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History, Education and Lifeline...

Besides all this blabla, there is also a long list of facts about me. For instance where I was born, where I've lived, where I went to school, what my major was, etc. That's what you can find on this page.

1967, I was born in Rotterdam, in the Prins Bernardkade. I am the son of a starting chemist and a gymnastics teacher. Soon (ca. 1971) we moved to Zaandam, where I went to a daycare center (het touwladdertje) during the times my parents were both working. In 1973, my dad's job took us to Millingen, Germany, were I first attended Kindergarten and then Elementary School. However, after having just finished Elementary School, in 1978 we moved once again. The trucks stopped in Bussum, where I went back to Elementary School (try explaining that to a 10 year old!) and eventually attended High School. A few weeks after graduation, we moved again! This time trucks were useless as we had to cross an ocean. The plane landed at Pittsburgh Greater International Airport on July 4th, 1986. Here I attended Pitt for 4 years, working on the above mentioned degrees, as well as dating a lot, going to wild parties, making tons of new friends and learning UNIX, mainframes and the Internet! In 1990 we moved back (again) to the Netherlands, where I left my parents in the west to go to the quiet east: Enschede, Twente. After graduating once more (nope, not a hobby!), I moved to Groningen, all the way in the upper north of the Netherlands.
That is where I stayed for about 6 years, working for KPN Research. I first joined as a temp, but in April 1996 I became permanently employed there. Dec 1st, 2000, I quit my job and took an exciting turn: I went to work for Not a Number, a small start-up company in Eindhoven & Amsterdam. They make Blender, a cross-platform 3D graphics program with game creation capabilities. Very cool... until they went bankrupt in April 2001. I became unemployed and since I declined to join their restart efforts (read my diary for an explaination), I was back in Groningen, looking for a new job. Then, September 2001, I found a job with GEN, a software company my cousin also worked for. However, they were in the middle of internal reorganisations and shortly after my probation period ended, they made it impossible for me to stay there. In March 2002, I got a new job as a Technical Account Manager for Gauss, an Enterprise Content Management company in Mijdrecht. So after having moved to and living in Selsingen, Germany, for a brief period, I moved back to Bussum in April and went to work for Gauss. Since they weren't doing so well financially, I decided to take the initiative myself this time, and quit in October 2002. In December 2002, I started working for the European Patent Organisation (EPO) in Rijswijk and living in The Hague. However, after one year I decided it was not for me afterall and changed everything once more. I founded my own company Peper IT and became my own boss. In December 2004 I moved to a new house and started living together with my girlfriend Petra. In the Summer of 2007, June, we will get married...

Education

Goois Lyceum, Bussum, the Netherlands, 1980-1986

Went to high-school (VWO) here and graduated with Physics, Chemistry, Linear Algebra, Calculus, German, English and Dutch as my main courses. Graduating class of '86.

University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA, 1986-1990

Choose to go to Pitt after emigrating to the US. Did a double major Chemistry and Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics. Started August 1986 and graduated on April 28th, 1990 with a Bachelor of Science degree. Technically, I do not have a double degree because I miss 7 credits or so... Bummer. I am now a member and International Representative for their Alumni Association.

University of Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands. 1990-1995

Not being able to pay graduate school tuition at Pitt without either marrying someone or committing a major crime, I decided to move back home and get my Master Degree here. Started in August 1990, and after adjusting, a few part-time jobs and major confidence dip, I finally graduated on March 24th, 1995 with a Master of Science in Computer Science. I now am an active member of the board in their Alumni Organization ENIAC.

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