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I am almost fifty and lives on a small farm in the Lowveld of South Africa ... close to the borders with Swaziland and Mozambique ... I love it when the sun sets and the bush goes to sleep, that is when peace and tranquillity settles on me and I feel good to be alive ... but around midnight when I go and check the electric fence ... a rage builds up in my chest as I think about the reality of my environment ... Africa is not for softies .... maybe that is why I sometimes get so pissed off when guys quibble about bullshit ... life is precious but extremely fragile ...
What is my idea of a good meal ... well ... I am a mean meat eater ... thick juicy slab of Rumpsteak ... fresh fruit and salads ... and off course ... maize porridge, stiff almost crumbly, with a good dollop of real butter and some sugar ... now that is a meal to me ...
Contrary to many assumptions, I don't drink alcohol ... 25 years ago I consumed more than a bottle of Vodka a day apart from numerous beers ... well on my way to become a thoroughbred alcoholic ... I woke up one morning after an unusual spree ... got up and went swimming ... as I sat on the edge of the pool and watch the sun rise ... it dawned on me, a man that drink so much and then be swimming at 4h00 the next morning ... such a man has a problem ... that was 8 November 1971 ... didn't touch the stuff again for 18 months and then I began to drink what tasted nice ... amazing how few alcoholic beverages are really tasty ....
Today ... I drink water, Coca Cola and milk (I believe you guys call our milk, cream out there ... <g>)
I am married and there is some family stuff at http://www.nelspruitlink.co.za/jcserfontein/
I studied to be a lawyer but only practiced law for as long as it took me to work my scholarship back. I hated the ambience in the courtroom and got out as soon as I could. In 1976 I began selling ... first worked as a Medical Rep for a pharmaceutical company ... then on to insurance ... all the time I did photography for a hobby and in 1978 I opened a studio. That went on until 1982 .. photography and insurance. Then I got my first computer and that was it ... within weeks I was selling applications ... did it on a product called OMNIS ... something like dBase but on UCSD p-System ... later that year I discovered dBase and that was it ... for the next six years I wrote applications like crazy ... made stack of money from it and was one of the first qualified ACCPAC installers in Africa ...
In 1990 ... at that stage I had huge wholesale operations in the mining and industrial supplying sector ...the sanctions issues buggered our mines in Natal up and 27 major clients, contributing about 90% of our turnover, went belly up ... naturally we were hot on their heels ... I lost everything ... walked away with the clothes on my back and a family to feed ... first priority was to get a house ... my mother bought a piece of
land and I built my first Timber Frame House ... first study the books from Berkley University Ownerbuild Centre ... did all the projects in 1/10 th scale and then tackled my own house ... before it was finished we began to get calls from other people and you can see at www.ltf.co.za where it took me ...
In the meantime I picked up cancer in 1984 .... two operations later they said it was gone ... today I have to believe they were right ..... only my total devotion to my programming and a big App that included ACCPAC pulled me through that ... shucks, it was hell to make peace with the fact that something was eating me up from the inside ...
During the 1990 fiasco I lost my computers as well and for the next four years didn't do any programming ... I had an XT with FRAMEWORK on it and I wrote seven novels during that four years. In 1995 I picked up a big contract with the Parksboard and built 50 three bedroom chalets in 60 days ... that placed me back on my feet and it was during that project that I bought a laptop and dBase IV .... I wrote a project and material handling app on-the-fly as I built the chalets ... by day in the trenches, by night, Coleman lantern and generator ... I developed the app ..suffice it to say that without that dBase App the project could have gone horribly wrong ... at the end I could buy myself this little farm and gave my family back their dignity.
For the next year or so I tinkered a bit with dBase, bought dBase 5.5 ... got shocked out of my mind with the OOP ... bought 7.0 as if I thought it would be better ... <g> ... upgraded to 7.01 ... got to the point where I threw dBase into a box and called it a day ... got Delphi, C++ and J Builder ... lost a few more hair ... turned grey ... wanted to kill each and every thing that any connection with Borland and then ... somebody gave me AAK's e-mail address ... someday I will show that first e-mail he sent me .... that was on the 3rd of May 1999 ... he pointed me to the NG .... the rest is history ...
Oh, how did I get into the Web stuff ... well, I did a big construction job for a guy and he couldn't pay ...in the end he offered me the Webservices division of his business which included the hosting contract for the local POP of the biggest ISP in South Africa ... hell, I had this thing that I knew could make money but I didn't have a clue how ... I learned NT, IIS, FrontPage and some UNIX at neckbreaking speed and by June 1999 the WPP service was making money ... the rest is really history and well documented on the NG ... so, what is the moral of this story .... I don't know the meaning of the words CAN NOT ....
Tonight I will most probably test my first complete Web, driven by only server generated pages ... I am excited but also a bit nervous ...
What do I expect out of life .... to be known as a man that honours his word and a man that will stand and fall by his loyalties.
What would I like to own ... at this point in time, a Compaq M700 Laptop and Jeep Grand Cherokee ....how's that for daydreaming ...
Where would I like to go ... Canada and do some fishing ....
Where would I like to live ... on a farm in Wyoming ... deep in the mountains in Log house on a riverbank in a secluded valley .... why ... because my friends, I am actually a hermit ... why out of South Africa ...because my country is going to hell in a hand basket ...
What would give me a great thrill ... to retire with so much money that I can sit the whole day and do Web Apps ... building sites for people that can not afford sites and give it away for free ... build mirror sites for corporations that owns sites that suck and run it as MIRRORS ... just to frustrate the crap out them ...<BG> ... I can think of one Corporation that I would like to stick like that right now ..... !!!!
How do I manage 18 hour work days ... I don't know anything else to do ....
What type of person am I ... well actually a very humorous sole but an ugly man when riled ... I love classical music, symphonies, country music ... a good movie make me blink to disguise a teardrop or two ... shucks ... now I am blushing ... a 96 kg man that gets all sobby in a movie ... what the hell, I am a writer and I live the stories so intently that it comes naturally ...
What do I do for fun ... I am doing it ... actually I love fishing, motorbikes, outdoor camping and sleeping.
Now I have to get back to work ... Hope this didn't bore the crap out of you guys.
Greetings.
Colyn
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