Why do you think you were selected for this interview?
i have no idea :)
depends who came up with my name, maybe because i am active in several parts of this site (mod, translation, and of course playing games :))

If this was your site what would be the first thing you'd change? (if any)
hmm .. tough question .. if it was my site .. then i wouldnt be able to live my life as i live it now .. it would consume all spare time .. and more :)

1 thing though which i would like changed is the bulliten boards. i am used to threaded boards so you can easily follow a thread and skip a thread if it's not interesting to you

i love the team tournaments, i love the polls, and i love the great variaty of games

How did you find about BrainKing? What made you stick around?
i was (probably still am, but i dont have time to check that often anymore) a mod at some ezboards, so i spent a lot of time on those boards as well as other ezboards. of those other ezboards i visited was thegamecentre (i think) .. where they told me about the game of backgammon and pointed me to brainking to try it .. since then i love the game and am hooked to brainking :)

What hobbies do you most enjoy?
i love playing board games, i love reading fantasy books, i love playing rpg games on the computer, i love playing squash, i love riding my bike, i love my girlfriend ;), i love being outside, i love making vacations to countries far away (from the netherlands), i love creating computer programs .. i have too many hobbies ... the order in which i enjoy them the most changes daily but i think making vacation trips will always be at #1 .. although its a shame i cant do it every day :)
reading and board games and rpg games are at a shared #1 on normal days i think although sometimes i like it more to lose some energy on the squash court or on my bike

Do you enjoy being a Mod? Do you ever feel like leaving that area?
being a mod has 2 sides, its nice to be trusted but once in a while it takes quite some spare time.
i am glad that some of the boards where i am a mod dont have that much traffic, and that on the boards with more traffic that there arent that many problems.

its a shame though that a mod is needed to prevent certain things get out of hand.

i would love to be able to move specific posts to other boards where it would be more on topic .. but thats probably because i am used to ezboards :)

overall i dont mind being a mod, i think i am doing a good job most of the time (although i am still human ;)), and i will continue being one if i am allowed. if i am replaced by someone else i wouldnt hold it against anyone though

i have great respect for the global mods who have a much tougher job having to monitor all boards and helping where they can .. thats takes a lot more time :)

How did you become the main moderator at BrainKing.com board?
someone asked me. i am not sure who either fencer or a global mod i think.
before that i was a mod of some other boards already so they knew who i was/am.

What's with the puffin? Why did you choose it as your icon?
somehow i dont like placing a picture of myself online.
although i have several pictures of me online on some other sites, but those are sites to store photographs or for friends networks like hyves and facebook.

i took the picture when i was on vacation in iceland. it was a great vacation. its a great country. i loved being in the middle of nothing .. you really come to rest there. i would love to go there again were the prices not that high :(

i was looking for some pictures to use as my icon and found this puffin to come out nicely in the small area

and so a puffin with the name hrqls was born :)

There are 5 Dutch translators at the site. Don't you ever get on each other's way?
we have a discussion board on which we discuss which translations we will use
i also have a dutch fellowship in which we ask the other dutch players on this site about their opinion and wether they have good suggestions (especially for the game names which can be quite tough)

the dutch translators are all nice people .. like all dutch people (of course! ;)) so we can get along quite nicely

some translators are more busy than others, which also depends on the time of the year.

i guess its the same for the other languages, i havent heard anything about a fight over the translations yet :)

Which flavour of Linux? And which version of Windows? And which one of the 2?
which flavor of linux .. hmm .. i used hp unix a lot while studying physics. i liked it then as it was the only version i knew of :) .. that was about 15 years ago.
since then i used fedora and suse and also a little of ubuntu .. i guess i didnt go deep enough to have a specific favourite .. i do like kde better than gnome though

i am still playing with virtualbox (something like virtualpc or vmware) on my computer at home, but my version of fedora doesnt work well with my graphics card, inside virtualbox ... i should spend more time on it .. but cant seem to find that time yet :)

i used windows 98 for quite some years .. everyone was already working on windows xp before i switched .. i could do everything i wanted on win98 so i didnt see a reason to go over to winxp .. in the end i had some problems though with documents from newer versions of word and excel so i installed windows xp

i am now working on windows xp. i have a disc with windows vista on it . but didnt install it yet .. i dont need it yet, i can do everything i want on windows xp :)

i like linux for its basicness .. you can really use only what you need .. while with windows everything you might ever need at some time is loaded and installed .. which (i think) is the reason for the blue screens .. when you load only what you need .. you will have less conflicts

i dont like it the way linux is becoming more and more like windows :( ... i understand the reasoning behind it .. everyone should be able to use linux .. but it doesnt pay attention to the reason why originally people liked linux better than windows

when i work in linux i always use the shell, and very little of the 'windows' environment
when i work in windows i do use the windows environment though .. although i use the mouse as little as possible

(once colleagues of me had made a screendump of my computer while i was away and displayed that as my desktop background .. the idea was that i would use my mouse and the programs i had open wouldnt respond to it (as it would only be a screendump of the programs) .. instead i used the keyboard as i always did and didnt even notice what they had done ... after some minutes they had to tell me to make the joke come through ;))

i used windows the most because most games i like to play are there for windows alone and because for my work i need to use microsoft office

in the traffic controllers which i program at my job we use linux though

If the moon was made out of spare ribs,would you eat it?
depends on the sauces added to it and the way of preparation

depends on how to get there and wether there would be parking places available for free (hey i am dutch! ;))

short answer : yes (for the trip i would go there already .. the spare ribs would be a nice bonus :))

If you had a copy of a newspaper from a week into the future,what would you do?
probably i wouldnt notice as i rarely read the newspapers on the day that i get them ... too busy with other things .. sometimes it takes over a week before i read them (although i read the front page on the day itself)

i would check to see if someone i knew would die within a week and how ... so maybe i could prevent it or at least more acceptable

i would probably show it to a lot of people as i dont believe in holding things secret .. thats just a kind of censor

Have or would you wear wooden shoes?
i am wearing some now :)
ok .. they arent made from wood .. but they are soft slippers which look exactly like those old wooden shoes
(i will try to get a picture from them on my profile :))

the reason why some farmers still wear them is because it protects the toes quite well against any cow or horse or other animal who might step onto them .. without the wooden shows the toes of the farmer would be crushed .. with the wooden shoes the cow might just stand a bit awkward :)

you can see those wooden shoes as the ancestors of the nowadays 'safety shoes'

although my look alike wont protect me at all from any sharp objects on the floor or from any animals standing on my toes .. they are just for fun and being warm and soft on my feet :)

Why is the best tasting food usually the most expensive?
because they know i would buy it anyway
i do have an expensive taste indeed ... (for food, i am quite happy to drive in our 12 year old fiat punto or even better ride my bike)

something which tastes that good .. must be prepared with great care as well .. otherwise it would be a waste of the taste :) .. the great care is probably what you pay for as well

the food being expensive doesnt have any influence in the way i enjoy it though :)

What games do you enjoy the most
i love playing backgammon as it can be played quite fast (and i often have limited time online) .. i only play the game for a few years so i am learning in every game that i play .. i like the varations as well (although anti backgammon and cloning backgammon can take a bit too long sometimes :))

i really like any lines games (like (keryo) pente, connect 6/5/4, etc.) .. i enjoy those games the most but they require quite some time to make a good move .. thats why i cant enjoy those games as much as i would love to and dont join too many tournaments of those

the same accounts for (anti) froglet and anti chess .. i love games in which you can force your opponent to make a certain next move :)

for times sake though i like backgammon and its variants the most lately

do you have kids? If so, what is your favourite activity with them and what is their most annoying habit for you?
i dont have any kids yet ... but might have them in a couple of years

my main activity would be cuddling, tickling, reading for them before they go to sleep, play with them anywhere and anyhow .. whatever time allows :)

their most annoying habit would probably the noise that they make ;)

but as they might look a bit like me they should be very nice and gentle and being able to play alone (as my mother always tells me i was ... beauty is in the eye of the beholder i guess ;))

Which player simply has your number at BK?
there was 1 player who really had my number and that was pedromartinez ... he doesnt play anymore though .. i learned a lot from him :)

there are several others with whom i played quite some games .. some of them winning more than losing .. it depends on the type of game though ... lately i played some games with tenuki and needless to say he won all of them so far ;)

there are several who give me a good challenge (and often more than that by swiping the floor with me ;)) in fact there are quite some who manage to do so ;)
(you are amongst them as we are 4-4 over several game types now ;))

If you could be a musical note, which one would it be?
i have no clue at all .. i never played a musical instrument (ok i did play a flute in elementary school for a few weeks) .. we almost had no music lessons at high school .. i could read notes .. but all we were required to do was to start with a given tone and then determine if the next tone was 1 or 2 tones higher or lower .. if i have to pick one though i think it would be 'sol' because it makes me think of the sun :)

What's the last book you read? Did you like it?
the last book i read was the bourne ultimatum .. i liked it .. but i think the bourne identity and the bourne ultimatum were better (i read the bourne identity a couple of time when i was about 15 years old and loved it .. since then i moved on to fantasy (magic, etc) but i wanted to read the bourne trilogy completely for once (as well as the other 2 books from eric van lustbader) so i asked them for my birthday :)

What is your favourite pizza topping?
hmm tough choice .. from the shopping mall i like the tuna pizza best .. so i think it would be tuna then .. but in a real pizzeria i pick different kinds each time .. i like to try something different in a restaurant most of the times .. but i think tuna is what i have most as my topping .. although i like anchovis as well (moderately used) :)

Which chess variant would you like to see added to the site?
one which i can win ;) .. or at least have a clue about to build up my game .. i should practice chess more to make a good game :) i think there are already a lot of chess variants .. more than i knew exist .. so i cant think of any new ones .. lately i played a few in which you can return captures pieces to the board .. i liked that :)

another game i would to be added to the site is bao ... its another type of mancala .. i was on vacation in africa a few weeks ago and bought myself a bao board .. i thought the rules would be similar to the mancala we have on here .. but its a bit different .. i didnt play it yet and would like to practice it on here and learn from people who are more experienced than me :)

From the beginning, I've confused you with ughaibu and vice versa. I have the same problem with Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino. What's wrong with me?
i have the same problem .. on monday i always think it to be tuesday and on tuesday i often think it to be friday .. its a tough work week for me that way :)

i have to say i am honoured that you compare me with ughaibu .. he is a lot better than me in a lot of games .. especially chess ;)

i have no idea what your image of either ughaibu or me is .. so i cant even gess where the confusion could come from .. maybe you can englighten me in a pm ? ;)

does anyone know wether ughaibu speaks dutch ? is blond ? is 1m86 ? ;)

how do you pronounce Hrqls? my tongue gets tied up. (Our Czech friends have it easier there)
i dont know either .. i never pronounced it .. although i tried it once when i went to 'backgammon on the beach' and had to tell people who i was .. my tongue tied up as well .. someone else managed to pronounced it for me and introduced me ... its quite awkward when you cant pronounce your own name :)

in my mind i prnounce it as 'hr' (which can be done easily) then a small pause then 'queue' then a small pause and then 'less' .. or just as hercules :)

Which part of the world you visited did you prefer and why ?
i love any new parts i visit .. thats why my holidays always go to different parts of the world, i havent visited a (far away) country twice yet because there are so many other countries i want to visit as well .. i liked it best in costa rica (i love the jungle and the people there) and in india (i loved the colors and the people)

if i would ever move to another country it might be iceland .. i loved it there .. very .. hmm .. tranquil .. my girlfriend and said to each other that we could live there .. but for now we like it in the netherlands :)

i loved it everywhere where i have been so far (european countries, usa, japan, costa rica, egypt, saoudi arabia, china, india, southern african countries) .. the 3 i mentioned above just had something extra :)

If you could setup a global games centre building where would you put it?
wow thats a tough question ... i have very little experience with games other than online .. with online games it doesnt matter that much where the server is located as long as its accessable and the laws at its location dont limit what you want to do

with a real building with people visiting it there are some more requirements to the location .. it should be easy accessable by people who will use it .. it should be in a location where a lot of people are who would visit .. those people should live within a certain distance .. and other laws would apply .. i have no knowledge of that part so i am not sure which country would be best

a simple answer would be : i have no idea, this requires some detailed investigations

What is your favorite computer game program and why?
i may only pick 1 program ? thats tough because in many categories i have 1 favourite (or even more than 1)

i think my overall favourite would be visual basic (the development environment) because its easy to use and make it possible to quickly develop new applications. i love making the computer do what i want it to do (at least there is one part of the world which i can control ;))

for websites it would be brainking (for its multiple types of games) or dailygammon (for its backgammon with predicted moves and its high level of opponents)

for games it would be diablo .. i love playing that game :) .. or another rpg-like game in a medieval theme

for operating system (can we call that a program?) i am not sure .. i am using various types of linux as well as some types of windows and each has good and bad sides

for browsers it might be chrome .. although it has some issues but its still in beta (for example i cant use it with the facebook applications)

visual basic though gives me most (easy) satisfaction and will provide me with many years of fun :)

lately i dont have much time for any of those though :(