I'd be surprised if anyone actually reads this section but my wife pressured me into writing it!

How would I describe myself if we met in person and talked over a beer, I wonder?

Well, I started programming when I was 8 years old. I was lured in by a rubber keyed Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K that my parents gave me for Christmas. It was either greatest or the worst gift they ever gave me, for it truly changed my life. I was mesmerised by the technology and lost hours typing in BASIC and Machine Code from magazine listings.

From BASIC I moved to Assembler, and from 8 bit Sinclair Spectrums I moved to 16 bit Commodore Amigas. In my mid teens myself and like minded friends joined the Amiga Demo Scene. We created digital music videos where 3D vectors and art twisted and rotated in time to electronic tunes; all hand crafted in glorious MC 68000 assembler.

In university I wanted to better understand how computers worked, and achieved a masters degree in Electronic Engineering. Afterwards, however, in the land of corporate reality, pay cheques drew me back to programming. Subsequently I moved through C and Visual Basic before turning to Java and web applications - where I stayed for over 10 years! More recently I've been involved with the likes of Ruby, C#, Javascript, and of course, Fantom!

I've created startups and I've worked for large scale corporations. It's always a frustration that the larger the business, the less open to change and new ideas they seem to be! Especially when it comes to programming languages!

I took time out of the rat race to explore South America, where my first stop was a couple of weeks of jungle survival training in the Amazon rainforest. Not long after which, the tour company (Bushmasters) asked me to return and work for them where we collaborated with US Special Forces and civilians alike! There I stayed for 2 years; the life experience was simply incredible.

I returned to programming and ended up in Singapore. I left the rat race again and became a PADI qualified Speciality Open Water Scuba Instructor on the island of Gili Trawangan, off Bali in Indonesia. There I taught Open Water, Advanced, and Dive Master courses for some 6 months before returning to the UK to generate more funds for my poor depleting bank account!

It was around this time that I happened across an aspiring new language called Fantom, and my life changed. I was so impressed with this little known programming language that I've since dedicated much of my free time to creating open source libraries and documentation to help to 'spread the word'. With my wide ranging knowledge of programming, I truly believe that this little gem is more functional, concise and efficient than any other on the market!

Other than this, I can tell you that I am fond of UK Hardcore dance music, Freeform, and FinRG. I also find that Progressive and GOA Psychedelic Trance helps me get 'in the programming zone'! I'm definitely influenced by those long lost electronic Amiga demos!

Film interests include the classic 80s Sci-Fi such as Aliens, Robocop, and Predator. I also enjoy mindless, cheap, horror and sci-fi flicks such as Sharknado 1, 2, 3 and 4!

Book reading is usually restricted to popular science on intriguing topics such as Fermats Last Theroem and Choas Theory; although I admit Sudoku escapes me!

I spend time with friends in the usual activities such as trekking, sky-diving, and off-road mountain biking. Real ales are a passion and any pub with the Cask Marque certification is bound to be a favourite of mine!

So what's next? Well I do have a bucket list... and it'd be cool to see real lava in a volcano! Hopefully Guatemala will do this for me soon! After that - who knows? Although I have a suspicion that it will involve Fantom!

Have fun!

- Steve.