About Me
First and foremost, I’m a dad and husband – my son Daniel was born in 1998, my daughter Laura in 2000, and Deb and I were married on January 19th, 1991.
I’m a Jesus freak. I have no interest in the goings-on of most organised religion, but JC is my example for how to live. I suspect he wouldn’t be very interested either.
I became a downshifter when my son was three years old. Work to live, don’t live to work. But in 2006-2007, I became tired of being an employee and wanted to move into a new phase – being a business owner. I realised that downshifting and running your own business are about the same thing – being in control of your life. Doing what you want to do rather than what you have to do.
I don’t watch TV. I don’t know where I’d find the time.
I’m a keen cyclist, riding a modified Giant Iguana for my 22km round-trip commute. Modified in the sense that I’ve replaced the drive train with one more geared to road riding – top gear starts to spin out at 40km/h rather than 25km/h. Other commuting-centric mods include a pannier rack and an air horn. Just to let inattentive motorists know I’m there. It helps if you want to stay in one piece.
I’m an avid runner, 7km before 7am, 5 days a week, a long run on Sunday, and the occasional bonus lunchtime run. I ran my first Marathon in October 2006 in 5hr 10min. I will totally improve on this time in the coming years. I ran a half-marathon in October 2005 in 1hr 59min. The running is on hiatus at the moment (as at early 2011) due to “runner’s hip” (tearing of the labrum (cartilage), chondromalacia, tendonitis and perifascial muscle fibre tearing. i.e. I need to take a break for a while. So it’s cycling and swimming for at least 12 months and then we’ll see.
I’m a sustainable vegetarian. I only eat what I kill myself. I wonder how much meat we’d eat as a society if everyone did?
I’m the Managing Director of Autosystems. We make business systems for automotive dealerships and provide total IT solutions and support for our customers.
My friend Nick and I run Arktisma, which includes Serversaurus (providers of website hosting at prehistoric prices), Never Stop Pedalling – a dedicated fixed-gear online bike shop and Anticoast – limited-edition clothing for smart cycling fans.
Back in the internet dark ages, I wrote some open-source software. See my software page for details.