Hearty welcome from the author of The Java Specialists' Newsletter :-)

Dear John,

my name is one of the easiest in the world: "Heinz". You can see it on your ketchup bottle, baked beans, etc. That is my first name. My surname is "Kabutz". Sounds Jewish, like Kibbutz, but isn't. Pretty old German name, but not very common even there. There is a tram stop in Eastern Germany called Kabutzenhof, which is probably somehow related to my ancestors. Please feel free to call me "Heinz". Just think of the ketchup bottle.

I live on the Island of Crete in Greece. We moved here in 2006 to emigrate from South Africa. You probably know some people who have emigrated from South Africa. Most of them go to England, Australia, USA, etc. Some go to Greece. Not many. Only the smart ones :-) Funny thing is, I go speak at international conferences about advanced Java. Doug Lea quoted me in one of his talks. In fact, he showed a few of my slides that I had emailed him. Boy, was I flattered! He even mentioned that I live on Crete. So this is quite funny to me. All that anyone seems to want to know is - "WHY would Heinz live in Greece? On an island?"

So, I hope I'm not boring you, but since you'll be receiving my monthly Java Specialists' Newsletter for hopefully a long time, I want to just tell you a bit about me ...

As I was saying, I speak about StampedLock and show how to code the idioms with Java 8 Lambdas and all my dear listeners want to know is "Why Crete?". Since the questions wouldn't stop, I wrote a newsletter about it in 2015: Why Crete? I hope this answers any questions you might have!

I get between 3 and 6 new subscribers to my newsletter per day. You are one of them. I would love to hear something about YOU. Just anything. For example, here are some questions that I find interesting:

1. How long have you been programming Java for?

2. In which city were you born and where do you live now?

3. Do you have any special interests? Could be Java or otherwise. One of my course instructors recently passed the 65 year mark and besides Java, he also goes mountain climbing on ice. Hardcore guy.

Of course, feel free to also say nothing if you like :-) Just want to say "hi" to you and make you feel welcome. I have lived on Crete for a significant part of my life and it rubs off on you. I am now a "Chorafakianos", which means a villager from "Chorafakia". If you come visit me on Crete, it will be completely impossible for you to pay for any meal. So please don't see this as intrusive or too forward, just "filoxenia" - Greek for "hospitality" or "love of strangers".

So, I do hope that you will stay subscribed to The Java Specialists' Newsletter for a long time, that you will learn a ton of new tricks and that it will help you to advance in your career as a Java programmer. I also hope to meet you face-to-face one day, either at a Java conference or maybe on one of my advanced Java courses.

I'm looking forward to hearing from you. Don't be shy. This is not like all those other newsletters you have subscribed to. I will READ your response - and will reply. I never ever use "noreply@..." email senders :-)

Kind regards from Crete, the island where it all started ... :)

Heinz

P.S. In case it wasn't obvious, this email is a form letter that I send to all my new subscribers. I'm hoping that you will still reply. My promise to you is that I will personally respond to your response :-) It might take a few days, especially if you write some really interesting answers to the questions I asked.