Actually, this isn't really my life story, it's just a short bit about me - and what I'm doing at the moment. Or a manifestation of my egomania, if you like... :-)
People: This is OUT OF DATE! Very much!!! What you see here is the status of late 1998 or something... Just for the record. :-)
No, my name isn't really Magnum, of course - it's Ole M. Olsen. But Magnum is sort of my "stage name," you see. It comes from my middle name - which is really Magnus - and no, I haven't made it up myself and no, I don't like bad heavy metal music.
Enough about that... I was born in Halden, Norway, on the 25th of February 1971 (which incidentally also happens to be the birtday of George Harrison). And I grew up and all of that usual stuff, which probably wasn't more exciting in my case than in any other lives.
After the usual nine years of Norwegian school, I went to Porsnes videregående skole (Commercial College) for three years, learning about Economics and accountancy and stuff. And after that, I spent a few happy (and a couple of unhappy) years at Høgskolen i Østfold (Østfold College).
I thought I should be smart and continue where I'd started at Porsnes, so I started out studying Business and Administration. But found myself just sitting in the Computer Lab all the time instead of going to the lectures, so I switced over to Computer Science, where I continued sitting in the Computer Lab instead of going to lectures... Having finally finished my computer studies, I decided that I might as well try and finish the Business bit anyway. I actually made it and picked up a cand.mag. degree in the process - which didn't hurt...
After my education, I rejected the very generous offer the Norwegian Military Forces gave me of running around in the woods playing Rambo for about six months. The government was so happy about that that they insisted I should work for next to nothing for sixteen months instead. That's called Civilian Service and is something which they use up here to reward people like me who don't see the fun in war and killing other people.
It wasn't that bad, actually. Of course, they didn't find a job for me at first, so I had to spend several days more than was planned at the Civilian Service Administration Centre at Dillingøy - which according to my girlfriend Sissel seemed a lot more like a military camp than most military camps she'd ever been to. And she's been working for the Defence for several years, so she know (what a couple we are, eh? She's a civilian, though - I have my limits. :-) ). But I finally ended up at Halden Office of Culture, working partly at UngInfo Halden (Halden Youth Information Centre) and partly at the new Rockehuset (the Rock House) - a place where local bands can rehearse - inside a fallout shelter, actually, to avoid complaints from the neighbours...
When my sixteen months of state controlled slave labour were finally up (no, as I said, it wasn't really that bad - I just don't like the whole concept of it), Sissel had got a job as secretary for the Defence Attache at the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Stockholm. So after a few months, I moved to Stockholm (well, actually Lidingö) myself, to see if I was able to get a job here as well. It would be an exaggeration to say that I wanted very badly to live in Sweden, but I do like to see Sissel more than every two or three weeks.
Well, getting a job here wasn't too easy... Apparantly, it's almost impossible to get a job in Sweden these days if you don't have about ten years of work experience behind you. I didn't, of course. I even started applying for jobs back in Norway again, as I was getting rather desperate after a few months. Not too surprisingly, I guess, I got a job in Oslo after about two weeks. But realizing that I didn't really want to live in Oslo either (Oslo was too far from both Halden and Stockholm, I realised) and still hoping to finally land a job in Stockholm, I turned it down. Luckily, I finally did get a job in Stockholm.
I was working for about a year for yahoo Norway, helping building the Norwegian database. Actually, I was yahoo Norway the first couple of weeks. :-) I was also something of a "techincal assistant," dealing a bit with in-office technical support and stuff, which was a bit more interesting than just surfing all the time.
And then I was fired...
Actually, they fired half of the office - to save money. The easy way, you know. But I believe this particular story is not quite over yet... More details when I dare. :-)
I didn't go without of a job for long. I soon got another job - officially with a company called Centrum NTR. Now, Centrum NTR is basically a holding company whichs own Centrum Elektronisk Handel and half of Funplanet, and those are the ones I'm really working for. I'm sort of supposed to be a kind of "Systems Administrator", and so I'm doing all kinds of stuff that I don't really know anything about... :-)
It's not too late to offer me another job, though, if you'd like to! Check out my CV (if you read Norwegian).
I used to be the singer of a great little rock'n'roll combo in Halden called the Basement Brats. We started up in 1990 already, released several records and had a lot of fun. But after a nightmare tour of Spain (a dreadful country, by the way) and France (a great country, by the way) in March, the other members decided to kick me out of the band.
Prior to that, I had spent a whole lot of man-weeks working on the Basement Brats Home Page. The interest in keeping the pages up to date have sort of diminished a bit since they fired me (I don't see why...), but I've recently been doing a bit of work in turning them into the Basement Brats Museum, which finally was ready to open in June 1998.
I got a new band going, though - and going great. It's called Dammit. Almost before we'd started rehearsing, we got a deal to contribute a track to a compilation ablum called "(Seventeen And A Half Is Still) Jailbait" on Demoliton Derby/Nitro! Records, Belgium. That song was "So Much To Do" and was one of the first serious songs I'd written in several years. I've kept writing songs as I've finally discovered that I'm actually able to do it, and we have recorded a lot more material. In recent months, as you will understand, we have not been too active, but we'll get going again as soon as we (i.e. I) can. In the meantime, as the result of a recent interview with me (for the Noise for Heroes fanzine) we have landed a deal for a track on another compilation album, to be released by NKVD Records, San Diego. I have also put together a promo tape (and David is in the process of putting together a promo CD), so if there are any potential labels reading this, give us a hint... :-)
Besides playing music, I also like listening to music. Some favourites of mine that I can mention off the top of my head would be the Beatles (incl. solo acts), Sex Pistols, Simon and Garfunkel (again incl. solo acts), the Ramones, KISS, Nirvana, Bad Religion, Frank Zappa... etc.Yeah, I know, quite a mix there...
Reading has also always been a big passion of mine. I have been - and remain - esepcially fascinated by comic books. I had to stop buying as much as I used to, though, 'cause of lack of financial funding. But now that I've got a job, I might start buying a bit again.
And of course there are computers, but I guess I needn't mention that...
Well, I guess that just about covers it. How about you, then?
Magnum