. If you want a non-fictional answer I used to really like Remote Control, a long gone show on Channel 4. Oh, come to think of it QI is pretty good. They seemed to have it on back-to-back on one of the Sky channels over Christmas and it never seemed to get boring, although the same faces kept appearing as apparently there's only a handful of celebs witty enough to appear on it.

What is your favourite building? • Probably the Eiffel Tower. Is that technically a building? Just in case it isn't, I'll say something else instead. Er, how about the Sydney Opera House? That's nice.

Whose art means more to you than just paint on a canvas? • My mum's. The canvas was the wall of our living room.

To which magazine would you most like to have a subscription? • MAD Magazine – I know it's a comic but I love it. Either that or Clark Magazine – it's a French design mag that I picked up on the way back from Paris once because I liked the cover. I couldn't understand a word but the pictures were cool.

What relevance does politics in the United Kingdom have to you? • I like to think that there are people out there who understand it all much better than I do, and are doing the right thing to make things as good as they can be. I know I'm wrong, but that's my excuse for being apathetic right now.

What is your favourite font? • Verdana. Bold. Teal. It's what I use on msn. I suppose I'm a bit of a font pleb really.

Due to an unforeseen error the Internet vanishes overnight. What do you do to pass the time? • At first I'd lament the fact that I'd never posted anything onto . Then I'd pull myself together and come up with some great photo ideas to execute so I could help to re-populate the site when it came online again.

OK Computer or The Bends? • I had a look at my mp3 collection and whilst I only have 3 from OK Computer, I've got all 12 songs from The Bends despite owning both albums in their entirety. Now, is this because OK Computer is 4 times better and therefore only a quarter of the number of tracks are needed for equivalent music pleasure, or is it that The Bends has consistently better tracks? Probably the latter.

(An introduction to the friends in e-places feature, and a list of all those that have appeared in it, is available here. If you think you might like to answer these questions, let's make friends.)

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