Liam 'Lamsey' McBrien

About Lamsey

OK, so who is Lamsey and why are you looking at his website? Short version: he's a 22-year old Scot from Glasgow who's into computers, archery and playing pool. Long version:

1985: Birth

July 16: I was born, emerging upside down to the intense displeasure of my mother. Not an auspicious start.
July 17: My parents decide to name their newborn son Uilliam John McBrien, with an uncharacteristic lack of foresight as to the complications in life of having a Gaelic first name.

1986-1989: Infancy

I don't remember much about this period of my life, but I'm reliably informed that at some point I ate my sister's Ivor The Engine book, for which she has never forgiven me.

1990-1997: Primary School

I attended Notre Dame Primary School for seven years and hated most of it. I don't remember much of the earlier years apart from meeting my mate Michael (who is to this day my best friend) and being bored in Maths. Towards the end of my primary school years I did some interesting stuff such as taking up archery, learning to program on the family C64, deciding religion was nothing but a load of unsubstantiated speculation, and contracting a strange illness that no doctor could diagnose. I survived, thankfully.

1997-2003: High School

My adolescent years were spent at St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary School, a place where I learned that kids can be very cruel, nobody likes a smartarse, and a bit of Geography on the side. I met my first girlfriend in third year when we played drums together and we had a great relationship that lasted well beyond our school years. Around this time a guy called Neil first started calling me 'Lamsey' - I'm still not sure why but the name stuck anyway.

I was a quiet kid at school, except for one instance in sixth year where I decided to write a letter of complaint to an assistant head who could best be described as a 'Hitler wannabe'. The letter veered close to the wrong side of gross abusive insubordination, but I was probably helped by the fact the guy was so thick he probably needed help reading it. He was a complete dickhead and deserved every word, which is probably why the deputy head didn't do much about it. The letter is here (pdf) if you want a laugh.

2003-2006: University

In the autumn of 2003 I began studying a five-year undergraduate Master's course in Computer Science at Strathclyde University, and for the first time I actually started to really enjoy education. This is probably in no small part due to the amount of time spent with my new friends "studying geometry and basic physics" in the Union's poolhall, although the lack of neds and the chance to make some like-minded friends played a part too.

The lowlights of the first three years of my university time included splitting up with my girlfriend and being forced to attend Law classes as part of my degree course. It says something about the Law classes that I'm not sure which was less enjoyable.

2006-2007: Work Placement

In July 2006 I started an eighteen-month placement with Sun Microsystems as a lab engineer at their Guillemont Park location, which is near Camberley in Surrey. It's more than 400 miles away from Glasgow, where I had lived all my life up until then, so it was a fairly daunting experience to move out and start full-time work so far away from everything I knew. It was a fantastic experience and I made many good friends, though, so no complaints :-)

2008-2009: University

In January 2008 I returned to Strathclyde University to finish off the last eighteen months of my degree course. I should hopefully be graduating in the summer of 2009, all things going well :-)