I never liked those plastic toys with the expendable parts. With the arrows that would break and whatnot. The thought of having to go back to the toy store to buy refills... What if the store was gone tomorrow? My toy would be useless! I guess that's why I kept asking my father to make me wooden toys, like wooden cars, wooden guitar and even a wooden gun.
I always liked to make stuff work myself. Need a computer? Build one. Computer broken? Fix it. Want to record music? Build a studio. Need a bigger and better studio? Get a job. Realize that all your recordings are crap because you didn't know enough about it to begin with? Practice and get better.
For as long as I can remember, I've had a tendency to dive on in (pun intended), whenever I learn about something interesting. The following hours, days, weeks and months are usually spent grinding through all the material I'm able to find on the subject, learning everything I can about it. These periods usually lasts for a couple of months, until my focus suddenly shifts to something completely different.
The feeling can be described as being so impatient to learn about something, that you can't sit still, can't relax before you know a satisfactory amount on the given subject. Don't care if it's late or what comes tomorrow. Must be able to answer the key questions people might have about it. Be able to explain it simply. Curse you, Albert!
If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. - Albert Einstein
These feelings have been exhausting and frustrating at times. But the feeling of discomfort is somewhat overshadowed by a feeling of justification. Like the physical sacrifice I'm making now doesn't matter in the long run, because everything will come together in some great big way in the future. To somehow share the knowledge I've gained effectively, get feedback from others, learn from others and even make some money doing so...
Having gone through all these different periods of intense learning over the years, I've landed on a few basic fields that I always return to:
- Computers. I love computer systems, GNU/Linux systems to be specific. The deep satisfaction of doing it myself. Solving issues, finding workarounds and permanent solutions, tweaking all the different settings. Making people go "I ... can't believe it's so simple! It just works!" (That is one happy customer!). Yes, computers is most likely what I've spent most my time doing over the years.
- Reading. The controversial subjects. The classics and the banned books. Technical litterature and investigative journalism. Favorite authors: Jens Bjørneboe, Naomi Klein, Victor Hugo, Gert Nygårdshaug
- Gardening. Didn't feign interest for this before age 23 I think. Started it out with building my own very basic hydroponics system (because of my technology perspective). Managed to grow some nice bell peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers this way. But then I discovered soil and my perspective changed. Nothing like working with your hands in some nice, proper soil.
- Cooking. Love good food, but won't afford many restaurant bills. Spent at least a year cooking constantly, learning the ropes. The traditional dishes, soups, stews and roasts. All about the different ingredients and how they go together and what they're used for. Later discovered veganism, loved that world view of it and cooked only vegan food for about a year. Haven't been able to stay vegan unfortunately, but will probably return to it someday. I agree with all the reasoning, it's just that it's such a hassle to make everything from scratch all the time.
- Music. Listening to it, playing it, writing it. Played the guitar for about 3 months. Then many years later another 2 months. I can play some songs quite well. Favorite guitar song to play: Billy Bragg - To Have and Have Not. Recorded rap-music for many years. Nothing published online. Might just possibly (get it?) start recording songs again at some point. Favorite genres: Rap, funk, reggae (including dub, and DJ toasting), calypso and punk.
- I'm including Photography here as well, although my photos are of pretty low quality from a technical perspective. I just can't be bothered to carry around a nice big camera - if I had one.
Hi, Hive! My name is Christian and I'm currently 30 years old. I live in Oslo, the capital of Norway, where I've lived for most of my life. I like honesty, politeness, doing a good job, sincerety, realness and passion. I dislike bad intentions, selfishness, arrogance and greed.
Achieved my Bachelor’s degree in music and culture at age 21. Currently employed as an administrative adviser in the public educational sector, where I've been for 7 years. I like my job. Main assignment at the moment is training educational, administrative staff and students in the use of our organizations newly acquired learning platform. I find this task particularly rewarding, as it gives me the chance to interact with parts of the staff I normally don't meet. I like interacting with people.
Besides of all of that, I try to spend time with the people that are important to me.
It feels needless to say that I'm very excited about Hive. I'm mighty impressed and inspired by the content I've read so far, the creativity, the cooperation, the friendly tone, and the interesting and insightful posts in the commentary fields.
I'm truly motivated to participate in, and contribute to this exciting community. Happy to be here!
Best regards,
@mightpossibly
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