Back in 2001 when I started this website I introduced myself as follows:
"Born on the 29th of June, 1979 under the name of Thomas Sluyter. Known to others as either Cailin (SCA), Beowulf (fantasy art) or Arson (m4D 733T h4X0|2 *grin*)..."
It's been a long time since then and things have changed a lot. More than I could've probably imagined back then! In 2001 I was still a fervent member of the SCA and I was heavily into role playing games. I'd just finished college and was starting my first, real job in IT. I was working for Spherion, a consultancy agency that's long gone bust.
Since then I've changed jobs a few times, I've gone back to college and I've gone on quite a few personal adventures! I got married, I bought a house and I became a parent.
I've switched employers a few times and now I work for Unixerius. They're a consulting company who specialize in Solaris, Nagios and BoKS. I can also hold my own in Tru-64, Mac OS X and Linux. For a full overview of my activities, visit my LinkedIn.com profile.
| 1996 - 2000 | Studied electronics at Hogeschool Utrecht. |
| 2000 - 2002 | Was a junior Unix consultant at Spherion. |
| 2002 - 2005 | Was an in-house Unix admin at ING Bank in Amsterdam. |
| 2004 - today | Occasionally publish an article in ;Login; magazine. |
| 2004 - 2008 | Was a volunteer staff member at Stichting Promotie Japanse Popcultuur. |
| 2005 - 2008 | Was a Unix consultant at Snow. |
| 2007 - 2008 | Studied mathematics education at Hogeschool Utrecht. |
| 2008 - today | Am a senior Unix consultant at Unixerius. |
When I started this website I'd been seeing Marlijne for about a year. We'd met in the summer of 2000 and were in a relationship from the get-go. There was no dating and such. Nope, we were together from day one; I guess it just felt right. ^_^
The first few years we spent together at our parents' houses and cooped up in my bedroom. Finally we moved in together in fall of 2003. We ended up renting an appartment in Nieuwegein for a little over two years. Then, in winter of 2005 we bought our very first home: an appartment in Utrecht, five minutes away from the town's center. Then, in the summer of 2009 we bought a real house in Almere.
| 1979 | Was born on the 29th of June. |
| 1983 - 1991 | Went to preschool at Het Baken in Veenendaal. |
| 1985 | Met my best friend Menno. I tripped him, broke his glasses and we've been friends ever since. |
| 1991 - 1996 | Went to high school at Christelijk Lyceum Veenendaal |
| 1996 - 2000 | Studied electronics at HU. |
| 1996 | I played MUDs a lot, which could've cost me my freshman year. |
| 1998 - 1999 | Long-term relationship that came to a tumultuous end. |
| 1998 - 2000 | Was an active member of the Society for Creative Anachronisms. |
| 2000 | I met Marlijne at an archery event in Wijk Bij Duurstede. |
| 2000 - 2002 | I did a lot of archery and met my good friend Peter in the process. |
| 2002 | We move in together, renting an apartment above a supermarket in Nieuwegein. |
| 2002 | We lost Marlijne's father Henk to cancer. |
| 2004 | We got married in May on a lovely sunny (yet very windy) day. |
| 2005 | We bought our first house, an apartment in Utrecht. |
| 2007 | I went back to college because I'd become fed up with IT. |
| 2007 | I finally got to visit Japan, after years of dreaming about it. |
| 2008 | We are surprised to find that we're pregnant and our daughter Dana is born. |
| 2009 | We sell our flat and buy a real house in Almere. |
Strangely, I don't even remember when my parents got divorced. I'm thinking it was sometime in 1999 or 2000, because I remember Saskia and me predicting the event while we were still in a relationship. Things ended up fine though: the kids are happy again, mom remarried and dad's got a special lady as well.
In the SCA it was custom to create a persona, a character that you played out. My character was an early medieval farmer from Schotland. At the time I was trying to learn Gaelic, an ancient language spoken on the British isles.
I wanted to use the first name Colin and tack on something like of the forest. Someone in the SCA translated that for me as Cailin Coilleach. That nickname stuck with me for years and it's never gone. Years later I learnt that the name does in fact -not- translate as Colin of the forest. Instead, it means girl of the forest. Still, I'm proud of the name and I've used it over seven years now. I don't care if I come off as a bit girlish :p
All content, with exception of "borrowed" blogpost images, or unless otherwise indicated, is copyright Thomas Sluyter.