Yes - the homepage! Reviled relic of the 1990's. Birth place of the blink tag. Eternal reminder of the dangers of putting HTML editors into the hands of ordinary people. Now it is back.
With bearstrong.net I have always aimed to be part of the vanguard (no not the vanguard, the one right behind it) of publishing technology on the web. I launched my first Blogger blog in 2001, moved to Movable Type in 2003, and switched to the Ruby on Rails-based Typo in 2006 - always making sure to adopt new technologies right before they peaked and stopped being cool. Now I smell a new change in the wind: I believe the age of the static HTML homepage is back. Consistent design and powerful publishing tools are for corporations. All I really need is a place to publish my essays. HTML is more than sufficient.
But what about comments? How will people respond to what I write?! Well, what about them? After 7 years of blogging I have come to realize that I truly, profoundly, hate my readers. Most of them, anyway. I can think of a handful who have anything interesting to say. They're welcome to e-mail me (see above), and I'll reply, and we'll have a nice and interesting conversation without all the idiots.
Besides, I publish most of my essays at iNorden.org as well, go comment there if you must.
Bonus benefit: I am no longer a blogger! OMG!
Update, July 2008: I am no longer not a blogger. But as I'm not one to miss a chance to confuse my readers, I've given my 256 words or less blog a separate location and RSS feed.
Yes Please Recommend Me Some More Books (June 2008)
The last time I recommended books I asked you not to think of them as obligatory reading. But if you did, and if you bought and read them all, you'd be finished and out of reading material right about now, so here are some more books for you to read, or wish you had the time to read, or feel relieved for already having read. I do this because I want to help you. Evil plays only a very small part of it.
Galactic Heroes and Bureaucrat Spies (May 2008)
Not sure what do watch next? Finished with Sopranos, The Wire, and [name your favourite here], and wondering how you'll ever make do with regular television again? No need to. Watch one of these well-written gems instead.
Today's myths are about historical figures, not gods and heroes.
No Gods, No Masters - A Liberal Reads Anarchism (2008)
There's a strange term that is used in No Gods, No Masters - An Anthology of Anarchism, which collects 19th and 20th century anarchist writings. The term is 'libertarian communism'. It once described a wing of the anarchist movement. Today it has an unintentinal zen quality, and points to both the contradictions of anarchism and the muddiness of the ideological map.
The Prosecution of Steven Saylor (2008)
Murder! Rape! Conspiracy! Torture! Dreadful crimes that disgust all of us. And yet there are some people - we all know it - who not only like to daydream about such horrors, but have set out to document their fantasies, in lurid detail, by putting them down on paper. Yes, my fellow citizens, again I stand before you with the unpleasant task of accusing one among us of having committed novels.
Norsk nærhistorie med Niels Chr Geelmuyden (2008)
Nyhetsmediene stjeler troen fra en på at det finnes interessante mennesker i norsk samfunnsliv. Niels Chr. Geelmuyden gir den tilbake.
Sinclair Lewis - Elmer Gantry (2008)
Accidentally Decaffeinated (2008)
Something unexpected happened over the Christmas holiday: I got decaffeinated.
Bookshelf
Curiosities: The Jungle is Neutral (2007)
Lesser
Known Nobel Peace Prize Winners (2007)
An Atheist
Reads the Bible (2007)
Most of what I've written since 2001 falls into two categories: Crap, and pretentious crap. I've been five different kinds of wrong, I've embarassed myself before thousands, and been a real prick to decent people I disagreed with. Here are the essays I'm least ashamed of.
How Far Is Far
Enough? (2006)
The Better
Kind of Hypocrite (2006)
Victimization on the right (2006)
V for Vendetta's politics (2005)
Pro-democracy, anti-politician
(2005)
Ingen plikt å stemme (2005)
Hosted by:
New World Order Norway (Yes! They control the world!
And me!! I'm not making this up, NWO Norway hosts my homepage. Help!!!!!)
Last updated: March 2nd 2008