Zaw Towers 4.0 - FAQ

Some questions and answers for this site. If you wish to contact me and/or suggest a question for the FAQ, please use the contact me form!

1. So what is this site all about then?
It's a personal site for me, Warren Pilkington, which will include poetry, writing, reviews, music and other sorts of things like that. It's so much easier for me than having a Myspace page - that does its job for musicians fine, but for the general public, do they all really need one to get squillions of friends and indeed interest from unwanted paedophiles? Makes me wonder. And as for the likes of Facebook, that's more time spent in front of a computer than I need to do. You know, I do have a life!

2. So who are you?
Well, I'm 50 now, and moved down to Croydon in December 2015 to continue my growing IT career, but still spend lots of time in Manchester and still consider that my home. I enjoy football (especially watching Manchester City), all sorts of music, films, writing my own poetry and stories, comedy, pool, air hockey, tenpin bowling, photography (check the gallery), theatre, Guitar Hero, Rock Band and other associated music themed games as well as the Commodore 64 after all these years, and generally just being me.

3. Can we see what you look like?
Heavens, no! I won't be held responsible for your computer monitor breaking down with smashed glass - especially if it's a brand new shiny LED one. But if you're really inquisitive, well there is a Flickr! set in my gallery just for you. Oh, you're using another PC monitor cos your old one smashed. I did warn you.

4. So how comes this site is mainly in two colours?
Because it makes it easier to read. The new v4.0 look (based on what the v3.0 original set out to do) was specifically designed for users who can't see any colours on black very well and high contrast is the easiest way to go. As much as my favourite colour is black, the blue and white are as close as I could get to Manchester City's colours while making the site readable - plus, isn't content more important? Well, I think so.

5. Wasn't there a lot of Commodore 64 related stuff here? What happened to it?
As much as the Commodore 64 (C64) was the first home computer I enjoyed (and still have one to this day and make the most of playing games) I've got plenty of other things I enjoy too.. As I wished to make this site a more personal one, I removed all the content and restarted it from scratch with Dreamweaver to make it all web standards compliant.

6. When did you start writing poetry?
I started writing poetry in August 1994, just after a break up from a long term girlfriend. I still write it now and have written over eight hundred poems in the last twenty eight years or so with subjects ranging from love, death and music to pain, joy and embarassment - in fact, you name it, I've written it. Okay, well almost. There are certain things I won't write about.

7. Why are you so opinionated in how you speak?
It's part of being me, I suppose. I do have a lot of thoughts and opinions and am not afraid to speak my mind, or speak out if anything is wrong. I guess that's the determined side of me showing that I don't give up easily, and that I fight for what I believe in. Always have, always will. Please do bear in mind as well that my opinions are just that - opinions. You may agree or disagree with them, but please respect mine like I would respect yours.

8. So what would be your ideal day?
Watching Manchester City win, going out for a meal with someone nice and then curling up together. Awww. I know, I'm an old romantic at heart you know. Well these days at least I get two out of the three guaranteed and often all three - and if I include Brian the cat playing ball with me, that's a potential fourth.

9. Why did you call this site Zaw Towers?
Simple. Ever since I was small I had the nickname Waz (short for Warren in case you wondered). And Zaw is Waz backwards. The "Towers" bit came from an inspiration of when I was younger. There used to be a Commodore 64 computer magazine called "Zzap! 64" which was superb in its day. Their offices used to be referred to as "Zzap! Towers" so when I started making music on the Commodore 64, I called my music group "Zaw Productions" and it was based in "Zaw Towers". When I did the first incarnation of this web site back in 1997 (the Internet did exist back then you know) it was therefore an obvious name to give the site. In late 2002, I decided to re-prioritise a fair number of things in my life, and so to reflect this properly, on 7th January 2003 Zaw Towers v2.0 was born. Almost two years on from that, the sitehad a colour revamp as well as a more personalised menu, and so version 3.0 was launched on 6th December 2004. In April 2006, version 4 was launched with a cleaner look but still retaining the content as well as being even more standards compliant, and getting rid of the frames.

10. Are there any online interviews with you?
Funnily enough, there are. Mainly Commodore 64 related, but if that is your thing, I can recommend these two links - and they're both pretty in-depth:
Remix 64 Interview (November 2020)
Commodore Format Archive interview (June 2015)
I've also been interviewed by the folks at The Retro Hour podcast too, I was on episode 149, broadcast November 2018.

11. Can I reproduce your poems and writing on my web site?
If you ask for permission first, then normally I'm pretty easy going. All that I'd normally ask for is a link back to this site and credit where it is due for the original work. Not that much to ask I hope.

12. Are you related to the glass company in any way?
No. Absolutely not. It's flattering to think that (and of course having a share of that money would be good) but it's easier if people can't spell my name to say "like the glass company" and then less mistakes are made.

13. Do you believe in love?
I had given up beliving in love. I had always wanted to feel like I would be able to give someone love and happiness, but wanted to feel the same mutual feelings back and despite several good relationships (which I don't regret one bit because everyone is different and I had good moments with them all) my faith in love had been eroded. And then it all changed for the better once I'd got through what I now call my "recovery period" (2006-07) and realised what I wanted, and although it took me time, one fateful day in May 2008 was the start of what I now know (and still know today) is love. And it's good. You should try it.

14. So who is your girlfriend then?
Those that need to know, know. However I respect her privacy and hence the acronyms to describe her (which many people like MJ Hibbett also use to describe their partners) so that you know I'm actually talking about her, in a good way.

15. What's your favourite number?
10. It's the day of the month I was born and the squad number of one Shaun Goater when he played for Manchester City (as well as Francis Lee in the 1970s and the England striker Gary Lineker in the 80s). Oh, and cos it's binary for 2. Hurrah.