Caleb Newcastle

Hello, my name is Caleb Newcastle and I've lived in England all my life.

I do very little with my life because I'm very, very lazy.

I founded Mega Sad Productions in the spring of 1998 because I had nothing else to do (GCSEs? What GCSEs? Oh... those GCSEs...).

Its forerunner (sort of) was Mega Sad Comics; a short lived comic-book company I founded in 1995/6. After a long period of inactivity I've started producing Mega Sad Comics once more.

Stuff I do for fun:
• I make websites. I don't use any HTML editors or anything stupid like that however. I use Notepad! The best thing in the world for making websites in! Pure, straightforward code, typed in by hand beats the crap out of the complex, mangled, manky stuff you get out of a scabby HTML Editor! So always use Notepad to make your webpages. If you don't I cannae be held responsible for the consequences!

• I read comics. Some of my favourites include: Gen 13, DV8 (which has unfortunately been cancelled), Danger Girl (when it actually gets published), The Dirty Pair, Maison Ikkoku, Appleseed, Ranma 1/2 and Kabuki. I also love anything by Adam Warren, David Mack, Rumiko Takahashi or J. Scott Campbell.
Check out Caleb Newcastle's Sad and Obsessive Comic Library for more details.

• I read books. Favourite authors include: Douglas Adams (The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy), Isaac Asimov (the Foundation series), Frank Herbert (Dune), Anne McCaffrey (the Dragon series), Terry Pratchet (the Discworld series) and Robert Rankin (The Brentford Trilogy).

• I watch television. Favourite programs include: Babylon 5, South Park, Dawson's Creek (in very small doses), Quantum Leap, DS9, Ally McBeal, Frasier, Friends, The 11 o'clock Show, American Gothic, The Simpsons, Dharma and Gregg, Dilbert, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Highlander, Two, Futurama and Family Guy.

• I watch films. The best film of all time is Leon (AKA The Professional) by Luc Besson. Other sweet films include: Fight Club, The Sixth Sense, The Shawshank Redemption, Cyrano de Bergerac, Mute Witness, Twelve Monkeys, Reservoir Dogs, Moscow on the Hudson, Goodfellas, The Fisher King, The Matrix, Cruel Intentions, Casino, South Park, Get Shorty, Waynes World, Terminator II, Alien and Aliens.
Check out the Internet Movie Database for more information on all of these films

• I listen to Talk Radio 1053-1089 AM. Favourite presenters include: Ian Collins, Mike Dicken and James Whale, and, before they were fired by the evil Kelvin MacKenzie, Nick Abbot, Peter Deeley and Tommy Boyd.

• And occasionally I listen to music. Favourite bands include: Queen, Garbage, Eels and Green Day.

Stuff I do the rest of the time:
I started Sixth Form in September 1998. I was doing Maths, Computing and Physics A-Levels and a Media Studies A/S-Level. However, as I came to hate Physics, I asked to change it to English Literature. Unfortunately, because it was way too late in the school year (just before the Easter Holidays) I had no other choice but to repeat Year 12.

For the six months that followed, this is what I did:

• For the first two months I slept.

• For the next three months I took part in something called The Prince's Trust. It was a twelve-week course where we learnt team-making skills (or something like that...). Anyway, we got a free holiday, so that made it pretty sweet. We also did a three-week project to help some local charity or whatever, and we ended it all by doing this ickle presentation thingy. The other people in my team were: Aldous, Kate, Kevin, Kim, Malcolm and Steve. Our leader / teacher / mentor / whatever was Teresa and there was this longhaired guy, who buggered off to America, and was Teresa's assistant, called James.

• Then I went to Jordan for a few weeks.

And now I'm back! I restarted Year 12 in September 1999. I'm doing Maths, Computing and English Literature A-Levels and a Media Studies A/S-Level. Huzzah!

Stuff that sucks @$$:
On October 21st, 1999 I found out that I've got a heriditary disease called Retinitis Pigmentosa. Here's a little bit about it:

Retinitis Pigmentosa

Hereditary eye disease in which progressive degeneration of the retinal pigments leads to impairment of vision and, ultimately, to blindness. In the course of the disease the light-sensitive structures called rods--which are the visual receptors used in dim light--are destroyed early, causing night blindness in youth. Over time, further atrophy of the retina proper and of the layer of pigmented cells known as the pigment epithelium progressively constricts the field of vision until the affected person sees objects as if he were looking through a gun barrel. This stage is followed by complete blindness, usually by the age of 50. Deafness caused by a degeneration of the auditory nerve may accompany the visual loss. There are several hereditary patterns, but in most cases the disease is transmitted between generations as a recessive trait. Researchers have suggested that high doses of vitamin A may slow the loss of eyesight.

Courtesy of those Encyclopaedia Britannica dudes

Since my greatest fear in life is the loss of my eye-sight I'm pretty much screwed (and not in the good way). To quote the British Retinitis Pigmentosa Society's information leaflet:

THERE IS NO KNOWN TREATMENT THAT CAN STOP THE PROGRESS OF RP, OR CURE IT.

Obviously I'm getting in as much comic-reading, website-building and all-round-seeing now, whilst I still can. Sympathies, monies, possible-cures, promotion-of-the-library (www.megasad.freeserve.co.uk); all of these things are welcome.

You can e-mail me at caleb@megasad.freeserve.co.uk.