I was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1969, and I grew up on the island of Lidingö. I consider my childhood as very good, I had two great parents and a not too annoying younger sister.

My parents were what I would classify as middle class. My dad was a bus driver for the public transportation system in the Stockholm area. He was originally from Blekinge in the southern part of Sweden, and moved to Stockholm in the mid-1950's. He died in 2001 at age 74.
My mom was staying at home with me and my sister until we started school, then she started working nights at the local hospital. The last couple of years before she passed away at age 61 in 1987 she worked for the German Parish/Church in Stockholm. She was originally from Germany and moved to Sweden in the beginning of the 1950's for work. Her hometown, Lauenburg im Pommern, is located in current Poland.
My parents met and got married in 1967. I was born in 1969 and my sister in 1971.

I consider my parents intelligent. I think especially my dad have given me much of my problem solving ability that I use to this day. He only had 6 years of school in the 1930's and 40's, then he had to start working. Despite not having any formal higher education, he could do pretty much anything, and he taught me many things over the years.

In 1970, my parents purchased a lot on Värmdö in the Stockholm archipelago. They did not want to take a loan in order to buy and erect a summer house, instead my dad built a custom house all by himself. He did the blueprint/drawings, built the house from lumber he bought as well as did the plumbing and electrical system all by himself. He had a brick layer build the fire place, that was the only thing he did not do himself. The summer house was sold in 1980, as my dad was planning to move the whole family to Blekinge. The move fell through due to the bad job market in that area, something I was very happy about, as I did not want to leave my friends.

My dad also educated me in mechanics and electrical circuits, as well as technical drawings. In the basement of our house in the city he always had all kind of items I was allowed to play with. I could walk down there, hook up some batteries, light bulbs, small motors or whatever I felt like, get some components out of an old TV or radio and build me something. I must have been about 6 or 7 when he showed me how to solder using a soldering iron.
Even before that, I was given real metal tools to use at the summer house or in the basement if I wanted to build something. I had my own hammer, saw, screwdrivers and a few other tools, and my dad always let me borrow his tools if I needed something else. I was given

Later, in the early 1980's, my dad took up building violins as a hobby, going to classes in the evening. Eventually he ended up teaching the class himself. It started when my sister needed one, and all the ones he found for sale were too expensive. He had a nice little workshop in a corner of the dining room in our then apartment.
In 1981 we had to move from the house we lived in to an apartment, as the city was going to build apartments for assisted living where our house was located. My parents were renting the house from the city, for a very low rate, with the understanding that we had to move when the construction was going to start.

My mom showed me how to cook. She was a great cook, having been trained in it during her late teens in Germany. Before moving to Sweden she worked for several years as a cook at some farms outside Hamburg. I still to this day enjoy cooking, even if I am nothing like my sister, who is great at cooking and baking.

I spent many summers reading books. Well, winters as well. Reading was my favorite thing to do, sometimes to the extreme. My mom sometimes had to force me to get out and play in "the fresh air" as she said. For some reason I always got a stuffed nose when I had to go outside in the spring, and it was not until many years later we found out I was allergic to grass... But I also enjoyed being outside, helping my dad or just building things or exploring the area. Dick, the boy next door and I played pretty much every day during the summers and weekends we spent at the summer house. The picture to the right, with Dick, my sister and me, is from 1976, the last summer before I started school. In Sweden the children start first grade the year they turn 7.
My parents never really found out how I learned to read. I did it on my own at age 4. I asked about letters on street signs and license plates when we were out walking, and every morning I was laying on top of the news paper. My parents thought I was just looking at the pictures, but one morning when I was 4 years old I gave them a surprise by coming to them and telling them that something had happened in the world. When they asked me how I know, I told them I read it in the news paper.
I read all kinds of books, at age 7 or 8 I had pretty much finished the children's section at the local library, and was already working my way through the adult section. I especially enjoyed sci-fi (and later fantasy). Jules Verne was a huge favorite, as were Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke. J.R.R. Tolkien is another favorite author. When I was 9 I read the Fellowship of the Ring in 8 hours while we were driving down to visit my dad's family in Blekinge. I read the two other books in the Lord of the Rings trilogy during the next couple of days. I still try to read the books about once a year. On my page about reading, I will tell more about what I like to read.

In 1981, when I started 7th grade and moved to a new school, a computer club was founded in that school. I decided to join, and I got hooked. I will describe more about my early computer experience on another page.

In 1984, at age 15, I joined the Swedish Home Guard. I was a very active member for 13 years, until I moved to the US in 1998.
I also served 11 months in the Swedish Air Force at Uppland Air Force Wing (F16) for my mandatory military service in 1990-91 (picture right).
To the great disbelief of some of the other guys in my company, I once opted to go out on an exercise with my Home Guard unit when we had 4 days free during basic training.

During my time in what is called gymnasium in Sweden (comparable to English grammar schools and U.S. college preparatory high schools) I became the president of the computer club. I spent pretty much all my free time learning about programming and using computers. The school used Swedish made ABC 80 computers and later the Compis computer system. The picture on the left is from Rune's PC-museum (website is in Swedish) and used with permission.

I enjoyed my time in the military, and for a short while I entertained a career in the military. But I liked computers more, and I figured that my job opportunities would be much better in the IT field.

Right before my military service, I had been working for Microsoft in a tech support position between semesters in school. My actual title was support engineer. I intended to go back to them after my year in the Air Force, but I got a part-time job programming interactive voice response (IVR) applications during my military service, as we were off every 3rd week in the winter. I started working full time doing that as soon as my military service was over.

Less than two years later the company went bankrupt. About 2 months later, I had a job as a journalist and test editor at the leading Swedish IT trade publication, the weekly magazine Computer Sweden. I worked there for almost 5 years, until my move to the US. In addition to writing news articles and product reviews, I also developed some internal software and systems, including the first version of their website.

In 1995 I moved to the suburb of Sundbyberg, just north-west of Stockholm. The next year, while on a business trip to Seattle, I met my ex-wife. She eventually moved to Sweden, and in August 1997 we got married. Soon after we got married, she wanted to move back to the United States. I transferred to Boston with the publishing company I worked for, and became a Lotus Notes/Domino developer at their Boston-based news bureau in January 1998.
In 2000 our son Erik was born, and in April 2002 we moved to her home state of Texas. We had no family and very few friends in Boston, and she wanted to be closer to her family. In the summer of 2003 we separated. I have been formally divorced since May 2004.

Eventually I met a wonderful girl named Chrissy and in 2015 we got married in Dallas, TX. We live together in Dallas with our two dogs, a couple of cats and way too many computers and other connected devices...

For over 14 years I worked as Sr Lotus Notes Developer at Deep South, a Dallas-based Managing General Agent (MGA). In July 2016 my position was eliminated, together with many other at the company, and I was laid off.

If you look in the section Hobbies and Interests, you will find out more about what I like to do in my spare time.