Anaximander

"Having someone reveal the truth to you is like hooking up with someone you met on a dating site. Sure, their profile picture looked good and after the first date you think she's awesome. But then your friends start pointing out the holes in her online description, the long list of guy friends and her bizarre obsession with kittens, and suddenly that blonde bombshell looks a lot more depressing and dangerous. Luckily, my friend, there are two things that make both the horrible truth and psycho girlfriends more enjoyable: beer and cigarettes. Cheers!" - Anaximander

= Biography =

Childhood & teenage years
David was born in 1984 as the second child to Susanne and Adrian Cooper in West Berlin, Germany. His German mother taught physics at a local high school and his American father served as a military advisor. Both parents had a very strict way with their children, yet David and his two-years older sister Lisa received enough love and attention during their childhood years. Also, David and Lisa got along very well, laying the foundation for a remarkable relationship between the two siblings.

David was never the popular child in school, but he did also not draw enough attention to be bullied by those higher up in the pecking order. He befriended those children he found interesting, and ignored the obnoxious and overpretentious ones. This trait would remain a part of David for the rest of his childhood and his adolescent years, making him the kind of person who preferred a few close friends, rather than an army of unreliable individuals.

David graduated from high school with top marks, especially in German, French and English. Obviously having a knack for languages and aiming for a higher degree, David planned to study Linguistics. However, his hometown of Berlin was no longer enough for the young adult. His sister had already left behind her family to study biology in Amsterdam, and after a long phone call with her, David decided that he wanted to hop across the border and discover the wonders of the Netherlands himself. He enrolled at the University of Amsterdam, and in the fall of 2002, David started his higher education.

The other kind of "education"
Living far away from home and in a city known for its decadent pleasures, David soon discovered the hedonistic side of life. His first semester at the university went by rather succesful without much strain on the young student. These easily attained high marks gave David a certain sense of hubris: why put any time into studying if he can pass the courses without much effort? The bitter fruits of this attitude were harvested in the semesters to come. While David still passed most of his courses on the first try, his grades were far below his usual levels. Reading about morphology and syntaxes was just not interesting enough anymore for the student's mind. He was now part of a city pulsing with life, and he could not escape the sweet rhythm it played.