Vital statistics

Introduction

These are all the facts about Bobulous that, almost certainly, nobody needs or wants to know.

Official

Name

Robert Downes.

Nationality

British.

Physical

Height

189cm (six foot plus two-and-a-half inches).

Eyes

Rich blue in colour. No spectacles, nor contact lenses. Experienced a period of chiasmic interference.

Hair

Dark brown; always either very short or very untidy. Sports a trendy wedge that only laser weapons may one day be able to tame.

Clothing

Functional clothing chosen for purpose or comfort, never for appearance. Lots of pockets. Based on Bob's clothing alone, people have mistakenly thought that he must be some sort of adventurous rock-climbing type, or a staff member at HMV.

Mental

IQ

Reported as 111 (superior intelligence) by a 5-minute online test; as 129 (very superior intelligence) by a 20-minute online test; and as 160 (super-genius-level intelligence) by a thirteen-minute online test. Also 122 by a fifty-minute test. None of these tests was professionally administered and Bobulous is dubious as to their worth or accuracy.

Myers-Briggs

According to tests based on the Keirsey and Myers-Briggs typologies, Bob's personality is INTP. Joe Butt offers a profile of the INTP personality type.

ARC tests

In tests produced by the Autism Reseach Centre (part of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge), Bob scores:

Test	Bob's score	Typical male group mean (and SD)	ASC male group mean (and SD)
SQ-R	77	61.2 (σ 19.2)	77.8 (σ 22.9)
EQ	25	39.0 (σ 11.6)	18.7 (σ 9.8)
AQ	38	17.4 (σ 6.2)	35.9 (σ 7.8)

The Big Personality Test

According to the BBC's Big Personality Test, Bob scores the following:

Trait	Score (out of 5)	Rated
Openness	3.5	Medium
Conscientiousness	3.2	Medium
Extroversion	1.9	Low
Agreeableness	1.3	Low
Neuroticism	4.3	High

In summary, Bob is a people-loathing, direct-talking stress-head. This may explain why he scares people in job interviews.

Preferential

Music collection highlights

Infected Mushroom; The Bloody Beetroots; Tenacious D.

Television choice

The Walking Dead: It's never the zombies you have to worry about: it's always the other survivors.
Phoneshop: Filmed in my hometown of Sutton and entirely able to have me ROTFLOL.
The Wire: An excellent show, which makes most other crime dramas look like simplistic, emotionally overwraught garbage.
Mythbusters: How can you not admire two men who enjoy their work so much? Especially when their work involves explosives and sniper rifles.
The Big Bang Theory.: People keep telling me that I am Sheldon. I repudiate such comparisons.

Favourite computer games, old and new

Jetpac: (Sinclair ZX Spectrum; Ultimate, 1983) Collate those engine parts.
Chucky Egg: (Acorn Electron; A&F Software, 1983) Flee that rampant chicken horde!
A whole heap of Commodore Amiga games.
Tank Wars: (PC; Microforum, 1990) The ground-corrupting shell doesn't make sense – it just doesn't make sense!
Jones in the Fast Lane: (PC; Sierra On-Line, 1994) Don't turn up to work wearing only under-garments.
DooM II: (PC; id Software, 1994) Dripping with atmosphere, and chunky demon giblets.
Command & Conquer: (PC; Westwood Studios, 1995) Flame tanks! FLAME TANKS!!!
Half-Life: (PC; Valve, 1998) Stop staring at me, you besuited git.
System Shock 2: (PC; Irrational Games, 1999) An empty corridor was never so menacing before the Von Braun.
Deus Ex: (PC; Ion Storm, 2000) Why, why was the sequel so crappy?
Call Of Duty: (PC; Infinity Ward, 2003) I'm sure that one man can't absorb that many bullets and still keep going.
Half-Life 2: (PC; Valve, 2004) Having your own army of ant lions is awesome. Fly, my pretties!
Battlefield 2: (PC; DICE, 2005) I really need more RAM.
Team Fortress 2 (PC; Valve Software, 2007) Ah, man, I got more RAM and I still couldn't hit a barn wall at three metres.
Civilzation V (PC; Firaxis Games, 2010) A vast improvement on an already excellent strategy game of warefare and city management.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution (PC; Eidos Montreal, 2011) Being able to jump three metres in one bound is much more fun than it might sound.
Portal 2 (PC, Valve Software, 2011) An excellent sequel to the excellent Portal, adding character and history to the intriguing world of Aperture Science.

Favourite novels

The Dune series of books by Frank Herbert; On The Road by Jack Kerouac; The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson; Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton; The Forever War by Joe Haldeman; The Lord Of The Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien; all six books of the the Uplift series by David Brinn.

Recommended movies

Aliens (1986): After all these years, I still consider this the best action movie ever made. Flawless.
Dr Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964): Hilarious, and parodied so much that you'll recognise a lot of it even if you've never seen it before.
The Thing (1982): Suspense and horror wrapped in a snowbound antarctic research base. Beware the dog.

Places visited outside England

Wales: Talybont, Merthyr Tydfil, Abertillery, Bwlch, Pen-Y-Fan.
France: Calais, The Somme, Paris.
Ireland: Belmullet, Knock, Dublin, Cork, Galway.
Rest of Europe: Prague, Bratislava, Vienna, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Cologne, Gothenburg, Oslo, Bergen.
United States of America: Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Seattle, New York City.
Tunisia: Sousse, El Djem, Sfax, Douz, Kebili, Tozeur, Kairouan, Tunis, Carthage, Sidi Bou Saïd, Monastir.