Personal page crew member: Leo (aka "Hawk")
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Hello, and welcome to my personal pages

Something about me
Nationality: Born in Rotterdam, The Netherlands (Holland)
Home town of the soccer team Feyenoord (see logo lower down)
Current nationality: Canadian

I am Leo. An adventurer, entrepreneur, philosopher, self proclaimed musicoholic, creative designer and enjoying life!

I was born and raised in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, home to one of the busiest shipping ports in the world. Even as a child, I was always ready to buck the trend. If I wanted to do something or had an idea, often times adults said, “That’s not the way it’s done” or “Nobody does it like that”. I questioned this “wisdom” and said “Why not?” and just followed my own instincts.

This axiom and belief has carried me forward to where I am today. Living a dream, travelling on my sailboat, “retired” from the rat race.
I was never one for following trends and walking in line with the lemmings.

The ongoing study of people
I love to watch and study people. Not what they wear, what they buy, what they drive, but the actual people behind the façade. This is the basis for anyone interested in people, their actions, what they do and why. The Dreamers, the Do’ers, the Backstabbers (there are lots of these), the Weasels…

People, both old and young, need to stop worshipping and idolizing movie stars, musicians & sports figures and start idolizing the people that make a real difference in their lives. It is the people that are around us, the people that have accomplished something, the neighbor that volunteers - these are the people we should be role-modeling.

I look around me at people and wonder where humankind has gone wrong. We have more conveniences than ever, incredible knowledge at our fingertips, the ability to travel and explore the other side of our planet at the drop of a hat, yet we are negative and miserable. News stories tell of the negative, radio tells of the negative, your neighbor repeats the negative. This is a dangerous, self fulfilling trend that has to stop!

How many people actually get out to be with friends and meet new people? They sit inside behind their computer, Facebooking, Twittering, emailing - always hidden behind a screen, never having to “deal” with another person face-to-face. Don’t be afraid of what you do in public, Life has no “Undo” - you don’t need it.

What do I do on Mad Dog Voyager?
When not sailing, I love to create and design. Much of my creative talent is used designing and creating on the computer including the use of my Wacom Cintiq 12WX interactive pen display (tablet). It is unfortunate that a tool as incredible and powerful as a computer is often a source of aggravation. Whether it is (another) Windows 7 glitch or a completely unintuitive workflow pattern in an software product these things are aggravating and impact creative potential. However as humans we are more resilient than machines. I get over these irritations and begin to let the creative juices flow, sometimes spending hours on a single design until it has reached my acceptable level of perfection. That’s just me!

What kind of music do I like?
As a musicoholic I love music. From the time I wake up until I go to bed, I need to have music playing. Most of my personal music collection has been digitized and is on my iPod Classic (160GB player). I love music from all parts of the world and think the greatest travesty of music in North America is the need to Pigeon-hole the music. "This is Country" - you can only play it on a Country station. "This is rock" - you can only play it on a Rock station. "This is Easy Jazz" - you can only play that on an Easy Jazz station. This is totally wrong. Love music for the sake of music!