[OFB Cafe] Who's Still on Here?

[Tink]

On May 31, 2008, at 7:37 PM, Timothy Butler wrote:

> If you're on the list, why not post a bit about yourself, how you
> ended up on here, etc.

I ended up here because Tim merged the lists after KDE-cafe died ;-)

I was  born many many moons ago, I'm a she, and one of the original  
KDE-cafe owners and I knitted quite a few afghans in my days ;-)
My profession is a typo/graphic design and thus am a Mac person.

I ended op with Linux and KDE because I married a guy called Waldo  
Bastian who worked (way to long) for SuSE. Waldo started working on  
KDE in 1997 and after he got his MSc in Electrical Engineering in UT  
in the Netherlands we moved to Switzerland where he worked on DECT  
telephony for ASCOM but spend more time on working on KDE. He was  
approached by Stephan the original founder of SuSE for a job  
developing KDE. We moved to Nuremberg in DE for a half a year and than  
moved to Oakland CA to work for SuSe USA.

In 2002 SuSE transplanted us to France, I wanted Scotland but we ended  
up in France on the condition that if it didn't work for us in 3  
years, we'd move. My French was very bad and I saw all kind of  
bureaucratic issues on the horizon.

We tried very hard for 3 years to make us feel at home but it's  
difficult to make new friends etc in France, bureaucratic issues were  
indeed hard to deal with and since the merge with Novell things  
weren't so great at SuSE, so when Intel and Google approached Waldo  
for a position at the same time we jumped at the chance. The choice  
was a difficult one, both were excellent and exciting offers. Google's  
position was down in Santa Barbara in CA, with sky rocket high home  
prices and Intel was in Oregon a place where you actually can survive  
on a one salary income. So we chose Oregon and 6 years of SuSE came to  
an end. We moved in 2005 back to the USA. We never regretted it one  
bit. This time we were better prepared, we had an employer who did  
everything humanly possible to make us feel at home and gave us all  
the help we needed to settle in and had a generous relocation package.
We purchased a home, this was our first because we never planned to  
stay anywhere longer that 3 years we never bothered to buy a home.
But we liked it here so much we decided to stay longer.

Due to visa restrictions the accompanied spouse of the visa holder is  
not allowed to work or make any money. We hope that will change soon   
because Intel offered us to apply for a permanent residency, which  
means no more visa restrictions for me. I will able to get a Social  
Security number, make money and even open a bank account of my  
own. ;-) Spouses who go with their husbands to work abroad have no  
rights at all when they're here. It's like being back in the 50's,  
you're not allowed to buy mobile phone, open up an account, cable or  
call utilities when something is wrong. It's annoying.
We're in the last phase of the process of applying for residency and  
we hope it will take another few months.

All these years I did volunteer work for KDE, I was the sole sponsor  
coordinator for KDE-Akademy 2006 in Dublin and I enjoyed that  
tremendously. I do some volunteer design work now and than for other  
organizations.
A few years ago I became ill with an illness called SLE or Lupus, also  
know as the Wolf, because the body attacks it's own tissues, organs  
and joints. For some it's a minor issue unfortunately my heart and  
kidneys where affected and the illness slowly progresses, I now have  
to use a wheelchair and and electric one outdoors.

I'm active in dog rescue, Border Collies especially. Our own Border  
Collie unfortunately died 2 weeks ago and I miss her terribly. Even  
though i have limited mobility she was the reason that made me go  
outdoors and play with her. She was great at frisbee. Now that she's  
gone I have no specific reason to go out. So took up a new hobby  
photography and bought a Digital SLR a Sony Alpha 300 and hope that  
this will motivate me to get outdoors and will be forced to look at  
all that's beautiful out there.

When Waldo stopped working on KDE I also stopped volunteering and am  
although I'm still a member I'm not active anymore.

We share our household with  one dog at the moment and 2 very special  
evil catz, a breed called Devon Rex. They look a bit like the  
Cremlins ;-) We have one daughter, Lydia, who lives in the Netherlands  
with her partner René.

My dream is to buy a 5th wheeler and travel the contingent, I would  
love to see as much as possible of North America.

Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it! ;-)

--
Tink
Portland, OR