2009

With the new year having started, it's always fun to look back at the previous year. Something I've done before in previous years. 2009 for me was one hell of a year, both in the positives and in the negatives. It means lots of conferences, but also a forced change of job. Let's have a look at this year.

Interviewed by DevExp.eu

Not too long ago I got contacted by Kenneth of DevExp. He wanted to publish an interview with me on their website. It was quite fun answering the questions and the interview has now been published.

New job!

I am quite excited to announce that I have found a new job. Starting two weeks from now, I will be working at Unet, a dutch company for broadband, fiber and VOIP services mostly aimed at the business market. My job will combine senior developer work with being the team lead of the PHP development team at Unet.

Sleep well Indy

On september 11th 2001, two new members joined our then small family of two. Indy and her sister Kyra brightened our day, and have done so ever since. Today, we have had Indy put to sleep after severe kidney problems.

Yara

January 17th, 17:32, the daughter of Marjolein and me was born. Her name is Yara.

The certificate is in!

My Zend Certificate just arrived!

Looking back at 2007 a bit

Looking back on the past year, some very important things happened in my life that actually changed my life bigtime. But it's all been good. I'm looking back at the passed year.

Zend PHP5 Certified

I've wanted to do this for a while, and now I finally was able to do it. As of today, I may call myself a Zend certified PHP5 developer.

First workday, a long day

Today was my first workday at Ibuildings . A long day for me, since I had to take the 6:10 AM train to get to Vlissingen at 9:15.

Changing jobs

Ivo Jansch from Ibuildings and I have had contact over the years, and I think he mentioned a few times over those years already that he was interested in getting me aboard at Ibuildings. Every time I said no, mainly because the travel time to Vlissingen or Sittard is way too long.

Family extension

Well, well, it looks like Tomas will be getting a little baby brother or sister in January.

New activities

Aside from the development I already do and the fact that I am Lead Developer a new activity is being added both to my work and to the Dutch Open Projects portfolio: "consultancy".

Fantasylibrary.net: Anyone interested?

One of the first things I did when I started learning PHP was developing a site about the Forgotten Realms series by TSR, Inc (later Wizards of the Coast). Eventually, that site evolved into what is now Fantasylibrary.net, a database of fantasy and sci-fi books. Now, I'm looking to pass it on to a new fantasy-lover.

Beta time

It's been a while since my last post, at least for my usual posting frequency. I've not been idling however, I've actually been quite busy.

Moving companies again

I know, I've been with Dutch Open Projects for only a few months, and already there's new developments. I'll still have my ties with Dutch Open Projects, but my contract will move to another company.

A say day

As I wrote earlier, we've been living with quite some emotions lately. Today, Marjolein's grandpa died at the age of 84. Today is the birthday of Marjolein's grandma. A sad birthday.

Sun Sun, Merciful One

Being lead by mixed emotions

For a long time already, Marjoleins grandpa is having trouble with his health. He has been in and out of hospitals quite a few times over the past years. On multiple occasions we visited him and expected this to be his last hospital visit. And every time, the man again was able to get out of the hospital and live his life.

The Ultimate Goals

Having just switched jobs (and especially the period before switching) has given me quite some moments of thinking about my future, and my career. What are my goals for my professional life?

Time to move on

Starting on tuesday, I will not work for TomTom anymore. Instead, I will be working for a very nice company called Dutch Open Projects. Over the past weeks I've transferred as much knowledge as possible to my colleagues, I've either tried to solve issues myself or assigned the issues to colleagues. The result is now visible.

ByeBye TomTom

In just over a month time, after working for TomTom for exactly one year, I will be leaving the company. It's not that I don't like it there, on the contrary, I love it there. The work is great, the people are great. However, being away from home for about 12 hours each day is no fun when you have a little son of 1.5 years old. I want to spend more time with him. I found the perfect replacement though, in Dutch Open Projects. A relatively small company in a the town of Leusden, about 15-20 minutes from home. I'll be working there a lot with open source projects such as Joomla, SQL-Ledger and Zimbra, integrating several systems into one for clients, working on extending the functionality, and on developing completely new systems. I will also be working on the move from PHP4 to PHP5. And there's other stuff as well. A really interesting and inspiring place to be. It's a sad thing to say goodbye to TomTom. There are quite a few very talented and inspiring people there. Only recently, I got to work with one of the founders of the company, Peter-Frans Pauwels. He is awesome to work with. Refreshing insights, and an inspiring man. Then there is the technical lead of our team, Ivo Kendra, who is a brilliant coder and also an inspiration. Ever since I started at TomTom, he's been an example to me. And recently, in the Java team, Wilfred Springer joined. He is the great, enthousiastic talker, who can explain anything and you'll understand it. It is truely a shame that I will not be learning to do Java at TomTom anymore. Of course, I really enjoy working with all my other colleagues, but these are the guys that really stand out to me at TomTom. I can only hope to one day be anything like them. The time away from home is a reason for me to move on though, and I do think that with Dutch Open Projects I have found a good place to move on, to develop myself even further.

Today's weather forecast

This is no fun anymore.

Maria

Every once in a while, you meet someone that makes one hell of an impression on you. During my volunteer work, I met someone like that. Her name was Maria, and she was employee of the elderly home where we do our volunteer work. She was responsible for organizing activities for the residents. But she did so much more. The “organization” for which we do our volunteer work, which is an unofficial organization of residents helping each other in whatever way they can, was not part of her official job, but she helped whenever she could. We organize a quarterly evening with drinks and snacks and music, and she was there, even after a long work day. Unfortunately, like it seems to happen with many good people, she got ill. A brain tumor got the best of her. And even in her period of illness she remained positive. She still did all she could to have a good time, and to have the people around her have a good time. Because of her illness, I didn't see her as often as I used to, but luckily just a few weeks ago we met her on the street near my in-laws, who live near her house. Marjolein en I went with her at first just to see some of the pictures she made while attending, as a guest – not an organizer – the quarterly evening. We stayed to talk for the rest of the afternoon. It is her enthusiasm and limitless care for others that impressed me most I guess. And the way in which, even in the dire situation in which she found herself, she made the best of everything. An impressive person. Unbelievably so. Last monday, June 19th, she finally passed away, much later than any doctor had expected it. Tuesday evening I heard about it. And since then, it's been lingering in my thoughts. It is sad to have to miss her. It is good that she does not have to suffer anymore. Even though I don't believe in afterlife or such things, I want to aim my final words to Maria: Thank you for all your caring. You will be missed and remembered.

Watch!

Yesterday was my birthday. My wife bought me a great present! First, let's see the old situation: Now, that is a nice watch. But now, let's see the new situation: Now, *that* is cool! But how do you see the time? Well, that's simple. Just click the top button on the right of the watch, and the led lights (!) will show you the time! Ain't that cool?

Silence?

Silence? It seems like that lately here. There's several reasons for this. First of all, for some reason, I seem to be unable to really get inspiration on topics to write about. There are several topics that I'd love to write about (XUL, World of Warcraft, the Zend Framework, hacking (thanks to the book I'm currently reading), music (I've recently started working on some new stuff)). Lots of topics that ask for my attention, and that I'd love to give attention. But when I sit down to write about it (mostly on the train from work) I just can not find the words to actually offer something useful. And thus, I opt to not post anything at all. This may seem boring, and I realize that, but trust me, you'd be bored and annoyed by useless posts otherwise But there are more reasons. When at home, most of my time goes to Tomas, Marjolein, and World of Warcraft. Also, lately, I seem to be a bit tired (and not just because of late night gaming, because I don't do that too often). I often sleep on the trainrides to Amsterdam in the morning and also on the way back to Amersfoort in the evening. If I can stay awake enough, I read on the bus from Woudenberg to Amersfoort and from Amersfoort to Woudenberg. I'm not sure why this is. I sure hope it will pass.

Memorial and liberation

I am pissed off about the way this country handles our WWII memorial and Liberation Day.

Changes

Changes. I am not a member of the phpBB Support Team anymore, but I've taken on work for the Zend Framework.

A man shot

As I do nearly every saturday, I left home yesterday afternoon to pick up my wife from work. She works in Amersfoort, and bus connections are not ideal. Plus, it's fun to walk through Amersfoort every once in a while. Yesterday was different though.

Stress

Stress. For a short while, it's nice. For a longer period, it's becoming harder.

Dutch Bloggies

The Dutch Bloggies are the dutch version of the international weblog awards (Bloggies).

Happy New Year!

May 2006 bring to all of you lots of happiness and fun!

flu

If you're wondering why it's been so damn silent lately: I've been at home, feeling all but well.

TomTom, here I come

I've got a new job! I'll be working as PHP Developer Content and Services at TomTom.

Work, indie or for a boss?

Last week I made a hard and important decision: I would start looking again for a regular employment.

Bye Bye Big Man

If you've seen Big Fish, then you will remember the huge guy. That guy was Matthew McGrory. Unfortunately, he passed away, apparently of natural causes. He was only 32.