Introducing ourselves.

Hey guys!

My name is Stefan, and I am from Denmark, the home of the vikings.
My mother tongue is Danish, and apart from that I speak English, and a little bit of German and French. I read Latin, Ancient Greek and Biblical Hebrew as part of my studies, and want to attain at least a little proficiency in spoken modern Hebrew.

My interests are music, religion, photography (as well as other small things, of course). I play the drums, and want to learn to play guitar.
Musically I like a lot of different stuff, from classical to Nile and a lot of things in between :)

Orphaned Land were recommended to me some years ago (in 2007 or early 08) with Ocean Land and Nora El Nora, and I was instantly hooked. I couldn't say what my favourite album is, because I enjoy all of them. Lately I've been spinning ORWarriOR an insane amount of times, so I guess that would make it my current favourite!

I also enjoy travelling, I was in Israel last summer, and will be going back again this year, as part of a small middle eastern tour! Looking very much forward to that. I'd really like to know a bit more Hebrew before that, and some Arabic as well!

That's what I can think of to write right now, so take care and שלום!

ETA this picture:
6572_156278450568_676620568_3874704_2714589_n.jpg
 
Thanks
What are you studying? And you're Scandinavian as well?
Would be cool to meet up with more OL people, definitely. Although I've managed to 'convert' several people.

I remember playing some for my parents, and they both liked it, but after playing OrWarrior for them, my mom is now a dedicated fan :)
 
You are very welcome Stefan. You're first post is already intriguing. Please tell me more about your trip to Israel and where are you planing to go on your coming tour of the Middle East?
I'm very interested, because I travel to Israel often and really want to visit other countries in the ME.
Ve ani medaberet kzat ivrit.
 
Ghâshûl;8932466 said:
I read Latin, Ancient Greek and Biblical Hebrew as part of my studies, and want to attain at least a little proficiency in spoken modern Hebrew.

I also enjoy travelling, I was in Israel last summer, and will be going back again this year, as part of a small middle eastern tour! Looking very much forward to that. I'd really like to know a bit more Hebrew before that, and some Arabic as well!
Click to expand...

Greetings Stefan. That's quite a mighty course you're doing, going back all those centuries in spirit. I'm really intrigued, do you do a bit of culture and philosophy from that time as well? I've visited København and it's quite a nice city :D Of course I only experienced the consumeristic aspect, but the street music was quite nice [I saw this balalaika group and I was a kid back then so I was really excited when I tried playing it].


I shall take this opportunity to ask all of you. I'm not sure if this is true but this is what I heard. If your passport has an Israeli visa stamped, most if not all Arab countries + Iran don't let you in ever. Is this true? Because I really want to see both Iran and Israel, but not be suspected for espionage :D


Morticia NL. said:
And next to Lebanese I favour the Indian food as well. Ananath, just make another trip to Holland and visit us. I will prepare you all the Lebanese food I'm always talking about.
Click to expand...

Some time in the future I'll do so :D . And I'll make you'll some authentic South Indian dishes like Dosas!
 
Thanks :)

Well my first trip to Israel was very exciting, but way too short. It basically made me want to go back.
I was there for a week, starting out seeing Tel Aviv and Yafo, spent some days in Jerusalem and a night in Bethlehem. Then we went back to Jerusalem and from there to Tiberias, which took much longer than I assumed from looking at a map, since the bus went around the west bank. There we walked some along Genesaret and saw Capernaum and Tavgha.
Then it was time to go back to Tel Aviv before Shabbat to catch a flight back home. It was as I said a way too short trip and merely gave me blood on my tooth as we say here :)
I travelled with my friend who studies modern Hebrew, and she had been there several times before so she guided me, but we definitely took it slowly and did a lot of walking around the places instead of just following a tour guide, so we missed several places but got to feel some more of the atmosphere. It was definitely a journey I will treasure.

This summer is an excursion with my University and we'll be flying to Syria first, going around the country, then on to Jordan, then Israel including the west bank. We'll basically be seeing places of historical (and biblical) interest, like the Ummajade mosque, Palmyra, Petra, an ancient Knights Templar castle, dead cities and so on.
In Israel we'll be going to several of the places I visited last but also to several more places including the dead sea (which I wanted to see last, but we couldn't fit it in) and Qumran. I have a detailed plan somewhere, but it's a three week trip so there's a ton of places. I'll definitely take a lot of pictures when I'm there to share :)

About my studies, my subject is Theology, but from an academic viewpoint, so we do touch upon philosophy both in general and religious philosophy, and when reading from the Torah, we'll also do comparisons to the other cultures of the area at the time.

About the passport, I'm not sure which countries won't let you in, but I do know I need to get a new one because Syria won't allow anyone with an Israeli stamp. I think Jordan don't have this rule, but I'd think Iran has.

Haha, that was quite a novel I wrote there :D
 
Well, what should I write about myself? I'm 30 years old, live in Germany and listen to Metal and Rock since I was 13. I'm studying Computer Science in Media and hopefully, I will make my Bachelor of Science in 2 years.

I'm interested in pen&paper roleplaying, tabletop games like Warhammer and Warhammer 40k, and board games of all kinds.

I'm reading a lot, fantasy and sci-fi are my favorites. I'm a big fan of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, everybody who is interested in fantasy should give it a try, cause it's absolutely awesome.

I also like movies, action and thriller are my faves. I love the older John Woo pictures like The Killer or Hard Boiled, I also love Quentin Tarantino.

I was the singer of the Death metal band ANDABATA for 3 years. It was a great time in my life and I don't wand to miss it. You can check out the homepage here: www.andabata.de. There are some cool pictures of me when I was younger and my hair was long ;-)

After I left ANDABATA, my life was kind of empty without making music, so I decided to learn to play the guitar to get the music back into my life. I just started and I guess it will take some time and work until I'm able to really play, but I love the instrument and I guess I will stick to it.

I have a special relationship to the German Metal Queen Doro Pesch, her music means a lot to me. I met her a few times and she is a very nice, kind, quiet person to talk to. She helped me with her music and her kind words to get over the tragic death of my brother a few years ago, so you all might imagine why she is so important to me.

Well, that's all I can say about myself. Hope you guys got a slight picture of me now.

Rock on, let the metal flow!!!
 
Wow, great stories guys.

@Ghâshûl: I'm much into history of religions and theology myself as a hobby, and I would like to recommend you some extraordinary eye-opening documentary movies about religions: http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/...e-political-movies-really-worth-watching.html
BBC series on Jesus, Moses, Bible, Islamic history of Europe are among especially mind-shifting ones.

@SonofRuss: Halo. Hm, I interpreted 'Russ' as the stem of the word 'Russia'. What does you nickname stand for? I've noticed you love Loreena McKennit's "Visit". Since you also like death-metal, I recommend you to look through the following list of most magical atmospheric-folk-ethereal-neoclassical-doom-death-gothic-darkfolk-neofolk bands, some of which are like McKennitt, others like Orphaned Land's gothic-doomish-death things, and third ones are somewhere in between them:
http://antonsaysdotcom.livejournal.com/9176,html

Additionally, I summarized oriental metal bands' titles from this forum:
http://antonsaysdotcom.livejournal.com/12442.html
 
Postmodernist said:
SonofRuss: Halo. Hm, I interpreted 'Russ' as the stem of the word 'Russia'. What does you nickname stand for? I've noticed you love Loreena McKennit's "Visit". Since you also like death-metal, I recommend you to look through the following list of most magical atmospheric-folk-ethereal-neoclassical-doom-death-gothic-darkfolk-neofolk bands, some of which are like McKennitt, others like Orphaned Land's gothic-doomish-death things, and third one are somewhere in between them:
http://antonsaysdotcom.livejournal.com/9176,html

Additionally, I summarized oriental metal bands' titles from this forum:
http://antonsaysdotcom.livejournal.com/12442.html
Click to expand...

Thanks for the links, I'll have a look. No, Russ has nothing to do with Russia. As you may have read in my introduction, I am a fan of Warhammer 40k. In this universe, the Imperium of Mankind fights an eternal war against aliens and the evil hordes of chaos (the Bolt Thrower album Realm of Chaos is a concept album about Warhammer 40k). And the toughest mankind has to offer are the Space Marines, genetically enhanced and hard trained superhumans who are the most deadly fighters in the galaxy. The Space Marines are grouped into several warrior orders. One of these orders, the one I play and that is by far the coolest of them all, are the Space Wolves, viking-like barbarians from the frost world Fenris. All of these Space Marine orders were genetically bred from the gene material of a handful of god-like superhumans, the primarchs. And the primarch of the Space Wolves was Leman Russ. So, the Wolves call themselves sometimes the Sons of Russ. And that's the story about my nickname.

Btw, what did the kyrillic words mean you wrote to me? As you see, I am not russian and can't read it ;-) But I guess it was something nice, like your other words in english.
 
Just question to the other veggies: are you lacto-ovo vegetarians or vegans? I was 6 years old when I became vegetarian (and no, my parents are not vegetarians, it was my own choice) and now, 22 years later, I'm vegan.

I abstain from alcohol totally (because I am on antidepressants and medication to reduce anxiety I was more or less forced to not drink alcohol, however I only drank very very rarely prior to that) and also never smoked or tried any drugs. I also abstain from one-night stands (which means I am currently quite inactive since I am still looking for Mrs Right :() so you could call me quite straight edge ... if it wasn't for my overdose of Coca-Cola everyday (or doesn't that count when it comes to being straight-edge or not?)

Anyways, cool to see so many non Middle Easterners here having that same passion for the ME. When I tell my friends how much I love the area, none of them seems to understand or even wants to understand it. Meanwhile far right parties are scoring very well in elections all over Europe. If only people would travel a bit more they'd see there is nothing to be afraid of and what beauty they've been missing before. We got lovely architecture in Europe, but no place ever entranced me as much as the Blue Mosque and the Grand Bazar in Istanbul. And on top of that, the people's friendliness and solidarity is unmatched.
 
Ananth said:
The Orphaned Land community is incredibly vegan/vegetarian :D And you are no exception. The % of veggies here is startling, way above any average.

@HaTikva
I didn't get your name, but with regards to Lebanese cuisine I'm insanely jealous! I've only heard about all this or seen it in popular culture or Morticia's descriptions. Being a vegan, you can really feast on Indian food, there are innumerable varities :D
Click to expand...


I LOVE Indian food :D Dal tarka is my favourite but I also will never refuse a Chana Alu, vegetarian pakora or samosa, or a nice potato dish with Indian spices. :cool:

HaTikva (sometimes written HaTikvah as well) is the name of the national anthem of Israel. It means "Hope" in Hebrew. I chose this nickname because
a) the anthem brings tears to my eyes whenever I hear it and symbolises my desire to move to Israel someday (I'm not jewish but it's my big dream nonetheless)
b) Hope is an incredibly powerful word. I have OCD and frequent depressions but my desire to travel and hope to realise those dreams always kept me from giving up the fight. Where would we be without hope? So the word is just so powerful, it's such an essential feeling.

The combination of those two made me think that HaTikva was a quite good nickname. I wanted to be a bit more original than just using my regular name :p (although Morticia knows that name from our email exchanges)




where in India are you based? I'd love to visit Mumbai someday, it looks like an amazing mix of different cultures with some amazing architecture. And spoil myself with Indian food every day :cool:
 
HaTikva said:
Just question to the other veggies: are you lacto-ovo vegetarians or vegans? I was 6 years old when I became vegetarian (and no, my parents are not vegetarians, it was my own choice) and now, 22 years later, I'm vegan.
Click to expand...

I was born a vegetarian but most kids born vegetarians in my generation, end up eating meat to kind of rebel against their parents' restrictiveness. And a lot of people just wouldn't want to go against their parent's words while a few gave this issue a thought and made a decision. So I'm one of those people who are voluntarily vegetarian. And a lacto-ovo vegetarian at that.

HaTikva said:
if it wasn't for my overdose of Coca-Cola everyday (or doesn't that count when it comes to being straight-edge or not?)
Click to expand...

I've seen enough documentaries to scare and anger me against the cola companies. At least in my country they've taken the advantage of the lack of knowledge and mild illiteracy of farmers to pillage the aquifers and contaminate the remnants. I'm assuming that a in the west, norms and regulations could possibly weed that out to an extent, but isn't unhealthy too?



HaTikva said:
We got lovely architecture in Europe, but no place ever entranced me as much as the Blue Mosque and the Grand Bazar in Istanbul. And on top of that, the people's friendliness and solidarity is unmatched.
Click to expand...


Man, ever since I first came across Hagia Sofia and Blue Mosque [after visiting Gol Gumbaz, islamic architecture with a similarly large dome] I've been fascinated with Turkey. Reading Orhan Pamuk's Istanbul makes me want to go along the Bosphorous and sit there quitely for a while.


HaTikva said:
I LOVE Indian food :D Dal tarka is my favourite but I also will never refuse a Chana Alu, vegetarian pakora or samosa, or a nice potato dish with Indian spices. :cool:
Click to expand...

A lot of that is amazing :D Infact I had awesome Channa yesterday. But all those dishes are predominantly North Indian, which is the most visible Indian food abroad, while my staple is South Indian food.


HaTikva said:
The combination of those two made me think that HaTikva was a quite good nickname. I wanted to be a bit more original than just using my regular name :p (although Morticia knows that name from our email exchanges)
Click to expand...

I actually meant your regular name and not the user name :p



HaTikva said:
where in India are you based? I'd love to visit Mumbai someday, it looks like an amazing mix of different cultures with some amazing architecture. And spoil myself with Indian food every day :cool:
Click to expand...

I'm from Bangalore, the beautiful garden city which is unfortunately bearing the brunt of 'development'.

I'd advise you not to waste your time in Mumbai. It's an amazing place to 'base' yourself if you're gonna go to various places like the Ajantha and Ellora. But culturally, Mumbai is heavily tarnished with excessive Bollywood. Which may fascinate you but is a wrong picture of India. Moreover there are two extreme right wing 'linguistic' regionalists based over there. They cause trouble all the time and you may end up getting stuck in the crossfire. You can refer to the Shiv Sena or the MNS.

North India is really tourist friendly and is packed, literally packed with a vibrant culture and I'm assuming Kobi travelled all across this place. And Delhi has some of the amazing architecture as it was the capital of many empires since a long time. And you've got the Himalayas there :D Which is where I intend to go on a spiritual pilgrimage later this year.

South India has a lot of those exquisite temples and the cities of South India, while not filled with architectural marvels and many 'sightseeing' kinda places, are wonderful to be in. The people are very affable and aren't as rude as a lot of people in Delhi. But if you are an outdoors person, there are amazing forests to trek or to just go through, with a lot of ecological hotspots, better place for a nature lover.

Sorry for the unnecessary lecture :D But I could go on and on.
 
Ah how many hours I spent sitting by the Bosphorus, just forgetting the time while staring at so much beauty and the minarets in the distance. That city is paradise on earth really.


I heard a lot about Bangalore since many companies have an office there and sometimes with my employer we need to call people in Bangalore. They called it "City of Flowers". I heard it's economically doing very well, but I guess as a foreigner it may be hard to get a working permit especially if you don't have a university degree (ack, working permits, I hate them.... I would so much love to live in Israel or return to Turkey and the only thing standing in my way are those stupid working permits :mad:)


I may go to the local Indian restaurant tomorrow to treat myself ... Best cuisine in the world IMO. Arab cuisine would be nr 2, with Thai and Italian in a close battle for the bronze medal. Obviously non-vegetarians probably have a different opinion about this.
 
Postmodernist, I'll try to make some time to give some of your videos a go later!
I love meat, but I'd still agree with your list to a large extent HaTikva.
 
Ok so you know about me:

I am a crazy goofie metalhead, but I also like other music like epic soundtracks and such, and I can also enjoy some of more commercial rock/metal bands.

My choice of movies usually includes LOTR I-III, SW I-VI, WW II movies (Schindler's List, Pianist, Uprising) especially those depicting holocaust.

PC games I like are RPGs/fantasy oriented games (TES III, Gothic I & II, Wizardry 8, Baldur's Gate I, II, ToB, Etherlords, Heroes of might and magic III-V, Warcraft III...), shooters (Doom 3, Hexen II, Quake 2, Painkiller + metal music = absolute action heaven/hell :lol: ), racing (NFSUG2,...) and action+(adventure games) (Legacy of Kain series, Syberia 1 & 2, Last Express, The Longest Journey).

Now about my fav bands:

Prog & prog/power: Symphony X, Orphaned Land, Opeth, Nevermore, Ayreon, Communic, Myrath, Anubis Gate, Pagan's Mind, Dark at dawn, Pain of Salvation, Dream Theater

Symphonic & power: Bal-Sagoth, Avantasia, Stratovarius, Gamma Ray, After Forever, Nightwish, Within Temptation

Gothic (whatever): My Dying Bride, The Vision Bleak, Trail of Tears, Imperia

Death/black/...: Behemoth, Enslaved, Keep of Kalessin, Lyfthrasyr

"Classic": Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Rainbow, Helloween...

Other: orchestral soundtracks (TES III and IV, Baldur's Gate I, II & ToB, Prince of Persia: Sands of time trilogy soundtracks, LOTR I-III, Gladiator...)

My fav authors/books: Tolkien, Orwell, Homer (Illiad & Odyssey), Ovid (Metamorphoses), pretty much classic literature (in english translations)...

My other big passion/hobby is poetry:
www.myspace.com/dark_shiny_angel
www.freewebs.com/thorondor
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=info&ref=ts&gid=342677342895

I write almost exclusively in english, I tried in slovak too, but it was all too much like the english ones, didnt match with the quality, and things that worked fine in english just didnt work at all in slovak. I managed to finish my first book in January 2009, its title being "Death makes an artist..." (after Kuolema Tekee Taiteillijan, its english translation; it's a song by Nightwish I really like). I had been working on that one since I was 15, so it took me almost 7yrs to finish. And it grew :lol: into 162 pages A4 (text itself like 140 pages A4). Currently I am trying to promote it at least a bit, and working on a new one, titled "Legacy of the snake..." (after a song by Stormlord, cos I liked its atmosphere a lot), so far it has sth between 45 and 50 pages A4 (started working on it shortly after finishing the first one). It's a lot more personal stuff with a lot sharper edge, and more pukey filth brought into the light.

So well, feel free to check my stuff out. Or, if you want, I can post sth right in this thread. Any kind of feedback will be greatly appreciated, thank youuu :saint:

Oh yea, and I am engaged to one wonderful goofball named Michelle, so yea thats the light of my life and great inspiration in writing too. She supports me in this bigtime too :saint:
 
Nice to see another poet here. I am writing poetry myself also. I am in the autism spectrum and suffer from anxiety disorders. The incredible taboo and loads of wrong stereotypes on these conditions made me realise people need to be educated on how it really feels to live with these conditions. I figured words are the best weapons and started to write poetry. I surprisingly found it much easier to out my fears, emotions etc in poetry as well rather than in regular speech. My dream is to relocate back to the Middle East (I'm from Belgium but used to live in Turkey before) and continue my project there, publish some novels and do a lot of speeching and poetry readings. In countries where awareness on the subjects I write about is low, it's hard probably to realise something big, but then no dream is impossible as long as you believe in it. Like you, I usually also write in English, in terms of poetry I would call it my native language (contrary to in regular speech)

Do you also write mainly about one specific subject or set of subjects, or are your poems more personal and introvert?

PS: I used to live in Czech Rep. before ; never been to Slowakia unfortunately but had several Slowak connections while being in CZ, and surprisingly there's quite a few Slowaks here in Spain as well. My impression may be wrong, but Slowaks seem more conversation-orientated than Czechs, whom I find quite hedonistic (a lot of public places in CZ are about drinking and partying while most Slowaks I know prefer to sit down in a more quiet space and just have a nice chat). Also, I like the Slowakian girls, they're equally goodlooking as the girls from other Central/Eastern European countries but I find them generally more conversation-orientated and less of a "party crasher" type. Maybe my impressions are wrong though and based on solely my own personal experiences, but I'd say generally Slowak mentality seems to suit me better than Czech mentality. Middle Eastern girls remain the most beautiful though *blushing*

If I'd ever return to the former Eastern Europe, I'd like to go to Belarus, just out of curiosity because it's the one country in the area that still has an air of mystery surrounding it, not much known about it and not many people going there. Also, while people said I'm crazy wanting to go there, I don't feel like it's unsafe to visit a place just because their president is a bit disturbing. Use common sense and don't engage in protest marches during your visit and you should be fine. It's like the many people who say it's crazy to travel to an Islamic country - it's their loss as they're missing a lot of beauty while there's absolutely nothing to be afraid of!



Morticia, you want this forum to be football-free? I have to disappoint you then because I too am a soccer/football addict. :) But I have odd preferences. For example I support the national teams of Turkey and Israel (despite Turkey having to play against my native Belgium, I'm with Türkiye!) and my favourite player is Israeli goalkeeper Dudu Aouate.

Actually, I'm off to the pub to watch football right after this post!

I love tennis as well, and support Justine Henin in that one (not because she's Belgian, but because I like her character and her style of play). Belgium is doing quite well in tennis generally, Kim Clijsters just won the Miami tournament a few minutes ago. Which I'm not celebrating though because I base my choice whom to support on other things than nationality. And let's just say I don't like Kim Clijsters really ...

And now off to watch the footie :headbang:
 
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