Who am I?

Peter van Westen, born a long time ago – ages in computer years. In June 1979, you know, the month Intel introduced the 4.77 MHz 8088 microprocessor.

I was born and raised in The Netherlands. And also raised a bit in the UK.

Computers have kinda always been a part of my life. My father was into computers before the rest of the people in the street even knew they existed. I believe the first computer I touched was a ZX81. Later I spent a lot of time behind the Commodore +4 (like the C64, only better). I moved onto Amiga’s after that, Amiga 500 and 600. Around that time it became clear that Commodore was dying and the move towards the PC was inevitable.

I didn’t, however, choose the computer world as the area for career. My whole college live was aimed at becoming a pastry chef. I did finish it and worked as a pastry chef for 2 years. So: been there, done that!

I realized I didn’t want to spend the rest of my live in that line of work and made the switch to the IT world. I ended up in web development.

I have been developing websites since 2002. I quickly come across the CMS system Mambo, now called Joomla. Most of my web developing activities have had to do with Joomla. I am doing stuff on all kinds of areas: web design, setups, templating, custom Joomla extensions, content management…

Anyway, that all says pretty much nothing about who I am, only what I do.

So, now I am 32 years old. I’m married and have a daughter.

Off course, the computer swallows a lot of my time, but I have other interests too. I love music. Well, I love some kinds of music, I love-not-so-much most kinds. I am into progressive rock. You’ve probably never heard of that, so here are some names: Porcupine Tree, Oceansize, IQ, Iona, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Dream Theater, Neal Morse, …

I have played the guitar for about 8 years, but I play bass guitar now, since about 2 years. I’m not a master musician, and never will be. I don’t have the patience to sit down and practice.

I am pretty active in the church I attend. That’s also the place where my bass is out of its bag most.

The rest of my time is spent with my wife and daughter.