Something to share about myself. I'm not much of a talker, especially not when it comes to talking about myself but, I'll have a go at it right here.
General information
My name is Michel (pronounced like the Beatles song, yes), I was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands on January 16 1986. If you do the math you'd find out I'm 22 years old. I currently reside in a little town called Purmerend, which also happens to be in the Netherlands. I call it little based on number of interesting things to do in the town, rather than population. So, why do I call myself Ed on this site? Read "About my name" for that.
Interests
Starting to sound like a dating profile. Anyway; most of my interests have something to do with technology.
Web development
Since I love to develop applications and solutions for the web, I'd say that would be the first interest to mention here. You can find some of my web projects in the Web section of Just Like Ed or read about my view on web applications.
Flash
Technically it's a part of web development but, Flash has grown to deserve it's own spot in my life. I watch a lot of Flash material and love to create Flash games, animations and websites. Some of my Flash work is also displayed on this site.
Video gaming
I wouldn't call myself an addict but, I do enjoy video games. I'm a big fan of RTS, RPG, Adventure and Empire building games. Some of my favorite games would be:
Age of Empires (1,2), Red Alert 2, Tiberian Sun, C&C: Generals, Anno 1602, Terranigma, Illusion of Gaia (Illusion of Time), Secret of Evermore, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, The Legend of Zelda, The Legend of Zelda: Adventure of Link, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, The Legend of Zelda: the Windwaker, Super Smash Bros. (Melee)....... but I could go on for hours....
Movies
Love to watch a good movie. Who doesn't? Without nagging to much, some of my favorite movies would be: "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang", Bruce Almighty, Se7en, American Beauty, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (with Johnny Depp), Lilo & Stitch GoldenEye.
TV shows
I love to watch TV shows. It's something I really look forward to every day a new episode airs. That being said, let's continue with the list of the shows I like to watch: House M.D., Psych, Eureka, Saved, Scrubs, Will & Grace, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, The Simpsons, News Radio, Frasier, Out of Practice, The King of Queens, Star Trek: Voyager, MythBusters.
Music
I can't really tell you much about my music preferences, because even I don't understand it from time to time. I'm a fan of all sorts of music styles. At the moment most stuff I listen would be classified as Classic Rock, Rock, Jazz, Classical and some "narly" surfing style music. I don't really know what else to call the latter. If you're expecting any names of songs and artists, you couldn't be more wrong. I don't tend to remember them unless I really really want to hear the song again. Although I suppose I could give an honorable mentioning of The Who here, which I like a lot. But that's it, no more names! Next to "regular" music, a little hobby of mine is collecting remixes of video game music. Stuff you would get at OC Remix for example.
Really about me
Currently I work at a web development company near my home town. It's one of the biggest in the area and also one of the best I've seen. I started out there as an intern. A small internship of 6 months was required for the school I was in before I started working. As it goes now I'll continue to work there up to September of 2006. After that I will resume my quest for education in the form of a bachelor. I don't have any interest in explaining the Dutch education system, just take my word for it.
In my spare time I'm mostly working on some web project. I currently have 2 major projects that which are of the size that I have to be working on them 24/7. Nevertheless I enjoy sleeping though the day on the weekends. It often gets me in a lot of trouble because I should have gotten some work done instead of lying in my bed. I also turn up late for work every now and then because I keep thinking: "just five more minutes."
At this moment in time I'm not really doing anything sporty. When then season is upon us I tend to do a little snowboarding. I'm not really good at it (yet!) but, I have loads of fun when I'm face down in the snow. I used to swim, a lot. I started swimming because I have a little lung condition which requires me to do some form of sports in order to keep me breathing. Since I'm not much of a people person and swimming is something you can easily do alone I started doing that. I started swimming at 4 years old (like any Dutch kid) took a break from 7 to 8 years old and finally retired at the age of 16. I quit because I had the choice of limiting my abilities by staying in the juniors or going way over my head and joining the seniors. I was into competitive swimming, you know, trying to be faster than others. I participated in one senior competition amongst guys of 22 to 25 and managed to finish 3rd in 2 parts of the competition and finished 5th in the end. Not to shabby but, still way out of my league.
My favorite food is a little twist on "mac and cheese." Now I might not be American, but I do love cheese (god bless my Dutch heritage for that.) My favorite food is a dish of penne (which is a type of pasta) mixed in molten cheese with ham and several Italian spices. On top of that some sprinkled cheese which forms a nice crust of cheese. The crust is the tastiest thing of all!
Pictures
Ha ha, yeah sure. I don't make a habit of showing my face on the web. But, if you're that curious as to what I look like, I suppose I could spare a picture of me on my ass in the snow. I must inform you that I've recently cut my hair, so the picture here is everything but accurate.
Contact
If you want to send me an email, that's fine with me. The best way to do that would be sending an email to 
. The email image was created with Safe Mail.
About other things
Various things in my life have their own article on this site. Just visit the index of the About section and check 'em out.
