Thulean Archives

- After the interview with your sister. I'm, of course, traumatized by her answer regarding whether she likes Harry Potter more than Lord of the rings. So, what about you? What do you prefer? Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings?
- Lord of the Rings.
- Thank you.
- Who's your favourite character in Lord of the rings?
- Probably Aragorn, not entirely sure. I think Aragorn.
- Aragorn?
- Yeah
- Because? ... you prefer the humans, don't you?
- Yes, I prefer humans
- Because that's "more realistic".
- I don't know, yeah, probably, but...
- So you prefer Aragon?
- Yes.
- Okay, you say you like the Lord of the rings, but what about the Hobbit? Do you like the Hobbit films?
- I mean, they are way worse than Lord of the rings because they are incredibly unrealistic, but they still are good. They just aren't as good as Lord of the rings.
- Okay. Don't think he butchered the books?
- Yes, I do think the books are way better
- Because you have read the books?
- Yes, I have.
- The Hobbit and Lord of the rings?
- Yes.
- In English?
- I think I've read them in English, French and Norwegian. All of them. But a long time ago.
- I'm definitely gonna show this to his little sister.
- So you are 18 and you have your own YouTube channel.
- Mhm.
- What's the YouTube channel about?
- So the YouTube channel is mostly about all sorts of weapons and armor throughout history.
- You are going to run out of subjects to make videos about, aren't you?
- No, I don't think so.
- No? You think you have an endless source of material?
- May be not endless, but I think you can make a lot of videos about the subject.
- Yeah.
- I think that's not going to be too much of a problem.
- So it's not too narrow of a subject for a YouTube channel?
- No. And in the worst case, if I do run out of ideas, I can always extend a little bit, but I think I can remain relatively within the subject and still be able to make a lot of videos.
- And you also make things. You craft shafts for axes, shields and armors and such.

E.g. he made this kitchen knife.

And did you learn that from me?
- Not really
- No
- I mean, we did start making shields together, so I kind of learned making shields from you.
- Yeah. And bronze items.
- Yes. But mostly it has been by watching YouTube videos and stuff like that,
- And by trial and error.
- Yes, exactly.
- Because he started out when he was like, 4 years old, making cardboard armours with duct tape. And you never stopped experimenting with these things?
- No, I always just try to make it a little bit better. - Music. What about you? What do you put on in the car? - Well, in the car we mostly put on Burzum, don't we?
- BURZUM! One thing I've noticed is that you mainly put on the newer albums.
- Yeah. Belus, Umskiptar... I think Belus and Umskiptar are my two favourite albums. But I do like the other ones. Mostly I think it's just that we don't have the older ones in the car too much. - But we could have.
- Yes, we could've (?) but we have Belus here. We have Belus and we use that mostly.
- Yeah. Okay. And what's your favorite track?
- I would say I have two favorite tracks. I would say my favourites are "Glemselens elv" from Belus and "Jóln" from Umskiptar.
- Okay. I used to put on the The Cure, and I tried to put on electronic music, but I'm always physically attacked and overwhelmed by my sons, and I put on something else instead.
- Yes.
- We listened to The Cure. You liked that?
- Yes. Yes, i did. The cure is good.
- And Kino.
- Yes, that's also really good.
- Yeah. That's what we have in the car that we can both listen to.
- Okay. But do you play any instruments?
- No, I don't.
- Do you have any musical ambitions?
- No, not really.
- You want to be a useful person in life instead? Not just some bum who tries to live off making music.
- Yeah, I haven't really been interested in playing any.
- And I haven't tried to push it on you.
- Yes.
- That's for sure. But you have a YouTube channel. And in relation to job opportunities today, everything is going down the drains, as you know, and the boomers own everything, and they do everything they can to sabotage everything for the younger generations. What are your future plans?
- Well, I mostly want to just build up the YouTube channel and live off of that. Ideally. How much that is gonna work out I don't know, but... YouTube channel, books. Mostly YouTube channel, though.
- Yeah. Because you write books, too? - Yes
- About?
- About swords. I've written one book about swords and then the other book about armours.
- What about living expenses? How do you plan to handle that? I mean your sister wants a Ferrari, which is kind of expensive, but, you know, if you buy a mansion, that might be nice, but you will have expenses. If you build your own hut on our property, you will not have expenses. So how do you plan for the future in that regard?
- Well, I just want to live in small, very, very cheap house that I don't. That I don't need to heat up a lot. I want also to just grow my own food mostly. At least most of it, so I don't need to, like, go to supermarket and buy food that might get expensive.
- Yeah. So you want to reduce your expenses instead of trying to make more money?
- Yes. - But when you say grow your own food, you know that growing vegetables and such isn't really going to feed you. - Yes, but you can grow some things. If you plant fruit trees, you can to certain degree get at least some fruit^[1]so you don't need to buy so much food in the supermarket. And also meat...
- There's a name for that in Norway, by the way. "Matauk".^[2]It means that you increase your food production a little bit so you don't have to buy it that much.
- Yeah. And also meat is relatively easy to produce in relatively large quantities. So you can relatively easily grow your own meat.
- And you have butchered your own hens?
- Yes.
- And goats?
- Yes.
- So you know how to?
- Yes. At least pretty well. I'm not like an expert yet.
- No. No. But you know how to and you have done it?
- Yes.
- You're basically planning for survivalism.
- Yes, mostly. At least. I'm not like, expecting to be able to make a lot of money off YouTube and stuff like that immediately. So the idea is, first reduce the cost, and then maybe potentially, when my income increases, then I can...
- Increase your living standards?
- Yes, maybe
- Okay. But you're not gonna get a normal job anyhow, are you? I mean, your entire generation is pretty much screwed.
- Yes and don't want to, and I hope I won't need to,^[3]and I don't think it will even be possible. So, that's not really a plan at all.
- This is because the society is going down the drains? And it is because of the boomers and what they have done over the years. And because of AI.
- Yes.
- And everyone cannot become a plumber. Yes. And who wants to be a plumber anyway? So the. The future is... Is it dark or is it just challenging?
- Well, It's kind of both.
- But it's not hopeless.
- No, it's not hopeless.^[4]
- If you have some imagination, you can... and about AI, can you not use AI today to your advantage. it's a great way to learn new things.
- Yes.
- Most people use it to make, like, images and stuff, but you can use it for something.. I've used it to help me repair the car, for example. - And that can also allow you to use less money on a, like, car mechanic.
- Exactly, and then you, reduce your need for money because you use AI in intelligent way.
- And also, they say you can just become a plumber. Yeah, but the problem is that, of course, everyone cannot become a plumber. But also people will use more AI to help themselves.
- Yeah, so they don't need plumbers. They can just ask the AI how to do it.
- And they can't afford plumbers.

1. 10 years later, that is.
2. Norwegian: Matauk (masculine, noun).
   Meaning: "increase of food".
3. NB! He will explain why he doesn't want to, in part II of this interview.
4. Instead of cursing the darkness, just light a candle.