On this page you will find a collection of links to things that interest me. These have nothing to do with my work or with Windmill Solutions but are part of who I am.
During my first trip to Asia in 1993 I started collecting chopsticks. The reason for that was that I liked the simplicity, affordability and also expressive qualities of these little wooden pieces of art. Besides nobody else was collecting these so it was a bit of a unique hobby, and it even got me an article in the personell-paper of my first job. My focus is still on the cheap chopsticks, I'm always looking for special materials, mainly wood. Almost 2 decades after I started my collection I gathered quite some unique pieces, and to share this with the rest of the world, it's not much fun enjoying this alone, I created a webpage with scans of each piece I own: Chopsticks page
The Velthoen family tree is my largest ongoing project, even from before I started the chopsticks hobby. One of my uncles used to work at the archives in the county of Apeldoorn and had started collecting information back in the eighties. I took that data and expanded it to what it is now. Over the years the internet proved to be an excellent source of information, that way I even found a direct family branch in Modesto, California and even visited there twice. For a while now I've been getting a lot of help from Esther Veldhoen, a student who searches the web in search of Velthoen/Veldhoen data that I can enter into my program. Here's the Velthoen Family Tree
Our move to the USA in 2006 was of course one of those life-changing events that cannot stay unnoticed and I decided to start a weblog so I could write about the changes we had to go through and how we adjusted to life on the other side of the Atlantic. Most of the surprises about American culture are gone now, but I still keep updating the blog with information about our daily life, just so the folks back home can stay updated. Velthoen Blog
I love to read. And now that I have a Kindle I read even more than before. There's a couple of writers I have discovered over the years that keep me occupied and whenever I'm at an airport with nothing to do I will be trying to find a decent novel to read in one of the bookstores there. A link to an informational page, including Dutch cartoons, about my favorites will be available shortly.