He was born in 1962 in Nottingham. It was a difficult birth- his mother was in London at the time.
He led an extraordinary and curiously individual life. As a child growing up in Nottingham, he regularly missed school to go play with his imaginary friends and left without collecting his exam results. However, his early scholastic years were not entirely without result since it was at school that he first decided to devote his life to what was a rather successful scientific project -- namely, the attempt to prolong adolescence beyond all previous limits.
Martins thirst for knowledge is sated by that most reliable fountain of wisdom - the Internet.
Liberated from common sense,unencumbered by knowledge and impervious to logic, he ambled down a heuristic path to enlightenment.
When he was sixteen he struck out for the bright lights and excitement and fell in love with the city. This was at a time when marriage between man and the city was still frowned upon, so rather than face public derision, Martin decided to just live with it instead.
He had a reputation for leading people into trouble with his skewed view of the world. People who are old enough to know better. He was big, bald and ugly and his acts of bravery included accidentally asking a Muslim what their Christian name was.
He single handedly disproved the theory that black is a 'slimming' colour. He had taken a solemn vow to fight for truth and justice in the world and to cast down false truths and evil, which he often upheld.
They say "you teach best that which you most need to learn" so these Blog notes were really written to himself to remind him about things - as much as for the interest of you, the reader. He happily 'screwed up' on a regular basis so he created continual opportunities for his own growth.
His hobbies included encouraging his young son to run with sharp things in his hands and also helped propagate the rumours that you can cut glass with scissors - if you do it underwater, that the reason the sky is blue is because of all the fish in the atmosphere and that Eskimos are an urban myth. These may seem strange but compared to the things he has heard that some people believe about themselves, they are mild by comparison.
He was well known in academic circles for his masterly translation into Latin of The Wizard of Oz, which remains even today the standard Latin version of that work. It was an immediate success and gained Martin a cool underground Kudos which he described as 'not enough'.
He was involved in many fascinating and possibly ultimately pointless projects. His workload kept him exhausted and irritable fifty weeks of the year. He lived in Nottingham with a huge collection of toy daleks as his companions. He spent his weekends playing the banjo to the rabbits and squirrels in his garden and he liked to receive gifts.
Some of Martin Sterling's key beliefs were:
1. Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.
2. Courage is not the lack of fear. It is acting in spite of it.
3. I can teach anybody how to get what they want out life. (The problem is that I can't find anybody who can tell me what they want.
4. One learns through the heart, not the eyes or the intellect.
5. Clothes make the man. Naked people have very little influence on society.
6. It is better to give than receive - especially advice.
7. Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambition. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
8. The secret of success in life is making your vocation your vacation.
9. Plan for the future because that's where you are going to spend the rest of your life.
10. The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.
11. Action speaks louder than works but not nearly as often.
12. We all do no end of feeling and we mistake it for thinking.
13. It's never too late to have a happy childhood.
Originally posted November 2006
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