nFAQ (non-Frequently Asked Questions)

I’ve entitled this post non-Frequently Asked Questions simply because I don’t think there’s ever been a time when people have been so fascinated by me that they – in some manifestation of a gestalt entity – overwhelm me with the same questions again and again.

However, if – after reading the information below – you feel that there’s something missing, feel free to ask away. In the ‘where you can find me’ section below, I link to formspring and there’s a shedload of answers there to weird and not-so-weird questions that have been thrown at me from time to time…

Couple of things straight at the beginning though. Although I don’t expect this blog to necessarily be as “all ages” as the Livejournal blog was (in part because my son is substantially older now than when he started reading Livejournal), it’s likely that this blog while, delving into mature themes and subjects, will stay away from ‘adult’ topics. If you’re looking for a blog about sex, for example, you’ll search here in vain; look elsewhere.

Similarly, if you’re looking for a blog covering every item on the news, again there are hundreds, if not thousands, of blogs out there giving the writer’s opinion on the slightest item to make the headlines. Not here. Sure you’ll hopefully get my thoughts on some news items, but they’ll be the subjects that I’m interested in, not the subjects that for some reason people expect me to be interested in.

Finally, although it shouldn’t need to be said, it so often does: this is a personal blog. You’re unlikely to find any reference to my work, although I may tell the occasional tale from my past. I’m Jewish, and you’ll no doubt find references to that sometimes. I may even comment on Israel on occasion. If you’re looking to have some fun telling me that believing in any religion is wrong, or that Israel has no right to even exist, might as well stop reading now.

who am I?
My given name is “Lee Barnett”. I’m 47 years old, was born in Luton, Bedfordshire, and now live – in a nice two-bed flat – in Barnet, Hertfordshire.

I’m separated from my ex-, a genuinely lovely lady named Laura, and together we have a son, Phil, who’s now fifteen years old – almost sixteen. That’s Phil, over there, on the right.

He’s a lovely lad, and I’m incredibly lucky that he’s my son. Of course like any father and son, we share some interests, (comics, comedy, a sense of humour – most of the time), and do decidedly not share others. I remain entirely puzzled as to his fascination with video games, professional wrestling, and various bands.

budgie?
Yeah, suppose I’d better deal with this fairly early on. My nickname’s “budgie”, a nickname I’ve had now for – blimey – coming up on thirty years. The full story’s here, but if you want the ‘long story short’ version, I was given it when I was at college, and the name stuck to the point where far more people know me as – and think of me as – budgie than as Lee. The full story involves alcohol, freshers, a hypnotist’s evening and an accountancy lecture.

Yeah.

It’s worth reading.

budgiehypoth?
For about twelve years, over ten comic conventions, Dave Gibbons and I ran a panel entitled hypotheticals. It was fairly popular. When I was looking for a new URL for this blog, seemed a good concatenation to use.

The avatar I use here was designed and given to me by Dave as a thank you after we wound up the panel after ten successful years. It’s based on the design he created for the panel, over there.

For ten years, I got to say I wrote a script for Dave Gibbons. You can’t beat that.

budgie’s perch?
Yeah, I know it’s a conceit, but it was the name of my first website, now long since deceased, on compuserve’s ourworld domains. The Delphi forum I ran for a few years was named budgie’s cage, and the Livejournal blog was entitled “budgie’s squawks”. You’ve got to let me have a little fun occasionally. (be grateful – the readers of Pulse on comicon.com were treated to a weekly column from me named Going Cheep.)

where you can find me
Well, apart from here, there’s my twitter feed – @budgie, my facebook, my formspring, and of course, much information at the old blog.

writings
I’ll no doubt talk more about this as the blog continues, but yeah, I’ve done some writing over the years. Everything from being a commissioned writer for BBC Radio 4, the occasional bit for TV, a few comics stories (including writing an X-Men story) an online novel entitled You’ll Never Believe A Man Can Fly and publishing two collections of very, very short stories in The Fast Fiction Challenge:

Click on either graphic to be taken to lulu.com

Both books are also available via Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. e-Versions (for Kindle, Sony reader, iBooks, etc.) can be obtained either from lulu.com or from myself – email direct for details.

anything else?
Yeah – there will be some things I do transfer over from the old place. I usually post something on the anniversary of my brother’s death in January every year. It’ll be fourteen years this coming January, and that day I tend to maintain a bit of radio silence. And there’ll be the occasional repost of things I always enjoyed doing: Teach Me Something, Your Own National Day… and the occasional other… thing.

So that’s something to look forward to.

Ok, think that’s about it for now. Anything else, ask away…