My names Ben, I work for a small robotics company in the heart of Somerset, England, which apparently is where J. R. R. Tolkien based the Shire, you know - where the hobbits live. Somerset is a great place to live providing 1) you love drinking cider 2) you love drinking ale (preferably Exmoor or Cotleigh, to the locals anything else makes you a 'queen') 3) you love Land Rovers, 4) you love the/are a Wurzel(s). Well, I don't love Land Rovers, but I do love said ales, cider and the Wurzels so I'm generally accepted here. At work, contray to popular belief, we don't build C3PO clones, and we don't have the Terminator arm tucked away in a safe somewhere - we make big bad cancer fighting beasts. I took over programming them from the company director, and am the sole programmer. I have a BTEC ND or something similar in Computer Studies, that I got at SCAT (yes, go on and laugh all you Americans) college, but then turned my back on computers in order to go do a degree in Garden Design. It was just one of those ideas that seemed good at the time, but that is another story altogether... anyway Garden Design was great for the first 2 years, then I did my honors year in Landscape Architecture. LA chewed me up and spat me the fuck back out, so after a career in Woolworths (God rest your soul) I "did one" to Hong Kong for a month, followed by 3 months in Oz, 3 months in New Zeland (nice try NZ, but your Shire comes a lowly 2nd) and then a home bound journey stopping in Fiji, the US and Canada (the ususal really), all with my girlfriend Beth. After a 4 year hiatus from computers I couldn't stand their alluring call any longer. Actually, I was short of bunce and my eye on a beatutiful PRS Custom 22, so I went with my brother to his work one day (he worked at the robotics place long before me) and just never came home. Well until 5pm, but you know what I mean.

Anyway, boring bio over. I love programming. In a way. I love it as a job, and it is something I would probally always do, but I don't love it in the same way as a French man loves a fine wine. I love it in a way that a sailor loves a one legged whore - a bit of fun, and for sure a good bit of satisfaction, but at the end of a day, still a whore.

When I'm not at work I love playing football (the most god awful defender to ever grace Dunster's playing field - my one touch is the kiss of death), playing a whole load of guitar (as much punk as possible), fiddling with guitar bits'n'bobs - anyone who has ever owned a WMD Geiger Counter will surely know what I mean, and just generally tomfoolery. In November 2011 I started building FX pedals for guitar, check my blog here. Respect to fellow programmers!