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Welcome to my user page.
I've been a frequent visitor and contributor since April 2005, but it took me quite a while to create an account.
I am a Finnish university student of cultural history, comparative religion, and development studies, pursuing a Master of Arts degree.
In addition, I play the piano (and get paid). At a local music school I study jazz, even though lately I've been more interested in Renaissance and Baroque style classical music, especially J.S. Bach's two-part inventions and fugues. I also sing basso in a university choir.
While I enjoy reading all kinds of Misplaced Pages articles, my chief interests and contributions are related to the horrendous persecution of Falun Gong, other human rights issues, history, and religions in general.
I am currently applying for the Erasmus programme and planning to spend the academic year 2006--2007 in Strasbourg, France, studying cultural history.
Olaf Stephanos is my pseudonym in Misplaced Pages. It is derived from my first and second names.
Trivia
I've never had a phobia for snakes, but I used to be terribly afraid of giant hogweeds, garden angelicas, and burdocks.
Everybody in my family, including all of my grandparents, have been enthusiastic scouts. After being pressured to attend summer camps and scout meetings as a little misfit boy, I developed an intense repugnance to nationalism and the army style. The first years of my adulthood had a lot to do with processing this trauma. Nowadays I feel that I've gotten closer to a reflective equilibrium.
I think that a lot of the reductionism in contemporary science is just an attempt to sweep the anomalies under the carpet. No conspiracies here, though. On a lighter note, see Hanlon's Razor.
I used to listen to black metal as a young teenager. Slowly I became something like a hippie. Unfortunately, dejected hippies have a tendency to overestimate their hipness and just blame the society around them for not playing it cool. After a period of unsightly self-reflection I thought that I'd better start shoveling my own dunghill. The shovel proved astoundingly good.
I've owned a modem since 1993, and I operated a BBS in the mid-1990's. The olden days of yore...
My parents have a golden retriever, and I frequently take care of her.
My old upright piano, dating back to the beginning of the 20th century, is rumoured to have been bought by Jean Sibelius as a gift to his niece. But its machinery has been renovated.
Recently I've also acquired a Roland RD-700 SX keyboard. Mmmmmm... it's almost too good.
I have a weakness for the Finnish sauna.