Kilian Valkhof

Building tools that make developers awesome.

Seven things

Life, 6 January 2009, 3 minute read

Well, I got tagged by Stefan Koopmanschap and after exclaiming I’m far too young to have seven interesting things to tell about myself, I’ll try anyway. Here goes.

Seven things

  1. I share my birthday with St. Kilian. While it isn’t strange to share your birthday with the saint of the same name, St. Kilian isn’t a known saint here in the Netherlands. My parents and I only found out he even existed when I was 9 years old and I found out about him in the Internet. Since then, it’s been harder to believe in coincidence.
  2. Related, I was 9 when I first Googled myself.
  3. My first website (made in Frontpage!), back in ’99, was rather successful: It appeared in a kids computer magazine, on a couple of large Dutch kids websites, and I made 25 guilders from it. Mostly by signing my mother up for PABO (erotic post-order!) catalogues. They made me a whopping 2 guilders for every time someone ordered the catalogue through my referral links.
  4. Before I did websites, I used to do a lot of 3d design, of which this is the only thing still online. Back in 2005, I swear, that was near photo realistic! Sitting in front of your screen for the entire day, doing nothing and watching an image being rendered pixel for pixel brings out the Zen in you.
  5. I own a Tulip PC compact 2, from 1985. The thing is 3 years older than I am, and I learned DOS on it. I can still kick your ass in Grand Prix Circuit.
  6. My first programming experience is when I was 10-ish, and wanted to learn C++ to make games. My dad got me a discounted, but still expensive Borland C++ builder pack with two thick reference books included. I borrowed a C++ learning book, made some simple programs and… got stuck in chapter 3. Up until now, I still can’t for the life of me figure out why you would want to shift bits around. (nor why the concept appeared in the 3rd chapter!)
  7. I own an electrical guitar, an amp and an effects panel. I tried to teach it myself, and I can play a couple of songs and solo’s and tunes, But I should start lessons to really be able to do something with it. As always, time is an issue. On that account, I also need to start with driving lessons, which I’ve been putting off for over 2 years now.

Well, that was fun! How about sharing a fun or weird fact about yourself in the comments?

Tagging along

It shouldn’t be too hard to tag seven other people here. First off, my blogging Barcelona crew, since they all need to blog more ;)

Followed by…

Rules

And here’s the rules of the game:

Polypane browser for responsive web development and design Hi, I'm Kilian. I make Polypane, the browser for responsive web development and design. If you're reading this site, that's probably interesting to you. Try it out!