Someone mentioned the other day that I'm somewhat of an enigma at times, even to close friends. So since I was bored...

Naze Nani Sharp-kun!

- Who are you anyway?
I'm Andrew Sharp, a name not everyone knows since I've been known as Sharp for the majority of my life. Male, Age 22.
Born in Glasgow, lived in Milngavie the whole time. Stayed in school up till the end of 6th year before I went to Uni. I started off at Douglas Academy being the quiet geek, but around 3rd year some stuff in my personal life, mostly the death of my mum made me come out of my shell a bit. I got good grades in S-Grades with minimal effort and managed the same in my highers. I was a bit of a clown at times but still got on well with all my teachers. In 6th year I became a prefect simply for the badge and potential perks and continued with Advanced Highers. Didn't do as well in those due to all my uni offers being unconditional and so having less incentive to work hard. Instead I has fun, focusing on extra-curricular stuff and Young Enterprise. I always did better in the sciences, taking all 3 at Higher and Physics and Chemistry at Advanced Higher. Entered several Physics competitions and got to the final of one, meaning a free trip to London. Surprisingly to some, I never did Computing at any level, mostly as I already knew the stuff and so Tech Studies was more interesting.
I've been working since I was 13, starting as a paperboy, then a baggage handler and then at Scotmid CoOp. I also work for Animenation and Ninja Steve.
I currently live at home with my dad. I'm alone most of the week, since his job with BAe keeps him in England a lot and my sister's in Edinburgh studying.


- Your Uni career seems kind of odd...
I initially went to Glasgow Uni, studying Physics and Astronomy. I stuck at it for a year before deciding that it wasn't quite what I wanted to do and moving to Strathclyde Uni in 2003. There I studied Technology and Business for 2 years, before screwing up Economics meant I couldn't continue. Always excelling more at the Computer Science aspect of my course I transferred to that, but due to stuff I had to do a year as Natural Science before I could transfer into 3rd year CIS. I messed up, partially as it was hard to put in effort when a lot of the classes I'd done before and got good grades in. I ended up dropping out at the end of that year, obtaining a Certificate of Higher Education in Natural Science. I'm slightly disappointed in myself about the whole thing, but in the end I got a good group of friends out of it, something that means more to me than a degree.


- Are you gay?
I've been asked this more of late. No. I'm rather secure in my sexuality and not bothered by stuff like that. I imagine I get asked as I'm usually single (I rarely actively pursue girls, preferring just to float through life and see what happens. If we both like each other something will happen - probably not the best plan really, but meh) and appear rather close with some of my male friends. Sorry to disappoint the Sharp yaoi fangirls, but no. :-P


- Are you as immature/crazy/inept/likely to die as you seem?
Yes and no. I can be all of the above at times, but its not as much as it commonly seems. I don't get enough sleep a lot of the time, but I do when I need to. My road safety may seem insane but I do know when not to dash across. I can be very inept at times, but if I'm given a proper task that others depend on I tend not to be. Depends on the situation how I am. I can be deadly serious when needed. However, a wise man once said:  “You can’t look dignified when you’re having fun!”


- Sports?
Only one I've ever been good at is swimming. I started at a young age and did well and ended up doing it competitively for a few years before I had to stop due to time constraints. I still go to the pool regularly to keep in practice. This also branched off into lifesaving, which I have a few qualifications in. I've got a few medals out of it. ^_^
Other than that I walk a lot, mostly around the local country park and going up into the hills in the summer. I love the outdoors and camping.


- Hobbies?
Ever since I was little I've read a lot. Both my parents were avid readers, so I got encouraged too. I devoured books. My dad got me into Sci-Fi, which led me to more books and also a lot of TV\Film. This got me into both Star Wars and Star Trek, which were my major fandoms when younger. I was also into the other stuff of the times, Thundercats, Stingray, Voltron, Ghostbusters etc.
At around 14 or so I was shown anime as something other than just dubbed stuff changed for the kids market. I was interested and acquired more from a friends cousin. The fandom grew from there. Getting internet access helped even more, as I could get fansubs (ah, 30Mb eps in rm format!). VHS tapes were bought and the collection was born. Before this I'd always liked models, I had several starships, fighters, tanks etc, but anime got me more into it. It was initially hard, and I had to rely on whatever random stuff Forbidden Planet had in, but the internet eventually came to the rescue, as did anime conventions when I started going in 2003.
I RP, going to the Uni gaming club every Saturday afternoon through the evening, as well as other random games at times in the week.
I've been in the Scouts since Beavers. I worked my way up through the ranks, eventually becoming Assistant Leader of the troop and assessor of Duke of Edinburgh Computer Skills and assisting with the swimming physical sections. During that time I got my Queens Scout (and met the Queen) as well as the Duke of Edinburgh's Gold Award. I'm less involved now due to time, but still help out.
Other than that I mess around a lot with computers and computer games, having been given my first PC when I was around 7. I remain a computer geek, with several machines in various states of operationalness and several boxes of bits.


- I've seen your anime stuff. It scares me! How did you afford all of that?
Remember its been build up over almost 10 years and I've been working constantly for that time. One or two things a month slowly builds up. ^^;; 


- Favourite books? Films? Series?  Music?
Favourite Film - The Empire Strikes Back/Princess Bride
Favourite Series - Gunbuster, Gaogaigar, Red Dwarf, Azumanga Daioh.
Favourite Books - Song of Ice and Fire, Guns of Navarone, Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy
General Musical Tastes - Classical, Metal, Rock.

Genre wise I'm a fan of both Science Fiction and Fantasy. Of most note is my love of mecha anime, and to a slightly lesser extent mahou shoujo. I do like over the top fun stuff like Gaogaigar and to some it may seem that that kind of series is all I watch, however I do enjoy more serious stuff like Saikano, Dunbine and Banner of the Stars. Despite being really into a couple of things I've got a wide range of tastes - some are just more obvious than others.
Certain scenes in anime can consistantly make me squee and bounce. Gaogaigar FINAL Ep 8 has too many to list.


- Friends?
I've always been quite good at making friends. I'm always shy and quiet, even around close friends, so don't take that as me not liking you. ^^;;
My friends kind of consist of several circles, kind of overlapping.
There's the friends from school, some of which I've been friends with since Primary 1. Some of them (mostly the girls) have moved away since school ended, but others I still have over and go to the pub with on a regular basis.
There's the England dudes, who I first met online through the Otaku Syndicate. tom_kun (tiran_starlight) was the first one I became friends with and later met commisar, derengelisrafel and ricros at Ayacon 2003. I later met people like 72_97_108 at Tom's 18th. I go down on a semi-regular basis, and people come up here now and again. They're all considered to be good friends.
There's the Uni/SURGe people, like avisrapax, camtarn, mishichan and 312z who I consider good close friends and see mostly weeks, apart from Avis.
There's the Glasgow Anime people like catboyslave and ace_reaper who I see several times a week usually, mostly for gaming and lols.

These groups kind of all overlap and yet never seem to all come together at once.


- Otaku Syndicate?
Back in the day (2002ish) on AN a group of members (alia_aki and Taichi) formed a club (think Gaia Guild). We got our own subforum and it was our general hangout online. I had a lot of friends there and it was where I met tom_kun and a couple of other people like mistralfire who I remain in contact with till this day. There was RP, laughs and perverseness. It was one of the first community's online I was properly part of (the other being MKBO on Direct Connect) and kind of shaped part of who I am. Several stories can be told of that time....
The club eventually died out in 2004/2005 and the members scattered to the far corners of the net. I still miss it. It lives on in the Ask Sharp thread.


- SURGe?
Strathclyde University Roleplay Gamers etc. Its a Uni club I've been going to ever since I was introduced to it in 2005. We do various tabletop RP games as well as board games. Its good fun and I've made a lot of good friends through it


- Animenation. How did you start and what do you actually do?
Back in 2000/2001 I discovered the site. I lurked for an age before finally joining in 2002. In the short space of a year I achieved 10,000+ non-spam posts and was one of the most active people on the boards. It was fun and I made several friends who I still see today, like Tom.
In 2003 they needed a new Super Moderator and I was one of the ones recommended, due to quality posting, knowledge and maturity (!). I accepted and since then I've moderated the forums, killed spam and trolls, got embroiled in drama and trained new mods. I also wrote stuff for the 2004 catalogue. I currently stand as the longest serving moderator. I'm not as active on the boards as I used to be, but I'm still there.

- You're a gamer, what do you play?
A lot. I play mostly RPG's and RTS games, though I do a lot of beat em ups and some FPS's. Common games are Dawn of War, Yuri's Revenge, C&C Generals, Disgaea 2, World of Warcraft, UT2k4, Guilty Gear X2 Slash and Super Robot Wars.


- You say you play WoW? Where can I find Sharp in the Great Game?
Ryune on Talnivarr  (PvP), Kusuha or Renais on Bloodhoof or Latooni on Sporregar (RPPvP). Ryune is my main, Kusuha's likely to move servers again soon, and Lat gets some time.


- What is Super Robot Wars anyway? How did you get into a game like that?
I've been a mecha fan for years, going way back to things like Power Rangers, Robotech and Voltron. I was randomly browsing the net back in around 2000 when I came across someone talking about it. I Was intrigued since I'd always imagined and dreamt of epic mecha crossover battles. I also like turn based strategy RPG's. I found a ROM of SRW 4 for the SNES, and through trial and error and FAQ's worked out the mechanics etc. I later moved on to the translated ROM of SRW 3 and from that to other games. Now I know the system like the back of my hand and its given me a very rudimentary knowledge of Japanese.
I do fanboy over the games a lot, they are my ideal games and these days they can be visually gorgeous. I've now played almost every one released in the past 15 years, something I'm both proud and ashamed of.


- Who's that guy in your avatar everywhere and what is SRX?
Ryusei Date, an original character created for the SRW games. He's a mecha fanboy and kind of like me in some ways. SRX (Super Robot X-Type) was the mech he piloted, and is the mascot of Banpresto, who make the games. Notable for renaming attacks with "Heaven and Earth".


- I've heard rumours of Sharp being a terrible pervert!
Not quite true. Perverted, yes, but not really more than any other person. The image came way back in the days of the Otaku Syndicate as a joke and kind of carried on as new members arrived and didn't quite get it. Continued it for a lol anyway but I've kind of stopped of late.


- Food\Drink Favourites?
Guinness, Pineapples, Smoked Cheeses, Salmon, Irn Bru, Peaches, Cookies, Curries, Haggis.


- ManTen. Why?!
It was a joking dare by mishichan after she cosplayed Tenten and I fanboyed. She didn't expect it to be actually done. I did it for a laugh at Tokonatsu and at Aya 05. After that I retired the costume, only bringing it out again when chiyo_misato asked me if I wanted to be an auction item for a laugh at Auchinawa. Crossplay doesn't bother me at all and I don't really see any shame in it, its all a bit of fun. Manten Mk II may be done in the future (Tenten's post time skip costume).


- What the hell was this?
Watch Martian Successor Nadescio. :-P

Tags: sharp
Current Location: Home
Feeling: refreshed
Listening to: Kaneda Meron - Robot of Justice Gekiganger 3