and get aFree Home Page he'll kill the poor little thing. Save the penguin! Get a homepage here!
Polyethylene is a chatroom. That sounds very simplistic and it shouldn't. Polyethylene is a chatroom in the same way that the Beatles are 4 guys. As flippant as this may sound, it's the truth. The chatroom Polyethylene is one of the busiest Net chatrooms I've been on, and has one of the most loyal followings. I've been visiting the site myself now for a year, although the site has been in existence much longer than this. In name it's dedicated to Radiohead, although a liking of Radiohead seems to be the one unifying factor about a lot of the people who chat there. One thing the site goes to prove is that a liking of one band, or one poet, or one artist, whilst being a common link between people, can go to show how different people can be. The clientelle of Polethylene are diverse, interesting, and, in my humble opinion, some of the coolest people it has been my pleasure to meet. If you want to experience the delights of Poly, I would advise you to click here. I've tried to list as many of them as I can below here, but if I've missed you out, please mail me at ir102@york.ac.uk or i_rennie@hotmail.com. I'll make those links active when I figure out how to do it (bear, with me I'm new to this HTML thing)
Incidentally, if wou want to see some of the ppl who chat in Poly without the effort of going there, I've tried to create a sort of bersion of the chatroom & a couple of the ppl there. If you wish to see my rather pants attempt, you may wish to click on the word pachyderm which was randomly chosen for no reason.
OK, the list is in (roughly) alphabetical order by real name, if known. Otherwise by handle. This means that the list starts with:
Abby: Abby is a very sweet girl from DC who usually goes on as killercramps and is content to witter along with me about absolute total and abject bollocks, which is nice. She is a lovely person to talk to and seems to have taken a shine to Brendan. Then again, haven't we all? One of abby's friends had a website with a pic of her on it, and much as she will protest at me saying this, she is very pretty. On this same webpage (I can't remember the URL, ask her, damn you!) her friend describes her as 'the only skate chick I will hang out with'. Personally I have very different views on skate chicks, but if she's cool enough for a Rocky Horror Show fan then she's cool enough for me.
Alanna: Alanna is a really nice girl from near Toronto in Ontario (yes, I KNOW you all know where Toronto is, stop getting at me, god!). She is a lovely and very silly person who manages to scare me quite badly sometimes (read her entry in the guestbook for proof). I've known Alanna for quite a long time and still think she is one of the coolest PolyPpl I know. If I ever take my long predicted trip to Canada, one of my first stos will be to sit with Alanna and play 'wish you were here' on a handy acoustic guitar.
Aja: There is far too much to say to fit as a simple entry on a page. Please follow the link for information about this beautiful, wonderful individual.
Amie: Amie is a lovely person. A poet, a free thinker and an artist, she enlivens Poly with her presence. Her handle varies constantly, although it will always contain the word 'Rose'. I have seen pics of her (although I'm damned if I can remember the link) and she is very cute. One of the coolest ppl I know online. Amie's poetry page, 'The Rose Garden' will be linked to here when I have time. I have 3 poems on there and I like all of them. Actually, now the Rose Garden is linked to here, click on Amie's delightful name to be taken to a world of Pottery. Sorry, Poetry.
Amir: Amir is nearly at the top of this list, missing of only by a few letters. He is a deeply funky young man who seems to be from Seattle, Amsterdam, Indonesia and London simultaneously. He has a deep liking for Massive Attack and Tricky, which I can completely agree with. He is identifiable by his IP which begins with a 12, and his nice shade of purply blue which I would steal if I knew the code.
Aoife: Aoife is a very very nice girl from Dublin. She is also (until now) the only person who I have met both on Poly and in real life. She is very sweet, pretty, and funny with an acid sense of humour, and she does the best impersonation of Wendy Testaburger I have heard in my life. Aoife's comp has been knackered lately, leaving her without the ability to get a handle, but she has now at last got her name (ee~fer) and her gorgeous shade of purply red back. Yay!!!
"Bye bye Miss Ellen"
"Wendy, you didn't!"
"I told her, don't f___ with wendy TESTABURGER!!!!"
April: April is a really nice, really sweet girl from Houston who comes on Poly a lot to play table tennis with me. If this sounds mad, then I challenge you to come to poly when we're on & see if we DON'T play table tennis. She usually goes by some name with 'gurl' in it. April, as I mention below, spends a lot of her time on Poly yelling 'WHORE' at Jess (trinier) and claiming her to be a $10 a trick hooker. She calls me Janet. This scares me.
Bre: Bre is lovely. There is no other word to describe it. She is idyosyncratic, forthright, sure of herself and her opinions, witty, prone to wonderful flights of fancy, and absolutely lovely. Bre usually comes on a something like 'nosleeptillglasto' as she is absolutely obsessed with getting to the Glastonbury festival, even if she has to kill people to get there. Bre has to be one of the most noticable people I've met online. She thinks herself to be snotty and self centred but I haven't noticed this at all. I've just noticed a genuinely nice, genuinely cool person.
Brendan: Brendan is a very nice, but sparingly insane young man. He is a great fan of Beck, the original cowboy from hell, which I cannot find fault with, and he spends a lot of time on Poly going to Danish auction sites trying to find 1993 country/metal crossover bootlegs that Beck did for his friends. Or something like that. He's actually responsible for my conversion to the opinion that Beck is fantabulous, for which I thank him. I needle him sometimes by pointing out that Beck's dad did the strings on the Hanson album, but he doesn't seem to mind. Nice guy.
Darren: What can I adequately say about the only other person in Poly cool enough to know the 'unsung' verse of 'while my guitar gently weeps'? I couldn't do justice to how cool that one thing makes this guy given a thousand years and a lot of goes. Darren is an amenable chap who is always nice to chat to, who likes a lot of the oddball bits of music I do (he 'got' the Queen/Radiohead connection in the same way I did) and often makes for pleasant company on a cold evening. Electronically speaking of course. Know him by his handle: KINDASLEEPEE
Dave: How could I forget? Dave Cameo is basically Poly aristocracy. He and Vic have been on here for aeons (well, 2 years or more), and although our dave is on less than he used to be, he is still one of the first and one of the best. Dave, we salute you.
Jess: Now, here's where it gets confusing. There are at last count at least FIVE people on Poly who answer to the name of Jessica in some form or another. I'll deal with all or most of them eventually, (some of them I don't know too well). he first one, however, is the delightful ms Jess Trinier (see the entry about Perry below). Jess is very pretty, very funny, and spends a lot of her time on Poly messing about with April (another link I need to do, damn me to hell). For some reason Jess has decided that I am not only her and April's pimp, but I am also her twin sister Janet. Still, she's so lovely even major psychoses like this can be forgiven.
Jessie: Continuing with the confusing multiple jess/jessies, this is lovely Jessie who comes on as things like 'raspberry swirl' or 'silver orbit' and is generally funky and fantastic and is a Tori fan like me, which is very nice indeed. We talk about slightly loopy stuff, which is perfectly fine by me, and we are both probably certifiable. Usually Jessie comes on in a really nice sort of dirty silver colour, but sometimes she comes on in this GORGEOUS sort of deep deep deep red colour which is beautiful. I've seen pics of her and she is very, very, very, very cute.
Jo Jo is from London, comes on as Utopia and is a really friendly, really funny, lovely person who insists on calling me 'iccle wiccle enog', which remarkably doesn't scare me. Jo is also (and I can testify from having seen the pics) very very pretty, although she never believes me when I say this. Jo lives with her boyfriend (who I am damn envious of) and her iccle kitten, who goes by the name of tibs. Tibs is, as I am constantly informed, a very naughty little kitten, and seems to spend most of his time biting jo's toes whilst she is on the computer. I hope I'll be able to pop down to London at some point in the near future and visit iccle jo and her cute iccle kitten.
Joe: A rather cool young man with a slight star wars fixation, who occasionally loses it with ppl for slight behaviour flaws. Joe is cynical, but cool, and insists on referring to this list of people as my 'bitch list'. I threatened him by saying that if he didn't stop nagging about appearing in here I'd write him an entry that said 'Joe is a whiny little bitch'. Well, I said it. You happy now? The world now thinks you're a whiny little bitch. Joe is pretty cool, as long as you don't piss him off.
Jorge: Newest partner in that wonderfully nonexistent business venture, Remiel Productions, Jorge is an all-round top chap. Hailing from argentina, he is an artist, and a fabulous one at that. Soon I will place his wonderful caterpillar pics on the site. If you want a cool guy with a sense of humour beyond twisted, Jorge is your man. Wastch this space (or the one on the main page) for more news of Assassin.
Kara: To put in in its simplest terms, Kara is adorable. To elaborate, she is a happy, smiley, huggable, intelligent, kind, wonderful, beautiful person. She usually posts as Adagio, in a beautiful shade of purple, and is one of the most friendly people I know. I don't believe she has a harsh word for anyone, and I don't believe anyone has a harsh word for her. I am extremely proud of being able to count Kara as a friend.
Kat: An evil being stalks the realm we call Polyethylene. An evil being so lacking in morals, graces or mores of polite behaviour that the Marquis de Sade was heard to aver 'I say, this is taking things a little to far, isn't it? Good, now nail my penis to that plank again, i rather liked that bit' or something. Whatever the man's deranged ramblings mean, it is clear that there is a force for sickness and depravity in the happy world of Poly. The name of this force is Kat and she is as powerful as Caspar the Friendly Ghost on smack. Be warned, human scum!
Kate: Kate is an especially delightful, although reasonably eccentric young lady from Ontario. She usually posts under the name FONDOFDALI and is recognisable by her red colour and her unusual although rapier sharp, sense of humour. As her handle suggests, she is, indeed, fond of Dali. How did you guess? Here's a Dali quote just for you:
"Picasso is a Spaniard, and so is Dali.
Picasso is a genius, and so is Dali.
Picasso is a communist, and neither is Dali."
Kaz: It is always tough being faced with a question of who your favourite person online is. I hope to hell I am never forced to answer that question as I would offend almost everybody. However, I would have to say that the number of people online who I have as lasting and as close a friendship with as the one I have with my dear Kaz is low. Very, very low. Kaz is from Hamilton, Ontario, has a major 'thang' for Tori Amos (which I am with her on 100%), and is IMHO one of the nicest ppl I know in the world. We've spoken a few times on the phone, exchanged innumerable letters, but it's not enough! I wanna move the world so we can talk more for less money, dammit!!!
Kellie: Here's where it gets confusing. Like the thing with Jess, there are two very cool ppl with similar names. Kellie (as opposed to Kelly) is from New Zealand and has a 7 year old son called Joseph. Kellie and Mara are really good friends, and i find kellie to be an approachable, nice, easy to talk to person. She calls me an egg, I call her a kiwi.
Kelly: Kelly Woessner is the first person I met when I first came online and we have been firm friends ever since. Kelly is a real artist, working mainly in the fields of photography and cinematography. She is friends with Liam Lynch (of Sifl and Olly fame), and I am seethingly Jealous of Liam for occupying so much of her time. When we talk, the conversation usually revolves around Pennies, Nixon masks, socks, elijah wood and castles in cornwall. I didn't say it made sense.
Lex: OK, OK, by rights, this should go under a for Alexis, but this is my page and I'll do what I want with it, so fuck you all. Or something slightly less crude but saying the same thing. Anyway, lex is a smart, pretty, cynical, sardonic canuck chickie from Toronto who is on a lot and subjects the entire world to her acid wit from time to time. I've been one of the unlucky few to experience her ire, and she is probably the best flamer on this planet. Oh, did I mention how pretty she was? See the photo page for proof.
Liza: Liza is deeply cool, but weird (in a nice way). A Russian living in Canada, she is notable for being the only person not to look like a moron when bearing the handle 'thom', and for steadfastly doing her own thing at all turns. She's cool.
Mara: Mara is an astonishingly cool person. She's a californian punky cool person with a great sense of humour and a guitar that many ppl would die for. She's also heart-stoppingly pretty. It is my current evil scheme to make her bring herself and her guitar to England, and then force her into a shotgun wedding so I get my hands on her and the guitar. Actually, as she's coming over here in January (YAY!) I may have revealed too much of my evil scheme here. Damn. At the time of writing, she came over, stayed for a week and was astonishingly nice, pretty and cool. She has (I think) returned to the US now, leaving this country a slightly less cool place.
Mel: Mel is a really & truly lovely girl from around the NY area who has just about the most wonderful shade of orange imaginable to mankind, a sort of deep, bonfire-y shade. She's cynical, funny, speaks in cool abreviations (such as "c u l8r, I have 2 go b4 I miss my lift in2 town", she didn't say this but it contains many abs she uses). I like mel a lot, but she's rarely on Poly these days. Whenever she is, however, she is an absolute joy to be around.
Niamh: Niamh is Irish, a degree beyond the usual dictionary definition of 'sanity' and very very cool. I don't actually know her all that well, although I've chatted with her a few times and she is very personable and I will have a pic of her up somewhere as soon as I get sent one. (hint).
Nikki: Nikki is yet another Toronto chickie (what is it with Radiohead and that place? Has Ed O'Brien set up a secret Radiohead fan genetic engineering plant at York University, cranking out cool people by the dozen or something?). Nikki is cool, good to chat to and genuinely interested in my novel. She has also bawled me out for months about not putting her on the site. Now she is. Happy?
Perry: Perry is one of my best friends online. When I was in Lamuella, and knew dick all about HTML, he agreed to be webmaster for the band page I was writing. Despite the fact that those days are long behind me (well, September 29th to be exact), he remains one of my best online friends. Perry is one of the deeply cool and wonderful Trinier family, and is the younger brother to Erin and Jess, who will be on this list as soon as I get off my fat ass and put something about them up.
Polly: I only realised that I hadn't put polly on my page when she loudly started sulking at me. Polly is a deeply entertaining person who should have put on the page a long long time ago. She usually goes on poly as Numish, and whenever anyone finds out her name is Polly, all the usual really really really really really really REALLY poor jokes reappear, and the person cracking them suddenly thinks they are the ghost of Bob Monkhouse (oh no, hang on, Bob Monkhouse isn't dead. Soon sort that. *leaves with a shotgun and returns several hours later*) a sweet and funny person to know. Actually, beyond sweet and funny, absolutely lovely.
Rhian: I haven't known Rhian all that long but she is supercute and supernice. Friends with Polly (they're both from St Albans) she's online loads and really really lovely to talk to. She rocks. That's all there is to say.
Later addendum to this: I have now known Rhian a lot longer and she is even supercuter and even supernicer than she was before. Just so you know.
Ruth: Ruth is lovely. She normally goes on as Sully. She's going to the University of Canterbury in Kent, and is cool. We chat about weird stuff, (as I do with most ppl), and I greatly appreciate her sense of humour as it is simultaneously cool and faintly sick. I didn't see her over the summer, which was a shame as she's a really cool person. She's friends with a girl called Ellie who used to go to school with Lucy McMahon, who directed A Sackful Of Badgers (one of the plays I was in last year). Ruth, if you're reading this, then *hugs*.
Sandra: What can I say about someone as lovely as Sandra? Her presence makes poly a pleasant place to be? I'm envious of her boyfriend (or would be were I not going out with the most incredible woman in the world already)? She has a smile that would melt a hitman's heart? I can say no more, just go up to her when you see her online, give her a big hug, and tell her I sent you.
Wilbert: Wilbs is another of the cool Irish polyppl, he's fairly savvy with the way of the comp, and can at times get computers to do stuff that they'd probably rather not be doing. He was recently bemoaning the loss of his nuke programme. Most people he has pissed off were therefore presumably breathing a sigh of relief.
and get aFree Home Page he'll kill the poor little thing. Save the penguin! Get a homepage here!