My own self

It's currently the second of September in the year 2008 of the current era, and I am sitting in a tiny apartment I lease in a building on the outskirts of the city of Bergen in the province of Hordaland west in the kingdom of Norway, founded in the year 872 by Harald Fairhair and then again in 1814 by an unsusually charismatic Dane. My geographical and cultural origins lay a little north of here, in a small town in the province of Sogn og Fjordane, also in western Norway. My first name is Ørjan, of Swedish "Göran" again of Greek "Georgius", meaning "peasant", and I am named after my maternal grandfather Øystein and paternal grandfather Jon respectively. My surname will for purposes of some attempt at quasi-anonymity remain undisclosed, but it is etymologically related to the concept of caves and dwelling in these. My online designation of choice is "Loki of Aesir", taken from the Norse divinity. My selection of this name comes in equal parts of fascination with that mythological persona, and partly by my pre-teen hesitation in the sheer hubris and self-confidence it would have been to choose "Odin of Aesir" instead.

I have been posting my general reactions, recommendations, thoughts and reviews on this nook of technological storage space for information generally accessible to strangers and friends alike since December 28th of 2005, and this is the 1007th post, not counting any posts I might have deleted along the way. It is probably highly telling of my personality that it took me 1006 posts to decide to write a post introducing myself, but far more than merely describing me personally it is additionally a sure omen that a new term at the University where I study is started and that I have a lot of better things to do.

While I have been doing what's commonly known as "studying" as my primary occupation (again, commonly known as "primary occupation", at least, in truth my primary occupation has, as ever, been breathing, studying coming in somewhere in the teens of the list after such things as getting and consuming nourishment and fluids, enjoying my own existance and attempting being good to myself and those I have affection for) since I finished the Norwegian rough equivalent of High School in late spring of the year 2003. This despite the fact that actual "studying", i.e. observing something in great detail, has rarely or never been part of the activities implied by this. So far my academic exploits have been in, listed chronologically, English, basic philosophy known as "Examen Philosophicum" at Norwegian Universities, religious history and science, and history. My current occupation is supposedly attempting to write an assignment known as a Master's Thesis during the autumn of 2008 and spring of 2009 on the subject of the Ancient Roman understanding of divinity and, likely, the ways it might have differed from the Ancient Greeks. If I ever get started, that is - this very post being symptomatic of the many reasons why I might very well never do.

I arrived back from Canada a week and a half ago, where I spent this summmer as well as my two major preceeding vacations with my girlfriend, whose etymological information I will not be handing out in a gallant display of classic gentlemanly discretion not at all related to how hers leave mine looking even shittier. I would thus easily still be jetlag'ed from the journey if not for the absolutely outrageous lack of sleeping-patterns I have been entertaining in recent years. However, in its stead, I got to enjoy a week-long cold with a fever and a cough that still has not subsided. My computer, too, has been suffering from viral infections during this week, very probably in sheer sympathy, though this has not alleviated but rather added to my current stress-levels.

My posting on this weblog (I abhor the term "blog" with a vengeance, if anything they should be called wlogs) has been and will very likely continue to be majorly reviews of comic books, novels, movies and TV-shows, with the odd post about something else sprinkled in between. In this current week, however, I doubt there will be any of either, as I should truly be doing something productive instead.

Thank you very much for coming here to read whatever dribble I might be putting out. It is greatly appreciated, largely due to my extensive love of attention when it isn't given me by real-life people with facial features. (I recognise that real-life people without facial features are also likely to be scary, but never having seen one I will not say for sure.) In particular I get filled with bounteous joy whenever someone leaves me a comment or two, even if (or sometimes especially when) on posts from several months or years back. If you do, you're probably one of the few reasons I bother with maintaining this weblog. I regret not posting more often or with more quality than what is my usual levels in either regard.

It has been my very good pleasure to have had you reading this.

Sincerely,
the poster.