Jaap Suermondt

About me and this site

This is my mixed personal/work site (the joys of being self-employed). I've had this site for more than 20 years (since before my gmail account, which I got when gmail was still in beta). And yes, I like being an early adopter; I'm @hjs on twitter (yes, that should tell you how long I have been on twitter, but I am not very active there and my handle constantly gets mis-tagged). And no, I don't post all that much anymore.

Personal interests

• I'm a winemaker

• I'm also a bit of a music freak (see a bunch of spotify playlists here). And a sports nut. And a dog person.

• And I like to write. Here's my blog (hosted on blogspot). I also wrote a book about how we make wine and I'm contributing to a professional substack.

• I read a lot. But yeah no, I'm pretty sparing in making recommendations because everyone's different.

• A few more examples of personal interests 

Work

• I'm a tech person, I'm pretty good at picking up new things and I've also had some pretty big jobs. I now mostly take on contract projects and activities.

• Here is more about my work (including links to what I do and have done, publications, patents, videos, open source projects, press, professional activities, talks, etc.). For more information feel free to check me out on LinkedIn or read my bio or about my professional interests. Much of what I do for work now is behind the scenes doing the work, rather than being the person talking or posting about it. But yeah, I can get stuff done.

And if we know each other socially (and you want to know what I've been up to, or why I have been largely invisible for the last few years), let's get back in touch and catch up.

And in case you're confused about my name:

• Jaap is a very common Dutch name, informal for Jakob (or Jacob), which is the Dutch version of my middle name, Jacques. So yeah. It's what I've gone by my whole life, except for the two years when I was either Henri or Henry or Suermondt or various nicknames (take your pick, but I have a fav myself)

• I'm named after my grandpa (who was born in 1894) who was a career officer in the Royal Netherlands Navy (Koninklijke Marine)

• My official first name is Henri (which most people in this country spell as Henry, and the barista at Philz spelled as Henery)

• My Starbucks name is Jack, because nobody can spell either Henri or Jaap. I like it but use it only in certain settings/sites. Btw, the concept of a Starbucks name is something my friend Els is much more funny and eloquent about. Her Starbucks name is Amy, and she wrote a book about it which is VERY funny—like Sedaris funny—but I think it's only out in Dutch so that limits the audience I suppose. I came up with the notion of a Starbucks name independently but I guess so has everyone else who's tired of having their name mangled on paper coffee cups by every barista.

• My official name is obviously French, most Suermondts are Dutch, and weirdly, there is a Suermondt-Ludwig Museum in Aachen, Germany.  I'm Californian, but my closest relatives live in the Netherlands, the UK, and New Zealand.

P.S. This is a personal site and you can tell that it is pretty bare bones and I did not spend *any* time on how to make it pretty.

P.P.S. I use Google Sites. Blame them if you think this site looks rather 1995. The platform constrains the things you can do (I suppose you get what you pay for).