A brief introduction

Greetings and well met,

I suppose that it was inevitable that I would migrate to a somewhat more serious blog community. The blame rests entirely upon my friend Amber's shoulders, to whom I owe both the invitation and the motivation to start this new journal-cum-weblog.

My name is Nils, a name that was given to me in memory of my adoptive grandfather. I am of Anglo-Norwegian descent and currently live in the United Kingdom. I will always consider myself a citizen of the World and I shun all forms of nationalism because I do consider myself beyond such weak and intangible notions. I am above all human; national and social apartheids mean very little to me.

I am a skeptically-minded person. I really do operate along the principle of the scientific method and the default stance of skepticism. This is mostly due to my academic upbringing in linguistics, archaeology and history. This is not to say that I am a negative person, rather the contrary: I consider myself to be desperately optimistic. It is important to differentiate open-mindedness with gullibility.

My purpose in utilizing this new format in lieu of my current MySpace blog is to ensure that I possess a somewhat more permanent online presence that is currently not guaranteed by the present form and instability of MySpace, its internal politics and its itinerant immaturity.

I am a keen student of theology, comparative religious studies, logic, practical archaeology, science, technology, antiquity and medieval history. My personal academic expertise is the study of Scandinavian medieval history, as well as arctic archaeology and Scandinavian languages. I am also a fervent humanist and a vociferous advocate of secularism in our societies. These are some of the many subjects that I will pursue in this new blog format, although I will also post some of my personal photography, interesting news items, and various other random thoughts (music, personal thoughts, social events, etc.

Peace be with you,

~Nils