Q&A with Johnny Mercyside: Part 9

Hey there, welcome to the 9th edition of my Q&A. I do these every month and as always, these questions are all taken off my Formspring account, which you can find here. These were answered a while ago, and I've changed the answers if the situation has changed since then. Enjoy!

Q: If you could be the president or leader of your country for one day, what would you do?
A: I hate politics, I really do. But one thing I strongly believe in is that it's possible, if every country and leader in the world strive to let it happen, that we can get rid of currency and have official world fair trading. That would be my ultimate aim if I had the power to make it happen.

Q: Would you rather hang out with a small group of friends or a large group?
A: Probably a small group, but it depends on the company and the atmosphere.

Q: Have you been able to keep your New Years resolutions or have you broken them?
A: I didn't make any this year. I rarely make them.

Q: What's your favorite TV show from the 1990s?
A: Probably SMTV Live, although that started in '98. Other contenders would be Robot Wars, Goosebumps and Gladiators.

Q: What rule do you find yourself always breaking?
A: Probably my calorie intake... not that I count them... that's probably the problem!

Q: Who is your best friend and how did you meet him/her?
A: My best friend is my wife to be, Claire/Mimi. I met her online on a forum. If doesn't count as my best friend then it's a difficult one to pinpoint in different ways I have four best friends, and they are Bob, Mer, Tom and John.

Q: What tech gadget do you want to buy next?
A: Now that I've got my HDTV, I'm not really that bothered. If I had all the money in the world I'd naturally upgrade this computer, but it runs absolutely fine and I'm not bothered about changing it.

Q: If you could only drink one thing for a year and it couldn't be water, what would you drink?
A: Pepsi, easy. I love Pepsi.

Q: What was your favorite thing to do during recess at school?
A: I'm not at school anymore, but I used to enjoy playing football with some good friends of mine. Good times.

Q: Who's your favorite Disney character?
A: Very difficult... lets go old school and say Baloo from The Jungle Book.

Q: What would your dream vacation be?
A: Well I wanted to have my honeymoon in the east of France, somewhere like Nancy or Lyon, or in Switzerland. But I couldn't afford a honeymoon so, maybe I can have a vacation around there in the future.

Q: What's the furthest place you've ever traveled to?
A: Argentina, when I took part on BBC1's Winter Wipeout, you can read about my amazing experience here.

Q: What's your favorite sport to play?
A: Football! Although I'm fat and unfit, and no one around me plays anymore. But I love a good game of footie. Always have.

Q: What's the story behind your username?
A: It's my writing alias. I've been using the Johnny Mercyside alias for a good 5 years now. How did I come up with it? You can thank MySpace for that!

When I had a MySpace account there was a little game where you would find your soap opera name. To get this you had your first name being the same, but you would replace your surname with your birthplace. So I got John Merseyside, so I tweaked it around, called myself Johnny and used "Mercy" to make it sound more 'cool' and voila! It's stuck since.

Q: What accomplishment are you most proud of?
A: A hard question, three things come to mind, moving down to Portsmouth from North Wales as an eighteen year old, my website which is getting more and more popular that I'm putting a lot of effort into. The last thing is my amazing daughter, and the great upbringing she is having, which is a credit to me and her fantastic mum.

Q: Who's the best teacher you ever had? What made them your favorite?
A: I've had a good set of teachers, Mrs Brown in English 6th form is usually the one I remember best.

Q: What historical time period would you most like to visit?
A: The Celtic or Roman times. I love the idea of those times although there's many bad aspects of them as well. Naturally with my recent escapades on TV and being compared to Henry VIII, I suppose the Tudors would be a time I'd be interested in too.

Q: Would you rather have toast or cereal for breakfast?
A: Cereal, although my favourite breakfast is a bacon and egg sammitch.

Q: Do you have OCD?
A: I have a minor case, very minor. I'd never put myself or anyone else in harm for anything silly though.

Q: How many people in your family wear glasses? Are you one of them?
A: All my siblings wear glasses but I don't. My eye sight is exceptionally well, despite being in front of TV and computer screens for most of my awake hours. It's very strange.

And that's my latest Formspring update. Once again if you want to follow me on Formspring you can do so here. I'll be back on Saturday for my newest music album review. Have a good night.

For the latest updates on my work, 'like' me on Facebook here!

Q&A with Johnny Mercyside: Part 3

Hey everyone, usually once in a month I'll do these lazy posts where I'll talk about myself rather than about music or games or whatever. These questions are from my Formspring account, which you can find here if you want to follow me. Here are twenty questions and answers for you that I answered some time ago (although if the answer is different from when I was asked at the time, I'll amend it here).

Q: What's the secret to happiness?

A: Looking at the bigger picture. When shit hits the fan, you need to take a step back and look at what it really is. Bad things are always the worst things in the world when they happen, but then when you look at it, life isn't that bad.This of course doesn't apply to everything, but definitely life's petty events. Stress is a big killer.

Q: What's the oldest piece of clothing you still own and wear?
A: I still have T-shirts I've had for probably upto 5 years ago.

Q: Would you rather vacation at the beach or in the mountains?
A: Not sure, I'd like to do both, in different holidays. If I had to choose? Mountains, I'd love to go to the south west of France or Switzerland.

Q: How would you describe your style?
A: I'm myself, I don't really fit into a category. Growing up I was always considered weird by most people, and it's a tag I've found hard to shake off. The older I've become the less it's bothered me.

Q: What kind of music can you just not stand to listen to?
A: Emo music. Bands who are barely older than me think they know the ins and out of life and love and whine about who life is so unfair. Then the fans who are barely younger than me "relate" to them, who also think they're life is so unfair and important to the rest of us. It's pathetic, it's like listening to a conversation between two Eeyore's.

Q: What was your favorite TV show as a child?
A: It's hard to pinpoint one, but I'll go with SMtv live. I watched it every weekend and it was comedy gold. It really was funny.


Q: Would you rather swim in a pool or the ocean?
A: In a pool, I'd definitely be more comfortable in one. Besides I hate the taste of sea water.

Q: If you could become any fictional character, who would you be?
A: Probably Vincent Valentine, he's pretty damn cool. Personality wise I see myself similar to Zidane Tribal though, so that would be more accurate.

Q: What's your favorite city?
A: Liverpool, it's just perfect for me, and yes I'm biased having connections from there. It's not too big, not too small, it has everything you'd want. Most importantly there are scousers everywhere!

Q: What was your favorite toy to play with as a child?
A: I can't really remember being attached to one particular toy, so it's hard to say.

Q: Do you believe in God?
A: No, just because some dudes in history wrote a few books doesn't make it real. I believe in the scientific explanation more than a spiritual one.

Q: Chocolate or Vanilla?
A: Ice cream? If so, chocolate, although I prefer mint chocolate.

Q: What was your worst travel experience?
A: Around two years ago Mimi, Vivi and I had the coach trip from hell when we went from Portsmouth to Birmingham on the National Express. Vivi wouldn't stop crying, we were cramped, we couldn't undo our seatbelts (or Vivi's), we were delayed about an hour and a half, it was hot. It was just awful, and we couldn't console Vivi very well in that enviroment.

Q: What was your first paying job?
A: I got paid £1.75 an hour working in a coffee shop. Absolute rip off in todays money, but I was 14 and didn't know how bad it was at the time.

Q: If you had the opportunity to live one year of your life over again, which year would you choose?
A: 2003, it was an amazing year with how awful it was until we left my dad, then the great escape, the trip to Ireland, going to a womens refuge, starting school at Friars, dying my hair curly black and wearing Manson hoodies. Good times.

Q: What was your favourite birthday gift?
A: Last year, I enjoyed the surprise XBox replacement a lot of people chipped in to get me. That was great. Going to Alton Towers was also fun. Last year was the best birthday I've ever had.


Q: What website do you spend the most time on?
A: Facebook really, followed by my website. I also go on Rajah a lot and Yahoo!.

Q: Who's the most famous person you've met?
A: Erm not very famous unfortunately, but I shook the hand of Guy McKnight of the Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, outside a venue in Brighton, which was an honour as I love the band. I was going to interview the band but then I needed ID to get in the venue, which I didn't have.

Q: If you could be on one TV show which one would it be?
A: Total Wipeout, and I have an audition to go on the show next month, wish me luck!

Q: Who would win in a fight: pirates or ninjas?
A: Depends if we're at sea or not, if we were, pirates.

And there you go. A little insight to what type of person I am and my views on things. Just in case you missed it earlier you can follow me and ask me questions on my Formspring here. Until next time, take care.