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PERSONAL

Name - John A Smith

Middle name - Alan, I once told people it was Amadeus, and was beleived as my family likes classical music, it seemed plausable.

Date of birth - 3rd of March 1958,

I celebrated my 40th birthday with a party at The Old Golf House Outlane Huddersfield.

I was born with a visual impairment, and when I was a child I had eye surgery about once a year, up to the age of about 13. or it seemed like it.

My last eye operation took place at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary at Lindly, all the previous ones were at the New North Road site, which is now the Huddersfield Technical College.

Up until my mid twenties I have worn spectacles, then following an incidemt while cycling, I had to break sharply and my glasses flew off and broke, I decided to try a contact lens, this worked out fine for a while, but then I started a job where the only practical solution was to wear bi-focal spectacles.

A year or two later I was asked to play in goal in an 18 Plus football competition, I decided to get out my contact lens, and have worn one ever since.

Recently I have found that I have been losing my contact lens too often, so have replaced my hard lens for disposable soft contact lenses and a new pair of bi-focal spec's which I mostly wear at work.

Parents - Kathleen & Alan Smith.

Brother: - David Andrew Smith, he works for Kirklees Council's Employment Service for people with disabilities, Worklink.

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Where do I live? Huddersfield in West Yorkshire - see map Go to HuddNet to find out more about Huddersfield, but not just yet, save the link to your Browser's BookMarks or HotList, and have a good look round my Web Site first. I am currently a member of the Huddersfield 18 Plus Group. Check out the Huddersfield 18 Plus Page to find out where and when we meet.

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Philosophy of life - Ethics

"Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed" - Jonathan Swift.

Religion - Closet Christian.

Have a look at The WWW Bible Gateway to find out what I mean by Closet Christian, then come back here and look round some more. (Try entering the word "Closet").

The Bible Gateway is a very good site for people wishing to look up quotations from the Bible, different versions of the Bible can be examined, my favourite is the King James version.

Please come back when you have looked up the word closet in the King James version of the Bible.

Politics - formerly Red, now Anarchist.

• Rants
  • The ordinary
  • Big business
  • "Rebels"
  • Religion
  • Cycling and other road safety issues
  • The queue
  • Politics

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Hobbies

Cycling - Photography - Home Computing

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CYCLING

I was once a member of the Huddersfield Cyclists' Touring Club

I went on two Easter Tours with the Huddersfield C.T.C. one to Whitby, and the other to Aysgarth. both weekends were Youth Hostelling trips.

My first adult bike was a Raleigh Hercules Balmoral which I used to cycle to work on when I first worked for Halfords in Huddersfield.

My next bycycle was an old Dawes Galaxy, it had a white frame with blue transfers.

Next I got a custom made Columbia framed cycle.

In early 1998 I bought a second-hand Dawes Galaxy from a work colleague, unfortunately it was stolen.

In 2001 I had my Columbia serviced and upgraded by Wheelspin Cycles, Huddersfield, a couple of months later, the bottom bracket bearing fell apart ???

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PHOTOGRAPHY

For photography I have a Canon A1 S.L.R. camera. and a Canon AE1 S.L.R. camera. I used to have an Olympus Trip AF compact camera which sadly I now no longer use due to it's extreme old age (i bought it second hand). I now use an Advanced Photo System camera, the Fuji Nexia. I also had an Advanced Photo System Yashica Samurai camera which I bought while on Holiday in Cornwall over the Easter period 1999. Sadly this was stolen. Recently I bought a Sony Digital camera.

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VIDEO

For video I use a Sony DV Handycam. I also use a Panasonic FS90 VCR for editing.

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Home Computing - AMIGA user

I started with an Amiga A500 which I initially used for video titling, later I installed my Amiga A500 into a Checkmate case. I now do D.T.P. as well.

I later had an Amiga A1200 which I purchased second-hand. I have installed a 68030 accelerator with 32MB RAM, and a 1GB hard disk drive.

I also have an Amiga A1200 installed in an Eyetech case. My latest Amiga is the Amithlon system.

I used the brilliant Net Connect for Internet connection.

My Service Provider was Wirenet Amiga which was affiliated to U-Net, sadly niether company seems to exist anymore.

I write all my Web pages by hand using the Turbotext ASCII text editor. I like to include JavaScript in my Web Pages.

John's Amiga Page

Even at work I was able to use the Amiga computer, see the Multimedia at the Housing & Health Unit page for more details. Sadly this hasn't been the case for a long time.

More recently I have purchased a second hand "PC" which I upgraded to a faster processor. I now have an almost entirely new system but with some of the internal hardware from my original system.

I also habe an Apple iMac which I bought to do video editing on. I have upgraded this to OSX and AirPort.

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18 PLUS

I joined 18 Plus in 1997 when I was 19. My nights out previously had been spent with a friend from School who I had fallen out with not long before, so I did'nt go out much.

My mother saw an article in the paper about a fancy dress cricket match organised by the local 18 Plus Group, she suggested I attend.

After some persuassion I attended my first meeting, there were few members, and I was'nt very impressed however, I went a few more times and then after a short absence I turned up at a meeting and there were lots of members. It was'nt long after that I joined, and I have been a member ever since.

Here is a recent article about me from the Yorkshire Area 18 Plus Magazine Alyve.

In 1984 the first 18 Plus War of the Roses competition took place in Holmfirth near Huddersfield, at the time I was Chairman of the Huddersfield 18 Plus Group and I was keen to see the event take place in Huddersfield.

I was War of the Roses 1986, War of the Roses 1996 and War of the Roses 1998 Chairman. In the year 2000 I was the War of the Roses 2000 organiser.

Click here if you wish to enquire about 18 Plus.

Recently I have been associated with the 18 Plus Dossers Click on the Link to find out the significance of the following to the "Dossers"; "The Bovis Skill", "Anti-Christ", "Ted Bovis", "The 18 Plus WASH weekend"

In 1997 Yorkshire Area 18 Plus organised a Charity Appeal in aid of the Annual B.B.C. Children in Need Appeal.

I am currently a member of the new Huddersfield 18 Plus Group.

CYCLING IN 18 PLUS

In 1997 I cycled to Nottingham for the National Federation of 18 Plus Groups' TAG weekend.

[ National Federation of 18 Plus Groups - Great Britain | Prev5 | Prev | Random | Next | Next 5 | List ]

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Favourites

Favourite colour - green, red is a close second.

FAVOURITE PLACES

Stone Henge, Warwick Castle, Betws Y Coed, Hardcastle Craggs, Cheddar Gorge.

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ENTERTAINMENT TASTES

Here is a run down of my Musical, Cinema, Literary and television tastes.

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ENTERTAINMENT TASTES - T.V.

Comedy - Rory Bremner, The Fast Show, Black Adder, Yes Minister, Father Ted, Harry Enfield & chums, Morcambe and Wise, Frasier, Taxi, Dad's Army, Red Dwarf, Last of the summer wine, Do not adjust your set

Science fiction - Star Trek, Babylon 5, U.F.O. Blake's Seven, Timeslip, The Toomorrow People, The Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, Don Quick

Mysteries - Inspector Morse, Poirot, Maigret, The Saint, The Prisoner, Randal & Hopkirk (deceased)

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ENTERTAINMENT TASTES - FILM

The Star Trek series, The Indianna Jones series, The Big Country, Cyrano de Berjerac, The Saint, Young Frankenstein, Blazing saddles, The Final Remake of Beau Geste, Sherlock Holmes' smarter brother, Robin Hood - men in tights, The Pink Panther series.

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). A database of over 117,000 movies

This is an absolutely brilliant Web Site for anyone interested in the Cinema, If you have never been to this Web site then you must check it out once you have finished here.

A couple of years ago I bought a video of the film Cyrano De Berjerac starring Jose Ferrar as a Christmas present for my father, he recommended it, having seen it at the cinema in his youth. Now that I've seen it, I've been looking for the book in various book shops.

Here's an English translation of Cyrano De Berjerac from Project Guttenberg. Here's avery good Cyrano De Berjerac Web Site.

I recently saw the Gerard Depardieu version of Cyrano De Berjerac which I thoroughly enjoyed, I now have a copy of the film on video.

26^th September 1999

Created Cyrano De Bergerac Page. (Now mini Web Site).

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ENTERTAAINMENT - BOOKS

I'm not a big reader, but I do enjoy he Novels of A E Van Vogt, science fiction writer, and Leslie Charteris, author of The Saint books.

The first A E Van Vogt novel I read was "Quest for the future". I can't remember how I first decided to read A E Van Vogt, the first Science Fiction book I had was "The best of Isaac Asimov" which I received along with a Geography Encyclopedia in December 1973 at a School presentation.

A E Van Vogt links

The A. E. van Vogt Book List
The Weird Worlds of A. E. Van Vogt by Magnus Axelsson
The Lysator Science Fiction and Fantasy Archive in Sweden

I do remember the first Saint book I bought, it cost 20p at a fund-raising gala day at the School that took place a year or two after I left, it was the second Saint book "Enter The Saint". I bought it just so that I had bought something, it caught my eye as it was the subject of a T.V. programme of the time that I enjoyed - The Saint starring Roger Moore. After reading the novel I was hooked.

I am now a member of The Saint Club - click here for more information about The Saint and details of The Saith Club.

Click here to see a list of my Saint books, videos and memorabillia.

The Saint by Leslie Charteris Official Web Site

A couple of years ago I bought a video of the film Cyrano De Berjerac starring Jose Ferrar as a Christmas present for my father, he recommended it, having seen it at the cinema in his youth. Now that I've seen it, I've been looking for the book in various book shops.

Here's an English translation of Cyrano De Berjerac from Project Guttenberg.

26^th September 1999

Created Cyrano De Bergerac Page. (Now mini Web Site).

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MUSICAL TASTES

Orchestral music -

• Liszt - Symphonic poems (Mazeppa, Tasso, Faust), Hungarian rhapsodies
• Tchaikovsky - Symphonies (Manfred), Overtures, Ballet music (The Nut Cracker, Swan Lake)
• Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique, Harold in Italy, Romeo & Juliet
• Mendelsohn - Symphonies (Scottish, Reformation, Italian), Overtures (Hebrides)
• Beethoven - Symphonies (Pastoral, Eroica), Overtures, Piano concertos (Emperor), Violin concerto
• Saint Seans - Organ Symphony, Danse Macabre, Violin Concerto

Beethoven's piano Concerto number 3 was the first record I bought for my 18th birthday.

My favourite Conductors are Herbert Von Karajan and Leopold Stokovsky

Solist I like include Claudio Arau (piano), Alfredo Campoli (violin)

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WORK

I work for the Housing & Health Unit as an Adaptations Officer.

John's C.V.
My Service history at the Housing & Health Unit
Multimedia at the Housing & Health Unit Anvil

I worked for Halfords from 1975 to 1984, and ISCO 5 from 1985 to 1987. In March 1987 I started work at the Disabled Living Centre, (D.L.C.) now known as the Housing and Health Unit.

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