About me:
Background
My name is Svein Engelsgjerd. My first “hello world” was in December 1977, and I am currently living in western Norway somewhere between Bergen and Stavanger. I pay my taxes and even carry out my garbage from time to time. There is not much else to say about the subject.
Interests
I am a person that usually find most things interesting, but of course some things are more interesting than others. For me it all boils down to astronomy, computers, mechanics, electronics, composing music. I also like motorcycles and cars, but I prefer to drive them and not polish them. Being the swine I am I also enjoy the female body which I consider a piece of art. That being said some pieces are just like regular art bizarre and outright abstract, yet I can't look away... I also enjoy traveling to Scotland a lot and I enjoy old castles, and antique old fashioned stuff quite a bit. I’ll try to explain a bit about the things in life that interest me the most
Astronomy
When it comes to Astronomy I and not the kind of guy that sits down with catalogs and looks at numbers all night. Instead I enjoy learning about how space works as I find that very interesting on a profound level. Simply just taking a walk at night and watching the skies is mesmerizing and looking at the faint band of the milky way sometimes give me a “kick” and a very special feeling of awareness. When you look up it is almost like you sometimes reach an alternate state of awareness as you for a split second realize the scale of what you are looking at before you brain fails and brings you back to normal. Understanding that you are essentially nothing in the big picture is actually a very rewarding experience.
Computers
I got interested in computers since I first watched a program on TV as a kid. The program was called ‘datastart’ and was sent on the only available TV station (NRK) in Norway at that time. Thanks to the internet I was able to find out that ‘datastart’ was sent in 1984 and I was about 7 years old at that time. I remember that I found that program very interesting and this is probably what sparked my interest in computers. Later I was introduced to the Commodore 64 and I immediately was interested in programming. When I got my own I spent a lot of time programming it and I do have a very good understanding of how computers work and I know quite a bit about what is going on under the hood so to speak. These days the details are hidden behind layers and layers of software and hides what is really happening. It is disturbing to see young people today with has knowledge of the upper stacks, but have no idea what microcode, cpu instructions , stack , assembly code or even interrupts are. As a hobby coder I do have experience with programmiing in C, PHP, MC680x0 assembly, AmigaE, Amos and a bit of 6510/6502 assembly. As said I started with Commodore 64, upgrade to Commodore Amiga 500 which was heavily expanded and in 2000 I downgraded to a standard PC with Windows and ditched in in November 2013 for good. Now I use Debian GNU/Linux as my main operating system and have not looked back one bit. Computing is now fun again.
Music
I started composing music on my Amiga 500 computer with a program called NoiseTracker. I moved on to ProTracker and these days I use ModPlug (OpenMPT). My music usually sounds quite different from just about anything out there, but I tend to lean towards the directions of electronic music, folk and funk. The latter influencing my music quite a bit. As a self taught musician I try to play the willow flute (overtone flute), guitar, keyboard and jaw harp. I would not consider myself a good player of any of the instruments, but I enjoy playing them from time to time. I do in particular enjoy playing the Jaw harp which is the instrument I master the best. When it comes to musical style I am quite biased towards funk music. There is a lot of music called funk that I do not consider funk at all , but I find music with a hypnotic rhythm carried by a solid bassline irresistible. A good example would be the song ‘pick up the pieces’ by ‘the average white hand’. I am quite picky when it comes to music, but also very versatile. I like everything from folk music to electronics, techno, acid, boogie woogie, classical music and bluegrass. Popular music on the other hand is something that I have a great disgust against. It is not really music anymore, but all about image and profit. Video surely killed music , and I feel that music is supposed to be shared and felt, I would much rather listen to a didgeridoo for 3 hours than to listed to 30 minutes of the so called popular music. Speaking of popular music, so called hip hop is surprisingly popular these days. What on earth is wrong with people? This is the most primitive brain-dead music there is. The singers imitate a bunch of chimpanzees let loose in a costume shop (and no, this is not about race). If you actually try to listen to such music, it is just a loop playing in the background with some fairly standard beats on top. This repeats while a imbecile waves his hands like a aggressive monkey and shout some pointless bullshit about respect. What is there to respect? This kind of “music” has not evolved one bit since the 80’s and actually if you listen to that type of music from the 80’s you will find more variation and actually music. As of writing this about 40 years later this have only become more and more dumb-ed down to the point of being absolutely ridiculous.
Other stuff
I have also since I was a kid been fan of old classic Donald Duck comics and cartoons (1940-1950 style timeline). As a kid I collected all my Donald Comics and I have saved it all. The drawing style of Carl Barks, Al Taliaferro and last but not least the legendary Keno Don Rosa is what I find most captivating. When it comes to cartoons and that kind of stuff I enjoy Goofy, Roadrunner, Tom & Jerry and of course Daffy Duck. As for modern cartoons I think The Simpsons and Futurama is great fun. What I find so interesting by old cartoons is that they in my opinion was made for both adults and kids at the same time. The magic being that as a kid you do not get the references to adult topics, but as an adult I am amazed that they did get away with much of what they did. The modern world should really try to learn from this. It has always worked and did not damage anyone , but these days people are so concerned about anything that they kill all the fun.
Career/Work/Whatever
After quitting school in 1994 I started to work full time on my farm. In 1999 I decided it was about time to do something else for a change so in March 1999 I started working for Elmag Instrument A/S. For the most part I worked with assembly of 21” industrial CRT monitors until the product was discontinued. I also did a few other things including assembly of 17” CRT industrial monitors, some glasswork, warehouse related stuff and a few handyman assignments.
Later Elmag Instrument A/S was acquired by The Hatteland Group and renamed Hatteland Assembly. We moved to a larger production facility and there my main job consisted of preparing parts for the 23” industrial flat panel display and assembly of a few minor variants of this model. After what seemed like ages with this job I was assigned the “pleasurable” job of doing some cleanup jobs or displays that was returned for repair/service. It was mostly dust particles entering that disturbed the display so it had to be cleaned up. This job was quite frustrating because of the difficulty getting the display properly clean. It was easy enough to getting the display back into working condition , but giving away something that was free of dust and particles was not easy. This was without doubt the assignment I disliked the most, luckily was was also at that time assigned a few “delivery boy” that relieved me from the constant frustration. I have always enjoyed driving so even if these small transport assignments was quickly completed I really appreciated this as I find driving relaxing and because it for me was like taking a break while doing something useful at the same time.
I also stepped in at the warehouse quite a bit and I even worked there to replace someone who was sick for about six months. I was offered a permanent position at the warehouse, but I declined since I mainly prefer to work with other more technical things although I thrived at the warehouse. I returned to display assembly, but to my surprise (or maybe not) was asked if I wanted to work with another project that included the assembly and testing of some special oil/fluid pressure alarm system for use in oil tankers and whatnot… At the time it was the idea that this would become a own production line in parallel with the display production, however due to complications the project was put on ice and eventually canceled. Regardless I thin it was a very useful and rewarding experience and I am sure it could have been an interesting project. Anyway I was back to display production for a brief time and barely managed to start getting on my coworkers nerves again before I was asked to work with another project called AutoStore. Since the previous project did not happen I figured that I could try that.
So I started to work with AutoStore in 2005. I was under supervision for a month or so and have essentially worked more or less independent since then. I have been working with all kinds of disciplines such as assembly, repair, problem solving, warehouse management, software testing, production, development, training of personnel , mechanics, electronics and well you name it. Working with AutoStore was very rewarding for me and I take great pride in being able to help to shape the project to something better. To see your ideas in practical used is some of the most rewarding things you can experience.
In March 2007 the display and assembly section where I was working was acquired by what was then known as Ferd (now Hercules capital). This lead to another milestone form me and in January 2008 Hatteland Computer which was reponsible for AutoStore hired me to work for them directly. This is something that I had been hoping for since I started working with AutoStore and in many ways it was a dream come true form me. This change is something I considered a important event since I wanted to distance myself rom the display production. To my great surprise it was not as easy for mas as I expected mostly due to one very skilled person that I always admired and had great respect for , but at the same time drove me nuts. I was under the impression that it would be a relief to not having to deal with that person on a daily basis anymore and yes, I was right to some degree, but at the same time I was terribly wrong. I did learn an important lesson about myself on a personal level and hopefully I have perhaps changed for the better. I am not so sure that anyone else agrees, but for me it was a very important lesson in life that I will remember to my dying day. In 2013 I was promoted to a product manager for battery chargers and batteries, I held this position until September 2019 when I got the opportunity to work with product compliance which is my current field of work.
I enjoy driving and have a drivers license for just about anything that that run on wheels. I usually get used to new vehicles very quickly and I have driven an impressive range of different cars, a couple of motorcycles, trucks, tractors and even forklifts. My friends often describe be as a skilled driver and ‘I’d argue if I could’ is a phrase that comes to mind when they say that. I don’t like to brag about my skills, but I know how to handle a car and especially a motorcyle.
Miscellaneous:
I tend to be quite philosophical at times so just for fun, I’ll throw out a few ideas…
“Now” does not exist. “Now” is just a reconstruction based on recent events presented in your memory.
Those who die have lived in vain.
History can’t be changed, but the way we perceive it can. Therefore explaining your version of the history is smart in case it has been distorted.
Being nice to others is actually extremely egoistic. By doing something good for others you often feel better yourself. After all , if you feel sorry for someone is that not a way to make yourself feel better?
Why do we wonder why we wonder why? Is it because?