Excerpts from facebook, and my cognitive adventures in the Ether! Part I

Q. So how'd you get into Steampunk

A. Well I remember when I was seven or eight living in Emerald (Vic. Australia) riding on a steam train called 'Puffing Billy' and it stopping at a lakeside station where you could buy a plastic bag full of black smoke, so those sounds and smells from that journey have stayed with me.

Now having lived in Loughborough (East Midlands), England for many years, I can now recall those Sunday afternoon films on the TV, for instance '20,000 Leagues under the sea' and 'First men in the moon', and in those 90's Anime (Japanese Animation) shows like 'Sherlock Hound' and 'Nadia – The secret of blue water', and I think it was one Christmas that 'Laputa – Castle in the sky' was on TV.

“you still awake!? Well read on”

Well I marvel at the working steam engines and contraptions made of iron, steel, copper, and brass, that though they did a very practical job, are beautiful to behold. I think that it was way back in 1997, that a friend and I sketched-out our thoughts of a Steampunk Strategy/RPG computer game, that still mite be! It might have been; the films, the cartoons, the books, the comic books, or the ghost of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, that got me hooked on Victoriana, it's just a part of me now.

“Oh! Mmm... I do ramble on a bit don't I”

I do not think you get into Steampunk, I know that you can stumble upon the word “Steampunk”, and that you can tumble into web sites, and see the cool fashion for the modern Neo-Victorian, but I think it's in your blood, hidden subconsciously some times.

Some times you feel a bit out of time, and your imagination revels in the possibilities of adventure, and invention that may have been, in Queen Victoria's reign. The “what if...” if you will.

“So Damn it, label me a Steampunker and be done with it!”