So. About me. I’m a Systems Engineer by trade. At heart, I’m an artist. A Renaissance man. I’ve always strived to be the absolute best that I could be. Not for anybody else, necessarily. Just because I enjoy seeing myself doing something that I can be proud of when it’s all said and done. I still remember my first “real” job. I worked in a library. I was the “book returner” guy. But, I quickly became valued as the quickest “fix-it-all” guy, the best and most knowledgeable computer guy, and the hardest worker. Well, maybe not the hardest worker, but you get the idea. =:) I was first given the title of “A True Renaissance Man” at that job. I guess it’s something I’ve always strived for–excellence at whatever I do. And the name has sort of stuck.

So when I first discovered the wonders of IRC (internet relay chat for those in the older crowd who might not be down with that scene, daddy-oh), I chose the nickname of Rembrandt for myself. Sort of liked it. Fit right in with my personality. And oddly enough, most of the young kiddies who popped in and out of undernet’s #linux channel had absolutely no idea who the real Rembrandt was and what tremendous contributions he made to his society–and quite truthfully, to our society. So it was also a nickname (nick) that once in a while got some decently intelligent conversations going. I stress the once in a while, unfortunately. =:) Well, anyway, it wasn’t too long after I started using IRC that some other guy decided that the nick of Rembrandt was rightfully his. It irritated me enough that I crashed his computer a few times for him with such infamously neato tools (read exploits =:)) such as land, winnuke, jolt, and nuke. *sigh* Ahh the good old days, when Winblows was still such a play-thing that was so-poorly understood that many a tremendously fun night could be had by joining #windows and helping people to reboot their machines remotely…. =:) *nostalgia*

So shortly thereafter (although it was a pretty fun couple of weeks, helping my alter-ego reboot his machine at most probably very un-desirable moments), I decided that a change was necessary. And I decided that if Rembrandt was such an unknown name (except for the toothpaste and the 3.0.4 release of RedHat Linux), that his last name would be even less well-known. This has most definitely proved to be the case. Actually, I feel like I’m due for a nick change, but as I’m more widely known by my nick of vanRijn than I am by my real name, I guess I’ll leave it be. =:) And really, it’s rather amusing, as most people have absolutely no clue how to pronounce Rembrandt’s last name of van Rijn, and most often placing odd combinations of consonants into it in trying to pronounce it, such as “vanRipkin”. =:) *cough* Shawn *cough* But, as you can see below, it’s not all that difficult. Sort of like the Rhine river with a van thrown in before it.

Rem-brandt (rembrant, -bränt), n. (Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn or van Ryn) 1606 – 69, Dutch painter.

You know, the real dead painter guy! =:) In fact, the absolutely funniest side-effect of my odd nick thus far has been when somebody submitted my bbkeys application to freshmeat.net and he creditted its authorship by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn!!! Imagine my surprise!! First, my surprise at seeing my bouncing baby code being proudly seen by thousands of people on freshmeat.net, but then my surprise when the Dutch painter who’s been dead for well over 300 years is getting the credit for writing my code!!!!!! =:)