Firstly, the formalities: My full names are Rudolph Christiaan Steenkamp, born 1980 in Tsumeb, Namibia, even though my passport says I was born in Liberia (wtf?). We grew up very poor, so we were constantly on the move. One would think that this traumatized me in such a way that I would want stability, but I am a nomad, I love traveling. In my 27 years on planet earth, I lived in 5 countries, 13 towns and 37 houses.
I am a translator and academic editor for an academic publishing company. I’m mostly into linguistics. I find it very interesting, the whole encoding and decoding thing. My first language is Afrikaans, then English, German, French and a little Korean. I also know some phrases in most of the Indo-European languages as well as some phrases in Japanese, Mandarin, Russian, Thai and Sotho.
Like so many South-Africans, I have worked in London for two years and traveled a lot while I was there. I also lived in South Korea (the good one) where, due to the Korean workaholic mentality, I did not travel at all. I’ve also been to the Netherlands, France, Germany, Denmark, Thailand, Vietnam and the Reunion Islands.
If I could go anywhere in the world now, I would travel the whole South America and Mexico. I would love to see all the Mayan and Incan sites. Iceland and Hawaii are also high on my list of priorities (I loooove volcanoes).
I’ve been playing classical guitar for 13 years now and consider myself a pretty good songwriter. My influences are mostly flamenco music and old school black metal. It is mostly dark and twisted and rarely uplifting. I recently got influenced by Rodrigo y Gabriela and have been practicing my guitar percussion like crazy. I believe that by creating music, we unlock a small part of who and what we really are. Sometimes I get so lost in my music that I feel like my spirit is going to pop out of my head.
I find everything interesting. I don’t necessarily like everything; on the contrary, I hate a lot of things, but if you look at things in a unique (and somewhat crazy) way, everything is extremely interesting, even watching paint dry or watching two Russians play chess.
There are a lot of things in life that makes absolutely no sense. There are weird, crazy stuff out there that surpasses human thought. Quantum theory, the hidden powers of the human mind, and the TRUE history of existence; these are all questions that drive me in life and motivates me to try and unlock the greater secrets of life. The great and wise King Solomon, with all his wisdom, went a little crazy after unlocking a lot of these secrets. “With much knowledge comes much grief,†he said. I can truly say that my search for knowledge has made me somewhat insane. But in a good way; not “I-just-ate-my-baby-insaneâ€.
I try to keep to myself. There are a few people that I can entrust with the darker secrets of my mind, but there is nobody that I would entrust with my soul. The only place where I can meet someone or something that truly understands me, is during lucid dreaming or on the astral plane; therefore I am well in touch with the spiritual world (the one without the bearded God).
There is something greater, much greater, than man. Christians call it God, Muslims call it Allah, Jedi call it the Force, etc. Whatever you call it, we ALL have it. Not just humans, but fauna, flora and even rocks, water and snailcrap. I have to say that the Jedi came the closest in explaining it as one force with a light and dark side. I believe God and the devil are the one and same being. It is all around us and inherent to the human psyche.
Every single thing that consists of matter consists of energy and it is this energy that binds us all. I believe a long, looooong time ago, we were supreme beings that could use 100% of our brains. We could teleport; we could use telekinesis and communicate with each other without words. I believe we were gods in comparison to how useless we are now. It is my quest in life to become closer to that being, not by being nice to everyone (because I can be a real bastard sometimes), but by observing life in its simplest constituents. Unfortunately, as I said, this quest caused me great mental discomfort and sleepless nights.
To summarize, I am a life traveler. I sometimes don’t like the journey, because I’ve had a particularly rough one, but eventually you reach some level of bliss, prosperity and contentment. I’m still traveling, but enjoying the view.
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