All about Alasdair

[alasdairm]

hi there

 

i've been a member of clubtheworld for a few short months now and it's been interesting to say the least. i think that a lot of people see me as some humourless participant, who takes everything way too seriously and needs to lighten up a bit.

 

i'm in the position where it's unlikely i'll be able to go out dancing with any of you for some time because i live 6000 miles away. i get to the UK once in a while (i always try to go to Escape from Samasara when I'm passing through London...) but i don't see a trip on the horizon any time soon.

 

so for now, my online persona is 100% of who i am at clubtheworld.

 

as some of you know, there was a bit of a commotion when i joined... it seems almost ridiculous but i'm still hurt by some of the nasty things people said to me then. however, i realise that i have to put that behind me if i'm to participate here so that's the first thing i'll say. it's time to consciously leave that behind.

 

i feel like i'm part of the community here but i (still) feel like a bit of an outsider. i thought it might be useful if i told you a bit about who i am so you can see that, behind the online name, there is a living, breathing person.

 

so, i was born in singapore but grew up in edinburgh. i'm scottish with accent to prove it but now it's a mid-atlantic scottish/american thing which both my friends and family find very amusing... i also say 'store' instead of 'shop' and i pronounce tomato wrong

 

as soon as i finished college and university i headed straight for london - a definite case of brain-drain and bright lights, big city. i lived in london (wandsworth) for 4 years. london is one of my favourite cities in the world - it truly is one of the planet's great capitals. the whole time i lived in london, i worked for a company some of you have probably heard of: psion. i did end-user technical support and, after teaching myself to write C, i did developer support and debugging. in about 1993, psion needed somebody to manage technical support for the whole of north america. they offered me the job, a relocation to boston, ma and tripled my salary. needless to say, i didn't really have to think about that very long...

 

i moved to the US in october 1993 and lived in boston for 4 years. i had a great time. boston is a really cool town with a great music scene - at the time i was mostly into alt-rock.

 

after 4 great years managing support for psion inc. in boston, i saw that the hardware and software sides of the company were going in separate directions. i knew i was a 'software person' so i did some political maneuvering and got myself moved internally to psion's software division in california. about a year after that psion (along with ericsson, motorola and nokia) formed symbian (which you may have heard of). i was now in charge of symbian's office in the US and i lived in san francisco.

 

about that time, i broke up with my girlfriend of 4+ years (we lived together in boston and moved to san francisco together). more accurately, she dumped me (on new year's eve 1998 no less 8-). i thought that my life was over but i was getting into electronic dance music and i was also in the process of making a lot of new friends in san francisco. it sounds a little trite but i guess that's what 'saved' me. i discovered a group of wonderful, interesting, loving friends. i also disovered a love of trance and electronic music in general.

 

i also discovered E. i could go on forever about this but i suspect that some of you know exactly what i'm talking about when i say my life changed dramatically. about that time, i also got my green card. my green card means i can live in the US for the rest of my life. i plan to. this is my home now.

 

all kinds of stuff has happened since then - most notably i attended my first (and 2 subsequent) Burning Man festivals. i would try to explain what that's all about but it's hard. you can get an idea by looking at their website (here).

 

Burning Man changed my life in ways i can't hope to explain. i'm going again this year and it's coming up in 24 days. i'm excited... i have a camp called 'magicglasses camp'. we build a tunnel 40 feet long and filled with thousands of xmas tree lights. then we give people these special card glasses which break the light up into the spectrum. it's an overwhelming, immersive visual experience and it's so much fun building it. you can see some of our pictures at http://www.magicglasses.com/pictures/

 

i can relate to a lot of the relationship stuff on the board because of my breakup in 1998 and other stuff since then. about 2 years ago i got involved in a disasterous relationship which lasted 9 months. 2 weeks of heaven and 8.5 months of hell. it took me a long time to realise that i tjust wasn't right for me and a long time to do something about it. it was a nasty breakup which left me with all kinds of feelings of guilt, etc. i broke her heart in avery big way. in retrospect it was absolutely the right thing to do and i'm proud of myself for doing it. i changed. it broke my head in a big way but i dealt with it (i got professional help at the time which is one of the best things i have ever done).

 

i thought i would never find anybody after that. now i have a girlfriend who i love very much. we've been going out for about 9 months and she is, believe me, one of the coolest, most beautiful women i have ever had the pleasure of laying eyes on. it happened to me and, if it has not yet, it can definitely happen to you...

 

i love going to the movies, i read a lot. i like cycling around san francisco (definitely the fastest way to get around). i also like snowboarding which i got into about 2 years ago.

 

so much more to tell but i feel like i'm definitely rambling now.

 

anyway, believe me when i say that i'm not humourless - i love to laugh and i do it a lot. i'm impressed with what CTW has achieved to date and see it growing biger and better all the time.

 

one day, you and i will go clubbing together and i look forward to that day.

 

have a great week

 

alasdair

[Dakers]

Round of applause for Alasdair!

 

Just wanted to say a public thank you for all the advice you've offered me and the shite I've spouted to you. I really appreciate it (even if I am no closer to sorting my head out! )

Alasdair is one of the most insightful people I've come across.

 

Cheers mate.... and I promise I'll try and make it over for a Burning Man soon enough...

 

Daks

[scouseladuk]

Top stuff Alasdair! I know it must be hard living all the way over there and well ur welcome to CTW was a little suspect to say the least. But then again CrashinCarey is back over in the US, Belle is in Canada so you're not alone.

 

Re: humour

 

Just mention tits/ass in at least 3 of ur posts a day and ull fit in just fine lol

 

[Claire DC]

Have to say well done to ya hun for this, it has made me think more bout the mad behind the posts!!

 

In a previous post i had told u that i tended to skim down ur posts due to the length of them and lack of humour, reading somethin like this kinda brings u back to earth and makes u realise that there is a person behind the words and that what they have to say is as important as everyone else whether it be humourous or humourless, they may have a valid point, they may not but i think you at least owe the person that wrote the time spent to read it as they have gone to the trouble of putting time and thought into writing it!!

 

I myself will be takin more notice in future, but one thing alaildair...Daves right, stick tits and ass in a few of ur posts and u'll be fine lol

[nice1bruva]

Hey Alasdair,

 

me and you originally got off on the wrong foot and I think we have been out of step since then!

This is not intentional believe me, I pride myself on being able to get along with everyone.

Even though I admit that my remarks are sometimes callous and flipant, please don't ever take anything I ever say seriously because this is not the kind of guy I am.

I have a stressful and "serious" job hence when I am not at work I try to be as playful as possible

 

Those people on the site who have met me know I am not a malicious person and I think this is the impression you have got of me. I dont want you to think that - mainly cos its wrong!!

 

This is the most sreious thing I have ever posted so you're not likely to see it again!! Hopefully you may be able to read into my sarcasm a little easier now

 

(when I fell asleep in the middle of your posts I was hoping you'd laugh and not take offence - i think I will be more blunt in future)

 

Anyway take care...gotta go gotfinnnnnngaaa crampppppps ahhhhhhhhh

[Claire DC]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Claire DC:

Have to say well done to ya hun for this, it has made me think more bout the

mad

behind the posts!!

---

Hmmm i think i meant man not mad hehe

 

And Neil, iv only met u the once but i think ur a top bloke!!

 

[ 01 August 2002, 21:09: Message edited by: Claire DC ]

[alasdairm]

neil

 

no problem. i don't have any ill-feeling towards you.

 

you promise to be yourself and i'll do the same and we'll not go far wrong.

 

alasdair

[SarahPVC]

Hi Alistair, i was just coming onto the CTW scene i think when all the hassle you mention was going on so i kind of got both sides of it. I really didnt know anyone at the time so didnt comment much. The more i have seen of your posts the more i realise that u seem to be very clued-up and educated in a lot of areas, not just those of clubbing. Thanks for bringing that to CTW.

[CreamyC]

Unfortunately for me Alasdair as you well know I dont take things that seriously on here so you may or may not have been offended by my posts in the past! There are times when we do need seriousness on the forum and people like yourself bring things back to a sane level again after things can go a bit pear shaped in some posts! We appreciate that! Our intention on here as you may have had it rammed down your throat many times is to ClubTheWorld - says it all in the name really -and having people like yourself, Belle, CrashinCarey, Magic (where the [censored] is he?) are vital to us in order to keep links across the world! Thanks for your serious advice to people, I know they appreciate it, its good to have a good variation of personalities, after all if everyone was like me we would be in serious trouble!

 

PS. Unfortunately I do not control Bastard Moderator or anything he says so please accept our apologies!

[Flakey Dove]

Yeah,well in alisdair.

I think most of us are just caught a bit off guard sometimes,you kinda get used to creamyc's inane comments and as soon as someone seemingly sane shows up then everyone shits themselves!

As ive said,you do have some interesting outlooks etc,Id rather it be this way anyway,than a load of carbon copies bleeting away all day.So keep up the good work fella.

Mind you,Im still gonna take the piss,you don't get off that easy.

laters

[Belle]

Hi Alasdair,

 

You're not alone (I love that song)!!!!! You and I are in similar positions around here. I too won't be clubbing with the group anytime soon, but look forward to the opportunity of someday meeting up in London or around the world with you or any CTW member!

 

Great backgrounder! With you being so far from the group, I've always been interested in your posts etc. Because they rarely have to do with last weekends events or next weekends events, which doesn't always have meaning to us. I feel like a bit of an outsider sometimes also, but that's just because we really are far far away from the group.

 

Great news about your gf! Does she like to club aswell?

 

Thanks again for the inside info!

 

Have a great weekend!

[James]

Alasdair,

 

Firstly - fantastic - I'm actually really honoured that you've taken the time to write this and that fact that you feel you wanted to - as I've said to Sarah over the last few weeks my appreciation for you and what you are about has grown considerably. I am so angry at myself for the way I responded to you - for some silly reason it felt like a threat but looking back it was a perfectly valid initial question and I'm angry that it took someone else to tell me it was a perfectly acceptable question to ask.

 

You have done me great favours in that now I do try to stop and think before spurting off an opinion - whether it be here on the board, to my family, in my social life, and more often at work.

 

I really DO hope you stick around for a long long time and will always be in contact with us - I feel you are invaluable to ctw. I relate to you like AJ in many ways - I too got off on the wrong foot with him and have drastically changed my views on him too - for the better. I know I must also stop posting when in 'comedown' mode as I'm not my true self and I'm just 'angry' at people for no apparent/valid reason.

 

It sounds like you have down an awful lot with your life so far and are very successfull - I admire people like you as you are a 'doer' - you get things done and would rather try something and regret than not try at all - this is what I'm aspiring to although I still have a long way to go.

 

I TRULY believe that one day we really WILL club together - along with lots of other people outside the UK. I can honestly 'feel' it in my bones that this is gonna happen - and when it does - by god - its gonna feel amazing isnt it!!! The build up is gonna be incredible!

 

Anyway, thanks for this mate - gonna make sure we leave this post here forever!

 

James

 

[ 03 August 2002, 02:31: Message edited by: James ]