So you want to know more about me?
Name’s Achim, originally from Germany, and residing in London since February 2005.
Interests in a nutshell: computers, computer gaming, music, martial arts, history, science fiction, cyberpunk.
Ever since a young child I’ve been into computers, starting with an Atari 2600 (albeit a console) and an Amiga 500. Regrettably I never had a Commodore 64 myself, but some friends had one, spending many good times with those boxes. Naturally this has progressed into my future being in the IT industry. Initially starting out as an apprentice in Germany, employing Visual Basic 6 and some C and C++, I changed my direction more towards a web centric role over the following period.
In the course of doing so, I’ve embraced Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), becoming something along the line of a FOSS fanatic or zealot. While I don’t run around preaching FOSS to everyone, as everyone should decide for themselves what to use, I personally do not own any Apple product and likely won’t in the future, as well as limiting my use of MS Windows only to my main computer at home, since some computer games unfortunately do not run yet perfect using Wine under Linux. Also wine is currently not yet able to work with DirectX 10 nor 11, another unfortunate reason to be stuck with a Windows computer as gamer. Being a FOSS proponent is also why I have a Nokia N900 phone, running a Debian based Linux distribution, Maemo. Maemo however is soon to be succeeded by MeeGo, from Nokia and Intel.
Having grown up with the aforementioned Atari 2600 and Amiga 500, I still play many games in my free time, but none on a console, only PC based. My favourite genres are First Person Shooter games, adventure games, Real Time Strategy games, RPGs and MMORPGs.
Although normally not much into fantasy, an absolute favourite game of mine is ‘Dragon Age: Origins’ by BioWare, and I’m eagerly awaiting the successor, ‘Dragon Age 2′, due to be released mid March 2011.
Another brilliant BioWare series is ‘Mass Effect’, having both ME1 and 2 and eagerly awaiting ME3, due end of 2011 or early 2012, a science fiction RPG.
Science Fiction being one of my interests, I’m as much a Trekkie or Trekker as I am a Star Wars fan. As such I’m also playing both the MMORPG Star Trek Online and the MMORPG Star Wars Galaxies, and may also play the MMORPG Star Wars The Old Republic.
I equally spend a lot of time with my pet cat, a ginger male domestic short hair cat. He’s an adorable and very friendly cat. As an animal friend I am of course a member and donor of the RSPCA.
Through all this I usually often listen to music, in the office via headphones, on the way with my N900 phone, or at home via my computer. My preferred music genres of choice are of a darker nature, such as Industrial, Noise and EBM, part of the Gothic subculture, as well as Black and Death Metal, part of the Metal subculture. I equally value classical music, which I’ve played myself in my younger years, mostly on a Yamaha keyboard in private lessons, as well as in the school orchestra. Also very good movie and game sound tracks can be found in my playlists. While I don’t actively play any instrument anymore, I still go out to music clubs to enjoy the music.
Another interest of mine is martial arts, both the theoretical and practical part, as well as the history of it. Initially I started out as a 6 year old kid doing a martial art spread in Germany, called ‘Shaolin Kempo’, which is based on Kyokushinkai Karate and has further influences from Chinese martial arts. It however never satisfied me, this style. Inbetween I dabbled in Judo for a year and Jiu-Jitsu for half a year, mostly also as kid, only to return to Shaolin Kempo again later. This I abandoned once I turned 18, since I had a car and therefore a world to explore. Returning to Shaolin Kempo a few years later, I added to my training the Chinese martial arts of Chen Taijiquan and Northern Seven Stars Praying Mantis. In 2004 in the German wide tournament of our association of the latter style I reached the 2nd place for both the fist form (Pak yuen tao tow kuen – Gibbon steals the peach) and the weapons form (Fook Fu Kwan Yarn Kwan – Capture the Tiger and Sheep staff) in the beginners category. In the all-level heavy weight full contact I reached 1st place, beating a student of seven years training in my last round. This martial arts I continued after my move to London, but I’m currently not attending, due to other circumstances, though I’m looking forward to the day of return to this style, as it’s my absolute favourite so far.
On the theoretical side I’m quite interested in the development of Chinese and Japanese martial arts, how it came from India to a small Buddhist temple in the Henan Province in China, and from there spread in its many various forms all over the world now. Surely a very fascinating topic which I could go on about for ages.
Otherwise history in general is another favourite topic of mine, primary German and European history, but also world history. Therefore I can be found from time to time in a museum, or reading historical books. Latest book is “On War” by Carl von Clausewitz, a Prussian general during the Napoleonic Wars and a famed military strategist. His theories have influenced military strategies around the world to this day and remains a recommended book to read for any strategist, inside and outside of the military.
Further books I read are more again of a Science Fiction nature, such as Star Wars and Star Trek Novels, but I equally like Cyberpunk themed books, such as those by famed author William Gibson.