Something Imaginative

(below((Image Missing)) Mr. Philip Keith Bettinson.

(Image Missing) Phil playing the infamous ‘Flour Game’ in a university halls kitchen

Phil is a strange character. He descended into the lives of the ‘Famous Five’ near the beginning of our stay here at Aberystwyth, when he decided to force his company upon us during Information and Library Studies lectures. Although we all thought he was a complete creep at first (indeed, some of us still do) we soon accepted his presence, since there didn’t seem to be any other option available. Anyway, when we got immune to Phil we decided that he was actually a rather decent chap, despite being a Computer Science student. Actually, ‘nicely indecent chap’ would be nearer the mark to be honest.

As you can imagine from the title of his university course, Phil is just a little bit into computers. OK, OK – he actually spends ninety per cent of his life on them. Fine. That’s the way Phil’s life is – i.e. it revolves around his computer. (Which, by the way, is called ‘Sylvia’ – don’t ask me why.) Particularly large chunks of his time are taken up by coding and by IRC, where he assumes his alter ego ShadowKnight. And what’s wrong with all that, I hear you cry? Well, you could ask his (by-and-large) good friend Jo, who spends about half her waking hours trying to get Phil off his computer in order to eat, sleep, breathe, etc. Yes, I know these things may seem fundamental and yes, most of us do see them as part of a normal daily routine, but to Phil going a day or two without eating and about 80 hours without sleeping are not particularly unusual events. And yes, you’re right: he is entirely mad.

I’m not really sure what Phil likes to do when he’s not on his computer, simply because this actuality is such a rare occurence. Er… Oh yes. He likes doing silly voices, of which he has a vast repertoire. He also likes drinking milk, preferably in industrial quantities. He would probably be happiest if you just hooked him up to the underside of a cow, but failing that just give him about four litres and that’ll keep him quiet for all of, oh, two minutes. What else? Well, Phil also finds the time for the odd spot of role-playing, including LARP – Live Action Role Playing. He will also (so I have heard) happily get drunk to one degree or another (on something stronger than milk that is), run through his entire range of silly voices in a single sentence, and take off some or all of his clothes to the strains of Hot Chocolate’s You Sexy Thing. Not necessarily in that order.

Phil hails from the Cardiff area, which makes him a Welshman. This may or may not explain some of the above, plus the fact that he often calls me ‘Dai’ – for those not in the know, this is a Welsh diminutive of ‘David’. He and his family also spend a fair amount of time in the West Wales ‘resort’ town of Tenby, which it appears they actually own. When in Aberystwyth he lives on the top floor of a house down near the seafront with Jo and his partner in crime Andy [the link is to Andy's own website]. At least, he did last time I checked, although given his rate of accommodation transfer in our first year at university this could change with very little warning, subtlety, or indeed reason. Anyway, at the last count all three of them were still living there, and none of them had actually killed either of the others. How long this (relatively) peaceful situation will continue to last, though, is open to debate…

Popularity: 9% [?]