mcville: Stefan Koopmanschap Interview

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Stefan Koopmanschap Interview

Oct 30, 03:55 PM by Marko

Interview with Stefan Koopmanschap – leftontheweb.com

Marko:Hello Stefan !

Stefan:Hiya mister mcville :)

Marko:For our reader’s could you tell something about yourself? (year old and other stuff)

Stefan:I am Stefan Koopmanschap, 27 year old, from The Netherlands. I am married to Marjolein and have a (currently) 7 month old son named Tomas. I used to have my own business, but recently took up a regular dayjob again, at TomTom. I work there as PHP Developer.

Marko:How are you doing these days?

Stefan:Well, I am still trying to get used to having a regular dayjob again. Since I have to travel 1.5 hours to, and 1.5 hours from work, I am nearly 12 hours away from home these days. Compared to being at home always, that is kinda hard to get used to. But it’s a nice job, and I’m slowly adapting to this new life.

Marko:When did you first encounter a keyboard or computer?

Stefan:That is a loooong time ago. I don’t know how old I was exactly, but my father used to have this Acorn computer. It worked with tapes as recording devices, and after loading a program, you had to rewind the tape or else next time you wanted to start that program, it wouldn’t work! :)

Marko:What is your favorite art work /website!?

Stefan:Good question. From myself or others? From others, I really like www.flickr.com of course, but also www.archive.org for downloading legal music. From myself, I really like www.fantasylibrary.net and www.electronicmusicworld.com, and I’m working on another new site, which will be a dutch weblogging community, and which looks to become wonderful.

Marko:when you launched leftontheweb.com are you happy with the result of the site?

Stefan:Yes, I am. I used to have a livejournal weblog, but I posted just about everything there, also quite stupid stuff. Now that I have leftontheweb.com, I think better about what I want to post, so the quality of the content has risen greatly. The design is still not completely finished, I currently use a default template. I like the template, but I still want to change it a bit to make it more my own.

Marko:What do you do in your spare time (I do realize that spare time, in this context, is pretty relative)?

Stefan:Yes, spare time is quite relative. Aside from working on various websites I maintain, I also love reading, listening to music, and making music. Though the latter is something I have not done in ages. I really should work on some new music.

Marko:Do you have a favorite drink? How much of it do you drink?

Stefan:Define drink. In terms of alcohol, I don’t really drink alcohol a lot. Just an occasional beer, but it’s been months since I had my last beer. In terms of regular drinks, I drink a lot of coffee and water, and cola and orangina.

Marko:Would you care to give us a brief overview of what a typical day is like for Stefan Koopmanschap?
Stefan:
6:30 am – wake up
7:15 am – leave for the bus
7:25 am – take bus to Amersfoort
8:06 am – take train to Amsterdam
8:35 am – take tram to Rembrandtplein
8:50 am – arrive at work
12:30 pm – lunch! :)
1:00 pm – start work again
5:30 pm – work is done for the day, go to tram
5:40 pm – take tram to station
6:06 pm – take train to Amersfoort
6:43 pm – take bus to Woudenberg (if I’m lucky and the train isn’t late)
7:10 pm – arrive in Woudenberg, take bike home
7:20 pm – enjoy a nice dinner with my wife
after that: either watch TV, read a book, or work on some website, play a game (either PC or board/card) with my wife, regularly also bathe my son.

Marko:I am always wondering how people such as yourself go about getting work? How do you do it?

Stefan:When I used to have my own business, work usually found me. I rarely had to go out trying to find clients. I had the luck of having a good network of people though.

Marko:Who are some of your biggest influences?

Stefan:Influences. Good question. I am highly influenced by green and left politics. I try to not be influenced by too many things though, I like to find my own way in life. I try to be open to many things, and hate people who, for instance because of religion, don’t accept others to be different and think differently.

Marko:Is your background in design? What was the progression into web development and design like? How did that take place and why?

Stefan:My background is definitely not in design. I was educated to have a consulting role between technicians and “organization” (board members and such) and users, but I got attracted by the technical side and so taught myself PHP.

Marko:If you where not a designer/programmer what would you be?

Stefan:Journalist. I actually wanted to become a journalist, but thanks to one of my teachers, I couldn’t get into the journalism school.

Marko:How do you like our site mcville.net?

Stefan:it’s so damn bad!

Marko:Marko:O it’s really that bad? :)

Stefan:no, definitely not. I actually quite like the site. It needs some more content, obviously, but I’m sure that’ll grow over time. No site can immediately start to be perfect.

Marko:What kind of music do you fancy?

Stefan:I have a very wide taste, but mainly listen to electronic music with an experimental edge, and rock music.

Marko:What’s your favorite food?

Stefan:without doubt, pizza quatro formaggi!

Marko:Where do you get out on Saturday’s when in Woudenberg?

Stefan:I don’t. Woudenberg is a very small town. There is only one pub, and that’s mainly for bikers. We rarely go out anyway, but if we go, we go to the cinema in Amersfoort, or to Utrecht.

some relaxing question to follow

Marko:Chinese or Thai (food)?

Stefan:Chinese, I don’t like spicy food ;)

Marko:Coke or Pepsi?

Stefan:Does not matter, coke is coke.

Marko:html or php?

Stefan:PHP

Marko:Do you watch television? If so, do you have a favorite show?

Stefan:Yes, I do watch TV. Favorite show? CSI!

Marko:What would we find in your favorites bookmarks-bar?

Stefan:Quite a few different folders full of links. One for discussion forums, one for technical websites, one for my local configuration stuff, one for music-related things.

Marko:What inspires you? This doesn’t have to be design related.

Stefan:Looking at great websites with wonderful functionality, such as Flickr :)

Marko:Thank again for having this interview, cheers m8!

Stefan:Not a problem, honored to be interviewed!

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Stefan Koopmanschap Interview

Oct 30, 03:55 PM by Marko