About
The long and the short of it
[UPDATE: The below is not quite up-to-date anymore; in addition to being a year older wiser, Bjørnar is also starting a PhD in Political Science at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada in September, 2011. More about that later.]
Bjørnar Egede-Nissen was born in Norway in the glorious 1980s as an heir to…hmm, well, not exactly a fortune, but he did at least inherit uncommonly good common sense and a jolly good sense of humour. He is not very particular about how you pronounce his name, but if you would like to make the effort, there is a pronunciation guide below. Otherwise just call him Ben or “hey, you”.
Bjørnar is now 27 years of age and lives with his girlfriend Jenna <3 and two adorable cats in a nice apartment in St Catharines, Ontario, Canada. He is still not sure what to do with the remainder of his allotted time (which he hopes will be a very long time indeed, since he has so many unfinished projects), but is leaning towards saving the world. He has recognised long since that saving the “whole” world might be a bit ambitious so he’ll settle with saving a small part of it. If he can just figure out how.
As a step in that process, he recently finished his Master of Arts in Global Governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs. The Balsillie School is a shiny new joint initiative between the Centre for International Governance Innovation, the University of Waterloo (UW) and Wilfrid Laurier University, all in Waterloo, Ontario. Bjørnar received his degree from UW in June, 2010. While in school, he took courses on advanced topics in international relations, social governance, economics and the environment. He specialised in global environmental governance. As part of his degree, he wrote a master research paper titled “Geoengineering in a climate emergency: Exploring governance pathways and pitfalls” on the politics and governance of geoengineering. When he was an intern at the International Institute for Sustainable Development in Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada) in 2009, he wrote another paper about geoengineering, titled “Desperate times, desperate measures: Advancing the geoengineering debate at the Arctic Council.”
When not planning to take over the world doing an honest effort to look interested in the world around him, he pursues a selection of hobbies. He enjoys many computer related activities, which he pursues with varying degrees of luck (this website being a result of that). Photography has rapidly risen to become one of his primary pastimes. In 2005, he bought his first DSLR, in Prague, (a Nikon D70) after his Canon G6 was stolen from right under his nose (or feet, as it were: he was sleeping in a tent and the camera was pinched while he was sleeping). Since then, he has taken more than 20,000 25,000 30,000 pictures with it, and we have to assume that at least a couple of those turned out. He goes on long bike rides around the city, always with a camera. In fact, the camera is seldom far away when he goes somewhere.
He is also far too fond of writing of himself in the third person.
Pronunciation Key
It's no secret that my name does not pronounce well in English. Here's a quick guide for the adventurous. Try to pronounce every letter distinctly.
B — as in ‘beer’
J — as in ‘yes’
Ø — as in ‘bird’. Familiar to some as Ö.
RN — as in ‘harness’
A — as in 'Narnia’
R — a rolling R. Open this small sound file to hear how it's pronounced.
