This page was last Updated 17/05/2009 – it’s important you know that, because sometimes this page goes for years without an update, and some of the information is embarassingly out of date!
Madly disillusioned and out of touch with reallity, I’m commonly known as Mark
. I really can’t remember where the nick Mork came along, some point at University, but it really stuck as my Character Name on a number of Multi-User-Dungeon games I got into around that time…culminating in one I wrote with a colleague at Warwick University, of the name Insomnia MUD. The MUD is no longer running- but I digress – the name has kinda stuck – a lot of my friends still call me without even thinking, and whilst it seems kinda silly at my age, well, it’s an identify in so many virtual/online communities in which I participate – it’d be hard to drop.
So, who am I? I’m 35 years old (as of today, May 19th 2009), happily married to Janet for the past 10 years, with 3 young boys, David, 7, James 5, and Paul aged 3.
I currently work for T-Systems in London, who are a subsidiary of Deutche Telekom. As an oursourcer for IT Services, my current job title is Head of Computing Services, and I manage a department of around 300 employees in and about the UK.
I live with my family in Swavesey, Cambridgeshire, where we’ve been now for the best part of 10 years, and don’t look likely to move anytime soon – it’s a really beautiful Village, north of Cambridge in the Fens, and it has everything we need, and away from all the hustle and bustle of the Town/City. I do a fairly heft commute by car to work, pretty much because we love where we live and would hate to move. I guess one day, I’d ideally want to work back in Cambridge or thereabouts.
My main hobbies/interests outside of work, are Gaming – huge Xbox/360 fan, so check out my Gamertag score, and feel free to add my to your friends list – the Gamertag, is of course, Mork. Aside from that, as you hopefully have seen from this site, I’m a sometime Musician – I’m a guitar player, I have a small collection of instruments, and a nice loud Marshall rig with a DSP and some miscellanous floor pedals – my main instrument is a Vintage Gibson Les Paul copy – its not the real thing, but for the price, it’s a superb instrument and very, very beautiful in my opinion. I have a nice home studio setup going using my Apple Mac, GarageBand, Logic 7 and a Korg DSP, and produce a number of songs which you can download or listen to from the “My Music” page above.
I have a more modern Strat copy, and a Cort X1 for the real thrashy stuff. I also have a Fender Semi-accoustic, and old Squire copy, and a Tanglewood Bass. I mostly play Rock, Hard Rock Prog-rock, Metal, and I’m not too bad – not the best guitarist in the world by a long way, but I can hold my own, and I think my talent is more in putting songs together, rather than long drawn out flash solos – I still like to thrash out after a hard weeks work, and really make the walls shake – cant’ beat that for taking out your frustration with corporate IT. When I was younger I played in a lot of bands, and did some gigging, but these days, it’s purely for pleasure.
I’m seriously into my rock music, but I love all kind of stuff aside -from Classical, to pop, with a particular penchant for Musical Theatre – My favourite band is probably a hard choice between old school metal ala Maiden, and new-style mega-prog-rock ala Dream Theater – but I like pretty much all the big names in that Genre, with particular penchants for Bon Jovi, Meatloaf, Metallica and The Cult amongst others. I’m also a fan of much lighter bans such as The Cure on the Goth Side, and some more mainstream pop like Simply Red. If it’s got guitars in it, I probably like it.
What else can I say. I am a devout atheist, so If that offends you, please let me know, so I can appreciate that fact 
I support Ipswich Town in the English Championship (the division under the premiership, why it just can’t be called Division Two i have no idea) – which is a painful enterprise at the best of times, but you stick with it. One day they might win something again, you never know.
I’m currently still a part-time student, mixing my work, music and family inbetween studying for an MBA with the Open University, which I started in 2001. All being well, I’ll finish my MBA in early 2008 and be much happier for that fact! Update: I finished my MBA in September 2008 and Graduated May 1st, 2009