User:Pladask/Old user page

It's been a few years since I wrote this, and I've changed a bit. Not that I expect you to care very much. I'll leave it for now. :-P

There you are, at last! I thought I'd never get any visitors! :-)

I'm Pladask, a Norwegian Wikipedian. My real name is Øyvind Jo Heimdal Eik. English speaking IRC buddies tend to just call me Oy, while some real-life people like calling me Jo. I prefer using both names. My first name means something like "successful warrior". My middle name, Heimdal, has got somewhat of a Norse mythologic sound to it (to non-Norwegian speakers, that is), which I like. It's almost the same name as that of the Norse god Heimdall, but there's no connection, and we're not related. :-) In my case it simply means "valley of home". And I'm not much of a warrior either. By the way, my last name means oak. Jo is simply a short form of John.

Anyway, enough about my name (bored?) ... I entered this world on January 27, 1986 (which makes me, in the time of writing, 19). I'm slightly more active at the Norwegian Wikipedias. (There are two of 'em — one in Bokmål and one in Nynorsk.)

My greatest interest is undoubtedly music, and most of all, classical music. I want to be able to play the piano well someday, but I'll be more than happy to keep my current status as a wannabe. ;-)

I prefer the romantic period, though I'm also a sucker for baroque, impressionism and also lots of modernist music. Though I can enjoy almost anything with a piano (and lots of other things too, of course; don't get me wrong), the classical period never caught my attention. That said, I don't hate the classical period at all. I try to be open to all music. (And I've listened lots and lots to the Requiem by Mozart, whom I, by the way, is born exactly 230 years after! :-P) It's just that don't usually find that music very interesting.

I'm fascinated with pianists. When asked who is my favorite, it's hard to name just one. It's even harder to make a list, as there are simply too many, and you won't know where to draw the line. So I'll mention two: The name Vladimir Horowitz tends to pop up often ... and one of my favorite living pianists is Håkon Austbø, "a humble and gracious artist", as someone put it.

Lately I've also come to "discover" jazz music, also mostly piano driven. Though I've only just started exploring it, Bill Evans is definitely one of my favorites. I'm also somewhat of a fan of Brad Mehldau, who draws lots of inspiration from classical (Bach in particular, it seems).

Oh, and for great justice, I should add that I can listen to almost any other genre of music as well; from Bulgarian folk music, hardcore punk, and progressive rock, to minimalistic techno, black metal, and pop ballads.

Apart from music, I'm fairly interested in language, photography, computing (Linux geek, of course :-P) genealogy, environmentalism, football (soccer) (following my favorite team, Molde, and of course the Norwegian national team) and politics. In no particular order.

... And hey, feel free to drop a few words on my talk page, whether you want to discuss something or just wanna say hi. I appreciate that! You'll also find me idling in Wikipedia's IRC channel on freenode. I also have a home page with a blog.