Juri


Hello there!
My name is Juri Alexander Urbainczyk and I live in Friedberg (Hessen), Germany, which is quite close to Frankfurt. My wife and I have lived in the Rhein-Main-Area since 1997, with a short break from 2004-2009, when we were in Munich.

Formerly, we lived in Langen close to Frankfurt, Germany. I moved into the Rhein-Main area in 1997 from Recklinghausen, (which is a town of about 120k inhabitants in North-Rhine Westfalia) where I was born.

I went to high school (in German called 'Gymnasium') Petrinum in Recklinghausen. I studied Physics in Münster and specialized in solid body physics. I got the diploma in 1993, working on lead isotop depth profile measurements with SIMS on meteorites.

Since 1993 I have been working in the field of computer programming and information technology. In various projects I worked as programmer, requirements architect, software architect, technical consultant, quality manager and project lead. At the moment, I am divisional director at A:gon Solutions, a private owned consulting company, selling IT services to customers, managing projects and doing IT consultancy.


Where does the name come from?
My family name 'Urbainczyk' is derived from the ancient latin word 'urbs' which means 'city'. 'Urbainczyk' means something like 'citizen' or 'urban type of guy'. The name itself originates somewhere in east prussia and poland.
My first name 'Juri' is a russian name. It is the slavian version of the name 'George' which is derived from the old greek word 'georgos' meaning 'peasant' (did you recognize the contradiction?). In fact my parents chose this name because they fell in love with the movie 'Doctor Shivago' which is based on the famous novel by Boris Pasternak. Of course the hero is called 'Juri Shivago'. Personally, I prefer to believe that I am named after 'Juri Gagarin', the first man in space.



Hobbies...
There are some things I really like to do whenever I get the chance. Meaning, when I am not tending the kids, or working hard, or doing my tax declaration or...

At first, there ist playing and writing music for piano or synthesizer, some of which can be awed on my music page. Naturally, I am crazy for electronic and ambient music, though I also like to listen to rock and techno.

Right next comes playing fantasy role playing games, above all Dungeons & Dragons. I like to believe that I was one of the first adopters of that game in Germany, back in 1981 when the "red box" appeared. Currently, our D&D friends are still back in Frankfurt, which makes us travel quite often. I left some of my D&D stuff on this page.

Furthermore, I also like to read and travel a lot, as everybody should.

Since my University days, I really love playing Squash, which unfortunately is a little bit out of business these days. Nevertheless, I keep it up every now and then.

Finally, I also enjoy Inline Skating or Rollerblading (whatever you prefer).